Football Shirt Culture.com

Just a quick note for all the FSC users who buy shirts on eBay. I am (and I'm not going to spam!) 1 of the highest volume sellers of second hand shirts on eBay. I also know 3 of the others. 2 of us are definately giving up, the others thinking about it. That might sound like no big deal, but when this happens there will be a significant reduction in bargains - these shirts will go to well overpriced specialist sites.

I understand that there are unscrupulous sellers but anyone with 2000+feedback will know what they are doing.

1. Please pay for items! It goes without saying but the number or timewasters is ridiculous.
2. Be prepared to pay a bit extra for insured postage. It does make a serious difference.
3. If there is a problem send a message VIA EBAY. I personally send replacements or partially refund(before shirts are returned, fully upon arrival)in the event of hassles. When I receive a negative feedback (minus any attempt at contact) my incentive to help a disgruntled buyer dips to less than zero.Paypal disputes also opened minus any attempt at contact also point towards outright fraud, and there are few collectors(notably 2 or 3 in Italy) who are attracting the attention of the law!



Sorry for the mini-rant but it's a genuine shame to see a once pleasurable hobby/way of making a living go down the tubes

Cheers!

Have to second this - am also on the verge of giving up thanks to timewasters - mostly from Italy!

Ebay couldn't give a flying one unless large corporations are involved. FSC should start their own wee shirt related auction site - could be a good earner!

Hi there,

Thanx for posting your story and experiences. Sad to read how many people made a winning bid and eventually don't pay for the shirt.
I'm a shirtcollector and thinking of selling my collection on Ebay.
Perhaps it's an idea of making some sort of blacklist of non-payers.

To Jeff; Good idea. I was thinking about it as well. Perhaps an idea for someone who's good in making websites and has good knowledge of original shirts. Anyone who wants to sell on that site could subscribe and pay a selling-fee or something. A good moderation option would be good as well to keep polluters out.

Job

Rather than eBay I'd seriously advise listing your shirts for sale here. It won't cost anything and could well get the majority of them sold - without all the hassle that comes via eBay

A specialised auction feature on FSC would be absolutely perfect. If the fees were reasonable and it avoided nonsense such as not being able to leave feedback for buyers (surely the most ridiculous rule anywhere ever) I'm sure it would be a success. I'd certainly use it.

What is your eBay seller name?

its not that also ..proper collectors are paying over the odds fo shirts due to scammers putting a bid on a shirt thats not worth over a £10.00 , putting bids on at £50.00 with no intention of paying

new ebayers see shirts they have, going in the £100.00s and decide to put shirts on with starting bids of £50,,but given time the shirt will get relisted with a note saying relisted due to timewaster

its a knock on effect.. the new feedback system is a joke..theres no way of knowing if you are going to get scammed

even bidders with high feedback , can choose which items they want to pay for without risking a neg feedback

ebay need to get a grip - too concernd about dumping this image of carboot website , and trying to go more towards the amazon feel..

the wheels are coming off - quickly

Exactly right^^^^^^^!

Can see a few problems from my own buying and selling experiences:

1. Why if you leave 4 positives in 1 week does that only count statistically as 1?

2. As someone selling genuine shirts why can the usual suspects in Thailand and Singapore get away with selling their (size M OR X/L only) tat? Also ask your self why so many "genuine" match worn Liverpool and Manchester United shirts seem to end up in Hong Kong?

3. Shill bidding needs seriously looked at. I'm no Mother Theresa but I have no time for it - the market dictates value.

4. If I have a certain price for something in mind - I'll either set a reserve, or set a buy it now, or simply end the auction early if I'm unhappy. There is one guy who seems to hover about looking for newly listed decent shirts -usually being punted by someone who doesn't sell shirts or is new to eBay - and politely offers say £20 as a buy it now when the shirts are worth 4 -5 times that. These must go through into the 100's as I see a fair few knocked back ?s at the bottom of listings. FCK OFF!- seriously sick of it!

I HATE the guy offering the p1ss take buy it now offers!

@ utd4life; Thank you for your comment. Very educative.

I'm a Dutch guy and buy my shirts mainly on Dutch and Belgian digital marketplaces. Along the years I collected some nice and special shirts. They are precious to me, but I'm thinking of selling them.
Can someone explain to me why with a specific searchterm, let's say, "vintage shirt Madrid" you find on ebay.com certain hits... but not all. Because if you use the same searchterm on, let's say, Ebay.es (Spain) you can find some more hits. Aren't all ebay-countries linked to each other? This still makes me wonder on how to "position" your shirts on Ebay.

Hi,

I totally agree with this. I buy and sell football shirts on ebay and selling has just got worse. People make ridiculous offers, the fees take an enormous chunk (that's ebay pre and post sale and paypal). I've had to hike up my postage prices to accommodate recorded delivery (national and worldwide) in case something goes missing and paypal charges the buyer back so I would lose money and the shirt! But the postage paid by the buyer doesn't even cover the fees I incur. I'm not against paying my way but ebay are taking it from three places (for those that don't know - they own paypal).

Also in response to utd4life, this is why I ditched the idea of selling by auctions and I now sell as buy it now or best offer. Only problem is I get people asking if I have another one or bulk. I'm a collector, not a warehouse!

Ebay has changed a bit over the past year and its core problem is it is now directed towards mass product sellers and there is little hope for small-scale or one-off sellers in regard to fees and search-rank with this whole new 'best match' idiocy. Worst thing is, ebay don't care about you unless you're shifting thousands of feedback a week.

I'd love this website to have its own auction page. There should be a way of doing it the forum by opening a thread with pic/description/starting price and set a deadline for the end. Vague idea but hey-ho!

Hopefully I'll have my own website up shortly to show off / sell shirts so I don't have to dabble with ebay as much.

Cheers guys (needed to get all that out)!

Door is wide open for FSC to get some money coming in and massively increase the amount of hits to the site if they open an online auction system with:

1. A PROPER feedback system that applies to both buyers and sellers and that allows revision down the line if both parties aggree.

2. Either a flat fee for inclusion to start with or a single percentage fee based on the final price reached. Ebay will collapse soon under their own greed.

3.No relisting fees.

Were this fantasy to become reality I personally would move permanently to the FSC site which would mean 2-300 shirts weekly being auctioned.

I think this discussion can mean a small revolution if I read the comments above.
To bad the "owner"of this site doesn't mingle in.
I realy see opportunity.
On the forum you can list your shirts but it isn't much effective as far as I can judge.
I, for example, have 2 matchworn and signed shirts of Jurgen Klinsmann from his AS Monaco period (one signed by him alone and the other by the complete team including coach Arsene Wenger, both nr 7 on the back). I also have a shirt wich is signed and worn by Enzo Scifo (runner up best player in the WC 1990)
Nevertheless there are no views, let alone comments, to the thread that I posted here.
A good auction-site would definitely have attracted the right audience. I don't necessarely have to sell them, but it would be nice to know what the true value of such shirts are. Does anyone have an idea

Yes, it would be good to know what the true value of shirts are but that would be difficult to do. The only way I thought of doing that would be to set up you're own site, maybe just a gallery of your shirts and just have them up for offers with no prices stated. You'll soon find out what the value is when (if) offers come in (it's what I'm thinking of doing as I too want to sell some but not all of my shirts unless I get a fair price). Ebay isn't a good place to find out value because it's an auction site although you can generally find trends of what shirts increase and decrease in value.

Dr Manhatton, it's very good proposal. As soon people twig ebay is a rip-off (many first-time sellers find out quite quickly and the old-school ebayers know all too well) this site could boom with football shirt trading. I'd think you're more likely to get thousands of shirts through a week if it gets set up properly. There's without a doubt a gap in the market for it.

If anyone knows the owner of this site, maybe send them a link to this thread!

Cracking ideas on here chaps!