Originally posted by nickthetasmaniac - Why do sellers consistently post (often expensive) gear without images? Are they trying to dissuade buyers? We're photographers, we take photos, why not post some of the lens your selling?
- Why do sellers often delete the price once an item has sold? When I'm looking at gear it would be very useful to be able to track previous sales, and I'm not sure how deleting the price benefits anyone...
- 'Shipping - CONUS only' - not really a question, but as a photography enthusiast in the barron used-market wasteland of Australia, do you North Americans have any idea how frustrating it is to find a great deal that won't ship? You know we're happy to pay postage/insurance etc. right? Is it really that hard?
Short answer, what is convenient for the buyer is not necessarily convenient for the seller.
Long answer, (as brief as possible)....
As a buyer I agree with all your points. I too would like more and better photos. I too would like to know the price of sold
items. I too would like to be able to safely and confidently order goods from anywhere in the world.
As a seller, the issues are different.
Photos) I personally sell various things online and I do make an effort to provide good, well lit, tightly cropped, relevantly
composed and in focus images. Doing this takes time and effort and just a little bit of know how. Presumably, some sellers
lack either ability or desire to take good photos. Some sellers lack even the willingness to take the time to take even bad photos.
Which is a shame, because modern smartdevice cameras are capable of taking really good internet quality images that can
be uploaded quickly and easily. There really is no excuse for not providing good images in every sale listing when a photo
would be relevant.
Price History) Once a sale is completed, the seller and buyer are under no obligation to let anyone else know the
selling price. Yes, that information may be convenient >for you<, but it is potentially inconvenient for the seller and buyer,
(who may also be a future seller). Let's say I sell something for $20. I'm happy with the sale but also feel the sale was too
easy and perhaps I could sell the same thing next time for $30. Not knowing the last item sold for $20, you may think $30
is a great price. However, if you know I sold the last item for $20 you may be hesitant to spend $30. In short, the sale price
is privileged information that has value.
Shipping - CONUS only) As a seller I do typically offer international shipping. Experience through repetition and volume,
combined with the ease of online postage, makes the process very easy. However, I do remember the days of going to
the post office to fill out customs forms, which was a major PITA. It's possible some sellers simply do not know how easy
it is to ship internationally these days. Or maybe they do, but they're worried about packages getting lost or stolen in
'problematic' destinations, (Itally, most all of Africa and South America, etc). I've personally never had a problem with a
supposedly stolen package but have certainly heard plenty of tales from other sellers. It is also possible some sellers
get 'burned' on international shipping costs because they under estimate the weight or size of the package and are
then left eating the overage. I have certainly had that happen to me when a package unexpectedly crosses a weight
threshold and moves into a new pricing bracket. It really sucks. The solution is to carefully measure and weigh each
and every package before it ships, which again, takes time.
The simple truth is that the US market is strong enough for most US sellers to not need to ship internationally, no matter
what the reason. 90+% of my sales are to US customers. 5+% are to Canada/UK/Japan. The rest of the world account
for the remaining <5%. That means if I stopped shipping to all international customers, I would only lose <10% of my
business. By shipping internationally to only Canada, UK and Japan, I would keep 95+% of my business. So far
I personally have not had need to exclude any country but I know it would not affect my sales to any great extent if
I did.