eBay Strategies

Update on eBay discount paypal coupon programs - Live search cashback and eBay Bucks

Back in June, I talked about the various discount/cash back programs that eBay was testing including eBay Bucks (eB) and LiveSearch (LS).  As a buyer, I've been experimenting pretty deeply with both programs and wanted to report back on them.

eBay Bucks, XXXX (well I would use a rhyme here but it would be in poor taste)

I was admitted into the eBay bucks program and made sure all of my purchases qualified.  I was able to get $71 in cash back which was all great. Here's what it looks like as you gain cash back:

Great! Then on August 22nd I was told that I had a voucher for my $71 and in mid September, made a $100 purchase that I was going to use my $71 voucher on (being mindful that it can only be redeemed on ONE item) and much to my shock and dismay, eBay only gave me a voucher for $16.68.   What the heck!? See the screen shot below for proof of the short-change.  The red box and arrow are my additions, but you can see right here how it is only giving a portion, but on the previous page it literally said $71!?



I hopped on livechat and they informed me they don't have anything to do with eBay Bucks so I have to send an email to rewards@ebay.com.  You can guess how fast I've gotten a response on that one.....

Live search cash back experience

The Microsoft Live search cash back program on the other hand has been a great experience.  I signed up with Microsoft and made sure that every eBay purchase was initiated from live.com and that I saw the banners on eBay that proved I was logged in correctly. While this was a little more work than eBay Bucks, on the back end it has been great.

I waited the requisite 60 days, the funds from the rebate were available and then I was able to transmit them to my paypal account and spend them on a number of eBay items.  Oh yeah - the amount was RIGHT too, they didn't short change me.

Conclusion:
eBay bucks is a good idea with terrible execution that initially made me happy as a buyer but because it essentially robbed me of $50, has eliminated all possible good will and led to a net negative experience.  eBay should cancel this program immediately, lest we have all these buyers during the holidays getting short changed and leaving eBay in droves.  It's a little easier on the front end, but even if I received 100% of the promised funds it has too many restrictions (have to use the $ in 30 days on ONE purchase).  Isn't it better to keep it simple?

Live search cash back is a little more complex on the front end but wins hands down because:

• It works (yes that's a requirement)
• It is flexible - I can shop with several vendors AND can use my $ back anyway I want to
• It is easy to use

SeekingAlpha disclosure - I am long eBay and Google

Link to the Paypal 1.5% promo

Turns out the Paypal money back promo I mentioned here, isn't showing up for everyone, just 'top buyers' (so maybe it is a test?).  In any case, here's a link, so sign up and see if you can get in!

Note: If you get in, the eBay Strategies blog royalty is a mere 10% - thanks for your support :-)

eBay Fraud - 15 ways to avoid (and some thoughts)

As eBay's user growth has slowed, I've been getting lots of questions from sellers, wall st. and other folks in the eBay ecosystem asking why I think buyers are not activating or de-activating.  Like anyone in the eBay ecosystem, I travel a good bit and meet lots of online shoppers in my travels.  I always like to ask if they buy/sell on eBay and then dig in based on their answers.  In the last 2-3 years, the overwhelming number of people I've talked to fall into two camps:

1. eBay is too time consuming, I'd rather shop from amazon or somewhere vs. bidding.
2. I used to buy on eBay until...

And then the ... after until turns into a sad story that runs the spectrum from a bad seller/item experience all the way to out-right fraud.

Personally, I think that 50-70% off ebay's problems are not the finding experience, slow-shipping sellers, high-shipping sellers, etc., it is the perception of fraud on eBay.

In the last year Trust and Safety (TnS) has made some good moves on these problems with SMI, etc., but there's still a lot more room for improvements.  For example, there's a continuing account takeover problem on eBay that could very easily be solved.  Much of the phishing could be eliminated through some simple changes as well.

I was reminded of the problem today by this excellent post by a UK eBayer, Trevor Ginn, titled - 15 ways to avoid fraud on eBay.

This post is interesting to me for a number of reasons.  First, it reminded me that fraud associated with eBay is still a major problem and I believe the number one reason buyers are leaving in droves.  Secondly, it shows that as eBay hits a success point in any of the newer geographies, that fraudsters will come into that market in droves.  Finally, it reminded me that everyone in the eBay ecosystem needs to continue to push eBay to fix these problems for the greater good of the community and ecosystem.

New Paypal holiday coupon codes revealed!

We just posted some new exclusive paypal/ebay coupon codes in our new PayPal Coupon code micro-site here.

If you want to enjoy free shipping 1-2% cash back as well as $10 (and euro!) coupons, check it out.

The famous C11-GIFTGUIDE paypal coupon code

NOTE: CHECKOUT OUR NEW PAYPAL COUPON CENTER FOR THE LATEST AND GREATEST WAYS TO SAVE MONEY WITH EBAY AND PAYPAL.

CLICK HERE TO GO TO THE PAYPAL COUPON CENTER

Newsflash, I have new codes here (March/April 2006!)

I've been flooded with emails from folks wanting more info on this.  It's simple, when checking out on ebay AND paying with paypal enter this code "C11-GIFTGUIDE" all caps and with the dash and then hit "validate code" and you will receive 10% off of your purchase up to $25 off.  It's that easy.  Several people have said it works for them multiple times.  So if you have 2 items do NOT combine them - pay each one separately and use the code each time.

If you want to paypal me half of your savings, that would be much appreciated - just kidding! ;-)  Happy holidays everyone.

NOTE: CHECKOUT OUR NEW PAYPAL COUPON CENTER FOR THE LATEST AND GREATEST WAYS TO SAVE MONEY WITH EBAY AND PAYPAL.

CLICK HERE TO GO TO THE PAYPAL COUPON CENTER

If you want to paypal me half of your savings, that would be much appreciated - just kidding! ;-)  Happy holidays everyone.

NOTE: CHECKOUT OUR NEW PAYPAL COUPON CENTER FOR THE LATEST AND GREATEST WAYS TO SAVE MONEY WITH EBAY AND PAYPAL.

CLICK HERE TO GO TO THE PAYPAL COUPON CENTER

New paypal coupon code

NOTE: CHECKOUT OUR NEW PAYPAL COUPON CENTER FOR THE LATEST AND GREATEST WAYS TO SAVE MONEY WITH EBAY AND PAYPAL.

CLICK HERE TO GO TO THE PAYPAL COUPON CENTER

The C1-holiday and other coupon codes are coming to the end of their run.  However a new code has been released:

C11-GIFTGUIDE - this is a 10% off coupon, no min, $25 off max.

Enjoy!

NOTE: CHECKOUT OUR NEW PAYPAL COUPON CENTER FOR THE LATEST AND GREATEST WAYS TO SAVE MONEY WITH EBAY AND PAYPAL.

CLICK HERE TO GO TO THE PAYPAL COUPON CENTER

Save as much as $25 on your next eBay purchase...

As a holiday promotion eBay/Paypal have some special checkout codes that have leaked out to the internet that have some buyers in a feeding frenzy.  No guarantees on how long/if these will work, but I have confirmed a couple of them (all for the scientific purposes of helping eBay Strategies readers).

Some ebay sellers are promoting these to their winning bidders as a holiday promotion funded by eBay/Paypal.  I'm not sure if you want to do that, but the cat is out of the bag and some sellers ARE doing it.  Some are sending it to their top buyers as a thank you.

Here they are:

C1-Holiday2005 - Save 10%, MAX $25 on any purchase. 

(Tip: use this one for >$150 and <$50 items)

C2-Holiday2005 - Save $5 on any purchase over $50

C3-Holiday2005 - Save $15 on any purchase over $100

Another way to think about it is based on what you are buying:

$0-50, save 10% (up to $5) using C1

$50-100, save $5-10 using C1, or save $5 using C2

$100-150, save $15 using C3 (15% off!)

$150-$250 - the C1 10% will save you the most, but you can use C3 to save $15

$250+

Expires 11/30/05

How do you use these "coupon" codes? details at http://ebay.com/coupons

Fine print:

*$5.00 off coupon valid for any single item of $50.00 or more, $15.00 off coupon valid for any single item of $100 or more (coupons may not be combined).

Coupon is intended for the designated recipient of coupon, and purchase must be made on eBay.com. Good for one item only and discount applies to the item price only, not including shipping, handling, or taxes. Offer valid only when you pay with, and seller accepts, PayPal. Limit one (1) coupon code per registered PayPal user.

Coupon has no face value. Any refund you may be entitled to receive will not include the coupon or its redemption value. This coupon cannot be combined with any other coupon, site discount, rebate, offer, or other promotion. eBay reserves the right to end the offer at any time without notice. Open only to U.S. residents 18 years of age or older.

Offer valid on purchases made between 12am (PT) November 7, 2005, and 11:59pm (PT) November 30, 2005.

eBay's new ad campaign

eBay unveiled their latest ad campaign, titled "The Power of All of Us". This week.

You can see the first two ads here:

www.thepowerofallofus.com
Fun fact - if you call the phone number left on the car in the belief commercial, you get an ebay marketing message.

Want to save 1.5% off Amazon?!

Go to A9.com, download the toolbar, create an account, start using it.

Then when you login to Amazon you will see this->

Which when you click on yields this->

Scot Wingo, since you've been using A9.com recently, virtually everything at Amazon.com is automatically an additional π/2% (1.57%) off for you. Collecting this discount is zero effort on your part. It will be applied automatically at checkout (it will happen whether you use the shopping cart or our 1-Click Shopping). You don't need to do anything to get this discount except keep using A9.com as your regular search engine.

We don't advertise this additional discount that we give in exchange for using A9.com, so if you want your friends to know about it, please tell them. It is probably the only way they'll find out. All they have to do is use A9.com as their regular search engine. They should make sure they are signed in to A9.com (it should be recognizing them by name) so that we can be certain they get credit for their visit.

While the π/2% discount is a good additional reason to use A9.com it isn't the best reason. A9.com licenses its web search results from the industry leader Google, and then supplements those results with Amazon's Search Inside the Book™ results. The coolest feature is that A9.com keeps track of your search history for you on the server side. To see how this works, do some A9 searches from your computer at work and then sign in to A9.com from your computer at home.

How can we afford this additional π/2% discount?

Sponsored links revenue -from the small text-based ads on A9.com and Amazon.com search results pages -will help offset costs we incur through the Rewards promotion. With our automatic π/2% discount, we are effectively sharing with you some of the money we collect from sponsored links, i.e. sharing the pi.

Please use A9.com and tell your friends.

Thank you

eBay College Superstore

Just in time (??) for back to school, ebay has rolled out the College Superstore.

Where you can search for text books at low prices and play the "Prevent overspending" game where you could win $2500 in eBay anything points from verizon/sobe.