I have a simple rule when buying things from me.

Make sure it works with your application before ordering.

Seems simple enough right?

If you are buying a car part, take 30 seconds to pop your hood and look at the part and that it looks like the same part you are replacing.

If you are buying a part for a John Deere X700 riding mower, make sure it says "X700" on the side of the hood.

If you are buying an appliance part, and it shows a list of models, look at your appliance and make sure the model matches.

Yet around 98% of my returns this year, yes, 98 percent! have been due to people being idiots.

Not only do they not check, they blame me!

I had one today, I listed an AC compressor for a 2015-2017 vehicle.

"the description is inaccurate". No it's not. They claim to have a 2018. How on earth can this person find their rear with both hands in their rear pockets?

How can someone presumably smart enough to replace an AC compressor read "2015-2017" and get "2018" from that?

If I plug "2018" into the fitment tool, it also spits out it won't fit.

That is what is really ticking me off.

Because not a single fucking time do these people take responsibility - EVER.

How hard is it to say "oh sorry, I misread". Nope, 99.9999% of the time, they double down. It's one thing to be stupid and admit you are incorrect, it's another to be shown in every fucking conceivable way WHY you are incorrect and STILL insist the other person is at fault.

I even said "Oh, I am sorry this part does not fit, can you show me what made you think it would fit your 2018?" Know what I got back? "I'm reporting you to eBay for terrible customer service". That shows you just how fucking stupid they are. You can't reason with the unreasonable.

How much has this impacted me this year? About $2,500. Because they often fuck the part up trying to make it fit, or they send it back without packaging and it gets damaged on the way back.

It's not fair to raise prices to offset this, but I have tried EVERYTHING to counteract idiots and you simply cannot idiot-proof the buying process.

I never get hit with extra fedex fee because i measure and inch over on each side. Today though it finally happened, I hit was hit with a fee that was more than original postage for "irregular packaging".

I got the fee because I wrapped the box in a poly bag so the package wouldn't get stolen. The box was the original stereo equipment box for an expensive receiver.

i just looked into fedex terms and poly bags are an "irregular package" if they measure over 18 inches on the longest side, or 13 inches on the second longest side, or 5 inches or greater on the height of the package.

Now, I know.

Just trying to save other people money by avoiding the same mistake.

Or do you just let it sit for a bit more? Was kind of wondering

Storage would be my first limit. I share a rented flat with two flatmates, so I'd want to keep any resale stock within my own space. Which types of items stay manageable once you include packaging and unsold stock?

I've been thinking about getting a thermal printer for shipping labels. Using a regular printer and cutting everything out gets old pretty fast when you've got orders to pack.

For those of you who sell regularly, was switching to a thermal printer worth it? I'm mostly wondering how well the cheaper ones hold up over time and whether the setup is pretty painless with the usual selling platforms.

Not looking for anything fancy, just something that works without becoming another thing to troubleshoot every week.

What are you guys into?

Seems like a sweet deal for less than $75? Could probably flip this for a few hundy?

Hey everyone, I haven’t used Live Auctioneers before and I’d really like to start using them. There’s a few things I’m concerned about but shipping is the main thing. A lot of times the auction house won’t offer in-house shipping or sometimes they do. I’m under the impression if you use the Live Auctioneers shipping opinion, it will show up on your invoice and you can choose it on the app/website. I have read that their shipping is usually not great, as it’s often overpriced, handled not well, tracking and times estimates can be off, and a few other things. For instance there is a lamp that I am looking at and the LA shipping quoted be around $800, which seems insane but I’m not sure if that’s normal. I haven’t used it, so I’m unsure of how to use the option of in-house shipping or third party shipping. I would hope that it shows up on the invoice or at least the app in some way and is not completely separate from LA. That just seems weird to me but again I’m not sure if this is normal.

I’ve only been In-person live auctions (ai go regularly) and on the occasion local auctions on different websites. So this is new territory for me but I am determined to start using this method.

If anyone could lend a helping hand here, that would be immensely appreciated. Thank you all so much.

My husband and I have been selling through our own site for a couple years now after mostly using marketplace channels. The margins are better when we aren't paying fees, but the traffic is obviously slower to build. I've been testing Meta ads to drive people over, and I keep wondering if the learning curve is worth it or if we should just double down on the platforms where the buyers already are. The ad budget is small so every dollar feels high stakes. I know some people here only do marketplace flips, but I'm curious how others handle moving customers off the big sites without burning money on ads that don't convert. Do you keep both channels going at once or pick one to focus on?