ebay's Power Up Quarterly report

I got my Power Up Quarterly report from ebay today, well, actually it was yesterday but since I devote Saturdays to College Football, I didn't read it until today.

I might be mistaken, but I remembered the Power up as having personal reports on it in the past. Maybe I'm mixing up two different things, but if I'm not, I'm a little disappointed that they didn't continue that service. I really enjoyed the breakdown ebay sent me before. I know I can get the same (and more) information in the store sales reports section of myebay but there is just something different about having it there on paper. I've tried before to the the silly reports to print from the computer and all the graphs come up blank. (If anyone reading this knows how to do it, please contact me or leave the instructions in the comment box)

I'm also curious about this, do ebayers who are primarily buyers get a different one? or are they encouraged to start selling too?

Right now I am featured in Entrepreneur's ebay start up guide in the Holiday sales planning section. The article I interviewed for comes out with pretty much the same information that is here in the Power Up. (Of course, this one is Free) Ebay is very smart to do this sort of marketing. It is such a positive spin and seems so hopeful. I love ebay and I am very hopeful, but at the same time I know that there are tons of people out there that work very hard and end up taking a loss at ebay. It is depressing to read their posts on the discussion boards. From ebay's perspective it is very profitable for sellers to do well. However, it is also profitable for them when folks don't do well. If they create a huge frenzy making everyone think that selling on ebay will make you rich in just a couple hours a day....they make money, and more than likely you won't.
Like I told the interviewer at Entrepreneur, last Christmas I sold exactly the same numbers as I did in the summer and the fall prior. Why is that? he asked. The only think I can think of is that ebay did such a great job promoting sellers and bringing in new sellers, that the market got somewhat flooded. Again, I am no expert, just my experience and opinion. My biggest week of the year this year was in early September and the second biggest week was late January. Doesn't make much sense considering that I sell clothing and costumes. Oh well.....that is why I find ebay so intriguing I guess.

Silly plan to avoid international duty and taxes ... didn't work

I try not to write about my buyers and their specifics because I feel that people deserve a right to privacy but this one is just too much NOT to share. I'll make sure that I don't write anything expressly identifiable.
A few weeks back I get a question from a potential buyer on ebay who lives in Europe asking me would I be willing to mark the item as a gift. I take my business seriously and really don't need the trouble, so my policy is to always fill out forms honestly and I stated this to the potential buyer. (I'll include my thoughts on this subject in another post....I could go on and on)
so anyway, buyer responds back asking me to mark that he paid less for the item and more for shipping to equal the same total. I responded again that I fill out the paperwork honestly.
The next email was asking me if I would be willing to sell him the shirt for $29.99 and the buttons for $29.99. After a couple of emails back and forth to clarify, I finally agreed. He sent me a best offer for the shirt minus the buttons and even paid with two seperate paypal transactions.
I think it is completely ridiculous, but yes, I cut the buttons off of a brand new shirt and sold them to him for $29.99 and then sold him a shirt, button-less, for $29.99.
He paid for shipping separately too, and I sent them out separately with invoices for what was inside.
The shipping he paid extra in order to do this was $12.50. I don't know what the duty and taxes and all that are, but I just can't imagine them being more than $12.50 for a $60 shirt. Plus the extra trouble of having to sew the buttons back on too. And, the risk of one of the packages getting lost.
I expressly told him that he would be nullifying our return policy because the shirt would be considered 'altered' when I took the buttons off. He agreed and also agreed that this was completely his gamble.
End result?
Customs is holding the button-less shirt! The buttons, which were sent via USPS first class international have arrived but the button-less shirt, which was sent via USPS Priority (also his instructions to send by two different methods) is held up at customs.
This just makes me chuckle.