Collectibles are a tricky. I should know, I’ve been selling them on eBay for a little over 13 years now. Collectibles can be a volatile market: their value can change widely based on current events or popular culture, they can be difficult to research and easy to mis-list and, perhaps worst of all, no one can seem to agree if they are spelled collectibles or collectables.

But whether you just started selling collectibles or have been selling them for years, there are three very important things you need to remember to be successful. Handily, they each start with the letter R!

Research
Thorough research is the collectibles seller’s best friend. Before you price or list an item, do your homework and not just on value. If there isn’t a price guide or website available, ask around on message boards. What’s the history of this item? Are there features of this one in particular that increase or decrease its value? What terms do the collectors of this item use to refer to it? This has to be the biggest mistake newbie collectibles sellers make. When you fail to research your item before selling, you both cheat yourself out of profit and mislead your buyers.

Reality
Let’s say it takes you three hours to clean an item, then another two hours to research it and then an hour to photograph and list the item on eBay. Then, once it sells, you have to pack it up and ship it out which takes an hour because it’s fragile. It sells for $50 which seems great (you only paid $5 for it after all) until you start to think about it the fact that, broken down in terms of those 7 hours of work, you only made $6.43 an hour. Less than minimum wage and I didn’t even take eBay and PayPal fees (or the fees of whatever you platform is these days) into consideration in that calculation. When choosing collectible items to sell, be realistic. Take not only final sale price but also research and prep work into consideration when deciding if it’s worth it to sell.

Repeat business
Never under estimate the value of loyal customers. If a certain type of item did well in the past, make sure to keep stocking similar items. If they got good service from you in the past, you’ll find that some buyers are willing to pay more for the same item from you than from another seller because they know what to expect from you. Some collectibles sellers assume the rules about branding and customer service for sellers of brand new items don’t apply to them but this couldn’t be further from the truth. This doesn’t mean you can’t sell whatever comes your way, but it does mean that you should keep a supply of your most popular items to help build up some “regulars.” It’s the secret to sustainability in the collectibles business.

To my readers that sell collectibles, what would you add?

You can set your watch by it. Every time there’s a post about eBay that mentions “free shipping” somewhere in it and you get some clown who says one of the following two things:

“There’s no such thing as free shipping!”

or the hilariously moronic

“I went to the post office and asked for the free shipping….” [insert paraphrase of “they said there was no such thing” or “they had no idea what I was talking about”]

Every time I read one of these my reaction is basically, “OMG, shut up, shut up, shut up!”

If you say either of these, what you are saying, loud and clear is, I don’t understand how to run a business. Those statements prove that you’re only looking at the issue from the perspective of you, the seller. Which means you don’t care about your customers and don’t care to look at the issue from their standpoint. And if you don’t care about your customers, it’s going to show in your business, I don’t care how good you think you are at hiding it.

I suppose the point you’re trying to make when you say this is that, literally, even if you offer free shipping, you have to still pay for it when you visit the post office or other shipper so there’s no such thing as free shipping. Of course, by this logic, there’s no such things as sales, buy one get one free and other offers either because the poor seller still had to buy that merchandise at full price in all those cases.

Poor poor sellers! Free shipping is so mean to pick on them like this! The buyers don’t pay for shipping and the mean shippers still take the shipping money. What else is there for a seller to do but to sit and cry?

Uh… Self absorbed much?

The concept of “free shipping doesn’t exist” for sellers is hilarious because yes, it does, every time they buy something with free shipping. Free shipping does exist and it’s something for buyers. To ignore that is to build your business only around your wants and needs and ignore the needs of your buyers entirely.

Free shipping isn’t supposed to be something you, the seller, enjoy. It’s an optional service you offer your buyers. It’s a bonus, a special offer, an incentive to make them buy from you instead of the other guy. Just like any other offer including sales, BOGOs and giveaways it’s going to involve some extra cost for you. To bitch about it shows a utter lack of comprehension of how business works and is frankly insensitive to your customers and their needs.

Instead of graciously offering a bonus, you’re sitting around on blogs and forums complaining because if your buyer gets free shipping, you should get it too. This logic doesn’t hold water after two seconds of looking at it.

If you place an order with Amazon and they give you free shipping, do you run over to their corporate headquarters and pay them the shipping cost out of guilt? Of course you don’t, you say, “Sweet! Free shipping.” and move on with your life. By the same token, Amazon doesn’t email you with this sob story later about how you should really leave an extra nice review for them because they lost so much money providing you with your stupid free shipping. Amazon doesn’t have a passive aggressive note on their site about how expensive shipping really is and how they had to build that cost into their price, blah blah blah.

Picture Amazon doing this. It would be so petty, so childish, so totally unprofessional. But tons of online sellers do this constantly and don’t realize the damage they are doing to their brand.

I know I’m not going to stop people from making illogical complaints but the self-absorbed business can never survive. Focus on your customers and their needs instead of just, me me me and what you want. When you start to look at your business from a buyer’s perspective, you make it a better business all around.

Oh and to the people who insist on still writing this all the time? You have been called out for whining by the whine seller herself. You should be totally shamed.

Go ahead and tell me how wrong I am in the comments.

A very big thank you to everyone who entered, promoted or retweeted my
little contest! I actually didn’t pass 3,000 followers (I went to bed with
2992 and woke up to… 2989. I offended 3 people by going to sleep?) Since I
started this contest with 2,902 followers, I still consider it a success.

And I intend to reward another lucky follower when I finally do pass 3,000
so stay tuned.

I had 20 Twitter accounts that entered. My plan was to use Tweetaways but apparently
their contest limit (though unlisted) is too short to use for this as it would
eliminate early entries. So I decided to use Random.org’s
Random Number Generator instead. I numbered all the entries (in order form
newest to oldest) and then asked the generator for a number with a minimum of
1 and maximum of 20.

So the number generator spat back (drum roll, please)…. 16! Which means that
our winner is

Jane Bell @eBaySpecialist

1. itsmestacy

2. leafenegg

3. katmagick

4. BlingMyBra

5. kats411

6. katskloset

7. addoway

8. luckysluna

9. MusingMom6

10. beetique

11. LinziDay

12. mrshozey

13. shaydenFL

14. eBayAnorak

15. bellysbride

16. eBaySpecialist

17. wffguadags

18. tamebay

19. blogmum

20. VintageRRads

(I meant to post this on last Friday and I forgot. Sorry about that! My brain is apparently still on summer vacation.)

eBay recently announced a long overdue change in how they handle DSRs. Starting August 24th, if a sell offers free shipping and the buyer selects that option, when they leave feedback the buyer will be unable to leave a rating for shipping cost and the seller will automatically get 5 stars in Shipping Cost. The fact that buyers could rate the shipping cost anything less than 5 stars when the shipping was free was always a bit ridiculous so this change is a welcome relief from what was always a silly policy.

You can read the official release here.

I once discussed shipping cost rating with another eBay user face to face and when I mentioned that I didn’t think buyers should be able to rate you on shipping if the shipping was free, she protested, “But they how else can you rate how you felt about the cost of the item?” I tell you this because I think it sums up how a lot of buyers felt about this rating, that it was their chance to rate how they felt about the price they paid overall instead of just the shipping cost which is what it was designed for.

When eBay started offering free shipping incentives I, like most sellers, experimented with some free shipping offers to try to take advantages of the discounts, improved Best Match placement and other perks. But after many months of trying, I finally concluded that, for all but a few of our items, the free shipping wasn’t affecting our sales enough to be worth the cost. Granted, I think this is a bigger factor for collectible items and the free shipping made more of a difference on our new items, so results likely varied depending on what you sell.

But as someone who had been moving away from free shipping, this makes me more likely to give it a second try. If it’s an item you normally discount, maybe its better to offer free shipping instead of the discount in some cases if it means a guaranteed 5 stars. If nothing else, if your shipping cost DRS are suffering, a few weeks of free shipping offers is a fast and easy way to get back on track.

I was astonished to see how many people were complaining about this change (though I suppose at this point I shouldn’t be surprised). While sellers seem pretty universally glad that the change is happening, a ton are complaining that it isn’t enough. But regular readers know how I feel about DSRs (See: I hate to admit it, but I think eBay’s Detailed Seller Ratings (DSR) might be a good thing) so I see this as a fix of one of the few things that was truly stupid about the program which is otherwise a good thing overall. I appreciate that eBay is trying to listen to seller feedback, even if they took a while to make it a reality.

My biggest worry about this change is how it affects the international and expedited shipping issue we discussed here (See: If Free Shipping is here to stay, eBay, here’s what we need. . .) but what do you think?

If you haven’t tweeted “You should follow @HillaryDePiano” by the end of today, you’ll miss your chance at a really cool FAIL Whale shirt.

I’m less than 15 followers away from the big 3k so I really appreciate you help in reaching my goal. Find the rules and details of the contest here: Contest: Recommend me to your Twitter followers & win a FAIL Whale T-shirt

All summer, I’ve been doing Way Back Wednesdays where I dug out an old post from before I started this blog every Wednesday and posted it up with commentary from my perspective today. As this is the last Wednesday in August, this is our final archive post.*

What I had planned for my final Way Back Wednesday was a screenshot a friend of my took of my eBay store when I had a feedback rating of exactly 666. He had circled the number in red and written, “What kind of business are you running over there?” It always gives me a good laugh when I see it so I wanted to share it. Unfortunately, I can’t find it anywhere. I know I kept it, I just have no idea what I would have named the file. So if I ever find it, I’ll post it, I swear.

So for this final Way Back Wednesday, I have three little posts for you.

First up is, Am I a bad person for selling my wedding dress on eBay? which is a post over on my writing blog from 2008, before I started The Whine Seller. It’s not really eBay related in the strictest sense but you will probably enjoy it.

The next two posts are cheats. They were both originally written on my personal blog but I cheated and moved them over to The Whine Seller this week and just back dated them to the date they were originally posted on the other blog. It just made sense to do that since they really don’t belong on the old blog anymore. But they are the last of the “old” e-commerce posts never before seen on The Whine Seller so I wanted to highlight them here.

• Changes to the eBay Trading Assistant program: In plain English
• eBay lowers some fees, raises others and bans sellers from leaving negative feedback

I hope you’ve enjoyed (or at least tolerated) this little journey into the past with me this summer. It was really interesting for me to look at the old posts and see how my opinions have changed (or not).

*=As far as I know, I have posted every “real” e-commerce post that pre-dates this blog. But I actually used to have another eBay blog that was anonymous where I was much, much less behaved and would write up my seller and buyer horror stories in a humorous way. Those posts may someday come crawling out of the archives, you can never tell.

Hope everyone had a wonderful and productive summer! Here’s to a profitable and efficient autumn…

The Whine Seller

I’m a guest blogger over at the eBay Selling Coach blog with an article entitled Selling Collectible Toys on eBay – Insider Secrets.

Suzanne wanted a post of under 300 words which was so hard for my incredibly verbose self but it does make for a faster read than what you usually get out of me.

She added a little introduction where she calls me “an expert in the collectible toys niche” which is something I would never, ever call myself simply because I believe there is really no such thing as an expert in anything but that sort of label seems to go along with the theme of her site so, while I cringed, I understand. But understand that I am under no illusions that I am an expert on anything except maybe being myself.

To tease you, I’m going to give you the titles of the three sections of my article but your need to go over to the site to read the rest of it. Here’s your tease:

1. Value can be volatile.
2. Little pieces get lost, easy to break parts break.
3. Failure to do the research means making less money.

Now, get over there and read the rest of the article on her site.

From the comments on Failbook:

Yup, that pretty much sums it all up.

This post is overdue. My apologies.

Firstly…

Kabbage.com, which provides online sellers with financing and capital is not only a really great company for small business owners, they are also a great resource for e-commerce news both on their blog and Twitter. I follow them on Twitter (@KabbageInc) and was pleasantly surprised to see The Whine Seller featured in a post called 10 eCommerce Blogs to Read Before Sundown.

What they wrote:

Kabbage is a startup and a small business, and we know that with any small business, its way too easy to get so caught up in the day to day running of the business and forget to keep up with that all important industry news. We keep up with eCommerce news just like you do, but if we tried to read every eCommerce news article, tip or trick that graced the internet on any given day (and sometimes it feels like we do!) the we wouldn’t have time to make Kabbage advances. So, we’ve compiled ten of the blogs that we read every day before the sun goes down.

The Whine Seller:

The Whine Seller, written by PowerSeller and author, Hillary DePiano, covers a large range of information related to buying and selling on eBay and Amazon. The Whine Seller blogs with a lighthearted attitude, but her blogs are full of crucial info not to be missed!

Adding to the compliment, there are some really big deal blogs on that list (including ColderICE, eBay Ink and Channel Adviser amongst others) so to be named in that company is very humbling. What makes it even more amazing, though, is of those 10 fantastic blog… they listed this blog FIRST! I am, frankly speechless. I know that the list isn’t in any order to denote ranking but the fact that they thought of us first is compliment enough.

I’m always amazed when anyone recommends this blog. I mean, I do work very hard on it but some of the time it feel like I’m just goofing around or ranting so the fact that I’m still coming off as useful info makes me feel like all the work is worth it.

Secondly…

I’ve got a guest article coming up over with Suzanne Wells at eBay Selling Coach which should be up any day now about tips for selling collectibles.

Thirdly…

Grammy’s Janet Place was kind enough to do a feature on her giveaways section of her blog highlighting my Twitter contest. You can see that post here.

Lastly…

I totally missed this post which was from May and I only just saw it today when I was trying to find another link otherwise I would have posted about it sooner. Several weeks *before* I spoke about eBay accounting helper Outright on either the blog or Twitter, they featured me in a post called eBay Selling:

The Top Blogs in the Business

There are literally thousands of blogs dedicated to selling on eBay.
EBay’s own informational blog is a
great place to go for news and updates on policies and changes. AuctionBytes, The Brews News, and The Whine Seller are just three of
the great blogs that can help you interpret and vent about customer
relation issues and what eBay’s ongoing changes to policy may mean to
sellers. Another great blog for more general ecommerce news is ColderICE.

EBay offers seller’s forums
in the form of chat rooms, discussion boards, and neighborhoods on its
site, which are another great way to connect with other sellers.

I also retroactively feel guilty for this but what can you do.

Holy cow! They mentioned little ole me in the same breath as
AuctionBytes! I am most definitely not worthy. The comments on
AuctionBytes are usually the world’s scariest pitchfork wielding angry
mob but I have been reading that site before any other e-commerce site
Ina and her team there do a fantastic job over there and to mention me
along side of them is a huge, massive compliment.

-

This post was just a little recap fest, paying back some sites that were kind enough to link to me recently that I forgot to highlight at the time because I am busy? senile? (pick one). But at the risk of coming off as a total sap? dork? (I’m going to make you pick again) there are days when I’m working my butt off on this blog and sitting here going… why? But I have such a loyal base of readers who comment and retweet all the time and then things like this happen unsolicited and, well, it humbles me is all. I love writing for you all and I love knowing that you love it, it makes it all worthwhile. I really appreciate your support for this silly little blog that just started out as a way for me to talk about e-commerce in a really angry way.

You guys are great!

Today’s way back is funny because its the first one where I still agree 100% which what I said back then (though this is a more recent post than some of these). In fact, there have been several posts on this blog that have made these same arguments before.

Of course, now PayPal is mandatory so while this was pure speculation back then, now we have it as the reality.

Now, the original post entitled eBay US goes PayPal only? from May 22nd, 2008:

eBay posts overload lately, I know. Sorry about it for you non-eBay people but a lot of stuff is happening very fast.

AuctionBytes is reporting that eBay is seriously considering changing the US eBay site over to PayPal only. As I briefly touched on in this post, I actually think this is a really good idea.

Yes, I see your monopoly arguments and understand that you don’t want to have to pay fees. But I also know that the cold fact of the matter is that almost no one pays by money order or personal check anymore. I still offer it as an option only because I don’t want to exclude anyone from bidding because of their payment preferences but it’s a dying payment form.

That said, PayPal is so much easier for a seller (the instant clearing payment, not having to wait for the mail or the check to clear, the protection they offer sellers in the event the sale goes bad) and has such a higher success rate that its worth any fees they want to charge me for that convenience. I cannot think of a single deadbeat bidder in the last two years who didn’t promise payment by postal mail. People who pay by PayPal pay sooner and the transaction is overall faster. I consider the fees to be part of the cost of my business. Does that mean that I am eager for them to raise the prices? Of course not. But if they have more volume of sales going through PayPal, they likely won’t need to raise the prices.

For buyers, PayPal is a much better options. Unlike a check which takes time to clear or a money order which costs around $1 or more in fees, PayPal is free for the buyer to use and let’s then pay with their balance, checking account or even credit card if they wish. We are a country of debt and lots of people are spending money that they don’t have. It may sound cold but if they are going to spend money that they don’t have anyway, at least let them spend it on what I am selling. Not to mention that most of the time it allows me to have their payment and ship their item in less than 24 hours.

In summation, I have been itching for a long while now to only offer PayPal as my only accepted payment method but I haven’t for fear of insulting the few people who still cling to the old payment methods. If eBay makes PayPal mandatory, it makes that so much easier for me because then I can offer the method I would rather be offering and buyers wouldn’t complain because it would be the standard.

So, I got this email through eBay today. Obviously, it looks like some kind of scam but it’s of a different sort than I have seen in the past so I wanted to share it here so we could discuss it.

Two things that strike me from the start are that its well written (no broken English), which is unusual, and, when you Google the man’s email, (which I removed from the post below) you don’t see any other people talking about this. I find it hard to believe I’m the only person he contacted but whoever he contacted, there are few enough of us that I’m the first person talking about it or its a randomly generated email.

What makes the plot a little twist-ier is that there IS a registered eBay seller with a very similar name as the username in the email, similar enough that Google caught it. But it may just be a common last name. That makes it seem more like a person trying to get an illegal favor done rather than a big time scam, but who knows.

Anyway, join me in looking into this, won’t you? Here is the email I got.

Subject: Business proposal

Hi,
I found your email at Trading Assistant Program website and have a very lucrative business proposal for you!
You can make guaranteed $2,000 per month doing a very easy task. I’ll be very honest with you from the beginning. I’m from Europe and I’m working with checks, but not in a legal way.
What I need, is a partner in the US able to print personal checks for me. Basically you will receive the info from me (the numbers to write on the checks plus the addresses where to ship them) and then simply print the checks out, put the checks into envelopes and ship them out.
I will cover every single cost, from paper and ink to shipping labels. The job is simple, secure and requires very little of your time. You will do this printing work only two days per week, Mondays and Thursdays.
This is totally anonymous, therefore there no kind of risk whatsoever. I will provide the USPS shipping labels and then you can just drop the envelopes at the post office or at a street mail box, and it’s done.
Email me only at: [email removed]

He admits what he’s trying to do is illegal. That’s… refreshing? I don’t know.

I also don’t really know what scam he’s trying to pull here. But the fact that he’s specifically targeting eBay sellers and Trading Assistants is a strange twist.

What do you think of this? Legit? One guy trying to do something illegal? Worldwide scam targeting eBay sellers? An easy way to make $2,000?

Anyway let’s discuss this below in the comments.

I’m thiiiisss close to 3,000 followers on Twitter so, to make crossing that barrier that much more fun, I’m going to have a little contest.

If you are willing to recommend me to your Twitter followers, I’m going to reward you by buying you a Twitter FAIL Whale t-Shirt from Yiying
Lu’s (@yiyinglu on twitter) official store. You’re supporting me, I’m supporting the designer of something we all love, you get a cool free shirt. Everyone wins!

Well, not everyone. Obviously, I can’t buy a shirt for every single person who enters, I will go totally broke. So I’m going to pick one lucky person to buy the shirt for now and, depending on how well this goes, I may decide to pick additional winners after the fact. So entering now still puts you in the running for future contests. Your chances of winning are very good!

I’m going to try to make this as easy as possible but please feel free to ask any questions below.

Hillary’s Twitter Contest Official Details

Prize:
Unisex White Twitter Fail Whale T-shirt (pictured above)
Sizes Available:
Adult S, M, L or XL
(Winner can let me know the size they want when I notify them that they won.)

How to Enter:

Before September 1st, tweet the following message exactly (though you can add text after it, if you wish*).

You should follow @HillaryDePiano

*= I will be searching for that exact phrase when picking a winner (this means no “u” for “you” or other changes) but I would greatly appreciate if you were to customize the message by adding text after the required message. For instance:

You should follow @HillaryDePiano for e-commerce news

You should follow @HillaryDePiano because she’s nice

You should follow @HillaryDePiano so I can win a T-shirt

You should follow @HillaryDePiano because it’s #followfriday

You get the idea. As long as the beginning is intact, you can customize the message however you want. If there is a specific reason you’d recommend me to your followers, I’d appreciate your adding it on at the end to make it more personalized. But if you don’t want to customize, you don’t have to, the first bit is all that is really required.

The winner will be picked randomly by Tweetaways on September 1st, 2010 so there is no human element. I’m going to read every one but a computer will do the final selection. Since I’m not actually picking the winner, this means the contest is open to EVERYONE, family and friends included, so go nuts, guys.

Some tips and FAQs:

1. Can I enter from more than one account? If you have more than one Twitter account, enter from each one. The more accounts you enter from, the better your chances of winning.
2. Do retweets count? Traditional retweets definitely do. If someone else enters and you like what they say, just go ahead and retweet their message and that enters you as well.
3. Can I enter if my tweets are set to private? Sadly, no. Tweetaways can only pick a winner from public tweets.
4. I’m not a member of Twitter. I feel left out! *sob* I’m going to have contests for just blog readers and Facebook fans as well in the future, I promise.

In addition to the whole prize element, if anyone is willing to recommend me on Twitter on any given day, I am very, very appreciative.

Any questions?

Steve, here, writing for The Whine Seller…

I’ve been performing a lot of computer repairs lately for family members and this time around, I had to replace the power inverter for a laptop screen’s backlight. A brand new part would have set me back about $45, so I went straight to eBay. Bingo. $4.99 with free shipping from seller ny-citi-com.

Then I notice the following line in the seller’s description:

IMPORTANT! Please compare your current inverter to the one pictured since there are several different inverters that are used within these models and they might have different screw hole alignments.

Huh, I didn’t even think about that… One peek at the photograph and I realize that this part won’t fit. I eventually locate the part I need, albeit from a different seller.

The moral of this simple tale? Even if it doesn’t generate a sale, a complete, accurate, and honest description, especially when the listing is a used item, generates good will with buyers. Specifically, a note highlighting a specific misconception about your item can be very useful, but it can also be a pitfall.

What sets this example apart form other sellers’ attempts, is the clarity and the tone. The auction formatting is very clean, and this particular note is set apart form the rest of the description, not buried within a paragraph of gibberish. Perhaps more importantly, it is a very polite and positive message. What do I mean?

Let’s compare the example above to another example from a different seller who shall remain nameless:

***Warning*** This Item Is NOT FUNCTIONAL & It Is Being Sold FOR PARTS ONLY!!! Please Read the Item Condition Section Closely. Item Sold AS-IS – No Returns Possible!!

Basically, I’m insulted. I don’t like the word “warning” or the double exclamation points.

Did I mention it was repeated 3 times? And again in Spanish? Moreover, the whole tone of the message is that I’m probably too stupid to be buying this item and I should expect trouble when it arrives.

OK, sellers, I realize that most disclaimers like this are reactionary – the seller has processed too many returns for the same reason and decided to add a note to warn off ignorant buyers like me. You need to protect yourself form the uneducated hoards who click without reading the fine print…or reading any of the print. I get it. I live with The Whine Seller, so I’ve heard plenty of war stories.

Let me show one more example to illustrate a well-crafted description. Below is part of the description for a used, broken cell phone. Ignore for a minute the layout and graphics and focus on the words. This is professional…just the facts, and I am left to make my own decision based on them. (Click to make it larger.)

All I ask as a buyer, is that you strike a balance with you descriptions. Give me the details; don’t treat my like a child. I want to feel like I’ve just been offered a friendly piece of advice. Not easy, but I promise you, it is appreciated. You efforts may boost my confidence and generate a sale. Maybe I’ll realize a mistake before placing my bid and save you a headache. Maybe I’ll appreciate it so much, I’ll blog about it.

Note: I can’t personally vouch for ny-citi-com, that’s what feedback is for, but I feel that this seller deserves a mention for saving me time and money.

I don’t have any modern commentary on this one. I still amuse myself.

From May 7, 2008:

In accordance with new company policy, we’re removing the Bullets & Grenades category from US WWII Militaria. -eBay category updates

In other news. they are also removed the For Slaves under the Orphans category as well as Human Skulls from the Stuff You Dug Up category.

I’m not sure that I am comfortable knowing that, prior to this new policy, people were mailing very old explosives around the country. . . .

Back in 2007, PayPal introduced a plugin that was supposed to allow you to use PayPal even on sites that didn’t accept it as a payment method. If a site didn’t accept PayPal, the plugin would generate a temporary number to allow you to check-out through Mastercard.

I thought it was a great idea but, sadly, it never really worked right so I gave up on the plugin a long time ago. But all the while, I really hoped they would keep working on it and make it work right because it was a great idea. What better way to deal with a company you aren’t sure if you should trust than to give them a temporary credit card number just for that one transaction thanks to PayPal? I really liked the idea.

I guess I was the only one. When it came out, it got very little press in the blog-o-sphere which is usually a pretty sure sign that few people were using it. So eBay pulled the plug. (PayPlug?)

The last day to use the plugin will be September 22nd, 2010. So if you never got a chance to use it, you only have a few days left.

If you consult their FAQ, you’ll find this:

Why discontinue Plug-In?

Simply put, we’re shifting our focus and resources to more popular products that provide a better customer experience. We continue to focus on expanding our coverage online with new stores accepting PayPal every month. Check out our extensive directory to find your favorite.

and then a few inches down the page, this:

Why discontinue the PayPal Plug-In?

Customer experience is a top priority at PayPal, and after two years of supporting the Plug-In, we felt it wasn’t providing the best experience for those who used it. See our list of other Products and Services to find new ways to pay online.

I love a good multiple personality FAQ.

So Reason #1 is that no one was using it so it wasn’t popular enough to warrant keeping. Reason #2 was that it didn’t work. I guess it’s a multiple choice kind of thing though I suspect both are true.

While I can’t fault them for pulling the plug on an unpopular feature, considering how low profile it was to begin with, I would have preferred they relaunched or revamped it to at least give it a real try. It was a great idea that they didn’t publicize at all and then didn’t work very well when you did try to use it. If there had been more users, might they have been able to work out the bugs? Who knows. But I feel like they killed it before they gave it a fair try.

But I’m just one person. Did any of you use the plugin? How did you like it?

If this is the first you heard of it (which I suspect is the case for many) would you have liked to see them give it a better try before killing it?