Episode 24: Mercari…Sorry?

Is Mercari changing their whole business model!? We’ve been hearing all kinds of stuff about ZERO SELLING FEES on Mercari.

Straight from a recent email Mercari sent users that's been making waves in seller circles:
Got stuff to sell? Big news for you.
Introducing ZERO selling fees. Only at Mercari!
Now, Mercari is the only major US resale marketplace with zero selling fees. This is the way selling should be.
We’re on a mission to revolutionize selling in the circular economy.
List more, earn more, and build your balance to fund your next find.
So, if you’ve got stuff to sell, Mercari is here to make it easy.🫰

We break it down in this episode, talking about platform changes and Glen even shares an example of how these recent, radical platform changes shook out in a recent sale - for him and for his buyer!

Get 30% Off your first month of List Perfectly with referral code SELLERCLUBPOD at checkout!

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Welcome to the Seller Club Podcast, episode number 24. Kobe. Kobe baby 24. Ken, we have Anna. We're talking platforms. We're talking zero fees. I like that. Yeah, we have a lot of stuff to talk about today. Drop that beat. Kenny, how are you doing today? Your voice sounded a little dip a little bit deeper right now. Almost like a like a Barry White kind of. Go ahead. Yeah, um, that's how we're gonna roll tonight. Yeah, I was like, man, is this even Kenny?

SPEAKER_04 0:41

He's like, it's pollen season.

SPEAKER_00 0:45

That's true. Pollen season is true.

SPEAKER_01 0:47

That is true. No, that is true. I mean, um, I remember pollen season. We were at um uh we were in DC, Glenn. Remember that? Oh yeah. I was just sneezing every five seconds.

SPEAKER_00 1:02

What's going on behind in the background? What's going on over there? What is that behind you? Me? Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:10

What's behind me?

SPEAKER_00 1:11

Oh, over there in the corner. Can you see it, Anna? Is that like a like a humidifier or is it like a oh this one, yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:18

That's a that is a um that is a diffuser. Oh, diffuser. Putting stuff in there. Putting stuff in there for you to breathe.

SPEAKER_04 1:27

Instead of taking stuff out of the room.

SPEAKER_01 1:30

Yeah. Okay. Um I can't see it.

SPEAKER_00 1:37

Okay. My problem right now is like it's really dry. So we actually have like humidifiers. Humidifier. Yeah. Yeah. Going like crazy right now.

SPEAKER_04 1:46

Do you have um You don't want a nosebleed?

SPEAKER_01 1:49

Do you have a hygrometer in your house? No. I don't know. It me it measures the um it measures the humidity level. So you need you need to get one because um we ha we have both. We have dehumidifier and humidifier. Yeah. Alright, we've got to figure that out. What about you, Anna? Do you guys use that there?

SPEAKER_04 2:13

Which?

SPEAKER_01 2:14

Either. Either.

SPEAKER_04 2:16

Uh yes, because this is the Midwest. So sometimes you need one and sometimes you need the other.

SPEAKER_00 2:21

That's true. Just depends, okay? So today's episode, okay. So Mercari the had a whole uproar about zero fees. And I've got to be able to do that. And I know some people might say you guys are a little late to the game. But Mercari has had an update since then. Probably because they caught people off guard when trying to transfer your money. And I've sold an item since this change. So we do have different things to talk about regarding that and what that uh what that fee looked like for that customer that bought this item. So there's some changes there. Now this was on uh let me see seven days ago, but when this episode comes out, it's gonna be a little bit later than that. But this was March twenty-seventh, which we got that email. Um, and I started to see more and more people just talking about it on social media. IG, YouTube, everybody's going wild, zero fees, what's happening here. And then of course they have people taunting eBay and other ones like, well, here's your chance, eBay, how are you gonna respond? And uh it's almost like I don't know, uh G-League, like wanting NBA to respond to uh like a minor minor league, minor league taunting the majors, right? Yeah, like what is your response? It's like they don't have to respond. They're uh eBay.

SPEAKER_04 3:54

In no way obligated to respond.

SPEAKER_00 3:58

So I I sent this um, I guess zero selling fees to you guys in our chat.

SPEAKER_01 4:04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 4:04

And you know, it was kind of like they went off by were the only major US resale marketplace with zero fees. That's the way they approached it.

SPEAKER_03 4:15

Hmm.

SPEAKER_04 4:16

Yeah, zero selling fees.

SPEAKER_01 4:18

Have have they heard of Jamble? I think they all have zero fees.

SPEAKER_04 4:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 4:25

Has Anna even heard of Jamble? Have I heard of Jamble?

SPEAKER_04 4:29

Glenn has never heard of Jamble.

SPEAKER_01 4:31

Talk about minor minor leagues.

SPEAKER_00 4:33

Minor minor leagues. Okay, there we go. Like maybe uh local YMCA league. You know? Just kidding. Uh zero selling fees only at Mercari. Uh we're on a mission to revolutionize selling uh in in the circular Merc uh what economy. List more, earn more, and build your balance to fund your next find.

SPEAKER_04 4:58

So I am curious if by the end of this conversation we agree with that statement that this is a revolutionary act and not some other kind of act.

SPEAKER_00 5:09

The revolutionized, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 5:12

It's really interesting to me that that's the kind of the the context that is given for all these changes. That that's the goal, right? Or that's the driving motivation.

SPEAKER_01 5:24

Nah, I think this is just a marketing ploy.

SPEAKER_04 5:28

Nah.

SPEAKER_01 5:29

Nah.

SPEAKER_04 5:32

We should at least keep our minds open for the duration of this conversation, and then at the end, maybe we can decide, or maybe we'll still need some more information.

SPEAKER_01 5:40

We'll we'll timestamp this and see who's right.

SPEAKER_04 5:43

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 5:43

Who's right?

SPEAKER_04 5:44

I'm a real big fan in these kind of situations of making an extra effort to keep an open mind because everybody, like you said, Glenn, everybody just kind of jumps in and you know, right off the rip, like gives their assessment of things, gives their opinion of things, and very often more information comes out later. And you know, I think there's a lot of pressure on people these days, especially on social media, to instantly have an opinion and instantly have a stance or like take a position. And I think a lot in a lot of cases, like that's just not that's not how I roll. Like I just take longer to process things, you know, and I want to have more information and a more well-rounded perspective before I put my opinion out there.

SPEAKER_01 6:28

Yeah, I mean to to be honest, when I first heard all about it, I mean, especially I mean, I didn't see it from social media, you guys DM'd me about it. And I was like, okay, right, that's cool. My first initial reaction was cross-listener car. Yeah, it's like it was like test what yeah, like what I can do, right? Um and then I started scrolling, everybody was complain all mostly sellers were complaining because this is gonna hurt the buyer. I'm like, oh you're concerned about the buyer's perspective now? Aren't you concerned about selling? And next thing you know, they're saying like, oh, the traffic to the site is gonna drop. I'm like, all of a sudden they become like funnel consultants or something like that. They start worrying, they're they start worrying about how Mercari is gonna bring more customers to absorb the 10% whatever. I mean, if you think about it, people in Chicago and in California actually pay 10% more because of taxes and stuff like that. People that shop at StockX pay more because they they have a processing fee and a selling fee, whatever, yada yada fee at the same time. But people will shop where they want. I don't I don't think people say like, oh, I won't shop here because the seller is not getting charged fees. Yeah. Like they really could care less. I mean, come on, 10% if the buyer really wants it, they'll they'll buy it. And if they want a haggle, there's the offer button. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 8:06

Yeah. Well, and uh definitely Mercari is encouraging sellers because the sellers aren't paying the fee, right? They're encouraging sellers to drop their prices to make their prices look more appealing to the buyers since they're no longer having to pay that fee, but also like the buyer is having to pay the fee. So it's you know allowing them to, yeah, kind of accommodate that price out of our pocket.

SPEAKER_01 8:30

Yeah, it's just passing on the savings anyway, right? It's kind of like what if you just it's just like free shipping and charging shipping. Yeah. It's the same thing. Somebody's paying free.

SPEAKER_04 8:40

Right. I think it's interesting though that they're the way that that Mercari is communicating about it, because I I have stuff listed on Mercari, so I got the email from them about it too. And I think it's just an interesting move. They're being really upfront about the fact that they made these changes, and of course they like in some of their communications. They don't exactly mention the less exciting aspects of the changes. Um, you know, like they're kind of promoting these different these different changes. We can go through all of them, but um but it is interesting how uh they're just like they're saying like this is their revolutionary way of promoting the circular economy and you know, essentially people being able to buy and sell in the platform and keep their keep their money in the platform, right? Using their kind of spendable funds. Like that's sort of what they're going for. So I'm really curious to see how it works for them as a platform because they're by all intents and purposes, they're making a bold move, right? And they're communicating boldly about their move. So it's interesting.

SPEAKER_00 9:43

Well, first when I saw the email, the zero selling fees, which is the biggest thing on this email. My first thing was, okay, that's cool, but what's the catch? Yeah. How is this platform gonna make money then?

SPEAKER_01 9:56

Let's worried about Mercari's body.

SPEAKER_00 9:59

Yeah, worried about their well-being. Like, how are they gonna make money? They need to make money somehow. Right. There's some sort of catch here because isn't that just gonna be free for buyers and sellers and everything's just happy? Something's gotta change. And that's where their email goes to the next part. What does this mean for sellers? Number one, no more 10% selling fee. See ya. Number two, list it all, little stuff, big stuff, all without a selling fee. Use your balance or cash out for just a$2 flat fee. So they threw that in there. Yeah, mysteriously. Um and then number three, keep more of your money. So all three of their, I guess, little bullet points here all really have to do with just you're not paying a fee. It's not really like anything.

SPEAKER_04 10:56

Right.

SPEAKER_00 10:57

Keep all your money cool. List all of your stuff without a selling fee. You just said there was no selling fee. Right. Bullet point number one.

SPEAKER_04 11:03

Right.

SPEAKER_00 11:04

No more 10% selling fee.

SPEAKER_04 11:06

Became two different points, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 11:09

And then uh the next part is, and we've made some cool changes for buyers too. Cool changes.

SPEAKER_04 11:17

Super cool, you guys.

SPEAKER_00 11:19

Like returns. Yeah. Number one, yeah. Buy with confidence, return for any reason.

SPEAKER_01 11:27

Any reason.

SPEAKER_00 11:28

Any reason. Number two, experience a more streamlined return process with free return shipping.

SPEAKER_01 11:36

Free shipping.

SPEAKER_00 11:36

Oh, number three.

SPEAKER_04 11:37

Who's paying for that?

SPEAKER_00 11:39

Oh hold on, hold on. I know Anna's like, I was gonna get these guys. Number three is enjoy zero payment processing fees when using your balance.

SPEAKER_04 11:49

Right.

SPEAKER_00 11:50

So they want to use it.

SPEAKER_04 11:52

That's not the buying fee, though. You still have to pay the 10% buying fee. It's the payment processing fee, like if you were to use your card.

SPEAKER_00 12:00

Exactly. So, really, what they're saying is we really want our sellers to become buyers. Yes, right.

SPEAKER_01 12:08

Yeah. So they want their sellers to patronize. But really, at the end of the day, okay. We're talking two dollars, right? We got things.

SPEAKER_04 12:18

Oh yeah, to cash out.

SPEAKER_01 12:20

To cash out two dollars. Um man, if you're cashing out twenty bucks, that's a ten percent fee. Right. Right? So my advice is don't cash out twenty bucks.

SPEAKER_04 12:33

Right.

SPEAKER_01 12:33

Just cash till it's cash out forty, that's five percent.

SPEAKER_02 12:37

Right. Oh, it but wait, there's more. If you cash out two hundred bucks, it's one percent. What an offer! Yeah. But if you cash out two thousand dollars.

SPEAKER_00 12:55

Let's go. So since then, they did have to send out a second email, and this one was on March 30th, that the fee the fees were waived on the two dollar fee, uh, because there was an uproar. Um I can't like the small uproar.

SPEAKER_01 13:15

I know, and then I mean like the But that's what the uproar was about? Yes, there was.

SPEAKER_00 13:20

Yeah, but that's kind of weird. The biggest uproar seemed to be about this two dollar fee.

SPEAKER_04 13:25

Or maybe that was the thing that was easiest for them to throw a bone about.

SPEAKER_01 13:30

Yeah, it's like you're saving ten dollars. Yeah. I'll happily pay two dollars.

SPEAKER_04 13:37

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 13:37

E every withdrawal, I don't care. Well, I don't care what amount. I mean, we do that for gold. I mean, like, do they still have the 2.98%? We still have it, right? And then extra. But we've paid PayPal 50 cents per transaction. So actually, collectively, when we've used PayPal, we've made more than two dollars over a lifetime of every, you know, business transaction because because PayPal was per transaction, this one was per withdrawal.

SPEAKER_00 14:10

So PayPal's a will win a real winner here.

SPEAKER_01 14:13

Yeah, yeah, yeah. 50 cents on everything, man.

SPEAKER_00 14:17

Uh so their email on the 27th was customers who were charged, I guess, the fee from the direct deposit since March 27th when it first came out on that email, will receive a refund in form of a direct deposit to the bank account on record. Mercari will begin processing refunds on April 4th.

SPEAKER_01 14:36

Wow. Man, they've lost money because just to hire that guy to process all the refunds.

SPEAKER_00 14:41

No, that's true. That's that's a lot. I mean, we would assume it's a lot, I don't know.

SPEAKER_04 14:46

So that was good, like a good, you know, line by line of the actual announcements. I think the cool features for buyers that they did not mention was probably the 10% uh processing fee, right? Or the order fee or whatever it is called. Um service fee. Yeah, service fee. By the way, you're paying yeah, you're paying this fee on every order now. Um so that's like not great. But I the whole circular economy thing is interesting, so I I feel like they just they're hoping, you know, the psychology of that, like people are like, well, this is basically free money anyway, because it didn't come out of my bank account, so you know, I don't mind paying an extra 10%. Like, do you think that's what the the thinking is? I mean, and also do you guys feel like these changes, the totality of these changes really constitutes a full-on like shift in the business model for Mercari? Like, where do you think that line is?

SPEAKER_00 15:47

Hmm. I mean, I think that it was I mean, it definitely brought them attention. But I don't know if it's all marketing. Yeah, how do you think? Yeah, Mercari. But I don't know if someone was just like, or how many people were just like, man, I really gotta get on this platform right now with these no fees.

SPEAKER_04 16:09

Because no fee yeah, I don't know. I don't know either.

SPEAKER_01 16:12

I mean, the the There was one time where eBay thought it was a great strategy to bring zero fees for sneakers over a hundred bucks. Ooh, this is not gonna last forever. It felt like forever. And like over two years, Glenn? Yeah, yeah. And they brought sellers back and they brought sneakers back to eBay, yeah. And you know, when when I felt like there has to be some marketing study, market share went up, yeah, or buyers, you know, buyers start shopping more, average order value went up, you know, and they went to authentication authenticity guarantee. So, you know, hopefully um Mercari will take a page out of that. Um, no fees, and then next thing you know, offer ground advantage. That's the next level for Mercari.

SPEAKER_00 17:14

Oh man. Okay, now you're pushing it.

unknown 17:17

Come on.

SPEAKER_02 17:19

Parcel, USPS parcel. Like, I don't even know if that's still a thing.

SPEAKER_00 17:23

Yeah, it's like USPS UPS uh sure post or something. Sure post.

SPEAKER_02 17:28

Like they don't even have UPS ground. Yeah. Yeah. No. That's not even oh oh now I I know where it's going.

SPEAKER_01 17:35

After no fees, they'll have multi-quantity listings. Oh.

SPEAKER_04 17:42

Maybe.

SPEAKER_01 17:42

That is a move.

SPEAKER_04 17:44

I'm really paying you.

SPEAKER_00 17:48

For this feedback. Okay, go ahead, Anna. Sorry.

SPEAKER_04 17:51

Oh, no, it's okay. That was worth it. That is true. I'm just thinking about it.

SPEAKER_01 17:55

I'm just gonna invoice them after, actually.

SPEAKER_04 17:59

That's your next step. Perfect. Their next step is yeah, is multiple quantity years is sending an invoice. Um no, I was just thinking about how when this kind of news broke, and definitely the vast majority of uh other resellers talking about it, posting about it on social was negative, right? It was it was the uproar. It was the uproar that surely led to that two dollar refund or whatever. But um, I do think it's really interesting because I guess for any platform, there's this semi-catch 22 of like, well, to attract buyers, there has to be a lot of good stuff for them to buy listed on the platform. And to attract sellers, there has to be a lot of buyers who want to buy stuff, right? So that feels a little bit chicken or egg to me in a way. And maybe that's just showing you how unsophisticated I am. But um, but yeah, it's it makes me wonder if a lot of people are going to refuse to sell on Mercari or if they're like if this was for a lot of people that I saw posting about it, they were like clearly had already had issues with Mercari in the past, and they were like, this is the final straw, I'm done with you forever. So that's you know, I'm new to it. Like I've just only had a handful, like a hundred things listed on there. I've sold like three or four of those things, um, haven't been listing anything or cross-listing anything lately. But I'm planning to get back to it, but I'm really curious, Glenn, how your experience post-Marcari business model shift has gone because I'm a little on the fence, like I don't know how it's gonna affect me, but at the same time, you know, if a bunch of other sellers are flocking away from the platform and it kind of makes no difference to me because every platform has its different fees and its different pros and cons, like then maybe that is a place I want to be still. But what do you think about it?

SPEAKER_00 19:48

Yeah. Well, there's no perfect platform. Um there isn't, and there's no perfect way for every buyer and seller to win everything. Um there's gonna someone's gonna have some sort of experience that might have been negative, might have been positive, we don't know. Everybody's different. Um and where they shop and things like that. I know the like you said, and we we all said the uproar about it. Number one was the two dollar fee thing on direct deposit. The next thing was return for any reason.

SPEAKER_04 20:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 20:18

Um and in in that case, I just feel like if you're scared about the returns, then where do you sell? Because I mean, I guess Go and StockX, you could, you know, they technically get returns back to them. Um whatnot is kind of similar. So you're kind of fighting, you know, refunds when it comes to that or returns, but Amazon, eBay, all of these is almost straight up buyer is gonna some return is gonna have yeah, even Poshmark has returns.

SPEAKER_04 20:50

Well, and that's that's what I mean. Like, this is not outside the realm of like what I already am used to. Exactly.

SPEAKER_00 20:57

So why was why was that so huge of a deal? I don't understand.

SPEAKER_01 21:01

Um you know there hasn't been any uh reselling drama that's why.

SPEAKER_00 21:08

That's true too. I feel like a lot of these people that say, like, well, I'm done with this platform are the same ones that said that about eBay five, six years ago and they're still selling on eBay. Yeah. It's like when are you quitting? You said you're gonna quit a long time ago, you're still here. Why? Yeah. I mean, yeah. That's true. And so enjoy zero payment processing fees when using your balance. So again, you know, want you to use your balance if you're already selling and going from there.

SPEAKER_01 21:36

That's ahead of its time because we that they're like futuristic because eBay can't even do it. But Mercari can't.

SPEAKER_04 21:43

eBay can't? eBay has spendable funds.

SPEAKER_01 21:46

We do?

SPEAKER_04 21:47

Uh some people do. I don't. I don't, I don't, I can't, I can't mind. Oh, what? Yeah. What?

SPEAKER_01 21:54

That's crazy.

SPEAKER_04 21:55

Because he doesn't have uh I don't know what the difference is.

SPEAKER_01 21:57

He doesn't have to John a spender.

unknown 22:00

He is a spender.

SPEAKER_01 22:01

He really spends more. Yeah, that's what it is. That's what it is.

SPEAKER_04 22:06

No, I'm really not sure what it is. I don't know if it's because he doesn't have a store subscription. I don't think it has anything to do with that. But it might be like a trip. He's had it for a long time and I've never had it.

SPEAKER_01 22:16

Whoa. Yeah, we gotta we gotta ask eBay.

SPEAKER_04 22:18

But that's a thing on Poshmark too, isn't it?

SPEAKER_01 22:20

Yeah, yeah, Poshmark's like all the time. Like pretty much most of the money that I get from Poshmark, I buy inventories from Poshmark.

SPEAKER_04 22:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 22:29

Yeah, they want you to keep everything in the app, you know, on Goat, the same gate. Same thing, yeah. Yeah. Whatnot does not have that, which is kind of cool. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 22:39

That's kind of weird, huh? Yeah. It's kind of stupid that they're losing money. Because whatnot sellers are spenders. Yeah. Yeah. They're spenders first, really. Or like or gambling addicts.

SPEAKER_04 22:52

Okay. Let me put this to you gently.

SPEAKER_01 23:03

I used to be one.

SPEAKER_04 23:07

Yeah, right. Uh we want the grab bag, don't we?

SPEAKER_00 23:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 23:11

We should do something from grab bag. That would be really fun.

SPEAKER_00 23:14

Uh, can I put 20 down on horse number 10? What is Ken doing here? This is.

SPEAKER_01 23:22

I remember, I remember if you buy, right? And then you get entered to the duck race. And then I don't know, this is real.

SPEAKER_00 23:31

And then, like, what is going on?

SPEAKER_01 23:33

It's a mystery box, one to twenty five. Are you talking about whatnot still?

unknown 23:37

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 23:39

It's a loud race. It's allowed. We're delivering. This is not this is digital duck race, not a real race. Got it. Got it. This would be funny. A duck race. With tracks. Um, but we but but we used to do it. I mean, like, I think I think I've exploited it really well early on until they told me not to. Um because I did mystery box with some have t-shirts, some have shoes. So it was such a big win. And people start like exploiting it and narrowing it down. Like to get to the major price, they do like 25 boxes, and out of the 25 boxes, you get there's five duck race entries. So out of the five, you get to this digital duck race, and then they the ducks just digitally run, and whoever wins. So it's like like another layer of it's pretty much like it's really gambling at that point. It's like betting on a horse. Like, this is not an exchange of money. But I've lost a lot of money doing that because you know, you not because of like the gambling side, but because of you want to win the major price. Yeah. And then, but the only way you could do the major prize is buy as many boxes as you can, and then, you know, hopefully you'll hit.

SPEAKER_04 24:57

So hashtag it's a numbers game.

SPEAKER_01 25:00

Yeah, but but it's you still the percentage of losses so much.

SPEAKER_02 25:05

Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 25:08

This is entertainment.

SPEAKER_02 25:09

Yeah, I mean, Glenn was in it too. Glenn's bought oh, Glenn's a big winner. I actually remember it. Glenn, remember that? He bought like two mystery boxes.

SPEAKER_01 25:20

It wasn't actually a good look because we're homies. But but it was uh it was a card game, right? And then literally right after that they told me to stop it because there were cards involved, and it was like pretty much, you know, they probably, you know, federally we could have probably been in trouble with doing that because but um maybe you shouldn't talk about that on the air, okay? No, no, like it was on their platform. I was on the I was under contract with them, so they're in trouble too.

SPEAKER_00 25:50

So you got better dice and roulette tables and drinks, and I don't know. Just didn't make sure.

SPEAKER_04 25:59

You know what? I'm sitting here thinking the most recent experience I've had that's similar to that. You guys are gonna laugh. This is like the most wholesome thing ever. Last summer, John and I went to this tiny town that's next to our town, it's even smaller than the one we live in, and they had a hot air balloon festival with three hot air balloons, and there was like a cake walk, like a cake raffle thing that was like it was like a little carnival, right? So we went with my dad, y'all. My dad won. It was like, you know, out of 30 spots or whatever, you go and like put your little bet on whichever cake you want, and then they draw a number, and then he won. And I've never seen him like so happy in a cake.

SPEAKER_01 26:41

It's like a real cake.

SPEAKER_04 26:42

Yeah, it's like you the cake that you want is right there on the table. It's like, yeah. So you go around and you pick the one you want, and you put your you like pick a number and put your bet on your number.

SPEAKER_01 26:53

And so I would lose some. But he won, and he was just like cake.

SPEAKER_00 26:58

Some little his adrenaline was pumping.

SPEAKER_01 27:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 27:02

I mean, I literally wish I had been filming it because it was hilarious. But I'm like, it's the same, the same chemical process happens in your brain. Same thing. No matter what it is. Yeah. Could be a duck race, could be a cakewalk at a three hot air balloon festival. Like, it's we're just wired that way as people. Like, it's what happens.

SPEAKER_00 27:22

And so that's that's how we got to this whatnot split.

SPEAKER_04 27:27

So anyway, that's what it's circular economy. We're gonna circle on back to Recari. But yeah, I mean, it is interesting, right? All of that is in the spirit of keeping keeping our dollars on the platform. I mean, I remember, Ken, when we were the year that we met out at eBay, eBay's campus in San Jose, we we talked with a team that was kind of talking about that idea, you know, about having spendable funds. And I'm still not sure why I don't have spendable funds, but um I mean um I don't really care. I still shop on eBay all the time anyway, so it doesn't matter a lot too.

SPEAKER_01 28:04

Yeah, they were kind of busy with the best offer.

SPEAKER_04 28:07

Yeah. But using yeah, getting rid of unpaid items. But I think, you know, that whole idea of keeping the dollars on the platform, like obviously that makes sense for any platform, but the the way that that Mercari is approaching this is interesting. I mean, do you think I guess that just wasn't a thing before, but meanwhile, like Poshmark was already doing it. Do you guys know of any others that do that? Does Deepop do it? Go go with it.

SPEAKER_01 28:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 28:35

Um I don't know if Deep does or not.

SPEAKER_01 28:38

Is it uh Grail, does it, or something? I don't know. Like there's most newer platform actually you can. Um surprisingly, Jambo doesn't. Um that is true. Hmm. Well, basically kind of like Cash App, kind of like Cash App, right? Although uh the the wallets, right? Yeah, like digital wallets. Yeah, it's usually like stays there and then you pay if you want to get it out there. So I hate that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. I hate that smaller feet. Just send me a gift card. We're in line. Send me a gift card. I know.

SPEAKER_00 29:15

Two dollars at twenty percent. Do we need to go back through the percentage table?

SPEAKER_01 29:22

I don't think we know. I don't think we need to do the throwing ten dollars away.

SPEAKER_00 29:28

Uh it's kind of random, but I know I told you guys that the uh eBay stuffed little monkey that I got at eBay. When we went to headquarters, so yeah, like my daughter, I told you guys, loves this little clutch. Well, it is like now he's just he's going everywhere now. Oh and all over the place, and I'm like, I need a set of the yeah, like more backups. And so I was like, they have to sell him on eBay, right? And so I checked, and they do. Oh good. I bought three of them.

SPEAKER_01 30:03

Smart. That's that's actually a smart move. That's a dad m that's a dad mine right there. It is. We need that.

SPEAKER_00 30:11

No. Never used to have that.

SPEAKER_04 30:14

You need to send one each to me and Ken. We'll put it in our safe. And if anything happens, we can send you another. That's true. Put them in different locations. Yeah, that is true.

SPEAKER_01 30:23

Different locations.

SPEAKER_00 30:24

So eBay, if you're listening, don't ever get rid of this money. Because I need them on standby just for expensive. I think there were like five or seven bucks in a round.

SPEAKER_03 30:37

Oh my god.

SPEAKER_00 30:40

I know exactly. I didn't even know she was gonna like this because other plush that like people give as gifts, things like that. And for some reason, this eBay monkey holds on to them and never lets them go. She knows.

SPEAKER_01 30:55

She's like funny. I I thought you were gonna say that the dogs got to it.

SPEAKER_04 31:00

Oh, yeah, I was worried about it too when you started talking about it. I was like, what happened to it? Yeah, did it get lost?

SPEAKER_00 31:06

Oh no, no, no. That would have been real sad. I would have been in trouble after that. What all the dogs eating up this eBay monkey. Okay, let me get back into this uh Mercari thing real quick. So we there was also an email that was sent out yesterday. This is on um April 2nd. But of course, when you're listening to this, it's gonna be a little bit later. But uh April 2nd.

SPEAKER_04 31:25

Early April still.

SPEAKER_00 31:26

Again, major news. Mercari is now the first major US marketplace without selling fees. So they're reminding us once again, in case we didn't know. Now they go a little further. Max dollar pro tips. Oh now that this change has happened, okay. Some tips that Mercari wants you to follow. Number one, list more stuff. The more listings you have, the better chances you you have of making a sale.

SPEAKER_01 31:55

That is so pro tip.

SPEAKER_00 31:57

Okay, bro.

SPEAKER_01 31:58

Nice.

SPEAKER_00 31:59

Tip number two, promote your listings.

SPEAKER_04 32:04

But what does that mean? It doesn't mean the same thing that it means on eBay. No, it doesn't mean that.

SPEAKER_00 32:10

Drop your price by five percent to boost your listings and search results and notify liking.

SPEAKER_04 32:17

You're dropping your price by five percent.

SPEAKER_01 32:19

Dropping your price. Oh, so so that's uh that's the Amazon way. Get buy box. Buy box by dropping your price.

SPEAKER_00 32:27

Yeah, kind of. Kind of like that. Um, and number three, offer to likers. A 10% price reduction will set you apart and get more eyes on your listing.

SPEAKER_01 32:38

10%? Why why do I hear 10? Because they already gave you 10% signals.

SPEAKER_04 32:43

Yeah, it's uh why don't you just give it away? Isn't that what it usually has to be though? And then every time you send an offer after that, it has to be 10% of whatever the lowest is you've ever made an offer for it. So it just keeps going down and down and down. It's called Which kind of sucks. I didn't know about that when I first sent a bunch of offers, and now I'm like, well, I'm not sending offers on those items anymore. I don't want to take 20% off.

SPEAKER_01 33:06

It's called smart offers. Kind of like they're smart pricing. Remember that? Like when you like, this is my bottom price. I did that and it didn't do anything. Really? It's smart pricing. Like, it wasn't too smart. It wasn't too smart.

SPEAKER_00 33:21

So after that, they have a different tip. Um, AI supported cross-listing. Um, so calling all pro sellers, spending too much time listing on multiple platf uh platforms, we hear you. Now it's super easy to import 3,000 existing listings from eBay and Depop in bulk in just a few clicks on any desktop. And then it says, uh, please note this feature is not yet supported in app or mobile web.

SPEAKER_04 33:47

So where is it supported? Desktop only. Oh, I see. It's like I got it.

SPEAKER_01 33:52

But let me tell you this that's the first thing I tried. I started cross-listing, and I got errors, errors, errors. So on that note, this episode is brought to you by lists perfectly.

SPEAKER_00 34:08

Yes, I'm gonna add to that though. I did try what you said too, Ken. I wanted to see is this good or not on up to 3,000 listings. So I had 1,400 ready to go. Um, and yeah, I got I got the same errors. It didn't error. It didn't do it.

SPEAKER_04 34:25

Okay, I'm gonna try it and we'll see what happens. No, it'll be error. Yeah, I definitely wanna see.

SPEAKER_00 34:29

I think it's good to try this out.

SPEAKER_01 34:30

I think it's multi-quantity.

SPEAKER_04 34:33

So just one by one, we'll maybe I'll try most of my stuff's not multi-quantity, so maybe I'll try to.

SPEAKER_01 34:43

No, no, you can't cherry pick when you do bulk. It's literally your whole store.

SPEAKER_00 34:48

Yeah. You either do you set in your whole store or you do one by one.

SPEAKER_04 34:52

What if my whole store is more than 3,000 listings? Oh, you definitely have to use list perfectly. Interesting. Okay, so I was gonna say list perfectly, which has already mastered cross-listing your listings from eBay to Mercari.

SPEAKER_01 35:11

Yeah, exactly. So if you use Seller Club Pod, you save 30% off in your first month. And also, they have great customer service, and you can reach out to them and they'll get to you real quick. And also on top of that, you get to be a part of listeningparty.com. What is ListeningParty.com? Listeningparty.com is a community where everybody, it's a giant digital co-working space. Um, you can hang out there, you could ask advice, you could chit-chat, there's even a 24-hour room, you can even learn from experts like Seller Club Seminar. Like Glenn, like the the hard to get a hold of Glenn there in the party. In the party, it's true.

SPEAKER_04 36:04

We have our seller club seminar coming up later this month.

SPEAKER_01 36:07

So make sure you follow us on Instagram for more announcements and also follow List Perfectly on Instagram and all their other social accounts. So on to the next. What can't Mercari do right?

SPEAKER_00 36:24

So if you want to cross list, yes, go to List Perfectly route right now. Um I am getting errors. Maybe, like Ken said, if it has to do something with um multi-quantity, yeah, then maybe I don't know. Um, I don't know if we're ever gonna know, or but I definitely wanted to try and see what is everything that a lot of these platforms offer new things. I don't care what platform it is, I want to try it out and I want to see what's kind of going on. How does it compare with everything else?

SPEAKER_04 36:52

So what do you guys think about the like just zooming out a little bit on that little announcement? Like, what do you think about them encouraging people to pull or basically encouraging people to sell on multiple platforms? Because I mean, you know, my main frame of reference, of course, is eBay because that's the by far mostly where I sell and have always sold. But like they're very, you know, friendly to sellers who sell on multiple platforms. They're not like weird about it at all. If you sell on platforms besides theirs, they totally get it. Um, but they're also not like, hey, we're gonna make we're gonna give you tools to list on other platforms or to bring in your listings from other platforms. Like, I think that's really interesting.

SPEAKER_01 37:38

Yeah. I I think I think my take on that is um when you are just starting, um, in lar either like you're a hobby seller or a beginner seller, um, when you don't have a lot of listing, it is in your advantage to cross list. Um because I've experienced it myself, you know, when I was growing the business, that you know, your ten listings could be twenty listings because there are different people. You know, there is not one there's probably a really low percentage of people trying to kind of shop to different platforms. More likely they'll shop within the platform and you know, try to find uh a lower price because it's funny because I now that I'm uh multiple um you know platforms, a lot of people would offer me on eBay and would offer me on Poshmark. You're like it's the same, yeah, it's the same because they would do it at the same time. Right. And a lot of times those are really kind of like expert buyers, also known as resellers. You know, it's like, oh, let me see where he has a break on on discounts. So now I'm thinking because that there's a discount in fees, buyers would think they could get cheaper on Mercari, but at the end of the day, they will have to eat that 10% anyway. Yeah, so I think it's still the same. So I don't think um somebody's the buyers getting a discount if they cross-shopped a different platform.

SPEAKER_04 39:13

You know what I just thought about? What when I first started listing stuff on Mercari just like a couple months ago, I have a I had a limit, a hundred items, until I sold at least, I don't know, three or four items. How are you supposed to translate 3,000 listings into your Mercari store if you can only list a hundred if you've never sold anything?

SPEAKER_01 39:33

Oh, that's probably there's an error. Because we probably have a listing limit, Glenn. Do we? I don't think so.

SPEAKER_04 39:41

But Glenn probably doesn't because he's already been selling on there a while.

SPEAKER_01 39:43

I know. I wonder if it's tiered though. Like, okay, you can do 100, you can do 500, you can do a thousand.

SPEAKER_04 39:48

Yeah, I wonder that too. Because I'm like, maybe there's like a I think I'm still stuck at a hundred right now.

SPEAKER_01 39:53

Maybe there's like a background, you know, like tier security system that not one person can just list. But that's kind of like odd, huh?

SPEAKER_04 40:02

Well, I feel like with their game planning, comes great troubleshooting.

SPEAKER_00 40:06

Oh, a ton. Dang I think their game plan was easy, was just kind of like, hey, no fees. Now that you can import from other platforms, get on this platform because there's no fees.

SPEAKER_04 40:16

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 40:16

So they're like, here you go. Well, maybe that's true.

SPEAKER_04 40:19

I haven't checked my hundred item limit since they announced this, and maybe they got rid of it.

SPEAKER_00 40:24

True. So the way we're gonna end this podcast though is that yes, I did sell an item since this change, and I'll show you what that breakdown looks like. Yes, I'm what happened.

SPEAKER_01 40:34

So this guy making more money now.

SPEAKER_00 40:37

Uh I did tell you guys that I was trying to get my listings back up for eBay. I was taking photos today.

SPEAKER_04 40:42

Nice.

SPEAKER_00 40:43

Yes, we're getting back into it. We gotta make sure this is back to 100%. Um, I did sell a jacket. Now this jacket um was a newly listed and on eBay, I believe I had it at$169.99. Uh with promoted listing at uh four or five percent. Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_01 41:08

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 41:08

Um and then a Mercari, I listed it at the same price. Uh-huh. And I did get an offer for$155. Um,$155.

SPEAKER_01 41:19

Instant, instant, no fees.

SPEAKER_04 41:21

As Ken would say, you're getting it.

SPEAKER_00 41:23

You're getting it.

SPEAKER_04 41:24

You're getting it.

SPEAKER_00 41:26

So this one I was like, alright, cool, let's see what this looks like. And so it shows you the breakdown. Of course, they want to show no fees. So when you accept, it's like here, it's highlighted, you're getting a full$155.155.$155.

SPEAKER_02 41:41

What an offer.

SPEAKER_00 41:43

So I accept, and they showed me the order summary of what this person paid as a buyer.

unknown 41:50

Oh.

SPEAKER_00 41:50

So you made$155. Buyer paid. Service fee, six dollars and twenty cents.

SPEAKER_01 41:59

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 41:59

Delivery, which I did UPS sure post.$8.99. That's so high. Like and priority was like$18 something on that.

SPEAKER_04 42:12

Priority is probably in three.

SPEAKER_00 42:14

I mean, I feel like that's gonna turn them away more than anything else out of the box. Yeah. I mean, eighteen nineteen bucks for a jacket, payment processing fee five dollars eighty-eight cents.

SPEAKER_01 42:26

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 42:26

And of course, tax fifteen dollars and thirty-one cents. The$155 jacket for the buyer came out to$191.39.

SPEAKER_04 42:40

So are they gonna be using AI to automate custom apology notes to each of your buyers that get sent out as soon as their payment code?

SPEAKER_01 42:49

See, this is see, this is what every reseller becomes. Uh we become consultants to Mercari.

SPEAKER_04 42:55

Care about your apology note would go a long way. Yeah, I know.

SPEAKER_01 42:59

Yeah, all of us are like, sorry about that extra 40 bucks. But 155. I mean it would like basically they paid extra 12 bucks though.

SPEAKER_04 43:14

Because they would have paid shipping anyway. Right. They would have paid tax anyway.

SPEAKER_01 43:19

True. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I was like, oh, payment processing fee.

SPEAKER_04 43:23

I just wonder, I mean, I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 43:26

It's like makes the gap so big, right? Yeah. Like the visual, it's like, wait, I just paid 25% more.

SPEAKER_04 43:36

It's all percentage-based, but I feel like, okay, for example, you know, a hundred and fifty or a two hundred dollar item, it's like, okay, well, would I pay an extra 12 bucks for that? Yeah, I'm already spending 150 bucks. I probably would. If this was a$12 item, no, I would not spend an extra 12 bucks, you know. But I wonder if that's gonna like I don't know if there's any way to to even know this in the future, but you know, will the average sale price on Mercari be higher? Not because the fees are added in, but because people are more willing to pay the fees on more valuable items.

SPEAKER_01 44:12

And then buy and then sellers are more willing to take and accept offer because all of a sudden now they they they c they clean more money. Yeah, you know, like they they net more. Yeah, they clean it up. That is actually true. Maybe Anna, that's it. That's it.

SPEAKER_00 44:27

Anna found out exactly what's going on here.

SPEAKER_01 44:30

That's that's what the code and then they took it. That's it, that's it. We figured it out, guys.

SPEAKER_04 44:37

Well, that's a wrap. Great episode.

SPEAKER_00 44:40

You cracked the code, so that's exactly what they were shooting for.

SPEAKER_04 44:46

I'm pretty sure I just asked a question. No, I don't know the answer.

SPEAKER_01 44:50

No, you figured it out because they they want to attract higher-end buyers and be like, okay, I'll pay 12 bucks more for a hundred fifty dollar jacket. It's like, oh great. Um, let me sell you a$20 shoe. You'll pay$20 more. Or something like that. And then as a seller, man, Glenn must be like, hmm.

SPEAKER_04 45:08

That's like he's like, let me try to mirror that store again.

SPEAKER_01 45:11

That's that's literally copy everything real quick. That I feel I feel like that's um that's what I felt like when um eBay Um did the automatic payments on customers sending offer. Yeah. I was just more likely to just say yes, yeah, then be like, okay, like if I give five dollars off, I'll make ten dollars more, but at that rate, he's not guaranteed to pay. I'll just give him a$15 discount now. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 45:45

But I do think you're onto something because if you look at Mercari's marketing, let's say four or five years ago, they did do a lot of um commercials and things like that with like selling extra things around your house.

SPEAKER_04 46:00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 46:00

I remember they did some kind of like I don't know about like a toaster or blender or just different things.

SPEAKER_01 46:06

I think it was a higher end too, right? It was a smeg or something like that. Uh I thought they were just lower end stuff. Oh, they were lower end?

SPEAKER_00 46:13

I thought they were just lower end stuff like that. I mean, I think that's true. I think it's kind of like like what you and Ken said, like, hey, like let's let's get higher end stuff on here and get rid of a lot of the you know$5 used t-shirt. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 46:31

It is kind of interesting because think about you know, even Walmart, Target, Amazon, like any little thing that you might need for your household, you can pretty much order as cheap as possible, have it shipped to you for free in two days or less. Like, that's not a niche anymore. You know, like I don't know, when you can you can buy whatever you need new for really cheap and really fast free shipping through their programs and stuff. Like, I just wonder if a lot of reselling is gonna be like trying to be more specific or trying to be more targeted for those more valuable things.

SPEAKER_00 47:11

Yeah. Very true. Alright, guess this episode's done. That was a nice little breakdown. I mean, we went through their emails, we went through their tips, and we went through a sale. So what else what else can we say? What else can we do?

SPEAKER_04 47:24

Is it a circular economy revolution? Let us know what you think.

SPEAKER_01 47:29

We'll see you in the next one. Let's drop the beat on our way out. Oh, yeah.