Secrets of the eBay

148 Secrets of the eBay Millionaires
“If One of Us Didn’t Get Yelled At,
It Wouldn’t Be a Normal Day”
Dealing with customers face to face or over the phone is far different than
the more distanced communications you conduct by e-mail or eBay’s
message system. Drop-off sellers, like all sellers, run into non-paying
bidders as well as buyers who try to cheat them by falsely claiming that an
item was lost or damaged in transit. It probably seems like they run into
more such problems because their sales volume is greater. But people who
come to them in person can get upset if items that are special to them don’t
sell for a particular price or if they don’t sell at all.
“This is sort of an intimate experience we’re having with the owners
of the items we sell,” says Amy. “They may be handing over their family
heirlooms to us. Some of the stuff they give us to sell has real emotional
value to them.”
“If there ever was a day that one of us didn’t get yelled at, it wouldn’t be
a normal day,” adds Ellen. “You just have to have thick skin and shrug it off.
Coming from a retail background, we are used to the problems you can run
into dealing with people directly. If you don’t come from a retail background,
you learn pretty quickly that there are some ‘bad eggs’ out there.”