Lotusflower Posted December 7, 2008 Report Share Posted December 7, 2008 I have an ebay account, and am considered a nice buyer. Could I start a small business? And what could I sell to 'try it out', so I have nothing to loose, basically. I have some ideas: Miscro SD Memory Cards for Mobile (cheaply). Some people get stuff from China, and sell it cheap. I bought a mouse from China on ebay for £1 with p&p, the scrool wheel is funny, but works other then that. Any advice on selling on ebay? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
suchandra Posted December 9, 2008 Report Share Posted December 9, 2008 I have an ebay account, and am considered a nice buyer. Could I start a small business? And what could I sell to 'try it out', so I have nothing to loose, basically. I have some ideas: Miscro SD Memory Cards for Mobile (cheaply). Some people get stuff from China, and sell it cheap. I bought a mouse from China on ebay for £1 with p&p, the scrool wheel is funny, but works other then that. Any advice on selling on ebay? Ebay's trick is micropayment - charging a very small amount per day but at the end of the month it is x30. In order to make your ebay presentation look impressive, signaling that your are successful, you need at least 6-10 pics of your products. Ebay charges for every pic an extra fee. Ebay doesn't allow to post a link to your external internet shop so what Krishnadas and me did put the url to our oscommerce-shop on a pic. They didnt complain although it says no links permitted. Next the ranking - it seemed that at the beginning we were ranked ok, when someone used the search button we showed up among the first 10. Later we gradually moved back and back till you hardly couldnt find our ebay shop with the search button anymore. Another thing, it seems that ebay is checking those who are doing ok and then they do it themselves, via their own agents, and push your ebay-shop way back in the search ranking so new visitors cannot find you anymore. Even google does it, manipulate the ranking, unless you pay them for a better position. Meanwhile ebay has all the details what people buy, how it has to be presented, pricing etc. Guess the only thing one can try is rarities. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hari Bhakta dasa Posted December 9, 2008 Report Share Posted December 9, 2008 Basically the only one making money is ebay. There are so many sellers selling the same products that the sellers are dropping their prices. Buyers can do well tho. The fees ebay tacks on add up rapidly and then you have to figure in the fees for paypal and other payment methods. Also, it is if a buyer complains you are out of luck and have to refund the money to them. I sold on ebay for years and did quite well. But like many sellers, I quit due to all the fee changes, feedback changes and the lack of respect for the seller. The last time I put books on to sell, I made a whopping $5 and ended up owing ebay $15. Too much competition and too high on the ebay fees. Buyers are getting wise to the fact that sellers can not give negative or neutral feedback to them and many take unfair advantage of that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
suchandra Posted December 10, 2008 Report Share Posted December 10, 2008 Basically the only one making money is ebay. There are so many sellers selling the same products that the sellers are dropping their prices. Buyers can do well tho. The fees ebay tacks on add up rapidly and then you have to figure in the fees for paypal and other payment methods. Also, it is if a buyer complains you are out of luck and have to refund the money to them. I sold on ebay for years and did quite well. But like many sellers, I quit due to all the fee changes, feedback changes and the lack of respect for the seller. The last time I put books on to sell, I made a whopping $5 and ended up owing ebay $15. Too much competition and too high on the ebay fees. Buyers are getting wise to the fact that sellers can not give negative or neutral feedback to them and many take unfair advantage of that. Seems like those ebay accounts which aren't used for a longer period of time are occasionally hacked. Once I got a mail, dear sir, thanks for showing interest to buy our products on ebay.....I immediately wrote ebay - ok this was settled quickly. Then I wanted to close my ebay account. It wasnt possible to close it. For 3 months they wouldnt close it, e-mails back and forth, reconfirm, please again re-confirm. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lotusflower Posted December 10, 2008 Author Report Share Posted December 10, 2008 mmmm, what about using my Paypal account, and putting paypal shopping cart on a site, and not going through ebay at all? I see the problem with the search facility, and ranking etc. But the good thing about having a site (or ebay) is that you can be anywhere in the world and still have a 'shop' but just online. Imagine having a shop (rent, etc) Bills, electricity, council tax (uk), etc Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
suchandra Posted December 11, 2008 Report Share Posted December 11, 2008 mmmm, what about using my Paypal account, and putting paypal shopping cart on a site, and not going through ebay at all? I see the problem with the search facility, and ranking etc. But the good thing about having a site (or ebay) is that you can be anywhere in the world and still have a 'shop' but just online. Imagine having a shop (rent, etc) Bills, electricity, council tax (uk), etc If you can manage to set up an easily payable ebay shop in the long term without depending upon the sale figures ebay will still charge quite a heavy fee. To run a shop with all the work, shipping, mailing, writing, there should be an adequate earnings? from internet forums: "I remember when a month where my fees were consistently over $1,000. Paying that bill at the end of the month was always a painful experience. These days, however, I sell a lot less on eBay (my business has changed). My bill last month was only $71 and it's not usually over $200. " "My high watermark on the rewards scheme is around £400, but monthly varies from £100-£300, although I have backed off a lot in the last few weeks due to work commitments. It's a big number and cost, but I ensure that my selling price and sell-through rate easily covers it." "My monthly ebay fee, including the basic store, typically runs between 12% and 16% of my sales. I usually sell between $1200 and $1500 gross...my fees run $120 to $160." "About $300 to $400 in a usual month, but I do a lot of selling." "At the moment between £5 and £15 monthly. Not a lot & i easily make that back." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bvnbhargava Posted December 11, 2008 Report Share Posted December 11, 2008 Hii all, I recently listed some old mobile and PC monitor and hence i would like to comment on this topic. I was never charged anything as many think. List for 7 days-Its free add ur(icici,hdfc,etc) bank account for paisa pay-its free do not go for bold or any decorated listings-they charge for this. else everything else is free..You can certainly try selling your product. there are many more sites like ebay (for eg freefew.co.cc,indiatimes auction,rediffauction,auction.com,etc) but ebay is one of the best as far as my experience goes. All the best Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hari Bhakta dasa Posted December 11, 2008 Report Share Posted December 11, 2008 No everything is not free. You can list the first time for free and then if the items sells you are charged according to the selling price. Plus paypal does charge a fee. If you want to try to sell items that did not sell the first time around then you are charged a fee for listing. ebay is not going to give away their services for free. If you were lucky enough to sell everything the first time around - that is to your benefit but even then you are charged a fee based on the sale price. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hari Bhakta dasa Posted December 11, 2008 Report Share Posted December 11, 2008 p.s. I sold on ebay for years. I gave it up due to the fee changes and feedback changes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lotusflower Posted December 11, 2008 Author Report Share Posted December 11, 2008 I think ebay charges 10% or 15% but depends on your item. So if you sell something for £100 ebay takes £10, and your left with £90. Thats how auction works. Its commition (i saw it on tv!) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
suchandra Posted December 11, 2008 Report Share Posted December 11, 2008 So if you sell something for £100 meanwhile I don't think that you can actually sell something on ebay. If you want for example £100 you have to write: Sony notebook, new, original packaging / factory packaging, 2 years warranty claim, original price £ 1500 now, £100 only. Then you might "earn" £100 on ebay. But can this be called selling, rather to flog something, that's what ebay is all about. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hari Bhakta dasa Posted December 11, 2008 Report Share Posted December 11, 2008 Besides the fees and other ways that ebay operates; another thing started to disturb me about ebay. Isn't it a form of gambling? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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