For many of us, eBay remains the default location for second hand goods on the net. Paper-based classifieds having long gone to the dogs and most online classified still not having a solid enough traffic base to offer a good chance of selling. But eBay is moving away from the second-hand, average-Joe’s boot sale, to a professional marketplace. And it is doing it covertly while alienating its private (non-business) sellers in the process. ---- All rights reserved. nd.com Read on...

Rules and selling constraints are popping up everywhere. Usually allied to specific categories, limitations on postal charges, limitations on returns policies, etc. are being imposed that make selling a challenge. Yes, I too have been irritated by unscrupulous sellers reducing item costs and inflating postage costs, but eBay’s solution is draconian and ill-considered.

Two specific examples:
I have a large stack of Playstation2 games I no longer use. eBay does not allow any postal charges for games items other than Free.*
I also have a steering wheel controller fo the same console. By weight, insured post (recommended by eBay to ensure everyone is covered), would cost £9. In the specific console steering wheel category, eBay will only allow me to charge a maximum of £5 for postage and insurance. If I were a professional seller, I could likely arrange postage at that level, but as a private seller, not a chance.

Let’s talk about commission…
eBay now charges a whopping 10% commission on the closing value of private seller auctions.  Ouch! As a professional seller – meeting eBay’s targets for monthly sales turnover, ratings, etc – one can achieve much lower  commission rates. Add to that sting the cost of placing an item and the associated Paypal fees, and you could see a significant slice of your selling price being eaten up.

The alternatives?

Searching around I found a number of alternatives, the closest in style being ebid.net. Selling on ebid.net consists of paying a fee to become a seller, from $1.99 for a week, to £49 (discounted within the first 24 hours of sign-up) for lifetime seller status. In return there are no item placement fees, and no final value commission fees. A good deal if you have a lot of stuff to sell over time.

I think ebid.net has one fatal flaw from the buyer’s viewpoint, however. Sellers can post an item “until it sells”. Sounds good for the seller, but there are numerous comments around the web from buyers wishing to buy items that have remained on ebid.net for some time and are no longer available. (ebid, you’re driving buyers away with experiences like this.)

Other options come in the guise of more conventional classified services such as gumtree.com, preloved.co.uk, and others. But they all face the problem of not having the level of traffic compared to ebay, particularly for niche categories. Without the traffic, you stand much less chance of actually selling the item.

eBay’s future?

eBay have promoted their profits having taken a hit last year, so some change is inevitable. But I feel they are over-reacting and alienating a large segment of their users. If the rules for professional sellers tighten further, even they will find selling on eBay an inconvenience and will look elsewhere.

The more you slap your users in the wallet, eBay, the more will turn their back on you.

* In the end, these games went to musicmagpie.co.uk, a games and DVD trade-in site. Sure, I got less money in my pocket for the whole lot, but after counting the real cost of eBay and Paypal for each item, the enforced postage pricing (not to mention the additional hassle of individual items and buyers), the ease of sending one, pre-paid box to MusicMagpie was more than worth it.

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What’s wrong with Molesknes for sketching? The very uniform and predictable paper – which is either a little too heavy or a little too thin depending on the notebook. When sketching, I prefer texture in the paper, to feel the pen or pencil scraping across its surface. Moleskine papers take ink and pencil beautifully, but the experience of drawing with them lacks that tactile pleasure. ---- All rights reserved. nd.com Read on...

In recent times I have been using a good quality, acid free cartridge paper, which though ideal, is more akin to finished drawings than simply something to carry around with the purpose of scribbling in.

Then, whilst doing a little research into the possibility of creating a video podcast show about sketching, I came across some very unique, hand-made sketchbooks. These leather-bound books are loaded with hand-made paper – and that was the attraction. Hand made paper is unpredictable. It adds character and expression to lines and shading, and brings the drawing experience alive.

The interesting part of these books is that they are ethically produced. The paper is made by hand with all natural products, and since they are cloth and rag papers, no chemicals are used and they will not yellow with age.

Even the leather covers are “ethical”, being, as the maker describes:

…exclusively water-buffalo hides, cow hides, and goatskins from mature animals that have come to the end of their working life. No animals are bred and slaughtered solely for the purpose of producing leather for my books

I have to admit to it being a rather odd experience. In a society where polish, finish, and precision mass manufacturing are the norm, these books are an odd yet very satisfying change. My sketchbook does not even smell like a new book! It smells like a book that has been in my hands for years. I will not lie and have to admit it will take some adjustment to fully embrace this kind of product.

Next on the list to buy? A black-stained book for watercolour sketching (I love the deckled paper edges in particular, and this would compliment to my current book which has paper not best suited to wet media), a set of delightful smaller notebooks, and these reproduction Edwardian artists sketchbooks. Yes, I could spend a lot of money on these!

I am posting work from this sketchbook on a new SketchBlog.

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---- All rights reserved. nd.com Read on...

Confirming your identity is easy. We’ll make an automated call to one of the phone numbers on your account – you can choose which one. If you can’t receive a call at one of those numbers, you’ll be able to add another number by answering your secret question, or verify your identity with us in Live Chat.

I had my ebay account compromised a little while ago, with the hacker placing several small items in listings (this meant I would end up paying the listing and selling fees). Ebay’s security system caught it and locked my account down while they dealt with it – thus I was not out of pocket.

When any account – ebay or otherwise – is compromised the hacker has access to your account details, including your contact details. With knowledge that ebay is likely to make a phone call to double check the identity of the user, surely the first thing the hacker will do is change the contact information in the account so that he is the one receiving the security call, not you.

I suppose I should have some trust in ebay that they have considered this eventuality, perhaps by detecting account contact information changes just before a listing, or region/country code changes in the contact phone numbers. I do hope so otherwise this additional measure becomes impotent.

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