Dad Flips Stuff

Got everything shipped this morning, came back to start listing the next pile, and eBay told me to take the day off. Some days you fight the algorithm. Today the algorithm is just gone.

"Do you ship to Thailand?" SCAM?

Got this message the other day and my first thought was "...yes? I have eBay International Shipping turned on. Just buy it."

But then they couldn't. And honestly, I used to assume these were scams. Turns out, most of the time it's just eBay's AI being weirdly overprotective and blocking buyers from certain countries for no obvious reason.

Here's what I've figured out after dealing with this a bunch:

Step 1: Check your own listing first.
Go to the shipping tab on your listing, click "See details," and try changing the country to wherever the buyer is located. If you can select it, eIS is set up and it should be able to ship. If it's grayed out, that confirms it. eBay's filters decided your item is "restricted" for their region, even when there's zero reason for it. That means you need to tweak the listing.

Step 2: Create a new listing for the same item.
Sounds dumb, but it kind of resets whatever the AI flagged. A few things I've noticed help:
Leave out words that seem to trigger it. For toys especially, stuff like "vintage" or certain material descriptions seem to set it off.
Try a slightly different category. Sometimes that alone fixes it.
Don't go overboard on item specifics. Less info = less for the system to get weird about.

Step 3: Send the buyer a direct link to the new listing.
I've done this multiple times now and it works way more often than it should have to.

Anybody else running into this lately? I'm really curious what other keywords you've noticed that make eBay kill international shipping on a listing. Drop them below. Would love to build out a list so we can all stop guessing.

How high should i go????

How much is that quarterly eBay coupon really worth?

eBay sends sellers a $25 coupon every quarter for their shipping supply store, and it feels pretty good when it shows up. But I did the math.

The 8x6x4 box runs $29.37 for a bundle of 25 in eBay's store. Apply your coupon and you're paying $4.37 out of pocket. Not bad, right?
Here's the thing. The exact same box — same dimensions, same 32 ECT rating, same single wall construction — is $8.75 for 25 at Grainger. So the coupon isn't really saving you $25. It's saving you about $4 compared to just buying elsewhere.

The bonus with Grainger is around 250 branch locations across the US, so you can skip shipping and pick up same-day. For a high-volume seller that's a big deal.

Free money is free money, so use the coupon. But if you've been buying supplies from eBay all year thinking you're getting a deal, it's worth shopping around.

Do you try to figure out the address of the next sale from the photos???🧐

You ever get that one great day that just ruins all your other bars?!?

It's been two days since my last post - don't worry, I'm OK!

You just got a message notification on eBay. It says, "Is this your best price?" Do you reply? What types of messages get the cold shoulder treatment from you?

Man, I’ve been looking for one of these in the wild for over 20 years! 🕵️‍♂️

Back in the early 2000s, I remember seeing a VHS copy of this locked in the glass case at a Goodwill in Hillsboro, Oregon. They had it marked up to $20, which was wild for a tape back then. I actually had to walk out to my car just to get a signal on my Palm Centro—talk about a blast from the past—to research it. That might have been one of the first "BOLOs" (Be On the Lookouts) I ever figured out.

Once I got a closer look, it was pretty obvious that VHS was a fake, so I left it behind. But ever since then, I always scan the Disney section just in case. I saw this DVD for $1 and grabbed it without thinking.

Turns out, it’s a bootleg too. Since it's not authentic, I’m definitely not going to list it on eBay—condition transparency and building trust are everything in this business. My wife thinks I’m a bit nuts for being this excited about a bootleg find, but it’s all about the "treasure hunt" dopamine hit for me.

What do you think?
I know this title is pretty controversial these days. If you found an original, authentic copy in the bins for a buck, would you flip it or is it a "leave it" for you?

Drop a comment below—I'm curious where you guys stand on this one! 👇