FREE: 50pcs Copper Plate 2mm Spacer Beads

Ohhh, these are nice! Can I make a suggestion? Try starting your bidding lower than 100 credits. That way people can put in a low "watch bid." It helps them to notice it and remember to come back to bid when they are looking at their bidding list.

That's what I do, I put in a low bid on anything I'm interested in, then check the list every day to see what I want to try to win. Normally, you get outbid right away when you do that so your credits are freed up, but having to place a 100 credit bid just to watch it ties up a lot more credits.

Starting the bidding lower to get more "watch bids" also helps psychologically, I think, when people see that a bunch of others have already bid.

If you are concerned that you won get 100 credits for an item, I understand that, but the beads seem to do pretty well on Listia as long as you offer a decent number of them. Small lots don't get a lot of bids and you end up paying all that shipping to earn just a few credits. That's why I try to offer large lots of most beads. I think this lot of 50 is really good, so I'm not criticizing, just passing along some lessons learned.

I know it's harder for Canadians to build on Listia because you don't have a lot of Canadians that participate yet, but I'm hoping that will change. Those of you who love Listia need to talk it up, share info about it on any web sites you use, etc. Just get the word out as much as you can. Eventually Listia will probably be very strong in Canada, then you won't have to depend on US sellers offering free shipping to Canada so much.

Personally, I think Listia should do some marketing in Canada. It could really grow this site enormously, but I don't think Listia spends any money advertising, at least I haven't seen it.

I'm done, I'll go away now ... sorry to ramble!

LOL ... I think if you look for longer-term sellers on Listia, you might be able to convince them to send a SMALL package to Canada, and then maybe they will start offering to Canada with all of their listings. A lot of us also have been ebay sellers and are familiar with shipping to Canada and even overseas. It's amazing how many of the "good" sellers on Listia also are ebay or former ebay sellers.

Y'know, it might be worhwhile to get on ebay and send messages to Canadian sellers, tell them about Listia (and you get referral bonus credits if they join) and try to get more professional sellers from Canada to use Listia. That might be one way to grow the Canada contingent on Listia.

I also want to let you know that, although I posted a delivery confirmation number on the listing I sold you when I sent it (and on a second one I sent to Canada this week), I didn't actually buy delivery confirmation. That number is from the customs form that I generated online. It is a unique number for each package, so I believe it would still work for tracking purposes, but I don't honestly know for sure. I'm not really sure how much it costs to actually buy a tracking number for Canada. Normally I use Paypal to generate my US first class labels, and delivery confirmation costs me only 4 cents more than using stamps (without delivery confirmation). But you can't buy Canada first-class anywhere online that I know of, which kinda sucks. So I use the online customs form to create the mailing label, but then I just put stamps on the package to pay for the postage.

If you know of any way I can actually buy Canada postage online, please let me know. I'd use it so I could hopefully also purchase a real delivery confirmation tracking number.

I think if we could figure out a relatively brief "boilerplate" we could post as comments on listings, explaining how to ship to Canada easily and at low cost, we could get some discussions going and maybe convince a lot of sellers to start offering shipping to Canada for small packages.

The problem with larger packages (over 13 ounces) is that it DOES cost a lot more to ship to Canada, at least with Priority mail. I hesitate to ship larger packages anywhere outside the US with non-Priority, because if they go missing everyone is outta luck, and generally, as the seller, I reimburse even though it's not my fault.

So, once again, if you have any knowledge of how to ship larger packages to Canada cheaply and safely (with tracking, or whatever) let me know.

Since this listing ends tomorrow, maybe we can try to continue this discussion on another one of your listings. I'm going to put a little watch bid in on this listing (even though I need more beads like a hole in the head) so I can come back and copy/paste some of this info to some of the listings of other sellers I know whom we might be able to convince ...

egads, I'm rambling again ... I've got to go out soon. I'm going to Walmart today to get bifocal CONTACT lenses because I'm SICK of wearing reading glasses. I'm going to pay for it all with gift cards I've won on Listia ...hopefully I can stand wearing the contacts because I can't see NUTHIN any more without readers.

It would be great if many of the really experienced US sellers could pass along information to convince other sellers how easy it is to ship to Canada if the items weigh less than 13 oz. As Nancy had told me about recently, it is the same price to ship to Canada as within the US, if the package/item is under 13oz. As a Canadian buyer and seller this would make my Listia buying and selling experience less stressful and more fun.

I have noticed there are so many different shipping prices stated with many of the US listings for jewelry for example. All these shipping prices should be Free of at least the same price.

I found one seller that was charging $5 shipping for a bracelet of hers, and then $7 for a ring. I am guessing that the ring maybe was more expensive than the bracelet, and that is why the shipping cost was more. When I asked or commented to the seller about the difference in the shipping costs, I got no reply. The shipping should have been the same price, and then again both items were under 13oz and should have been no more $2-$2.99 for the shipping cost.

There are many other auctions where the seller is charging $10 and up for shipping as well. To me, I feel that not only are sellers getting credits in exchange for their items up for auction, but they are actually making cash money as well. This is wrong. I won't' bid on an item anymore unless the shipping is reasonable. It is a complete turn off, and as I matter of fact after giving the credits, and the high shipping fees, the seller is the big winner in this. The items they are auctioning probably aren't even worth the price of the shipping to begin with.

I joined near the end of September and I am constantly learning about Listia. Nancy has given me alot of great advice, I trust her, and I am proud to call her a friend.