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About Me  |
Most Recent Posts End of Ebay ContestPosted Jun-30-07 09:07:35 PDT The eBay Enterprise Challenge is finally over and I can (and MUST) take the next 24hrs off to settle my pupillage applications. It's ridiculous how thick some buyers can be and requesting for 50% off the buy it now price for certain items. Shipped. And I thought it was disgusting meeting up with Singaporean local buyers. Sheesh. The next 3 days will be a mad rush for me to secure my place in a firm of my choice and I really hope that one of the bigger ones will take me in. Afterall, this eBay selling for me is just to test out whether intensive eBay selling really works and is not exactly a metal rice bowl. Glad to say it does but there have been too many sacrifices made to make that few odd dollars. Although I don't think I won the contest, I'd like to think I gathered the most feedback within the shortest period of time. Guess I can only verify that next Wednesday when I'm more free. Time to start worrying about my future. Good luck to all other eBay sellers and may you never meet the cheapo and difficult buyers I've met on my short stint here. :) And finally, an auction relevant post about PaypalPosted Jun-22-07 18:26:27 PDT I may sound bitter but I'm actually not. I'm quite an optimist. Usually.
But I do (as many others that I have searched via google are) have a grudge with Paypal. Some people may be aware of their 45 day buyer protection scheme. This means that the buyer has to file the non-receipt of their item within 45 days or Paypal can just tell you to suck your thumb if you try to tell them that you've got a problem after the 46 days. What happened to me recently confirmed that the whomever replied to my emails or viewed my transaction dispute in Paypal was an idiot. If there was more than one, they are a bunch of idiots. The facts are as such: The buyer purchased an item and opted to go for surface mail with tracking. It's supposed to reach in maximum of 90 days (or 12 weeks). About 40 days into waiting, he files a dispute with Paypal. Stating that he hasn't got the item. I tell Paypal 'DUH, he opted for surface mail, you can take this into consideration BUT, wait for the 90 days to be up please, plus it has tracking, so it's 100% safe'. Turns out the tracking killed me. Because surface mail is consolidated at one state and then distributed to the target state, the state that appeared in my online tracking DIDN'T show the buyer's state. And with that as a reason (tracking inadequate), Paypal deducted the full amount of the purchase away from me. This despite I sent in a photo of the delivery slip with the post office stamp and the buyer's address in FULL. Bear in mind that when I recevied the payment, they deducted a % of the money already, but yet they deducted the full amount from me. Guess what happened a week after deduction? Buyer got his parcel. So I kicked up a fuss and told paypal to reverse the transaction for me and the buyer was willing to do so because if not, there would be double deduction of the % take by Paypal. I mean, it's YOUR mistake in reversing so early. I don't mind waiting and if 90 days are up and the buyer didn't receive it, then I would track it with the post office and upon confirmation of loss, refund the buyer and claim from the post office if possible. But to release a refund like that would encourage buyers to opt for longer shipping methods to save costs and later strike a dispute and get the stuff for free. Paypal refused to reverse the transaction and offered to email the buyer to ask him to refund me. I told them that's not the point. the point is I don't want YOU paypal to earn a double % fee from ME. it's just $3 but also a matter of principle. After threantening to leave my account dormant, they told me to call them. Are they nuts? Make an international phone call for over $2 per minute to get back $3 when it's your fault? It's not as if you're picking up the tab for me. Cheebyes. So in the end, I gave up. Asked the buyer to refund me and my account is -$3 now. I'm sure some people will tell me, never offer surface mail. Well, being considerate for the buyer simply doesn't help. Some people want cheaper shipping rates and don't mind waiting and last time, I don't mind shipping it that way. Can't help it if the paypal team is so screwed up. I will never top up that account or use it again. Ever. I have since stopped offering surface mail. And I advise buyers to consider the option of claiming from your credit card company after 45 days is up because they will do it for you. Credit Card Companies want your money and they will waiver the 45 day limit for you. So if you feel that there may not be a problem yet by the 45th day and the seller might genuinely have a problem he can't do anything about, try claiming from your credit card company instead. One Reason to See Hot Fuzz, and One Reason not to see Local ProductionsPosted Jun-22-07 18:05:31 PDT For those checking out my auctions now after seeing my post. Don't bother. I got nothing interesting up now. Still boxing up the stuff from the previous batch. I'm still waiting for my ratings to go above 15 so that I can do multiple listings. Right now it's DAMN CHOR for me if I put buy it nows. So ridiculous.
But, to take my mind off stupid people, I went to see Hot Fuzz yesterday after picking up my other half from CommunicAsia. Somehow she managed to get into the newspaper (the show's paper, not NEW paper or STRAITS TIMES) this year again and this time on the front page summore. Hurhurhur. And she also kenna mrbrown's interview. That one abit lao kui la. But as the title suggests, the single most reason to see Hot Fuzz would be NOT to see Simon Pegg touting huge ass guns with a huge ass Nick Frost in tow, but rather the colorful supporting cast of elderly folks using uzis, sub-machine guns and ak-47s. Absolutely hilarious when you combine the gunfight of Hard Boiled with something like Grumpy Old Men. Except its Grumpy Old Sub-Committee with guns. Loads of guns. Which makes one wonder why Singapore writers can't churn out this sort of golden crap and let us have fun once in a while whilst watching a local production. I haven't seen anything fun by TCS/Mediacorp since... since... 1990? There was a bunch of period dramas on Channel 8 then that did not involve HDB heartlanders (obviously) shouting and screaming at each other and threatening to commit suicide. I thought it was more fun to watch than the (not golden) crap we have today. I know roughly why we don't have golden crap or in fact anything golden at all from Mediacorp (because my brother's a scriptwriter/director there). But whatever he said was confirmed when I flipped through the Zaobao yesterday morning and read the article regarding a Singaporean director that went to China and now is slated to do some cross-directing for a SG-CHINA television crossover extravagenza. Bottom line of the story is the same as any organization that has stupid people as it's consumer market. For the past 5 years, TCS has been churning out heartlander stories because that's what Singaporeans liked. I think the smarter ones would rather look at foreign shows, TVBI or Jap/Korean dramas for their fix, leaving the aunties, uncles, coffeeshop tvs to tune in to our homemade crap. But because there are so many aunties, uncles and coffeeshop tvs, they make up most of the demographics to represent the Singaporean population. Hence we get treated to crap because most of us that have the free time to watch tv, keep watching it regardless of the crap that's on. And the makers of the crap, thinking we like the crap (i.e. profitable crap), keep churning out the same crap. This is a vicious cycle that cannot be broken especially when the company views the profits as the reason for change (if any) and not artistic integrity or creativity. For example, productions can be rushed. Scripts can be hacked, and post-production can be so fucked up that the final product would be a disgrace to the original script's vision. So how? Still show lor. We are stupid, we will watch. And in the case of Jack Neo films, we are so fucking stupid that we will watch in loads. Don't tell me nobody caught the crappy CGI mistakes in 'Just Follow Law'? That was the result of you-know-who rushing the CGI artist whom kept saying there's no time to meet the holiday deadline. Basically he wanted it released during... some holiday, was it CNY? so that he can make loads of money. So when will Hot Fuzz (Singapore) or any other golden crap ever come out of our local television company? Probably never. Instead money will be poured into cock stuff like CHA WU and our local cinema will be plagued by the shit that is Men in White over and over again because we are stupid. I wonder who reads this crap that I'm blogging anyway. Why Singapore Auction Sites are quite uselessPosted Jun-22-07 17:17:00 PDT Updated Jun-22-07 17:42:49 PDT Yahoo Auctions is a prime example of a useless auction site. You get deadbeat bidders galore and idiots that message you whilst REFUSING to bid. Instead they arrange a meetup and sometimes decide to no-show as they know you can't leave negative feedback. EVEN IF you manage to get the cock to bid or close the auction, they can still not turn up because a yahoo account is a dime a dozen. This goes for sellers too as I have won auctions with no reserve but the seller refuses to sell as it didn't meet his personal reserve. Then you start a bloody no reserve auction for fuck? He tell me it's ad. Kaoz. Stupid.
Ebay.sg never really took off because too little people actually come to this site. I dunno about other stuff, but ebay.sg toys (I collect toys! Whee!) are fucking overpriced and perhaps that's also a reason why nobody comes here imo. It helps that ebay.sg is trying to make their site more popular with contests and whatnot, but somehow the only publicity I saw of it recently in singapore was the withdrawal of its advertising from google or something like that.
Much of the problem with our sites lie with our buyers. The formats of the auctions are the same, so why do we not have such rampant a problem on ebay.com whilst you find loads of it on yahoo auctions or ebay.sg?
The answer lies in Singapore buyers.
We are a cheebye lot. We are cheap. We want cheap, we want good. We want to bargain. I'm sure many of the yahoo sellers would list the phrase: do not message me for discount. Or something to that extent. Nevertheless, even if I put that up, I still get messages for discounts or offers for trade. It's not so bad if they understand when you say: sorry, no trades, or sorry, no discount. But some just can't read whatever is up on the page. If you find the item too expensive and you wanna ask for a discount, not so bad. Excuses for discounts I don't like. E.g. I'm still a student. KNNBCCB. I'm still a student too. If you are poor, don't come and buy la! Student should do homework and study. Not buy an expensive rare toy for $50. You want cheapo toy for $10 I got. But if you ask me to sell you the rare one for $50 and say because you are a student, you can go fly kite.
I guess the worse lot are the cheapo and stupid buyers. For instance, yahoo auctions and ebay.sg auctions are free to list. So we can list an item at our reserve price and if it doesn't sell. Well, fuck it. Lower it the next time round or something. Unfortunately I don't feel safe listing $0.01 auctions on yahoo auctions or ebay.sg yet because of the LOW traffic on these sites. Which makes it good that it's free.
But ebay.com needs a fee. And if you're not careful it adds up. ALOT. Currently I have about 130SGD in unpaid fees for the past few days. I think I paid a $95SGD one recently but the bloody thing just adds up so fast. Grrr. The basic listing fee of $0.01-$0.99 is $0.20. Then it goes by tier as everybody knows. So ideally I list an item at $0.01 and let the bidders do the work. Unfortunately, local first time ebayers see the $0.01 as the selling price.
I recall one guy asked me recently for a juggernaut auction (which usually ends about 30-45usd) whether I could meet up in Singapore. I hate meetups because they're a waste of time and they don't justify the profits. So I usually only do meetups for $100 and above. If an item is $20, I'll meet like 5-6 people at one time. So this cock sees the auction and asks for a meetup. I thought fine, he's a first time bidder, he stays in the east too, maybe I can la. Then after that, he asks for me to sell direct to him. So I'm like.. Err. Okay, I have more than one piece. You can take it for 45usd lo. Then he says... can close at starting price, and since meeting up, no need to pay shipping he collect from my house?
My starting price is $0.01. The cock expects me to sell at $0.01 buy it now for him arh? he think he smart or he think i stupid?! Still got one guy not so bad. He saw my newly listed auctions and pengz when he saw the $0.01 auctions stating that it was so cheap. Maybe too much of yahoo auctions made him think starting price = closing price too. But of course there are the good ones that see an auction and decide to purchase from me at my price after some discussion. Fact is I don't sell the stuff very ex. I let the bidders decide the price. But somehow the juggernaut winner in the end still decided that he overbidded and attempted to cut $3 off the price.
And he was damn hard to meetup. To save $3, he wanted me to meet him at 7am. Even though it was downstairs my house, imagine la.
Lucky now school holiday not so bad. School starts, no more selling. So does ebay.sg still think they can take off? I sincerely hope so. But with Singaporeans being Singaporeans, I can safely say, wait long long. At least in the toy side that is :) |
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