Rob & Melissa Stephenson from Flea Market Flipper talk about whether you have to accept returns to be a high profit flipper on eBay.
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Do You Have To Accept Returns To Be A High Profit Flipper On eBay?
Rob: What's up, pro flippers? On today's episode, we're talking about returns and even more specifically, do you have to accept returns to be a high profit seller on eBay?
Rob: Alright, so today guys we are talking about returns. And do you have to accept returns to be a good seller on eBay?
Melissa: So there's a lot of different ways you can run your business, obviously, and a lot of different business models. So there's high volume, we tend to do a little bit lower volume, and larger items, larger profit items.
So, first of all, do we accept returns on our business?
Rob: We do not, we do not accept returns on our sales on eBay. We don't do it. I don't like the business model that you sell something and then you don't know if it's really sold until the buyer gets it and then inspects it and wants to return it.
I don't like that business model. So we've always not accepted returns.
Melissa: Now, eBay does want you to accept returns. So, there, this is kind of like a little back and forth. It depends on your business model, obviously. Do you have to accept returns? eBay will show your items more if you accept returns.
And you are better protected from eBay if something happens. But for us it hasn't been a necessity for the way that we run our business.
Rob: Yeah, so we'll dive in a little bit more if you were doing high volume, you're selling a lot of items. We'll dive into a little bit more of that right now which that's not our business model like we said, but high volume, eBay does want you to accept returns. They want people to be able to get the item inspect it for whatever reason change it back, you know eBay has their 30 day money back guarantee on any item that you sell. They they show that on every single listing so they want you to do that But from where we're at, like I said, I do not want to sell something.
eBay's going towards Amazon's model. Amazon changed the game. And they want to do that to where people buy something, they change their mind, they can send it back, no questions asked, all that kind of stuff. Well, we don't like that model because I don't want to sell something and then not know for sure that it's sold.
So, that's the model. If you are selling high volume, typically you do have to do the 30 day return policy that eBay requires you to do. Now for us, we can explain a little bit more in depth of what we do with why it works exactly with a no money back guarantee. eBay still puts it on our listings, but at the same time, we do not offer returns.
So if you look in, it specifically says the bottom seller does not accept returns into our listings.
Melissa: Yeah. I wanted to add too a lot of things. It depends what you're selling to as far as like, so if you're a, you sell clothing and it doesn't fit right, I think that is, you know, a reason that people would want to return or shoes.
So you might, you know, if your stuff's not selling and you don't offer returns, you might want to consider offering returns cause it can help move your stuff if it's that kind of stuff. But we are trying to avoid the people who want to just try it out and then return it. So like, and our items typically aren't those kinds of items anyway.
So you can explain that a little bit more.
Rob: So more of what we do are high profit items. We're selling commercial stuff, we're selling industrial stuff, we're selling higher profits. So people are going to spend anywhere from a thousand, $5,000, $10,000 on a single unit with us, a single item. And our goal with that is to under promise on the item and over deliver on the item.
And I think about one that I just shipped out, two weeks ago. I, I sold a stretcher, that we actually bought for $182. We sold it for, I think it was $4,200, a little over $4,000. And when the buyer got it, he was pleasantly surprised and gave me an amazing feedback saying this thing is like brand spanking new. I did not say that in the listing when I actually sold it.
I put in the listing, this is a used unit, please expect normal wear could have scrapes scratches and scuffs. That's what I do on all my listings I want people to know anything that is used, expect normal wear on it. And that's how I listed it. Well when he got it, he was very pleasantly surprised, overjoyed and gave me an amazing review amazing, feedback on it Saying this is like brand spanking new love it.
The seller's great all that kind of stuff. And that's what we're going for. We're going for that but our goal is to under promise and over deliver. That's the first step on us not having to accept returns.
Melissa: You didn't used to do that because back in the day you want, obviously you want to sell your stuff.
So you're putting in the description like, this is an amazing thing. Like I want to sell it. So, but if you say this is in mint condition and the buyer gets it and it's like, this is not mint condition. I don't know what you're thinking about. They're going to want a return. So, you learned that the hard way over the years.
So you don't say anything is in mint condition, even if it's, like you think it's in mint condition. You still will not say that.
Rob: I don't use mint. I don't use excellent. The only thing that I ever describe an item with is good condition. I do not want to over promise and then somebody get in and say, wait a minute.
This is not my definition of excellent. I want to return this. I was thinking it was in great condition. So that's where I only use good condition and I want people to be happy when they get the item. So that's the first step of what we do under promise over deliver with our items. Now the other cool thing about what we do when we're, we're selling a high profit item, we're giving a great discount off of retail.
That stretcher. Probably over $12, $14,000 new. This guy got it for $4,000, an amazing discount on it. This was the only model that they had on eBay at the time for this exact model. So the guy got a great deal. If he was going to go buy one for new, he's going to pay $12, $14,000. He didn't want to spend that much.
So he found this one $4,000, like shipping and don't quote me on it, but it was a little over $4,200 somewhere around that with including shipping. He got an amazing deal on it. So he is not going to get this thing and try it out. It's not like I want to see how this thing's going to work for me.
I want to check all that stuff out before I decide if i'm going to send it back. He got an amazing deal. He was happy with it. It was in better condition than he thought it was, so he's not going to ask for a return and that is our model with the high profit items. People are getting such an amazing deal on them way off of retail, and there's not a lot of them on eBay for the specific item that we're doing and we're very pricing them very very well that people are going to be happy with it and they're not test driving it. They're not getting a shirt then testing or putting it on saying oh, this doesn't fit me, right?
They're getting it because they got an amazing deal on it and it's exactly what we promised. It's working. It's not working. It's parts, whatever it is. So they know before they spend a thousand, $2,000 exactly what they're getting. I
Melissa: wanted to add too that we do get a comment on social sometimes like, well, wait for the eBay return to be opened or wait for it.
Cause we sell, you know, if we sell something for a thousand dollars, $500, $2,000, whatever, like just wait for that, you know, eBay return. thing, or they ask, do we get returns? And if you think about the person who is going to spend $1,000 on an item on eBay, they know what they want. They already know, like, what they're looking for, and they know that it's a good deal, like you just said, that it's a good deal.
They're not, they're better quality clients, like they're spending a lot of money with you, so they want to make sure that it's the item that they're going to get, but they're, they're not your typical tire kickers and they're, they're spending more money with you. So they are a better quality client.
So do we get returns? I have to say this year, I don't think we've had a return last year. I don't, I think two years ago we had two.
But this year we had one that was, it wasn't a return, it was almost a return, that $1,000 hood, because she couldn't get it to work. And then you troubleshot it with her, and she got it to work, and everything worked out.
Rob: Typically if we do get somebody who wants a return, it's from damage and shipping. It has nothing to do with us, our product, anything like that.
It had to do with it showing up and not working because something happened in shipping. And that's okay, because that will happen, but the other, I mean, if I go off on a side tangent, which I will, just real quick. Side tangent. So when you ship stuff with FedEx, UPS, that's going to touch probably a dozen different people's hands who are going to throw it in the back of a truck, throw it out of a truck because they could be in a bad mood that day, and they're going to have different touches on it.
It's going to be heavier than they thought it was, so they're going to kick it around and slide it around and do that kind of stuff because they don't want to pick it up. That's going to happen when you're shipping with FedEx or UPS because we ship with them, trust me, we ship with them, but we do definitely package really well because we try to know that stuff like that can happen.
When we ship the large high profit items, typically a lot of them will go freight. They're going to get strapped to a pallet and they're going to get moved by a forklift. You're not going to get a disgruntled, is that the right word, disgruntled employee who's having a bad day and who's going to shove the pallet over on its side.
They're picking it up with a forklift. They're moving it out of wherever they are, around, and then it's going into the back of a truck. So they're not really touching it. So that's one of the caveats on shipping high profit, high dollar items is their delivery is a little bit different. So you're not going to get as many damages in freight shipping as you do with FedEx and UPS.
That's just one of the pluses of what we do. So back to, I forgot on my side tangent where I came from,
Melissa: you're saying that it not really returns there. If we get a return request, it's not usually return. That's the first question we ask people too, because if you do get a return request, this is a whole nother, we could do a whole nother episode on this, but if you get a return request.
You don't want to jump to conclusions and just like, okay, here, here you go. If you don't have a return policy, like your return policy is no returns. You want to be a detective and find out, cause it could be damaged in shipping and it's not that they need to return. We have to open up a shipping claim.
So it's just something completely different. Yeah. So, yeah, side note for that too.
Rob: Absolutely. So the majority, if we ever do get a return request, it is it's damaged in shipping, which not our fault.
Melissa: You can't say every time always. You did make a mistake. Remember on the baby scale?
Rob: I did. That was the only one that I can ever remember that I, I messed up on.
Don't say ever. That is the only one that I do, I do remember, but I did the, so we had a baby scale that we got and it only was in kilograms. I saw the pound little light up next to it and I thought you could do a program on it and get it changed over. I didn't do the extra work to look at it. And when the guy got it, he's like, hey, this is only in kilograms.
I called the manufacturer. This one won't let me change it over to pounds. And I was like, yeah, sorry about that. And it was my fault because I didn't do it. So we did get a return on that. I got it back. I sold it, made my money back on it. No problem at all.
Melissa: And you had a couple of partial returns. Like there was the one I do remember, the chiropractor chair, the, no, chiropractor table, like, and that was his fault and he left it out in the cold and some line snapped and you didn't have to give him a return, like a partial, but you gave him a couple hundred bucks. You gave him a couple hundred bucks. I did. It was like a $2,800 sale, I think. Yeah. And you gave him a couple hundred bucks back to help him out.
So that's just good business practice, too.
Rob: Yeah. And you're right. Those, I shouldn't say never, but those are two instances that Melissa, and there might be even more than that. But I tend to not think about that because it's not a huge ordeal for me. But that one wasn't my, the chiropractor definitely was not my fault.
And I was trying to be nice and he was actually trying to go over the top and wanted more money than that. And I said, listen, I'm going to be honest with you. I don't feel like any of this is my fault and I don't have to do this. I'm just trying to help you out with it. Yeah. And just a whole instance.
And I, like Melissa said, I was trying to be nice and that was what it boiled down to. And then he came back and said, yeah, I'm sorry. I'm just frustrated, that this happened to it and it's not your fault, but thank you for trying to help me out. He left it out in the cold and a line snapped or something.
Yeah. Not a line, an actual, what are they called? Hydraulic? O rings. An O ring shrunk or something and started leaking, from an O ring. So not my problem. He left it out in the snow. It should have been inside in the, in the warm weather. It's a chiropractor chair. It's not a, not meant to be outside.
No. So. But yeah, we're off on another tangent. All, all that being said is, you do not have to accept returns, but typically eBay wants you to, if you're selling high volume to show your items to more people, they want you to accept returns.
And to be competitive with the other
Melissa: people because there are a lot of resellers out there.
And if you're selling something, that a lot of people have to be competitive, you might need to offer returns.
Rob: So if you're not offering returns and the other seller is, you're not going to get the sale because they want to know that they can do that now for us. The majority of what we do, there's not a ton of competition on the items that we're selling.
We're selling high profit items that a lot of people won't ship. We will ship them, and that's kind of the, the caveat on what we do and how we get around not accepting returns. But also at the same time, we want to under promise. If you take anything from this episode, under promise your items, overdeliver. Make sure your buyer is happy and that will help you cut your returns down in half or even more than that, if you are accepting returns right now, so.
Melissa: Just good business practices I think that really helps like it shows you as a seller and there will be people that are like not good buyers. Like that happens to you could be doing your business perfectly and there you know, there's people that are just not very nice out there. But for the most part if you're doing your business like correctly and like you said over under promise and over deliver, then you will get good feedback, you'll minimize returns, and that can help.
And one last thing before we hop off, I wanted to add was if you do accept returns and you're doing more volume, it is good practice to leave some wiggle room in your accounting to know, like, you're gonna, like, have a buffer. And it's good for any business model to have a little buffer of, you know, a certain amount could go to return so that you're not, like, you know, running each month down and then you don't have that buffer when you get returns.
So just know there will be, I'm curious too, on some of these Amazon sellers, when they have these huge numbers on their thing, I'm curious cause they don't ever show like how many returns like, cause they could sell a million dollars in on Amazon, how much is coming back? I'm always curious about that. So it's interesting.
Rob: We're Amazon users and I know myself, if something does not fit right, if something does not work right, I sent it back cause I know Amazon will take it back. And that's one of those things that I always do and I know that.
Melissa: I know. And you just know that. And that's what eBay is trying to get to, but eBay's business model is just different than Amazon.
So we'll see what happens over the years, but right now we don't accept returns and it works for our business and it just, you'll have to analyze your business and see what is best for you. So we do have an upcoming challenge coming up, the flip it for Christmas challenge. We've done a couple of years in a row. We want to help you make your first $500 flipping. So I, we'll put the link below in the show notes. I believe it's flipitforChristmas.com, but we'll put the link below so you can go check it out.
Rob: Absolutely. Christmas is my favorite time of year guys, and I also know it can be very stressful for parents. It can be just stressful for a lot of people because you know, you have to come up with more money to be able to buy presents for your kids, that kind of stuff.
So we're trying to alleviate that and try to give you the head up on being able to create that extra $500. So go register if you have not yet registered below. It's going to be a great time. I think $7 is the registration for it. We are going to so much over deliver on that training. You're going to be so happy that you did.
So you guys rock. Thanks for hanging out with us today. We cannot wait to see you on the next episode.