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| About Me: ketracel or jump to new stuff First, my ID. "ketracel," is a semi-obscure Star Trek (Deep Space 9) reference and is pronounced ketra-sell. By the time I realized that my ID was going to be broadcast all over eBay it was too late to change. (Yes, I know I can actually change it, but now I've had it a while and, well, you know...). I started out as the typical clean-out-the-storage-locker vendor. Though my storage locker is now empty, my "stock" mostly comes from my parents and brother who are happy to get rid of some of the stuff they've had sitting around for a long time that they don't want to keep but can't bring themselves to throw away. Watch ID ketracel for: books, science fiction-related stuff, and vintage as well as '60s and '70s collectibles, Star Trek collectibles (the original series mostly), TV Guides, paperback tie-ins to movies and TV (60-70's), Beatles LPs, and Mad Magazine ('60s and '70s). My goal is to move old items to new homes where they can be enjoyed instead of ignored. |
find out about eBay
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| New Stuff (last change: 01/30/2009) | or jump to my terms of sale or jump to when do I ship? or jump to eBay's Seven Dark Secrets or jump to my auctions this week or jump to my half.com shop | Read my Amazon.com "So you'd Like to... Get Started Selling With eBay -- a Guide for the Easily Overwhelmed" tutorial. It's short! Then vote for me! |
... eBay is part-time for me!
I was a full-time eBayer for a while -- I was even a PowerSeller and Trading
Assistant! In 2002 I went back to a full-time job -- it was quite
an adjustment.
Not making it any easier was being placed on different shifts. For a while I had to quit selling. Eventually, things settled -- thankfully
-- but it's still a weird schedule in which I mostly work 9 hours a day (plus commute)
which leaves me pretty much unable to do much with eBay during a work day. Since eBay is now a part-time
endeavor for me, please do not expect email responses during 
the day. Sometimes there may even be a 24-hour delay if I come home especially tired and don't have the brain power to formulate a coherent response. I will reply, however, and appreciate your questions.
Outer Limits Trivia!
Good news! My 1964 Outer Limits trading card set is now complete. Wooow! Ok. Whew. Er, uh... now, what do I do with my expensive pieces of painted cardboard? hmmm...
I did sell my Outer Limits puzzle, though. It was a cool thing with three scary monsters, which you can see in the picture -- hey! -- wait just one darn minute. Something's not quite right! This picture has four nightmarish creatures! If you're an Outer Limits groupie, you'll recognize which of the four is not part of the original Outer Limits panoply. Can you pick it out?
| This week on ID: ketracel (member since Thursday, Jul 22, 1999 ) | eBay time:Nov-28-09 04:23:02 PST |
To protect bidder privacy, when the price or highest bid on an item reaches or exceeds a certain level, User IDs will be displayed as anonymous names. For auction items, a bold price means at least one bid has been received.
Note: Anonymous names may appear more than once and may represent different bidders.
| Item | Start | End | Price | Title | High Bidder/Status |
|---|
Go see all current items for sale by this member.
Terms of Sale
My sales "terms" are the normal eBay guidelines. However, I suppose it's best to write things down in case of any "questions" later on. Basically, if you want to buy something from me I'm here to help in any way I can.
I do my best to describe items offered but I'm not a professional dealer, just someone cleaning out the storage space. Please ask questions.
I've got my seller preferences set to not accept a bid from someone with a profile containing a feedback rating of less than zero or a recent
non-paying strike against them. Also, if you have a recent history of
excessive bid retraction, I'll also remove your bid. I am more than
happy to welcome new (or "0" bidders), though. End of Auction: After close of auction an auto-notification
email will be sent to the winning bidder. Items will be shipped as soon as possible after receipt of payment (see When Do I Ship?). Bidder (that's you) can expect a confirming email when payment is received and when an item is shipped. Timeliness: Two things a bidder must do -- respond to my auto-notification within three days from the auction close and make payment within 7 days after the close of auction. Failure to pay is cause for me to report bidder as a non-payer to eBay (which is the only way I can get a refund on my out of pocket expenses for the auction) and
for the item to be relisted (or offered to the next highest bidder). If you receive an item from me that is not as expected, contact me immediately (within two days of receipt). If this is my fault I'll pick up the tab for the return shipping and will provide a refund. You must contact me first. However, I take a lot of pictures and should be plenty of information in the listing for you to make an informed decision.
How I figure Shipping Fees. Each of my auction listings has a flat fee for shipping or it's own shipping calculator -- you type in your Zip code and the calculator figures the fee for that item (the item's weight is already built into the calculator
plus the charge for the delivery confirmation). You'll
always be able to know, before you bid, the fee for your location. By the way I don't pre-package my items, so the built-in weight is a guesstimate. Usually you'll find the postage sticker is pretty close to the amount you paid.
If your payment is way over, I'll make an adjustment/refund. If your
shipping fee is under what it actually turns out to be, then that's my problem.
If the shipping is via first-class or media, then you'll probably end up paying
a little more than the sticker price because I have to spend more time and
effort boxing the thing. However, please remember to do the calculations
so you know what you're paying. I do not 'make money' from shipping.
When do I ship?/Handling Time Again, my full-time job makes instant shipping difficult
-- I leave for work at 6am and return at 5:30pm. eBay's estimated delivery time includes two day's handling time. My goal is to ship within 24 hours of payment. If an item has bids before it closes, I do begin the wrapping process before the end of auction so that I can ship the day after the auction ends (if payment is received right after the auction closes). I am always mindful that you have paid for your item and
want it as soon as possible. I do my best. I will always let you know, via email, after I've shipped.
Insurance is Extra. My shipping fees never include insurance. Unless you're buying something that's expensive, it's a waste of money (in my opinion). I've shipped over a thousand items
over the course of my eBay career and only two items were lost. Of course,
if you want insurance, please add it in when you pay the bill (it's always an option). If you don't insure, then whatever happens after I ship is not my responsibility. If insurance claims need to be made, I will do everything in my power -- filing a claim and following up as needed -- to help you get a refund from the authorities. The claim for payment is between you and the insurer. Not me. Also, note that the USPS makes you wait 30 days after the loss before filing the claim and then there can be another delay of up to 30 days before payment is issued. They will not refund the cost of shipping unless the item is a total loss (and they will never refund the insurance fee itself).
Why I don't sell internationally.
The reason is, literally, "simple." I need to keep things simple and
streamlined. I'm all for the global economy, but shipping outside the U.S. is
more complicated and time-consuming. At least it is for me. Since my sales
are usually small and not more than $20, spending time in the post office
(instead of just dropping off the package) and dealing with custom forms (which
are unnecessary with U.S. shipments) adds more work to the process.
Ultimately, I can end up spending an hour to ship a $20 item and that just
doesn't make sense. Even with all that, I recently tried again to ship
internationally and found that my original policy was right -- though it is much
easier than four or five years ago -- there's still problems (for me) in
shipping outside the U.S.
I hope you understand my point of view.
At this point eBay allows us to block bidders from outside our geographical
selling range so I can avoid disappointing international bidders.
And now... because no one else will tell you -- here are -- shhhh!:
eBay's Seven Dark Secrets
(what you won't discover until you're hooked on the system)
eBay provides no technical support
Let me clarify. eBay used to have no technical support of any kind whatsover
(other than a few FAQs). Then they added a couple of online tutorials. Now they have a Chat support that is particularly of benefit to newbies (beginners on eBay). Just before adding the Chat Help, eBay also set about reorganizing their Help system into an incomprehendable mess. Even if you do connect with a Live Chat help person, the answers you get will not be very technical. In fact, you often feel as though you're talking to a computer program, not a real person. Hopefully, you have really, really basic questions. If you have a real technical issues and you have some computer
savvy, the best way to get help for your specific complex issue is by going to the chat boards and hoping that someone can answer your question. (And it's a good idea to read a few messages first -- the same questions appear frequently and your answer may already be waiting.) Do not go looking for eBay's tech support or customer service phone number -- there ain't none. Honest. So.... read the information that is available very carefully and ask questions from your peers when you need help.
it is a competition
Beauty pageants participants always talk about how friendly everyone is and that the event is not really a competition. Well, it is. And so is eBay. You may ask for help on the Chat board and receive a lot of very, very good time- and life-saving advice on a variety of topics. We're here to help. But no one is going to tell you all their secrets to success -- their best searching techniques... where they get things for free... etc. At the end of the day, it is a competition.
the eBay site interface is not user-friendly
You can ignore this secret if you only intend to buy on eBay. Buying on eBay is easy and bless you. For selling, yikes! They tell you that it's easy to sell, but it's a mess. Well, it is better than it used to be like when I started, but you still have to use a lot of different skills to get your stuff listed. That doesn't mean it's impossible -- millions get through the learning curve every day and they can't all be rocket scientists. What it does mean is that you should not expect an intuitive interface like a Microsoft product or AOL or something like that. Expect to spend at least half a day getting your first item listed. However, once you figure it out, you'll wonder why you had such a hard time with it.
eBay is rickety and not stable
eBay is like a Frankenstein's monster -- composed of stitched-up parts that weren't expected to be assembled and brought to life. It's a rare week when everything works as it should for everyone. When some eBay feature suddenly goes away ("function not available") just relax 'cause it'll come back in a few hours. For the most part, however, everything works well enough that we can keep making money!
beware eBay upgrades
eBay is always changing things -- usually not the things that users want changed (at least so far), but, hey, it's their website; they can do whatever they want. Usually in the course of making things better, operations get worse (see the previous secret). When eBay says something new is coming, lock up your horses and make sure your auctions will not be ending on that night.
bad people use eBay
The same ratio of good and bad people found in the real world exists on eBay. Expect the nut cases, the rude, the sleazy, and the ill-tempered. eBay's got 'em all. So don't check your street sense at the door. Stay frosty.
eBay cares, but it's not their job
The people who run eBay are good, decent people and all. They want everything to be happy. But, if you run into a bad situation with another eBay user, eBay management will help you only slightly more than a newspaper publisher would help you if you bought something from a vendor who placed a classified ad in their paper. eBay is a flea market and almost every auction is run by a different proprietor (see the previous secret).
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