Welcome back to another episode of the Reseller's
Mindset Podcast. My name is Mike, also known
as the Used Book Guy on YouTube, along with my
friend and fellow full -time reseller, Johnny
B. We help people start and grow their reselling
businesses from the ground up. We also have a
weekly Zoom call and private Discord for all
YouTube members. Head on over to youtube .com
backslash usebookguy to join the channel and
gain access to the full -length podcast, Zoom
call, and private Discord today. Let's get into
this week's episode. What is up, everybody? Welcome
to another episode of Reseller's Mindset Podcast.
Full disclosure, this was pulled from a list
that was two years old because me and Johnny
have talked about... Everything related to reselling.
And the topic today from Johnny's list that he
created two years ago when he was like 18 years
old is, is eBay and Amazon setting us up to fail?
And I think we're going to look at this from
both a newer seller perspective and a larger,
more seasoned seller's perspective. And I guess
you could take us away with the newer seller
on eBay. Is eBay setting us up to fail? They
don't make it easy. to understand everything
that's going on especially with i have three
different ways to promote your ebay listings
these days and then there's the fourth question
of should you even be promoting at all no one
outright really says it you don't even know it
if you're just going into a blind if should i
promote at all i don't know and if i do decide
which one of these three paths do i go because
they're all three really different Not only that,
eBay kind of gives the perception of you can
list the lint in your pocket and sell it, and
that's not true. I don't care how good your listing
is, you're not selling you the lint in your pocket.
And then you have the aspect of the quote -unquote
eBay has got your back, nothing can go wrong,
you're going to have no worries. If you don't
dot your I's and cross your T's, you better have
some worries, as that's an immediate I -net,
I don't know how it's described for those not
in the know. There's various other things like
that. So on the Amazon end, I think that's even
harder. There's zero customer support. And those
Word documents may or may not be up to date.
You're looking at Amazon's customer support.
Right here. It's the Mike comment on the YouTube
videos channel. And hope for the best. And then
the explanation of how to do your box. And if
you're doing it on the Amazon workflow only,
and you probably are as a new person, best of
luck to you. That's a hard, arduous process.
Even when I had Mike's video up when I did my
first box eons ago, it still took me an hour
to do it. I think this is like, it's good because
I consider myself, I don't sell anything on eBay.
The only stuff I sell, Johnny sells for me. So
like I can relate to being a crappy eBay seller
and I'm like a beginner eBay seller, right? And
one thing I really never took into consideration
because you said it there is like your promoted
percentage comes right off your bottom line.
So when you're out looking at an item to sell
and you're sorting it through the sold comps,
at least I was smart enough to do that. i'm not
factoring in the extra five ten percent or whatever
it may i do think i my personal opinion even
though i suck at ebay right i just said hey don't
listen to me anything related i do think you
need to promote your items uh just based on wanting
me wanting to sell everything yesterday and i
do think you're right like they make it seem
like you can just sell anything and you know
the there's no there's no requirement for the
photos right like you can list stuff without
photos i didn't even know this was a thing you
could just no image available i've literally
seen listings that say that so they they say
you can list today you can list today right but
i mean it could be So it could even be a good
item, right? There's people that literally search
for like misspellings of items, right? Instead
of like, I love Michael Myers stuff, right? Like,
and people will spell Michael wrong and they'll
spell Myers wrong. And you can search those.
People actually have bots that'll search mistypes,
misspellings and find those items because the
person don't know what the hell they got or,
you know, they didn't put it in right. And it's,
I don't think they. do it on purpose but i do
think both platforms kind of set you up to fail
because they promise you that you can get money
for your items right away but like they don't
give you the tools and like i wish there was
something like where they would just tutorial
walk you through like when you go to create your
first listing on ebay it says okay let's create
your first listing We want to have at least six
photos because six photos will give the customer
like, and like the title and the item description,
the same with Amazon. I wish like the first box
you go to create, they kind of hold your hands,
like choose the items you want to send, then
take it to the next step. Here's what we're going
to do in this step. And neither platform, they
don't do it. They're just like sign up and then
good luck. That's pretty much how it is, man.
The ease of sign up is there, sure. But what
you do after that, it's not clear cut. And you
can watch, I don't know, 10 different videos
and get 10 different answers on what you should
be selling on these platforms. Is it shoes? Is
it hats? Is it books? Is it clocks? Is it weird
little miniature thingies? Information is all
over the place. No one tells you you probably
should. They investigate what kind of widget
you want to sell and investigate the margins
and availability in your area of these things.
And is it new? Is it used? What do I need if
it's new? Do I need an invoice? Maybe. Not so
much on eBay, but definitely on Amazon. And they
don't tell you about brands coming after you
if you sell the wrong thing. Dude, that's the
biggest thing. That's the biggest thing I was
going to hit. They'll let you list it. And then
they will punish you. But I'm like, wait a minute.
Why did you let me list it in the first place
if you're going to come bring the hammer down
on me? If we know all like Beachbody and P90X
and Rosetta Stone is like you're automatically
like in the shitter. Like why does eBay even
let you create the damn listing to begin with?
Like once you type in the barcode or you put
that in like the title, it should automatically
like. prompt you to same with amazon right there's
you know the textbook companies it should be
like well this is a cengage textbook are you
sure you want to list this day you know and you're
kind of just hey they let me list it johnny and
then all of a sudden you wake up and they're
like well you're a new seller you're selling
this stuff you can't sell see you later bye but
you're like you told me i had p90x at home you
told me i could sell it oh we don't care and
on ebay you gotta play these weird games like
um like velcro shoes you cannot put Velcro in
your title. You can put anything else but Velcro
in your title and get away with it. Same for,
like, World War II stuff. You can put... or leave
out certain words, and you'll either get dinged
for it, or they'll leave you alone, depending
on what those are. There's not a handbook for
that. There's not a decoder ring telling you
any of this. You got to figure that out. What's
up, Amazon sellers? We wanted to take a second
to talk about GoToLister, the software me and
Johnny both use to list and manage our inventory
and grow our businesses. With the fastest listing
speeds out there and built -in profit analytics,
it's a no -brainer. Easily and quickly have items
available for sale using 2D barcodes and get
more for your items with its built -in smart
pricing. Make sure to check out the 30 -day free
trial at gotolister .com backslash Mike or using
the link in the description below. Again, the
documentation is not up to date and you don't
have documentation pointing to the correct documentation
that you actually need that's been buried in
some sub -forum nine years ago. It's ridiculous.
Dude, I remember I sent you some. uh obscure
anime dvds right because i went and i looked
and i seen dude this dvd sold for 60 bucks it's
not on amazon but it seems like you can sell
it on ebay and you're like yeah we had it listed
for a day mike and they took it down but like
they're sold listings so to me as somebody who
knows nothing right i'm just like well if somebody
sold it then we should be able to sell ours right
like it's old and then you're like well they
took it down and some people you know kind of
the analogy some people get caught speeding others
don't but to the average person who's new they
see that it's sold and they're like whoa i can
sell mine and then you list it and then the next
day all of a sudden you're getting yelled at
yeah i did some investigation after the fact
and the reason theirs were up and mine was down
they took mine down is because they they slid
theirs into a different category I put mine in
the correct category. But if you use certain
keywords in the correct category, the hammer
comes down. You got punished for being a good
eBay seller. Yeah, yeah. It's things like that
though, right? And like you said, these companies
make multi -trillion gazillions of dollars and
like they're... Their fact sheets are like, so
I mean, just look at eBay and look at Amazon.
The overall layout of the website is the same.
It's been like since we started and like the
help documents are just as old and outdated.
I'm just like, come on. Like, let's let's I mean,
we have all these content creators now on these
platforms, right? Like reach out to somebody
and say, hey, why don't you make a we'll pay
you. $50 ,000. You make us a start to finish
guide on how we should be sourcing, prepping
photo and packing our shipping products on eBay.
Just imagine the lengths that would help new
sellers if they had something that was up to
date with somebody that knew, not one of these
fraudsters, right? Like somebody that's actually
had success on the platforms, make a video, explain
the basic details and kind of what they expect
from the quality of a listing and things. And
it's the same with Amazon, right? Prepping and
shipping their box. boxes and not filling your
boxes with you know random dunnage and not sending
boxes that are full of cat hair and dog hair
and all beat up chewed up uh it would go dude
it would go so far but they never would right
i mean even if they listen to this they're gonna
be like we don't care we're not spending the
ten thousand dollars okay i'm gonna talk about
customer support for a minute we're gonna start
with amazon my god doesn't exist if you choose
to call in A, you have to play the puzzle game
of which prompts do I select and their contact
us in the correct order. And there's a workflow.
For those that have done this, you know exactly
what I'm talking about. Those that haven't done
it, Godspeed. If you follow the Plinko little
wheel down, eventually you can plug in your phone
number for them to call you. And when they answer,
they're just reading you the help documents that
you've already looked at. So they are worthless.
They are beyond worthless. Now, flipping the
script over to eBay, I press a button and they
call me right then and there. Then they greet
me on the phone and tell me how long I've been
selling on eBay for every time. And they say,
thank you for your service. Or we thank you for
your service. And I'm thinking in my head, what
do you mean we? You haven't been here. You're
fresh off the boat. You're a week old. I know
more about eBay than you do, customer service
agent, sir, ma 'am. Yeah. then i have to explain
them how to do their job and like me reading
the terms of service and holding them to a legally
binding thing on the phone and then hopefully
their superiors eavesdropping on them and telling
him just give him what he wants so he leaves
yeah um and it's but we have to play these games
that's what they feel like gigantic games it
should be i call in i ask for help legitimately
And I get legitimate help back. But that's not
how it works because they've outsourced all these
call service things. They don't care about giving
us an answer. They're going to get our money
either way. The customer, not the seller, they're
going to get their money either way. So what
benefit to them is it for them to help us, the
seller? There's none. This is controversial.
I really don't care. I think there should be
tiers to customer service based on the person's
selling history and performance on the platform.
Now, how they can figure out what thresholds
are, I don't care. But I'm just saying, because,
Johnny, I understand what you're saying, right?
It's probably somebody that's been in this job
and they're just reading from the script. But
we can't afford to answer the phones for somebody
to ask. hey, how do I list this item? Unfortunately,
Johnny, I know you believe that every reseller
is a great reseller and is very knowledgeable
about everything they do. It's the same reason
Amazon does this. The majority of new sellers
will call before they Google it when they can
get the answer on Google that quick. We don't
have enough phone lines in the universe to answer,
hey, I went to create this listing and I didn't
let me upload one photo. And all they had to
do was go look that maybe the computer didn't
upload the photo like it should have. They didn't
even try re uploading the photo. So it's I do
think that calling in is just like a. It's like
a badge now. It's like a pleasantry of like,
you can call us and have your questions answered.
I think all companies - It's there just to say
we have it. I think that's all these online companies.
They just have this like chat support or call
and speak to somebody. And in actuality, like
- 100 % of the time, you know more than that
person on the other side of the phone. And it's
just there so they can say, hey, we have 100
% seller customer support. Sure you do. Soon
enough, it'll just be AI, right? It'll just be
AI. You call in, you'll talk to AI, and they'll
speak back to you and kind of just tell you the
same shit you just went and looked up for. That's
when I'll tell my AI to talk to their AI and
page me when you're both done with each other.
Oh, they only accept certain AIs. And yeah, it's
tough because, you know, these are great opportunities.
And is it a great opportunity to start reselling?
Yes. But I think, you know, Amazon is harder
to start because all the hoops you got to jump
to, right? You got to go to your video verification.
These things didn't exist. I didn't have to sit
down with nobody and be like, look, here's my
ID. Here's my ugly face. Does it match up? And
right there, like. Looking back and in my driver's
license, I wish I had it here. Like I was like
60 pounds heavier. So like they might be like,
hey, that's not you. Like, well, you know, I
lost a little bit of weight over the past four
years. And but eBay, right, you can start today.
Now, I'm not sure what exists on eBay, because
like I said, I don't do it at all. I remember
there was like a limitation of like how many
dollars. that you could list or like how many
items you could list in the beginning i got rid
of that but yeah that used to be a thing and
you could only list when you first started you
can only list 10 items and then you had to sell
a couple and then they then you have to call
in or press a button to request to be able to
sell more and you do this continually i knew
i knew somebody who had a limit of one million
items and one billion no more than one billion
dollars she didn't do anywhere near these numbers
but she's just done it proactively for that long
before they got rid of it she just had these
outrageous bragging right numbers like i'm authorized
to sell a billion dollars worth on ebay if i
wanted to That was always, that was always the
joke. If I wanted to. Yeah. Yeah. If I really
wanted to. And I just remember little things
like that. And on the end, I don't think they,
I don't think either platform really describes
what you as a seller, what type of customer service
you're expected to provide. Right. And I think
this kind of, you know, if you get back into
building an eBay store like you have right running,
I. I don't even, I still don't know how to do
it. I don't even know if eBay has it, but it's
not like it pops up in my face. Like here's how
to run a two for two sale, right? Like I feel
like that would be good for sellers to know,
right? And I've never done it. I've never seen
anything proposed to me when I did sell on eBay
that said, hey, Mike. Why don't you try running
a Bible and get one for yourself? Watch this
quick YouTube video and I'll show you how to
do it. Right. It's like they rely on content
creators to do the work for them. And I'm fine
with that. But let's just pay somebody that does
it right and just put it right on the eBay site.
Right. Like here's updated videos on how to run
a sale or how to do this. Like, I have no idea.
Like, I remember you telling me about like. buckets
of different time frames and the prices go down
i'm thinking myself like how the hell what back
-end deep ebay stuff like i can't figure none
of this out and it would be great for a new seller
even if you're new to understand all right down
the road and you know 30 days i can have this
set up so that it goes down five percent and
then ten percent whatever that may be and it
doesn't exist yeah i mean does uh does amazon
have like a uh official youtube channel I think
they do, but I think it's just copy pasted like
from seller university stuff. It's the same videos
in the seller university that are old, outdated
crap. Yeah, eBay definitely does. And on there
is just basically resellers that they picked
out of a hat essentially. And they just talk
about how great their business is, but they don't
really tell you anything of value or substance.
Is there anybody that's like anybody that I would
know? No, like I said, it's random. They pick
random people out. Let's see. Probably paid actors.
Maybe. YouTube. I think, you know, another thing
they don't tell you is what, you know, like I
was kind of talking about is the customer service
you need to provide on both eBay and Amazon.
eBay, you know, if somebody has a question, you're
expected to answer it, right? And I don't think
they're, you know, I don't, is there a metric?
Like, do you have to respond to customer messages
on eBay? No, but they like you to. It is a metric
that they track. And so the going theory is if
you're slow to respond, because it does show
this on all of your products, how long it takes
for them to get back to you. So the customer
or your customers can monitor how frequently
you respond back. And if they see something really
technically on paper, if they see something really
low, they may not want to buy from you because
they know if they have any questions, they're
probably not going to get help from you. Yeah.
And then on Amazon, it's the complete opposite,
right? If you sell through FBA, there's a little
button. They changed it now. It's no longer no
response needed. It's case resolved. Right. So
if you sell through Amazon's FBA program, which
we do, you don't have to answer a question regarding
anything. They can be like, hey, is your name
Mike, the book guy? I just said Case Closer.
Case Closer. Go away. I need a gavel now so I
can resolve these cases. It's like Judge Judy.
But like they don't tell you that, right? They
don't tell you that you don't have to. It goes
both ways, right? eBay doesn't tell you that
you should respond in a timely manner. Amazon
doesn't tell you you never have to respond. So
it's like you're just stuck in limbo trying to
figure it out on your own. And yeah, there's
benefits of doing that, right? If you know the,
all right, I'll out myself, right? If you know
the answer to the Amazon question you get and
it takes you 10 to 30 seconds to type in the
response, go for it. Don't be the used book guy,
right? Be better than the used book guy. book
guy right i'm setting the bar super low um but
a lot of the times i don't know the answer to
these questions they're like hey does this have
the last one i got was like hey does this have
spanish subtitles i don't know i sent that thing
in god knows when and it's not like i'm keeping
tabs here what's got subtitles you don't have
a manifest of your inventory with all the special
features next to them so so instead of me saying
no i don't know Case resolved. And they don't
get an answer back. But eBay is the opposite
way. If somebody asks that, right? I've had this
happen when I used to sell on eBay and I had
my closed totes full of shit that I had to dig
through when something sells. And somebody's
like. hey, what are the dimensions of that shirt,
right? And then I got to go measure, right? And
it's like, you go and you take the time because
you have the physical item, right? But they don't
tell you like, hey, the customers, like I vaguely
remember that when I buy something on eBay that
it says they usually respond within X amount
of time. So like the fact you brought it up,
like they should make that like a point for you
to answer quickly, right? You get that message,
it pops up on your phone, like, hey. All your
customers will see how long it takes you on average
to answer questions you get from a customer,
give people a little bit more motivation. And
I do like the idea when you list something and
you don't put that many words in like the description,
it'll tell you like the longer, the more words
you put in, the better it'll be for the customer.
The problem is when you use like the AI listing
on eBay, all it does, it pulls the item descriptives
and just puts it in like filler paragraphs. That's
all it does. It's the same thing. Would you like
a longer specific list? Well, here it is in sentence
form. Yeah, yeah, that's all it is, man. It's
funny when we really start thinking about this
crazy shit we deal with. I mean, nobody tells
you how to handle a return either. Like, the
customer sends you a message demanding you give
them their money back. And your first go -to
is to, well, yeah, give them the money back.
But... You'll come to find out there are some
unsavory lots out there in the world, and you're
going to want your item back before you give
them a dime. Because if you just give them the
money, that customer then is free to pretty much
just keep your item and your money. And now you're
out both money and item. That's a bad place to
be. So, yeah, when I get a return, I just wait
for it to come in before I even offer that. Should
you engage with the customer? There's no handbook
for that. But, yeah, you should. eBay likes to
see you do that if you do have to call them in
to kind of help you. Yeah, but see, you know
eBay likes that. I know all of this. Again. Average
Joe, new guy or girl? Me? No idea. Johnny's my
eBay customer support in case anybody, if I ever
get back into eBay, instead of calling eBay,
I just call Johnny and say, hey, what does eBay
want me to do? He knows what eBay wants me to
do more than eBay because this is another thing,
dude. I mean, if you do call, maybe one person
tells you. hey, we're going to remove this negative
feedback, right? And then it doesn't get removed.
You call back, the next person says, oh, unfortunately,
we can't remove that. So it's not even like you
always get a clear -cut answer when you speak
directly with the damn people that work there.
You used to do agent shopping to get your negative
feedback removed because they would be cycling
so many agents through. You get the one guy who's
like, I'm new here. I'm going to give him what
he wants. Can't do that anymore. They got harsh
policies now. Used to be good times. And then
you had, it was the feedback fixer guy. He used
to pay a guy like 40 bucks and he would get any
negative feedback review. He knew the magic words
to say when you call in, kind of like a lawyer,
right? Worth every cent. But he can't do what
he used to do anymore. That's the other thing.
Customer expectations versus seller expectations.
I list Ida. customer buys item or what they think
the item is especially this is really bad in
clothes because they'll buy it it may not fit
right and they'll tell you you're a liar you're
like no i'm not i put the dimensions in there
you're just fat or it's it it says size 11 but
in this brand size 11 is really size 10 everywhere
else the customer feels had you feel had and
everybody's mad at each other um you you can
offer resolutions on your own but Again, there's
no playbook. You're on your own. Like the coupons
you're talking about, maybe that'll save the
day with the customer if you offer them something
like that. Or maybe it won't. But again, you're
on your own. You got to figure out how to best
juggle this. Forget about it on Amazon land.
You just kind of swallow it and move on. Yeah,
Amazon returns. You're basically accepting it,
but they still don't even give you enough. details
with that because if you do merchant fulfill
an item i mean you're packing shipping it yourself
you can actually charge a restocking fee yeah
there's catches to that if you charge more than
20 you have to provide an invoice if amazon asks
for it so if i sell my item i got from the thrift
store and i i sell a new dvd to somebody package
shipping myself they send it back it's busted
open the disc is missing i don't have an invoice
so if i charge more than 20 amazon's gonna say
hey where's your invoice well then that opens
up a whole nother can of worms but like Nobody
knows that you can charge a restocking fee on
Amazon returns and what the threshold limits
are. Nobody even knows that you have to set up
a shipping template on Amazon, right? It's, there's
so many things that just, these platforms, they
want you to start today. And I don't know why,
I guess like on Amazon, if you sign up for a
pro count, it's 40 bucks a month, but like, that's
just a drop in the bucket to them. On eBay, like,
are you required to have like a starter store
or anything yet? No. So you can start with zero,
right? Zero monthly cost on eBay. No, I mean,
you're going to get charged your insertion fees.
So that's why they got their store subscriptions,
because at certain points, it makes sense to
switch over to their programs versus you paying
outright. Kind of like Amazon has that, whatever
the non -pro is. Yeah, the individual. You pay
a dollar per listing, but it doesn't make sense
to do it on your 41st item. But anything up to
that, it makes perfect sense. Yeah, it's hard
to try to figure out why they... you know, they'll
just let you start selling today, but they don't
give you the resources to kind of grow into the
business that would benefit both you and them
10x from what you were when you started. I don't
know. I mean, I just like to think it's laziness,
honestly. I mean, we see it in the Amazon space
with the softwares. We talk about it all the
time, right? Like these softwares are so outdated.
The fact pages are outdated. The apps are outdated.
Like it wouldn't, I understand it takes money
to make things better, but usually when you make
things better and you offer better support. More
people go there. Wow, what a surprise. Who would
have thought it, right? Like, I feel like - Take
it back right now. We're living in the past,
right? We're still listening on these platforms
that are so old. The softwares we use are so
old. Like, let's get up to the 2025 here. I mean,
I know these are huge corporations. They got
the money to do it. And if we just make some
subtle changes to help new sellers, you would
see an influx of people and you would have better
quality stuff, especially, all right, I shop
on eBay. I know, right? I don't sell on eBay,
but I shop on eBay. This shirt I got, I got it
off eBay, right? So I got a pet peeve with eBay
sellers. I buy something today, Johnny. This
shit's got to stop because the last like 10 things
I bought off eBay, almost every single one of
them have done this. They print the shipping
label day one and it doesn't move for like six
days. Are people getting punished for this? Because
I get pissed off when I buy something on eBay.
They go, your item has shipped. And I go and
look and it just says label has been printed.
And then it actually does never get to the post
office until like the end of the week or the
week after. Like, is that a track metric? Because
it drives me nuts. It is a track metric, but
the seller sets up when they need to ship it.
So if I say five day handling, I got up to five
days. I can print out your label on day one.
But I'm not required to ship it until day four.
Me, on the other hand, I have same -day shipping.
So I do have a cutoff time of what the day ends
and starts on. But outside of that, you're going
to get it either the day of or the day after
you order from at least me. But other sellers
have longer handling time for various reasons.
The reason you want a longer handling time is
maybe you're a clothing store. I'm assuming you're
shopping from clothing sellers. Is they want
people to do that multi -quantity order. Because
they're going to collect your shipping dollars
each time. Then they're going to bundle it all
together and save money and keep a lot more of
your shipping money. In all actuality. Me, I
don't really got time or want to play that game,
but yeah. All right, I'm going to argue. I'm
going to argue with you here because it wasn't
that because it said we ordered some like Lamaxes.
They're like little Halloween, like little, you
can set up little towns. They light up. Oh, you're
dealing with drop shipper then. Yeah. Not even
a drop shipper. It says like. They have the product.
There's an actual photo of the product and it
says it'll ship by Tuesday, right? And I order
it. The order goes through, prints the label.
It says it's, you know, waiting for a carrier
to pick it up, whatever. And then it doesn't
get a scan until well after Tuesday. So it's
like they just, I guess you get penalized if
you don't get a shipping scan because Amazon
tracks this, right? And another thing people,
Amazon will tell you. It depends. Like the rural
carriers, they'll scan it in their little device.
And then that little device is supposed to get
uploaded at the post office. So if that carrier
that picks up from their house, either A, if
it gets to scan or B, they're lazy about uploading
the scans from that thing. The seller could have
shipped it on time, but it's a post office kerfuffle
after that. That's why I take mine in because
when they scan it at the post office, like with
a human being, it's instant of when that information
is uploaded. There's no delay and there's no
human component. That's all taken out. Yeah,
see, and Amazon, they don't play that shit. Amazon
holds you responsible for the shipping times.
So you buy it, you get this item, and Amazon
says, hey, to the customer, it's going to be
here by this date, even if Johnny goes. He drops
it off at the post office. A tornado comes or
some cowboys come through and rob the post office.
Johnny's held accountable for it not being on
time. They track on -time delivery rate. And
if you're not up to a certain percentage, they
will stop letting you sell across the board.
As long as I get a scan on when I say it should
be mailed based off the shipping times and days
I've set up, I'm covered as far as eBay is concerned.
I think that's another thing though, right? Think
about it. Maybe this does exist, right? Maybe
when you go in and you set up your shipping policies,
which I don't even know how to do on eBay. I
don't know how easy it is you find to do this
as a new seller on eBay. Maybe they should be
like, hey, the average customer expects to get
their item within four days. So you should have.
one to two day handling time, ship it out by
the end of the second day. Those little things,
I think, will make a huge difference in both
the seller and customer experience. Because guess
what? If you pack and ship your item quicker,
the money's coming in quicker. And that's music
to my ears. They used to have a report and they
would compare you to your... peers on your price
brackets which is a measuring stick they don't
give those reports anymore unfortunately but
that was a good gauge of seeing oh everybody
else is shipping two days faster than me if i
crank it up here i'll be ranked higher and in
theory i should get more money um another thing
they did was the um the it's not final value
fees it's the the pro program or whatever um
you have to ship within at least next day to
be eligible and then the tier above that it's
i think it's the same metric but that's how you
save money 10 back on your final value fees that's
the only place i've ever seen a really hard -boiled
mention where it's a real benefit to you because
that's money in your pocket but if you're not
even going for that program shrug why i think
they should like what is it? Top rated seller,
right? There's top rated seller and there's top
rated seller plus. And plus is where you get
that 10 % savings on final value fees. Yeah.
I never had a chance to make it the plus, but
I do think, you know, what happens if you're
close to being a top rated seller and they just,
when you log in on your app, it gives you like,
Hey, you just need to ship five more items this
month to get top rated seller, or you need to
decrease your shipping time by half a day to
get top rated seller. These are little things.
I think, I mean, don't we want everybody to be
the best possible seller on the platform, right?
If I had a reselling platform, I would want the
best sellers getting the best results. So everything
Johnny talks about, like we think of it, all
right, it is secret sauce because you don't know
because eBay don't put it out there, but shouldn't
eBay put it? Like, shouldn't eBay have a Johnny
handbook that says, hey, here's exactly how to
be successful. But they refuse. So it's the same
with Amazon. They have all these things nobody
knows about. And you're kind of just left, like
Johnny said, you're just winging it out here.
And unfortunately, you get sold short or you
think. That you're doing it the right way when
all along you're doing it completely wrong. I
had to join a specialized group, text group to
master this myself because I wasn't good at it.
And it's a whirlwind of disaster. And honestly,
that's. that's a benefit to people like you and
tech and whatever you have to start a group because
you do have the knowledge and you both realize
that knowledge is not put together in any kind
of cohesive way on the main platform so there's
value in your guys's group because you have the
knowledge you could speed it along versus me
trying to get a legal degree in ebeneze or amazon
ease or whatever it's just yeah hard yeah it's
it is hard and i think I hate that I'm not one
for like restrictions and more red tape when
it comes to anything. But I do think as a newer
account, I know Amazon now didn't have this back
when we existed. They give some newer sellers
an account rep. like a specific person, like
you could call this person. And, but even then
they're probably reading from the script, right?
Like they have a generic set of things they'll
help you with, but that didn't exist back when
I signed up. But then again, I didn't have to
verify that I was actually the person on my ID.
Maybe that could be a route they could go, but
I can see that being a lot more expensive than
just having good content, right? Like good content
that you're saying, like the YouTube content,
the social media platform content of how to get
started on these platforms and what. I'm fine
with the success stories, right? If you're going
to bring Johnny on and they're going to talk
about the trillions of dollars. Those are fine,
but it can't be your whole content. Exactly.
We need some boring content that Johnny likes
to call it of like the processes and how to get
the best results and what people are doing. Or
maybe some even, I would like to see some platform
analytics. I know they don't want to share like
a lot of their information behind the scenes,
but like maybe something like, hey, sellers that
take eight photos. of their listings seem to
get 15 % better sell -through on their items
compared to those that don't upload at least
eight photos on their listings. Like little tidbits
like that to kind of push people to do a little
bit more on the platform, but it pays off with
the results on the backend. They're not telling
you just to do it, just to do it. They're saying,
hey, and Johnny will tell you this, I take 12
photos because I want the customer to see everything.
And that's why I can get better results than
somebody selling that same book that's got one
photo. Right, and then you flip it over to Amazon
land. Why are we keeping How to Get the Buy Box
a secret? Wouldn't you want everybody to have
the buy box? Why not? Why are you putting this
weird limitation of secret Rubik's Cube hieroglyphic
I do this, it'll unlock? Doesn't make any sense
to me, but whatever. Yeah, yeah, it's... As much
as I sound like I'm harping on eBay, Amazon is
just as bad. I think both of these suckers are
just as bad when it comes to getting you set
up for success in the beginning. I mean, if you
think about – and I'm going to let you finish.
Come back. Go ahead. Go ahead. No, we're going.
I'm thinking about the buy box whole absurdity
right now, and it's hysterical. So I'm going
to pay you $40 a month, right? And then you're
not going to tell me how to – unlock this buy
box where i'm going to get all the sales i'm
going to get slow sales until i have the buy
box and i have to then trust you amazon and send
you more and more and more boxes in the hopes
not a guarantee just in pure hoping that you'll
give me this coveted buy box to allow my stuff
to sell at normal rate instead of below normal
rate so i'm punished until i get that buy box
because you're going to pay me an abnormal rate
not only that But I'm going to have to pay for
the contents of the inside of the box. There
is a fee to send each of those contents in per
unit. And then there is a shipping fee on top
of that. And you're going to give me breadcrumbs
as far as my salary goes. Yeah, I agree. So for
those that don't know, if you don't sell on Amazon,
the buy box is when you go to a product page
and you just hit add to cart or buy now, that's
the buy box. Well, in the beginning, if you're
selling used products, right, like used books,
CDs, DVDs, you cannot be in the buy box. So you
get like 5 % of the sales you normally would.
But like Johnny said, they don't say, hey, Johnny,
here's a list of the 10 things you need to do,
right? And even if you do them, there's no guarantee.
So like me and Johnny have developed like a little
checklist for our buy box algorithm. But even
that is not like guaranteed. You can go do all
this and it's not guaranteed. And it'll work
for some people and it'll work for not. And we're
kind of like selling snake oil when we tell people
to try these things, honestly, because we have
no clue. Because it works differently for different
people. But on average, most of the time it does
work. So we can say it most of the time does
work. Our response is going to be better than
the response you get from Amazon because what
they're going to say is the buy box is proprietary
information. We cannot share anything further
with you. That's literally what they'll give
you whenever you ask about the buy box. Well,
why is it proprietary? Wouldn't you want your
customers to have the buy box? I don't understand.
I know. I think both platforms, eBay, when it
comes to the actual listing structure and customer
service side, need to do better. Amazon just
needs to do better everywhere. Their videos are
outdated. I think Amazon could care less about
the small seller. I think eBay cares more about
the small seller than Amazon by leaps and bounds.
I think Amazon's working towards making it tougher
for smaller sellers just based on account health
rating and things like that. I'll let you wrap
it up here. since we've been yapping for a while.
I got one more last thing about eBay. They don't
tell you what's a good title structure and what's
not. You have 80 characters and me putting in
book, book A, book B for each of my listings.
That's not good enough. You got to know not only
the right words, but the order the words need
to go in, in that title. In Amazon, you have
weird titles and parentheses and special characters.
We're lucky there's not fire emojis. Maybe they
will add fire emojis in the next update. But
anyway, this is where that's where you're supposed
to shamelessly plug your Patreon group. Like,
hey, if you want to learn how to create proper
eBay titles. Visit me at the book shepherd on
YouTube and Patreon. Patreon .com. What is it?
Patreon .com backslash the book shepherd. Yeah,
it should be. Boom. See, dude, I'll train you
up. You will be a guru in no time. You'll be
rolling in the course and Patreon money. You
won't even have to resell. Or better yet, I cannot
memorize all of that and say the link will be
down in the descriptions below. There you go.
I know. I know. But, dude, you still got to be
shameless sometimes. Oh, yeah. All right. So
we both agree. eBay and Amazon, they kind of
suck. And they don't do enough. to help you get
started on either platform and even ongoing right
i know we really didn't hit on it but i kind
of did because i do think there should be tears
to this game right if you're the million dollar
seller why am i calling and getting the same
support as joe blow who hasn't sold a single
damn item right like there should be levels to
where they take care of their their better performing
sellers over sorry new sellers but that the people
that have been around and you're getting the
results on a platform should get better technical
support. I think, I know, listen, Amazon, eBay,
listen up. I'm going to make you guys more money.
I think people would be willing to pay. I think
sellers would be willing to pay for better seller
support. on the back end, if that was an extra
$20 or $40 a month, if they could actually talk
to somebody that maybe eBay decides they're going
to hire or Amazon decides they're going to hire
people that used to sell on the platform that
have some knowledge, I think sellers would pay
more for it. They could literally monetize this
because we want better support. We want better
tools for new sellers and even us seasoned sellers.
We want to understand. all the ins and outs of
what they want instead of having to join groups
and go down rabbit holes and find content creators
that actually know what they're talking about.
Because everything Johnny talks about, you can't
just go search it on eBay. It doesn't exist.
It's the same with Amazon. Everything I talk
about, you can't just go type in an Amazon and
figure this shit out. You're just kind of left
to your own devices and it sets you up. Yeah,
you can start today, but good luck getting it
off the ground because if you just go based off
what the eBay forums or Amazon forums or their
help articles and facts tell you. You got no
shot in hell making it. And to be fair, eBay
does have it. It's at their $300 a month tier,
but it wants to pay $300 a month to make one
phone call just because you're new. So not for
new people, but for established people on eBay,
you can pay that. You get some other benefits
just like all the other store subscriptions,
but it is mighty expensive. Yeah, that is a hefty
price tag. I guess if you do that volume, it's
worth it. But I think there should be like an
add -on, dude, for like 20, 40 bucks a month.
I think people would pay that. You know, you
got your $25, $30 a month store and then a $20
add -on so you actually get support. I'd pay
that. Especially if you're in a category where
you deal with a lot of returns or things like
that. I think it would go maybe even like dedicated
rep. On Amazon, if you sell a certain amount
of dollars, I'll tell you this, they give you
a dedicated Amazon rep. And it's just based on
your selling, right? If you sell six figures
or seven figures a year. They say, okay, we're
going to dedicate somebody to you, an account
specialist. This actually happens in the Amazon
space. I think eBay should do the same. I don't
think it has to be that high, but I do think,
you know, you start doing six figures on these
resale platforms. I think they got to throw us
a bone here and give us something. So that's
going to do it for this week's episode. Johnny,
I'm not letting you add anything else because
you'll be on this damn make eBay great again
task for, you know, for the rest of the time
and five more hours, we could go on about you
fixing eBay. No, no, no, no. Na -na -na -na.
All right, we'll talk to you all next week's
episode. Thanks for listening to another episode
of the Reseller's Mindset Podcast. Today's full
episode and all previous episodes are available
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