A return has two separate questions, and Baiord keeps them apart because the answers are independent. A return can be settled with your supplier while the unit itself is still sitting in a box unopened.
Question one: the supplier side
The Supplier return column is a dropdown: Pending, Completed, Rejected, Not needed. This is your own tracking of what happened with your supplier — eBay owns the eBay state column beside it, and the two never fight.
Question two: can it be sold again?
The Resaleable? cell opens "Can this return be resold?" with three answers:
| Answer | What happens |
|---|---|
| Resaleable | The unit lands on your return shelf and its value is credited back to the order's profit. Where you track stock, it also becomes a one-unit stock batch at the cost you set. |
| Damaged | Nothing is credited. That is the write-off — the cost stays against the order, which is what actually happened. |
| Not back yet | Recorded as a decision, touches nothing. Use it when the box has not arrived. |
The dialog asks for the cost it goes back at, seeded from the product's average or last cost, with a nudge worth taking seriously: "A return is rarely worth its original cost — set what this unit is now worth."
Where an order had several products, it also asks which one came back.
Why a resaleable return credits profit
Without it, a resaleable return costs you twice. The original order keeps its full buying price, and then the restocked unit — put back at its resale cost — gets charged again when it goes out on the next order. The credit cancels the first charge so the unit is only paid for once.
It appears on the dashboard and the P&L as Returned stock credited back.
The credit is capped at the order's buying price. Valuing a returned unit above what you paid for it would turn a return into a profit, so Baiord refuses: "A returned unit cannot be worth more than the order's buying price."
Answering again is safe. Baiord reverses the previous restock first — removing the old batch and the old credit — so repeated answers cannot drift your stock or double-credit your profit.
When you can answer
Once eBay reports the item delivered back to you, or once it has been refunded in transit. Until then the cell reads "In transit — not delivered yet" and is not clickable. Baiord deliberately will not nag you about a unit that has not arrived.
The return shelf
Resaleable units you have not yet sent back out. It is a tab on your Products page — On the return shelf — which appears only while something is on it, because an empty shelf is not a place.
The header reads "4 units on hand — worth £38.60: resaleable units customers sent back that your supplier did not refund. Reuse them on the next order before buying again."
Each row shows the returned item, which order it came from, your cost, how long it has been on the shelf, and a Mark used button for when you ship it. That takes it off the shelf and removes its stock batch so stock and shelf stay in step.
Shelf units also count toward the stock figure on your Products page, alongside your stock batches.
The return shelf used to be its own sidebar page. It is a Products tab now; the old address redirects.
Open and closed
A return is closed when eBay closes it or the request times out. "Closed" describes eBay's side only — you may still be chasing your supplier, and the supplier column stays yours to set. A return eBay closed with no refund at all shows no refund date rather than an invented "pending".