Tag Archives: eBay

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Buyers: Watch eBay Items to Get Discounted Offers (YMMV); Sellers: Send Discounted Offers to eBay Watchers

Good morning everyone, I hope your Thanksgiving week is going well.  I have been an eBay buyer and seller for 16+ years, so I thought I would share a tip for buyers and sellers.  If you are an eBay buyer, you might be able to get a discount by watching items that you want to buy (more details to come on how this works).  And for eBay sellers, you might be able to sell your items faster by sending discounted offers to interested buyers (who watch your items).  These 2 tips are related and act as 2 sides of the same coin.  There is no guarantee that this works 100% of the time, but it does work some of the time.  Let’s get started with eBay buyers first.

Buyers: Watch eBay Items to Get Discounted Offers

To get started, sign into your eBay account and go to your Watchlist.  As you can see, I am not currently watching any items.  It doesn’t matter if you are watching any existing items or if old watched items have ended.  Now, start browsing eBay for Buy It Now items you are interested in buying.

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Sell Your eBay Items Faster! Send Offers to Buyers Watching your Items

Good afternoon everyone.  A few weeks ago, Vihn at Miles Per Day wrote an article called Ebay adds the ability to edit prices and quantities to all active listings on one page.  I have been using that repricing feature for several weeks and thought all eBay sellers were aware of that feature, but apparently not.  I have also been using a new eBay selling feature where you can send offers to buyers who are watching your eBay items.  Historically, only eBay buyers could make offers to eBay sellers, not the other way around.  It looks like eBay is experimenting with this new feature.  I haven’t had great success (maybe eBay buyers are unfamiliar with this new feature or the offers I made are not attractive enough to eBay buyers – I don’t know).  But I will show you how to send eBay offers to buyers watching your items.  Sign into your eBay account, click on the Listings tab, and then click on Active (to view all active eBay listings).

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eBay MC999 Account Warning Notice: Did I Buy Too Many GCs & eGCs During eBay Deals?

Good afternoon everyone, I hope you had a great Easter or Passover Weekend.  Earlier this morning, I received this email from eBay telling me that my purchasing behavior is violating eBay’s Site Interference Policy.  Basically, eBay is accusing me of buying items via eBay Deals for the purpose of reselling.  I have been known to buy a few discounted GCs/eGCs from eBay, but I didn’t think it warranted a warning letter.  It’s not like I have 10 different eBay accounts and buy as many discounted GCs/eGCs as possible.  Here are the main parts of the email:

Listings promoted on the eBay Deals have a limit on the amount of items you can purchase, primarily to maintain an equal marketplace for all members and allow other eBay members the opportunity to take part in the eBay Deals.

The activity involved with these purchases appears to be related to the procurement of inventory for re-sale by a separate entity. If there is another reason for the volume purchased during this sale, please bring this to our attention.

Here is the complete email:

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Statement Credits Post Fast for $100 Shop with Dell Benefit + Dell 10% Cash Back AMEX Offer

Good afternoon everyone.  Last week, I wrote American Express Business Platinum Stack: $100 Shop with Dell Benefit + Dell 10% Cash Back AMEX Offer.  Fast forward to yesterday, I received my Dell order and my $100 Shop with Dell statement credit, along with the $10.74 cash back earned from the Dell 10% cash back AMEX Offer.  When the dust had all settled, my American Express Business Platinum Charge Card has a credit balance of $3.32 (the closer your order came to exactly $100, the greater your credit balance will be).

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Warning: Do Not Use Zelle or Venmo to Pay People on eBay, Facebook Marketplace or Craigslist

Good afternoon everyone, I hope your Presidents’ Day Weekend is off to a great start.  I just spent the last hour or so reading about horror stories where people were scammed on Craigslist when they paid with Zelle (Tech Crunch and Reddit). Since I wrote a post on how to send money to friends (or other bank accounts) with Zelle, I felt that it was my duty to inform my readers about this scam.

After reading the Tech Crunch and Reddit posts, here is how the scam works. The buyer sees tickets on Craigslist and reaches out to the seller. The seller says they can transfer the tickets to the buyer immediately after payment is received and recommends using Zelle, since that is their preferred way to be paid. Luckily, the buyer has used Zelle in the past and *thinks* that since the service is offered by their bank and other big banks, that all transactions are protected. After the buyer pays the seller via Zelle, the seller disappears and stops responding to calls, texts, and emails. The buyer complains to their bank, but since Zelle is set up to pay friends and family members, there is no purchase protection offered through Zelle, therefore, their bank cannot help them recover their money.

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