Stamps.com program lets sellers print labels free

Stamps.com's new program lets eBay sellers print postage free. And another Stamps.com service gives online sellers on multiple platforms them the ability to import data from eBay, Yahoo! Stores, Amazon,
PayPal and Google Checkout, for $15.99 a month.

I look forward to checking this out, in particular for the amazon support. I'm looking for a faster way to print postage for my amazon orders. I already use Stamps.com now for a lot of business postage, but I print labels from PayPal as well for eBay orders.

More at http://www.stamps.com/welcome/custom/ebay/, and below is also more info, from Stamps.com's Eric Nash:

"This free eBay
program is based on our new Stamps.com Version 8.5 software that is loaded with
new shipping features.  The main feature being the ability to import data from
eBay, Yahoo! Stores, Amazon, PayPal and Google Checkout.   The software also
supports batch label processing and data imports from XML or ODBC connections
(for a seller's ecommerce engine).  For a seller using multiple platforms to
sell their products (such as eBay and their own ecommerce cart), they will be
able to use one shipping management tool to print and manage all of their
shipping labels."

You can also check out their blog at http://blog.stamps.com.

eBay Sellers Can No Longer Charge for Insurance; What You Need to Do Now

Among the  many changes coming for eBay sellers this fall is that optional insurance is going bye-bye. This means eBay sellers can no longer ask buyers outright to pay for insurance if they want it; they must either offer it themselves by rolling it into the cost of the listing, or not offering it at all.

(See bullet point #5 below, from the July 2009 eBay seller update:)

"Rewards for sellers delivering great buyer experiences

    * New way to look at DSRs: Avoid 1s and 2s; only domestic DSRs count
    * PowerSeller requirements and benefits�rewarding quality over quantity
    * New eBay Top-rated seller status earns the highest PowerSeller rewards
    * New minimum standard and new Selling Practices policy for all sellers
    * Optional buyer charges for shipping insurance no longer allowed
    * New Seller Dashboard with more insight to help you improve"

Below I will get into this in more detail, but first I wanted to address two questions some of my Yard Salers newsletter subscribers have had. When exactly is this all going down, and do we have to go into all our existing listings now and revise them? The short answers are Sept. 22 and no...but see below for more:

"When does this change take effect?
eBay is scheduled to remove shipping insurance from new listings starting the week of September 22, 2009."

"Do I have to update my listings?
No, you do not have to update your existing listings. However, you will no longer have the ability to include shipping insurance in new, revised or renewed listings. You may want to update your item or shipping and handling charges to include the cost of insurance."

A but further below I quote eBay's explanation on this in more depth. I think all sellers need to read it.

But first, I wanted to add my quick take on this. This isn't something many sellers seem to be happy about, however I don't think it's going to make a big difference in the grand scheme of things. I plan to continue to insure my bigger ticket items; say around $100 or more, to start. If needed I will fold this into the cost of the item.

However it has always seemed to me that if something went wrong with a shipment, the onus has been on us as sellers to take care of it. Sometimes it truly seems out of our hands, such as when something goes missing, or, in more frustrating recent cases I have had, the carrier says the item was delivered, and the buyer says he or she never got it. Any way you slice it those situations are a hassle, and cost you valuable time as a seller, especially if it comes down to filing an insurance claim.

Fortunately, those situations happen rarely for me. (Knock on wood). On the bright side, eBay does say they are offering bulk edit tools for us, so I am looking fwd. to those.

OK, more details below from eBay if you want them. Meantime, I would love to hear your take on the whole insurance situation. Feel free to post a comment on this blog.

"Optional buyer charges for shipping insurance removed: The insurance option creates the perception that buyers need to purchase shipping insurance as a protection on eBay, an experience they're not accustomed to on other ecommerce sites. In fact, sellers have always been responsible for their items until they arrive safely in their customers' hands. That's why shipping insurance will no longer be included in the purchase flow as either an option or requirement for buyers.

"Of course you can choose to purchase insurance on shipments, but not ask buyers to buy insurance separately. In some categories like Antiques, Collectibles, and Jewelry, shipping insurance for sellers is essential. When appropriate, you can include the cost of insurance in your item or shipping price."

And more:

"No optional buyer charges for insurance

"Why is eBay removing optional or required shipping insurance when I list or re-list my item?
By removing optional or required shipping insurance, we are adjusting to help meet buyer expectations for ecommerce and aligning with industry standard practices. In most circumstances, buyers do not expect to pay for the cost of shipping insurance. This change also reflects the industry�and eBay�standard practice that sellers are responsible for their items until they are safely in their customers' hands.

"As a seller, can I still insure the items I sell on eBay?
Yes, you are still able to insure your items. Check with your shipping carrier for insurance options, or contact a third-party shipping insurance provider for insurance coverage. You can also purchase shipping insurance from your shipping company on eBay when you print your shipping labels directly from eBay or PayPal. To help cover the additional expense, consider folding the cost of insurance into your handling fee or item price.

"I sell rare, antique, or one-of-a-kind items that I must insure. How can I insure these items?
There are several ways to insure items you sell. Check with your shipping carrier for insurance options, or contact a third-party shipping insurance provider for insurance coverage. You can also purchase shipping insurance from your shipping company on eBay when you print your shipping labels directly from eBay or PayPal. To help cover the additional expense, consider folding the cost of insurance into your handling fee or item price.

"Paying for shipping insurance raises my costs. What can I do?
If appropriate, you can move the cost of shipping insurance into your handling charges or item price.

"How do I add my insurance cost to my Auction-style listings?
If you list with Auction-style format, you can choose to add your insurance cost into your handling charges. You'll need to estimate the value of the item, and check with your shipping carrier or third-party insurance provider for approximate cost of coverage. You could also start your item at a slightly higher price to cover the cost of insurance.

"If I want to revise my listings, are bulk editing tools available?
Yes, bulk editing tools are available now.

"Will my listings be blocked in Relist, Sell Similar or Sell One Like This flows if they include shipping insurance?
No, eBay will not block these listings, but we will automatically remove the insurance option from the listing when a seller uses Relist, Sell Similar, or Sell one Like This. You'll see a message that eBay has removed these options from your listing.

"What about Good 'Til Cancelled listings?
The insurance option will be automatically removed from Good 'Til Cancelled listings when they renew. You'll see a message that the option has been removed.

"Does this change apply to all listing formats and categories?
Yes, this change will apply to all listing formats and categories.

"I use a third-party listing service. Am I affected?
Yes, this change impacts all third parties that provide listing and/or checkout services with optional or required shipping insurance as an option. eBay will require third parties to remove optional or required shipping insurance from their listing and checkout flows.

"I am a third-party developer. What changes do I need to make?
By September, you should remove the shipping insurance option from your product or service's listing and checkout flow."

Amazon Instituting "Charge When Ship" for Sellers

Amazon.com is moving to a system for sellers where they must confirm a shipment of a product before they will get paid. The details are below, pasted from a seller email I recently received.

This is not a huge change for amazon sellers, in my mind; just another hoop to jump through. But as recently reported in USA Today, buyers like to track shipments of everything from shoes to pizzas these days, so the new criteria are in keeping with what consumers want.

Details are below, pasted from an email to amazon sellers:

Hello from Amazon Services.

Charge When Ship will be enabled within a
week in your Seller Account, and you will then be required to confirm shipment
of all new orders you receive. With Charge When Ship, if you do not confirm
shipment of an order through Manage Orders or a feed within 30 days of the date
the order was placed, you will not be paid for the order.

Once your
Seller Account is enabled for Charge When Ship, you will see "Confirm shipment"
and "Cancel order" buttons for new orders; the "Refund order" button will only
appear after you confirm shipment of an order. (Just as now, there will be no
"Cancel order" button for orders you received before your account is enabled for
Charge When Ship.)

Charge When Ship follows the current industry standard
for processing buyer payments and will also help keep buyers informed about the
status of their shipments. Though Charge When Ship is new for some sellers,
other sellers have been using it for quite a while. We are bringing this
functionality to you because of Amazon's commitment to providing the best
customer experience possible.

We strongly encourage you to start using
Charge When Ship today: On your Seller Account home page or in Manage Orders,
click the "Learn more" link in the yellow Charge When Ship sign-up
notice.

Here is how Charge When Ship works:

* When you ship an
order, you confirm the shipment and provide shipping information in Manage
Orders. If you have a Pro Merchant Subscription you can also use text-file feeds
for this.

* We charge the buyer after you confirm shipment (rather than
when the buyer places the order), and then we credit your Marketplace Payments
account. Amazon assumes the risk of buyer non-payment for every order in your
Unshipped Orders Reports or that has confirm and cancel buttons in Manage
Orders. As long as you confirm that the order was properly shipped, you will be
paid in accordance with the Marketplace Participation Agreement. Of course, just
as now, there may be circumstances where payment may later need to be refunded,
for example when the buyer does not receive the order, or it is not as
described.

* To keep buyers informed about their shipments, we display
the shipping information in the buyer's Amazon account, and we also send the
buyer an e-mail notification with all the shipping information.

* You
can easily tell which orders you have not yet confirmed as shipped, in Manage
Orders or on the Unshipped Orders Report (available to Pro Merchant
subscribers). We will also send you an e-mail reminder if an order remains
unshipped past the promised ship date.

* You can cancel an order, if
necessary, instead of confirming the shipment, and then we will not charge the
buyer at all and you will not have to issue a refund.

See our Charge When
Ship video, FAQ, and recorded
webinars:

Video
http://s3.amazonaws.com/MerchantTutorials/cws_for_mp/cws_for_mp.html

FAQ
http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=200351100

Recorded
webinars
http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=200340860#related_topics

We think you will find managing your orders is easier and more efficient
with Charge When Ship. To get started, click the "Learn more" link in the yellow
Charge When Ship sign-up notice in Manage Orders or on your Seller Account home
page.

If you have questions, contact us using the "By e-mail" or "By
phone" button in the Seller Support box found on the right side of seller Help
pages.

Best regards,

Amazon
Services

----------------------------------------
HOW TO CONFIRM
SHIPMENTS
----------------------------------------

You can confirm
shipments easily in Manage Orders:

1. In your Seller Account, under the
"Manage Your Orders" heading, click "View your orders" to find the order you
want to confirm.

2. Click the "Confirm shipment" button next to the order
(or below the order if you are looking at an order detail page).

3.
Select the Ship Date and Carrier (such as USPS) from the drop-down
lists.

4. Enter the Shipping Service (such as Ground) and the Tracking
ID, if any (supplied by the carrier).

5. Click the "Confirm shipment"
button.

For information on using a Shipping Confirmation feed to confirm
shipment of multiple orders at once, follow this path in Amazon.com Help:

Selling at Amazon.com > Confirming Shipment > How to Confirm
Shipment of Multiple Orders at the Same
Time

----------------------------------
HOW TO CANCEL ORDERS

----------------------------------

If you are unable to ship an
order, you can cancel it easily in Manage Orders:

1. In your Seller
Account, under the "Manage Your Orders" heading, click "View your orders" to
find the order you want to cancel.

2. Click the "Cancel order" button
next to the order (or below the order if you are looking at an order detail
page).

3. Select the appropriate reason, and then click
Submit.

For information on cancelling orders using an Order Cancellation
feed, follow this path in Amazon.com Help:

Selling at Amazon.com >
Confirming Shipment > How to Cancel Orders

World's Longest Yard Sale 2009 Part 4: Fentress Field

After our obligatory stop at the Cumberland Mtn. General Store, Signe and I decided to get a little closer to Jamestown, Tennessee, the town that founded the whole concept of the World's Longest Yard Sale. We knew the next must-see was South Fentress field, where HGTV was rumored to be filming.

But along the way we made one more stop. We passed many makeshift yard sale signs, including many that enticingly led off the road and down long, windy driveways. These were the real "Mom 'n' Pop" garage sales that no doubt hid some of the best bargains, and next year I plan to make it to more of those off the beaten track type sales.

A little red Caboose and a lot of tents set up to our left caught our attention on the way, so we decided to make one more stop before hitting Fentress field. We pulled in to a back parking lot, past a hot dog and drink vendor. I went to get a hot dog and Signe went off to troll for vases she could mosaic over.

After scarfing down my lunch quickly, I drifted off to a table with a lot of vintage jewelry laid out. I was looking for old bracelets and whatever else caught my eye. I wound up finding a great coral and turquoise cocktail ring for $2.50, a sterling silver pair of earrings with black beads for $3.50, and two silver necklaces for $1.50. One of them had a lovely mother-of-pearl pendant, the other two shimmer blue beads.

And finally, a very fun goldtone vintage charm bracelet with all kinds of fun charms, like a little Liberty Bell.

Next we were off to South Fentress field. You could tell something big was going on here by the sheer scope of the field, parking lot, and number of tents. Here is a video of our approach to the field:

World's Longest Yard Sale 2009, Part 3: Cumberland Mtn. General Store

Inside the Cumberland Mountain General Store, in addition to the quaint old soda fountain / ice cream parlor, there are numerous old collectibles and antiques, and, of course, the World's Longest Yard Sale t-shirts.

Here's a link to a short YouTube video I made of the store:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qdkfqvAPVuQ

Here's another view of the aforementioned soda fountain.

Though they were not making milkshakes, I ordered an ice cream with hot fudge, which the fountain worker on the left is dutifully making.

Also inside the store are all kinds of collectibles and antiques...glassware, an antique hallway table with mirror, Mr. Peanut figurines, soda bottles, books, you name it.

Here they were selling the Highway 127 / World's Longest Yard Sale t-shirts, so I snagged one in XL as L was all sold out.

Left: The metal rooster which captivated me, on the right outside corner of the store. Note the old traffic light and cafe sign, two of many fun artifacts inside and outside the place.

After doing a little filming and snagging an ice cream, I wandered around outside to check out the wares for sale.

There was a lot of pottery, glassware, many old tools, and all kinds of collectibles. And a smaller amount of furniture.

I saw some Roseville pottery on one table, though the prices were what you would expect it to be.

I came across some Avon ruby red "Cape Cod" glassware, and decided I'd add a couple plates to my collection at home. I picked up the plates for $8 -- not a bad price, if not rock-bottom; but I had something to take away from the General Store area.

Signe admired some of the wilder figurines on display, such as a wooden devil with his tongue sticking out, but left without buying anything there.

In the next post, I'll write about our next stop along the way, in a field with an old red Caboose, and the stuff we picked up there.

World's Longest Yard Sale 2009, Part 2: Of Harleys and Bargains

More from our saga at the World's Longest Yard Sale 2009:

One thing we noticed a lot of were motorcycles, Harley Davidsons in particular. They seem to have a very dedicated following. I don't know if the below is a Harley, but Signe was pretending it was hers:

Next to the bike you can see a bit of the Americana culture-type art and decor that was for sale. Prices were a bit high for my taste, tho.

I did, however, score a great deal on a new set of King sized sheets - just $20. A vendor had a few tables piled up with all size sheet sets, 800 thread count. Or at least it said it was 800 thread count..guess I'll find out when I sleep on them..ha!

Signe bought a mosaic vase that she couldn't resist for around $6..but later bemoaned her purchase when she realized it was made in China. LOL. Still, it was a good price.

She was on the hunt for vases and other items that she could do mosaic over.

Our next stop was going to be the Cumberland Mountain General Store, which boasts the old soda fountain, and a funky porch brimming with old antique signs and other decoratives such as a tin rooster.

Me in front of the General Store:

But first, it was on to a couple more sales a bit further down the road. We spied a cute red caboose and a bunch of tables and tents to the left, so pulled down a long gravel driveway and parked on a grass lot.

There was tons of glassware, pottery, clothing, books, you name it. I honed in on some great vintage jewelry items where the prices were right:

A charm bracelet for $2.50, sterling silver earrings for $3.50, and a cute coral and turquoise big ring for $2.50.

Signe didn't find much of interest at this sale, so it was on to the General Store after a hot dog break. Did I mention it was hot as Hades?

Below (and left) is a better view of the store, where you can actually read its name:

Inside the store is a charming old soda fountain / ice cream shop...below is a picture of that (I went to order a chocolate milkshake, but to my great disappointment they said they stopped making them on Thursday because last year their machine had gotten "burned out" making them during the yard sale.

A guy sitting on the front porch was extolling the virtues of the burgers they make there, too.

(Continued in the next post: more about the Cumberland Mountain General Store Soda Fountain and the rest of the yard sale).                                                

Report from The World's Longest Yard Sale, Near Jamestown,TN

After years of trying, I finally made it to the World's Longest Yard Sale, which stretches from southern Ohio down into Tennessee and below into Georgia.

My sister Signe and I tooled down 81 south from Alexandria, VA, down into Tennessee. Our goal was to hit Highway 127, the rural road where the yard sales are, just south of Jamestown and move north into that town for the night, which is the capital of the Highway 127 sale.

We stayed the first night in Knoxville, TN, and had dinner near the University of TN area. We sat in a charming outdoor cafe and watched the students, couples, and various cars of all makes and ages roll by,

Above: Signe standing on the street in Knoxville, TN, near where we stopped for dinner.

Left: a kind lady offered to take a pic of the two of us at the restaurant in Knoxville. It's a cliche, but it made us think about the adage that Southerners are friendlier than people in some other localities.

We got to bed early so we'd be up and cracking for the sale in the a.m.

When we got to the turnoff to 127 off 40 west, suddenly we hit the yard sale traffic. Cars came to a virtual stop as the line of cars on the exit merging into heavy traffic on 127 waited their turn. We decided to turn left and start our sales adventure just south of there, as the traffic going south was much lighter.

We parked in a furniture store parking lot, where there were several sales and tents set up all around in the adjacent fields and business lots. We headed into our very first sale!

Signe spied some nice striped sheets for only 25 cents. But she waited a bit to buy them, and they were gone later! You've got to strike while the iron is hot, I guess!

But..she did find this fab Lynyrd Skynyrd t-shirt, which said "Support Southern Rock" on the back. I was envious of her find until I learned she bought it from me..how nice! ;) (And did you know Lynyrd Skynrd was named for one of the band member's teachers, one Leonard Skinner?).

Signe proudly displays her World's Longest Yard Sale find.

Signe paying for her t-shirt find, her first World's Longest Yard Sale purchase.

It was Saturday, August 8, and did I mention it was HOT? It was already in the 90s in the morning, at the time of this photo, and it just kept getting (or feeling) hotter as the day went on. Vendors with tents were definitely at an advantage, as it became too unbearable not to be in the shade.

We had parked in front of this furniture store near Jamestown, where the lady inside gave us some hot tips on the famous sale people come from far and wide to see:

<----  Signe in front of BaLou's Furniture Gallery, where they were kind to let us park, and gave us great yard sale tips!

- Two must-see stops: 

1) The old country store in Clarkrange, just after the stop for the town. It's on the right if you're heading north.

She said there was an old soda fountain where they had milkshakes and other treats, and vendors set up outside, too.

2) South Fentress Park, a large field/park with lots of vendors and tents, and where HGTV films.

(Check out my YouTube videos of both locations).

I picked up a couple of My Little Pony dolls for a quarter each at a sale close to where Signe got the t-shirt.

Next we went over to the other field where the vendors seemed more like professional dealers.

The lady in the furniture store had warned us about this -- that the 127 sale in its early days had been more like real "yard sales," with good deals and low prices..and now there were a lot of sellers asking close to store prices. I had also heard this from readers of my yardsalers.net newsletter and via word of mouth.

One of the first lots had a number of metal/tin sculptures in the classic Americana country style..things like a metal rooster, However, prices here were boutique style, around the $100 realm, so we didn't linger long. (I also saw some nice chunky turquoise and coral jewelry..priced around $175..I wasn't in the market for that kind of price even though no doubt it's a fair retail price. Hey, we're at a yard sale!).

One thing that was particularly fun was a huge long bin of nothing but collectible salt and pepper shakers: