I've officially hit my 1000th customer!

[Philflound]

Hooray! I began ebay as a small seller, just trying to get rid of things. Awhile back while working for my buddy doing his ebay, I created a form to allow him to have an easier time to track his sales.

 

This sheet would have all the info he would need. Name, address, phone #, columns for item #, item description, price ended, Ebay bidder name, email address, which form of method paid, date was shipped, etc. But the most important thing was invoice number. The invoice number allowed him to give each individual a sheet that he could refer to, instead of having them email several Ebay item #'s for questions, he would tell them a total for all items, and then say, "Your invoice # is 340". He has since done away with my system, since he can print out the end of auction and paypal sheets to save time, but back in the early days of ebay, that system worked.

 

So when I first started selling, I just wrote the name of the person with the info on a sheet. But when I began building up my sales, I went to using a modified form of the sheet, since I didn't do things like credit cards and such. So I've been keeping track of all these people, which is a good thing because it is a mailing list in and of itself.

 

I now hold in my hands my 1000th customer since I began keeping track of them. And I know what these 1000 people like to purchase. So if I get a specific item in stock and just want to sell it outright, I have the option of contacting them for future sales. Though there may be some repeat customers on this list, probably no more than 10, at least I can see I have an extensive list.

 

Oh, there are also people on here that never paid, but they still count.

 

Phil

[Cap5750]

Phil,

 

Just make sure if I'm a customer, you never contact me. I hate when I buy something from someone and then they think I'll want to buy something else.

 

Of course you can really start a ruckus if you contact the people through e-bay! This actually happened to me today. I received an e-mail from some guy (who I didn't even buy from) who said he saw I was looking to purchase atari hardware and that if I wanted, I could have him put me on his list. How dumb. He got reported to spam@ebay.com pretty fast though.

 

Just my opnion...others may relish the idea....be carefull.

 

Cap

[Albert]

Congratulations on getting 1000 customers! That's no small feet on eBay, and can take quite some time.

 

However, I agree with Cap, it's generally bad form to contact previous bidders to offer them more merchandise. If someone spams me in this fashion, I usually write back to the seller not to spam me again, and if they do they will be reported to eBay. Usually I would get spam from people selling similar items to things I had bid on, but these types of messages pretty much went way once eBay started hiding email addresses.

 

Also, I bet this can get you tossed from eBay pretty quickly. If people want to contact you directly to buy more of the same merchandise you've sold them in the past, that's fine. But I would avoid contacting people directly unless they initiate the conversation.

 

..Al

[tiggerthehun]

"I've officially hit my 1,000th customer!"

 

 

Man - as a summertime waiter- I WISH I could say that!

Well, less than a week left - don't get me wrong - I enjoy it - but will be glad to get back into my classroom!

 

Congrats on that big big number!!!

[Cap5750]

Hehe...boy does that bring back memories. I remember getting out of school (college) for summer vacation and I couldn't wait to get home. But after a few weeks when I had found a job which was normally some kind of factory work (lived in a small town) and as time wore on, I began counting the days until I could leave to go back to school.

 

Don't get me wrong. I love my mother and I still had a lot of friends, but it just wasn't the same.

 

And to the original poster...when I made my comment about the 'spam' I didn't mean to take anything away from you on your 1000th customer. I don't think I'd ever get that many. I have a hard time selling stuff even if it's old...which is why I've bough about 3 or 4 2600s, a couple of 7800s and over 200 games just this week by itself!

 

'Course now that my collection is beginning to grow, maybe I'll be on here more selling/trading my dupes to fill in gaps.

 

Cap

[Philflound]

Well, if I can get my website up and running correctly, I may just email them saying something like, "you've bought so and so item from me in the past. I finally got a website up and running with similar merchandise. So if you're interested, feel free to look at what I have and let me know if there's anything you want."

 

And since I leave all my customers good feedback who pay, and I'm a power seller on Ebay, I wouldn't think too many would complain. In fact, I have contacted people in the past on new things I had on ebay and I think most of them were happy that I thought of them.

 

Not sure if someone would contact Ebay and complain though, since I am not using Ebay's system to contact the bidder. I have the winner's email from the past auctions. Though Ebay does extremely very little to police such actions, since I get contacted from time to time from people who just want to sell or want me to look at their auctions.

 

As for Ebay not doing anything about their clientel, check out Ebay ID: cd-discounters. This guy has at least 3000 offenses for late shipments with Half.com but since he's raking in so much money for them, they won't suspend his activity. Money talks, bullshit walks. Oh, and 3000 is a lenient number. I'm just guessing at how many positive fb he has gotten that says something like, "great product, but shipped late". That should be at least a neutral instead of a positive fb. So as for ebay doing things about their so called illegal activities, it's hard for them and they're making so much money it's probably not worth pursuing people like me contacting my former winners directly.

 

Phil

[Cap5750]

Here's what you do....

 

Add to your database (or create one if you're not using one) a checkbox that when you sell someone something on ebay, part of the process is you ask them if they would like to be contacted about similar items in the future. If they say yes, you check the box, if they say no..you leave it blank.

 

Then, you can set up your e-mails so that you would only e-mail those who want to be e-mailed, thus making everyone happy.

 

Cap