Selling-Shipping Eggs

[GeoGreyWolf]

Between 3 female ducks, laying eggs currently, and 3 more growing up, I am thinking about selling fertilized duck eggs. I usually sell random stuff on Ebay and figured maybe I could try there, I have a backyard mix. Pekin, Rouen, Swedish females with a Swedish Drake. I have hatched some eggs myself so i know they are fertilized and have cracked some others open when cooking and can see the bulls eye. The thing is getting more eggs than my family eats. Any and all advice on how to properly sell, package and ship would be appreciated. This can help me with the decision of selling on Ebay. Even price range would help.

 

[RainForestBird]

Selling eggs on Ebay is good if you need to sell them quickly. Because eggs are perishable and when your hens are laying they're usually doing it all at once and you have a surplus inventory with a very short shelf life. However, Facebook groups are more secure in that the buyers and sellers are vetted somewhat more by their membership in the group and Facebook vetting at the very least. You will run into all kinds of buyers on Ebay, most of them are okay, but when you get a bad one, they are really bad-I can tell you horror stories. Feedback can be used to the buyer's advantage and because bad feedback is so devastating, the seller is at the mercy of both the buyers and Ebay that will usually side with a buyer if there is a dispute. Just recently, someone bought my eggs that I was selling because my show quality hens are giving me a surplus of eggs. I covered myself all over the place in the description, saying that the hatch rate is affected by rough postal handling, heat, incorrect incubation method, etc. and that I would not replace or refund for eggs that do not hatch. Despite all my warnings, a buyer in Florida ordered my eggs and left bad feedback because as she said, very few of the eggs were fertile. Apparently 2 of 12 hatched. The eggs were shipped from Washington State, to Florida. Why anyone in Florida would even consider ordering eggs in the middle of summer from all the way across the country baffles me. I shipped the eggs, because I have not restricted sales to certain states, only to different countries. So I was obligated to go through with the transaction. I knew in the back of my mind that they would not hatch, but apparently I was wrong and 2 of them hatched. Regardless of this, the seller left bad feedback without even communicating with me first. I contacted her about it, because my description clearly stated that buyers should only leave feedback about the way the eggs were packed and not hatch rates. She told me she would change her feedback if I sent her another order of eggs for free (this is not a cheap transaction as Priority Shipping alone is a considerable expense). This is clearly against Ebay rules, a buyer can not use feedback to get free, reduced price items or refunds. If you contact Ebay, they will tell you this, I know because I have been threatened before, in this case a the buyer wanted a reduced price order, or they would give me negative feedback for an order they had already received. This is not to mention all the buyers that use their age, disability and income to get free or reduced price products. One women told me that I should sell her eggs for less than half the asking price because she lost a hand a decade ago. I have nothing against disabled people, but I don't think I owe them free or reduced prices for a product because of a disability that they described to me, a complete stranger. If you are going to sell eggs on Ebay, know that your feedback will be affected. If your feedback doesn't worry you, I would say to go ahead and sell, but if you value your perfect score, I would seriously think about not doing it. I will probably issue a refund to the woman in Florida, just to be rid of her, sending her more eggs is a bad idea. She's already told me that my eggs are infertile, even though some of them hatched. I don't know why she would be interested in the breed anyway if its true what her friends say that the birds are usually sterile (not!).