eBay Boxing Weekend event

[betabutton]

www.la.com/ci_29302285/ebay-boxing-weekend-shoppers-are-invited-local-westfield

www.ebay.com/gds/eBays-Boxing-Weekend-/10000000206459680/g.html

An eBay friend emailed me about this and since I live close to one of the Westfield Malls that is hosting a "pop-up selling station", I plan to check this out. First 100 sellers who arrive will receive a $20 eBay gift certificate so if I can find a parking spot on the biggest returns day of the year, I will be there at 12:00p.m.

Should be interesting to see how they handle this. Not even tempted to use the eBay Valet service even though they are promising sellers who do that they will receive a 100% discount on the standard Valet selling fees. Their standard exclusions apply.

pages.ebay.com/promo/2015/1226/valetboxingweekend.html.

As I read to the bottom of this page, I saw the requirements to become a valet. Couldn't get link to work properly so pasted information here.

"How do I become a valet?
To become a valet, they are carefully screened for inclusion in the program. Requirements include, but are not limited to: (1) ability to list 100,000 listings each month, (2) storage capacity sufficient to hold and manage items received for at least 60 calendar days, (3) ability to list items across all eBay categories, and (4) physical presence in all major metropolitan hubs in the U.S. and (5) demonstrated ability to consistently deliver the highest standards of buyer experience to eBay shoppers."

(1) ability to list 100,000 items per month,
(2) storage capacity sufficient to hold and manage items received for at least 60 days

OK, I understand that someone might possibly need a WAREHOUSE to store and manage up to 200,000 items at a time but what does requirement #4 mean, a chain of warehouses?
(4) physical presence in all major metropolitan hubs in the U.S.

I'll share my experience after this weekend, assuming I find that parking space on what is also "The day after Christmas sales".

[unknown]

The Onion?

"eBay worked with The Onion to capture what happens when you get too much of a good thing this holiday season, and the joy of selling them for the things you really want."

www.la.com/ci_29302285/ebay-boxing-weekend-shoppers-are-invited-local-westfield

[chapeaunoir]

• There are 300 million searches each day on eBay

And they still can't find a damned thing.

[betabutton]

I took one for the team yesterday and tried out the eBay Boxing Weekend pop up kiosk. To really see how it works I brought one item to list and another to give to eBay Valet. Requirements for Valet are a $40 minimum value so I brought a NWT high end designer top. It remains to be seen how they do with it.
There were some very capable and experienced people managing the event. The individual one on one employee assisting me (there were two) appeared to be new to the task of listing clothing. He started me in the eBay app and after I asked him to add more IS, like the measurements of the NWT bag I brought, he discovered that was not possible to do in the App and we had to start all over again on eBay.com. Very capable managers came over to help at this point and resolved all the issues. One also volunteered to resolve a completely different eBay issue I had and did an excellent job, including emailing me with more information about that.
While press releases for "Wish Bigger" mentioned clothing, I think this event works best for electronics and other hard goods. This was a first time event and staff took continuous notes about what might need improvement. Number one on the list has to be letting people know where in this 1.25+ million sq ft mall they would be located. There was lots of signage promoting the event but not one hint as to where the eBay kiosk was located. First I searched on line, then walked around searching for it for over 25 minutes, called the Mall (no answer), went directly to the Mall Office (closed on Saturdays) and asked other kiosk employees but no answers to "where is the special eBay space in the mall?" Finally I went to the rest room and there I met a mall custodian who told me where she had seen eBay that morning.

I arrived just before the 12:00 opening and was the third person in a 4 person line. After waiting 15 minutes, one of the two listing stations was available for me. I had LOTS of questions and there were 3 "start overs" so I was not surprised to see it was after 1:00 when my work was complete. I did receive the $20 eBay gift certificate promised to the first 100 sellers and suspect those certificates will still be available to at least some of those attending the event today.

[Deleted]

Very interesting, beta. Thanks for reporting back. The fact that it took an experienced seller (you) over an hour is probably not a good sign.

[betabutton]

I realized this morning that I had given the eBay Valet service at the kiosk a very fine designer clothing item but I received no receipt for doing so. I did receive an email that a mailing label had been printed but no proof I had actually given them the item. I decided to go back for more information.
They acknowledge no receipt was printed or would be printed but they would "take care of me" if anything happened. I suggested that the next time they did this event, they should provide receipts for Valet consigners.

Since I had to go back for more information, I decided to do a "test" of the eBay Valet service. I brought two identical NWT leather accessories. One is red and one is black and both were in mint condition in their original box shipped to me from the manufacturer. I gave one of them to eBay Valet and listed the other under my eBay account. I told the very competent and helpful person managing the kiosk about my plan to discover how each item performed, how quickly each sold and how soon I would receive money in my PayPal account. I listed the one in my account for less than Nordstrom's and Zappos were selling it for online and slightly under the price of a listing for the same item currently on eBay. I will have to wait to see how the valet service prepares their listing. Once they do that it will be emailed to me for approval and I will have an opportunity to make additions and/or corrections before the listing goes live.

When both leather items are sold and the transactions are complete, I will post the results. 

[betabutton]

Classring, it did not actually take over an hour to do my listing and consign an item to Valet yesterday. The first 15 minutes were spent standing in line and waiting for my turn. My original assistant seemed to be new to the process and that meant that creating the listing on my account took longer. Add to that my propensity for asking lots of questions, many not specific to the process of listing and consigning and now the hour I spent at the kiosk is accounted for.

[betabutton]

After a reminder from eBay Valet 9 days ago to ship my consigned items now, I was not happy. I left those items at the eBay pop up Kiosk on December 26 and 27 and eBay was to deliver them to their Valet. Today I received emails for each item from eBay Valet, acknowledging receipt of both items and telling me how,backed up they were, to quote,

"Your items have been received by the Valets.
Due to overwhelming demand for our Valet services, we are currently experiencing a 2-3 week delay in processing orders. Your order will be processed as soon as possible. Thank you for your patience."

So after waiting 25 days for Valet to receive my items, I must wait another 2-3+ weeks until they are finally listed. Disappointing so far. 

[57roses]

I would be disappointed also. Especially if it was a seasonal item.
As usual they implement an idea then work out the bugs.