Redirecting To Faa From Ebay - Ebay Shipping And Pricing Info

I would do more research. I seriously doubt ebay would let you do that. Especially for free.

apparently a lot of people on here do it, I remember seeing a thread on here that people "ship to their faa account" off ebay and actually sell quite a bit if they put effort into it

---Shawn Dall
ShawnDall.com

also it does not appear that ebay is that concerned:

http://community.ebay.com/t5/Selling/Ebay-redirecting-buyers-to-big-box-retailer-websites/td-p/23614630

i don't think it works like that. i think you need the physical object, and then ship it to them. just because they do it, doesn't mean they get away with it. and shipping would be an issue. i didn't think they allowed links in the descriptions however, and usually there is a finished piece that's photographed. what if they underbid? i would contact those people and see what they do, or if it does work.


---Mike Savad
MikeSavad.com

You can use FAA to drop ship but that is totaly different than directing traffic away from ebay! Ebay would get zerio profit if you simply linked to FAA. Big difference than you selling there and having FAA print it for you.

yeah that's what I was thinking.. I mean I can always sell the physical work, but they alluded that they also sell prints.. I wish I could remember what thread it was..

the fact they already seem to be redirecting people away to their site is puzzling though..

---Shawn Dall
ShawnDall.com

Pretty sure those people are drop shipping from FAA. So you would figure out on FAA how much it would cost to ship to various destinations, then fill that out on ebay.

can you explain this drop shipping thing?

---Shawn Dall
ShawnDall.com

Shawn, the thread was discussing drop shipping for Etsy shops.

Drop shipping means you order the product from FAA and fill out your customer's address instead of your own. I believe if you send it as if it were a gift, they won't include any pricing info.

ah ok.. I am still unsure of what "drop shipping" means though.. does that mean you list free shipping on the site and then they come here and pay shipping instead? or you pay shipping there and somehow make it free shipping here?

*EDIT* ahhhhh ok.. that makes sense.,. I was considering doing that.. how the heck am I gonna do that with the millions of options you can buy with? I'd have to make a listing for practically every size and type then..

also for the record amazon by default lists faa artworks on their site, and I believe they redirect them here.. or they did.. searching I can't seem to see any of them anymore..

---Shawn Dall
ShawnDall.com

Like others said: be sure you understand the fine points before trying this. EBay's rules, today, are heavily skewed in favor of protecting the buyer, which has opened up ways for scam buyers to rip off sellers. In particular, if you don't have 'shipping confirmation' through Ebay, a buyer can claim your work was never received, or was damaged, or not as represented - and you don't get paid until Ebay resolves the dispute, which can take forever, and amounts to your word against the buyer's.

No, you figure out here on FAA what it would cost for shipping. Then you charge that amount of shipping on ebay. It's been my experience that most customers come from the US, so figure out how much a certain size print would cost to ship to a US address, for example. Put that amount as your shipping charge on ebay.

So a customer orders something from you on ebay. You then place the order on FAA and have it shipped to the customer's address.

Does that make sense?

Ebay is not easy so do research. I jumped in thinking it would be easy but pulled back until I get more organized. You are competing with outside companies that link to ebay with that same item. Similiar to amazon who allows other sellers. Pretend you are buying a print on ebay and you will see what I am talking about. You list your print for 100.00 and you will see ads for that same print in a frame for 35.00 dollars. This is "real" work! lol Not funny but so true.

interesting - for me this kind of forum discussion IS research - so your comments are invaluable :)

it's better to learn through fire than otherwise I find, people are very much more eager to point out flaws in something.

and yes that makes sense peggy - then they are essentially buying it off me and I can buy it off the site and send it to them. As a result of that I would only pay the amt that faa charges me and the rest they pay me off ebay would be my profit.

also what outside companies would have my artwork prints to buy that I hadn't put them on..? How would they have the proper sizes?

---Shawn Dall
ShawnDall.com

I don't know how consistent shipping charges are from FAA for various sizes and products. Experiment a bit and see what you come up with. You might just have to have a lot of different listings to cover the various sizes if the shipping charges here aren't consistent.

yeah that is what I was thinking peggy. Does anyone know where the prints for FAA are made in the states? Maybe I can determine from that point to the farthest point in the states the shipping cost, and use that?

I hate listing shipping because there are so many different factors - I sell holistics stuff but that is generally easy - for me it's like 10 dollars to ship anywhere in north america and 25 dollars to ship overseas - it's pretty constant.

---Shawn Dall
ShawnDall.com

and yes that makes sense peggy - then they are essentially buying it off me and I can buy it off the site and send it to them. As a result of that I would only pay the amt that faa charges me and the rest they pay me off ebay would be my profit.

You got it, Shawn.

also what outside companies would have my artwork prints to buy that I hadn't put them on..? How would they have the proper sizes?

Sorry, I don't understand your questions here.

There are people that are sucessful on ebay so its not impossible. Just a lot of work!

oh I am a hard worker - I am willing to put forth the effort.

Maybe just go through the motions of buying something on FAA and plug in different zip codes and see what the most expensive rate is, then use that.

To me its just easier to direct them here because I am going to have to charge about the same markup over what I will get a print for. Ebay buyers are looking for a discount in my opinion.

tried looking at the faq for the contact us part of the site, but.. why am I not surprised, the faq page cannot be found..

but isn't that against the rules to direct them here?

you could probably go the dirty route - list it as more expensive on ebay, and then link to here saying you can get it cheaper on FAA, but that seems a bit rule bendy too..

I'm pretty sure it would be against the rules for ebay. Maybe you should consider an Etsy shop. If you're drop shipping for an Etsy shop though, you have to fill out an outside manufacturer's application if you aren't printing things yourself. It's pretty straightforward but takes a couple of weeks to go through. I just did it. I must admit though that I'm going to be filling orders with other printers who have more straightforward (and cheaper) shipping.

I am going to assume that LA would be the most expensive as it is on the diagonal opposite extreme of the continent

yeah that customer satisfaction thing mentioned, will be the killer for you.

a drop ship is when you order the thing yourself, but put the address of the buyer in there. you never see the item, it goes right to you. however, they can say - i never got it. ebay will refund them the money - immediately, and maybe freeze your paypal account. you would be out the money, maybe lose your paypal, and you still have to pay this place. and if there is an issue with damage, that's a whole different thing. because they would send it to you and you would have to deal with it. you would be better off printing small things, adding that lightbox thing you have and selling it like that. you still have the issue of "not getting the goods" thing though.


---Mike Savad
MikeSavad.com

assume china will be the most, they buy from all over the world, and different countries have different amounts - plus vat taxes and such.

---Mike Savad
MikeSavad.com

One of the best things about FAA is I don't have to sit around and wait to fill orders. FAA does that for me. I can go and do whatever I want. I may want to take off for 3 days and roam around Death Valley. If I have uploaded quality images here with no print issues its never a problem and FAA does everything.

That's one of the reasons I like Etsy, Craig. You can put your shop into vacation mode and close up shop for however long you like if you won't be around to take care of business.

yeah I have considered selling the lightboxes online, but I have to also counter that with "I need art to display on walls of galleries" hahaha - what a paradox! I need to start framing my originals - I have found a company in china that does crystal lightboxes - you basically just lay it inside and put a cover on top - they are really thin - I am trying to get them for my originals and for future lightbox works.. buut.. money money money hahah... I think FAA should get into selling those as a framing option - they are really cool:

crystal light boxes

if FAA provided these as an option I'd probably buy them right off the site to sell in galleries, as I am sure it's gonna be a pain to do these manually.. as they only ship form china, and thus bulk orders for a company would probably be cheaper..

Vacation mode sounds great! For me personally setting up shop alone and uploading, organizing and marketing on multiple sites is much more than I am willing to do at this point. I don't count discussion boards as work but more like I don't want to work so let me mess around on the discussion boards. The time I spend here I could have blogged and reached a potential customer. Seriously, if I don't approach this like its a real job its not going to happen. There are people out there hustling circles around me. My final question for you Shawn? Have you did all you can do to take your FAA site to its full potential or are you looking for shortcuts and easy money?

I've been here long enough that I have pretty much done everything I can to take it to its full potential. I also tried signing up on other sites but in the end it just became too many and I started to lose track of where I was so I just let the rest of those sites die, like saatchi and others I can't remember..

Craig,

I know you did not ask me about the full potential, but I know I have only begun to scrape the
potential here. I am not going to kid myself otherwise.

Dave