Selling on eBay/eBay business?

I think the ebay ship has sailed. If you've got stuff to resell and you just want to get rid of it, then it's an ok place to sell. But for my e-commerce sites where I buy from actual distributors/wholesalers, it's not really worth it to sell there. About 3 years ago last time I checked, really the only way you could make money there is by getting creative. And what I mean is, sometimes distibutors would have specials like Buy 3 of these and get 1 free...these were on $300 items. So you sell the 3 at cost and then sell the last one and that's where all your profit was.

Now I think it's even worse. Ebay has continued to raise fees and there is so much competition that it's not really worth it. It's become more of a dumping ground for liquidators that want to get rid of stuff. Just to give you an idea, the company I used to work at used to dump stuff there at cost before year end.

I manufacture products in china and sell stuff on my websites. And the margins are fantastic. I'm talking gross margins of 55-75% when I sell on my own site. On ebay for a product I sell for $25 on my site, I can get good volume if I sell at $10-$12. Anything above that and you start hitting serious competition. Now, if I had someone just listing/selling ebay stuff like that, then perhaps it's worth it. But to me there are better ways to put people to work.

Personally, I'd rather figure out how to increase sales when I'm making $17 per sale rather than just pumping out products at $3 profit per sale.

Hey, thanks a lot. I guess eBay is out of the question then.

Do you suggest alibaba for products? I see so much there, but then I look on ebay and see hong kong sellers offering products for less with shipping then I could possibly profit. I guess its all a numbers game.

Also, I hear dealing with ebay customers suck. They practically expect freebies.

Spoken like someone who has never actually dealt with wholesale companies or dropshippers. Or sold on ebay either...cause inflating shipping costs to avoid fees is a big no/no and pretty simple for them to catch.

You can still make money on eBay but it sure isn't like it was 10 years ago. I miss the old days but if you can find something to specialize in and if you can find something that is in demand, you can still do okay. The customers nowadays tend to suck however and that is the hardest part for me. How people can pay on Monday and expect their item on Tuesday is beyond me but that is how it is.

Between 2002-2006 I used to sell a lot on eBay, mainly in sporting goods niches and antique/vintage collectibles. Now, I occasionally sell something there where I can't get a good price locally at an antique auction/mall, consignment store or flea market but that's only a few times a year.

For example, I can take a few cases fishing gear to a local flea market, pay $35-$75 for a table and be sold out within a few hours and have cash in hand. Selling that same amount of stuff on eBay would take weeks and involve shipping stuff (or paying drop shipping fees), dealing with customer service issues and paying a lot more in fees than the cost of the table at the flea market.

Today, eBay is a lot more trouble than it's worth unless you're going into online sales of physical products big time. Even then, you'll find it better to use eBay sales as loss leaders to funnel traffic toward your own ecommerce site and building a buyers email list.

Hi James,

I sold a lot on eBay,this has been an incredible business for me!

Maybe today it's not like 8 years ago...but personally i think eBay still offer the opportunity to make thousands and also develop a million dollar business!

Anyway a top guide i strongly recommend you is "eBay Global-the smart way" by Joseph T. Sinclair and Ron Ubels!

I have learned a lot from this guide and it is extremely helpful for beginners!

Best of luck!
Devid

eBay has not sinked but almost on the brink of sinking. Now to earn from eBay you should be more creative and you need to have a book called Auction Mercenary. That book reveals how to make money from eBay using other people's mistakes.

There are several people who do not have english as their first language, so when they try to sell something on the eBay, they normally misspell the item. Ultimately their product do not sell on ebay coz it never came into search. Hence there are techniques involved on getting cash from the ebay misspelled items.

If you wish where you can get the eBook just PM me and I will give you the web address, as it is not viable to spoil the thread with unnecessary links.

I know a British guy out here in Serbia who sources military and similar memorabilia and ships it worldwide, I guess he pays the bills with it because it's a niche market but it's not exactly big business and he has plenty of complaints but not much choice. Ebay has gone down the pan, no two ways. Must suggest to him he set up his own site, but I guess like a lot of people he just finds it easier going the ebay route, and that's how ebay somehow continue to cling on.

I think that whoever using ebay as the main source of profit is definetely missing the whole point. I think eBay can be one of the best customer acquisition tools out there. For most businesses the most expensive part of their operation is acquiring a new customer. If you can integratwe eBay to generate these customers even if you don't make a profit on these initial sales, you can make a killing with back end products or complementing offers.

Hope this helps

u dont really need to sell things on ebay...the profit margin really low...but u can use ebay to promote ur site

You can still make CRAZY money on eBay selling liquidated goods & refurbished stuff.

Another great source is to look for manufacturers and distributors directly at
ThomasNet.com

I've sold over 1500 refurbished dropshipped dehumidifiers on eBay. My source wasn't on anyone's list. I had to explain the concept of dropshipping to him! LOL :-)

The result so I had no competition and made a KILLING.

Refurbished, scratched & dented, even broken items sell VERY well on eBay.
You can try finding local companies that get customer returns that are missing a screw, scratched, or has some other minor problem that doesn't affect the functioning of the item. For example, my brother picked up a bunch of scratched electrical panels from a company that couldn't sell them to their professional electricians, but for the do-it-yourselfer home guy they were perfect!

...Mikee17

Founder: AuctionTNT.com and PlatinumPowerSeller.com

Hi,

Quite surprised with the comments about ebay. I make a lot of money on ebay. I sell in about 5 or 6 different categories. I have a shop which reduces my listing fees and I am a top rated powerseller which reduces my final selling fees by 20%.
Yes the fees are high but look what you get for that. There is no where on the internet where you will get the traffic you get on ebay or Amazon. That is a fact. if anyone wants to buy anything the first place they look is ebay or amazon. If you do a google search for items you can bet that ebay items will appear on the first page.
I think a lot of warriors don,t like it because ebay stopped them selling digital downloads ....... and rightly so.
If you are selling proper physical products and not ebooks or " how I made a £1000 a day for 3 months ?" information rubbish, then you can build a substantial business with ebay. Its a great way to build a customer base for an e commerce site which is exactly what I do. I have a website selling one source of my products and a lot of the sales generated on that site are from ebay. I intend to open two more websites in the next few months based on the sales from ebay.
Ebay is also a great way to test the market for new products you want to sell. Sell them on ebay if they do well then invest the time and money into opening a website. If they don,t sell on e bay then there is a good chance they will not sell anyway.

If you want to build a successful long term business then dealing in physical products is the only way forward. This is what the ordinary person on the street is after, not e books or information products. If these " get rich" information products are so good, why are people selling the ideas, surely you would keep that information to yourself !!!

oBay started a number of years getting rid of the smaller sellers. I sold there for about 10 years (started 1997) before I acknowledged the writing on the wall there. The latest analysis I've read indicates that PayPal will be driving the company.

If you are selling in a small enough niche where your item(s) will be among the few listed, you might be okay. I've found the actual selling price on niche type items there tends to be higher than selling elsewhere.

That said, if you want to deal with their insane policies, make sure you do your research. I've seen too many items listed there that just don't sell. I used to use HammerTap, but currently use Terrapeak ... not for selling there but for looking for pricing for uncommon items (I hate the overused terms "rare", vintage, antique, etc.)

If you are still inclined to sell relatively common items there, you have "best match" to deal with, i.e. making sure your items show up when someone searches.

And then you have the buyer ratings (DSRs - Detailed Seller Ratings) to deal with.

And if you use google to drive traffic, the latest results have been you get shown a page with other stuff competing with what you are selling.

Marvin