Is Ebay a Sleeping Giant?

James Foster

12 years ago

You could... I don't know... Sell stuff on it too.

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Ryan David

12 years ago

I don't use ebay at all, unless i'm really really price shopping. Ebay appeared to peak in popularity in 2005 and, now, I just don't hear much about it. I'd be curious how Ebay is doing over the last 7 years when you isolate that specific business. I know paypal has just exploded in growth though.

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Scott James 12 years ago

Man it's buyer beware when shopping on ebay. I always go with amazon.
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fluffythewondercat 12 years ago

My direct involvement with eBay is over. Done. Kaput. If your company doesn't do $100 million a year in sales, eBay doesn't want anything to do with you and will keep raising your fees until you get the message.

I'm in ePN. I make more there than through Amazon Associates.

fLufF
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- fluffythewondercat 12 years ago
  
  I was just about to start a thread asking if being in ePN worth it with this so called qualify jargon or whatever. Seem I see a niche that might be paying at the the electric bill.
  Do you mind throwing more light, please
  
  I didn't post the whole story. (No one ever does.)
  
  I've been an eBay affiliate since back when Commission Junction was running the program. You might remember there was a dust-up with accusations of certain prominent people doing cookie stuffing on their forum.
  
  Then eBay brought it in-house. As Brian notes, there is little to no transparency. I get paid by click according to the "quality" of the traffic I drive. Last month it was a miserable 9 cents per click. I made a lot more back in the days when commission was a percentage of fee paid.
  
  My ePN links are on a very old well-established site that ranks well for a few terms.
  
  By comparison, I'm relatively new to Amazon Associates, really only ramping that up since California and Amazon struck a deal. I got my "welcome back" email on 10/3/11. I'm still learning which links, banners and widgets convert best and where. I have not made any Amazon sites. I'm reworking an existing site.
  
  fLufF
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BackLinkiT

12 years ago

Originally Posted by Heidi White

Is the difficult-to-crack eBay Partnership Network (EPN) the only way to make money from this booming company?

I assume you mean 'difficult to get into' rather than 'difficult to crack'. If so, then you are right. It can be difficult to get accepted but once you do...

For those struggling try this chap:

Get Approved for EPN

And to clarify this is not my site and I am not associated with it in any way.

Otherwise sell on eBay, of course!

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travlinguy

12 years ago

eBay was once the promised land. But that was back in the early years when they were a mom and pop kinda place. They've gone mainstream corporate now and have to answer to shareholders.

I was once a powerseller there. But little by little they made it harder to make money. They increased fees a lot. They made it more of a buyer's market than a seller's. They stopped allowing sellers to post feedback on buyers while they let buyers post feedback on sellers.

This literally allows unscrupulous people to blackmail sellers with the threat of negative feedback. The final straw for me was when they started putting competing affiliate links in auctions I was paying for. I noticed this when I was once selling a CD and there was an eBay link to the top CD retailer halfway down my page. After that I gradually scaled out of that business.

I think it's still a great place to buy stuff. And it's still a massive marketplace with warm buyers everywhere. So if you can put up with some serious BS you can still do well. For me there are easier fish to snag.

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Halcyon

12 years ago

Originally Posted by travlinguy

eBay was once the promised land. But that was back in the early years when they were a mom and pop kinda place. They've gone mainstream corporate now and have to answer to shareholders.

I was once a powerseller there. But little by little they made it harder to make money. They increased fees a lot. They made it more of a buyer's market than a seller's. They stopped allowing sellers to post feedback on buyers while they let buyers post feedback on sellers. ...

I couldn't agree more. Between 1999 and 2007, I made a nice living on ebay then it all went to crap shortly before Meg Whitman left. My motto back then was 'If you couldn't buy or sell it on ebay...it didn't exist.'

Now it's a a shell of it's former life. Of course you can still buy cheap electronics but the small sellers with the really cool stuff have moved on.

As far as OP's original statement, Yes ebay is a giant but not a sleeping one. They're up around stomping on all of the little people.

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michaelcorvin

12 years ago

I buy 80% of my items online from eBay and Amazon. But in the past I sold there as well. Before I sold one of my companies I was moving almost 20,000 units a month out the door on eBay. If you know how to automate it properly eBay can be a machine.

Michael

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YasirYar

12 years ago

Originally Posted by michaelcorvin

I buy 80% of my items online from eBay and Amazon. But in the past I sold there as well. Before I sold one of my companies I was moving almost 20,000 units a month out the door on eBay. If you know how to automate it properly eBay can be a machine.

Michael

I totally agree! if you know what you are doing you can make a lot more here than anywhere else online.

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Keith Everett

12 years ago

Michael, Do you think eBay is as good as it was in the days pre 2008?. I used to make my living online from eBay but with increased fees and new rules coming out almost weekly. I was finding it harder and harder to make money on there.

Keith

Originally Posted by michaelcorvin

I buy 80% of my items online from eBay and Amazon. But in the past I sold there as well. Before I sold one of my companies I was moving almost 20,000 units a month out the door on eBay. If you know how to automate it properly eBay can be a machine.

Michael

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kindsvater 12 years ago

If you look at eBay's financial statement you will see eBay sales increased 12-13% over the year. Most of the income increase from was PayPal and other companies eBay has invested in.

While 12-13% increase is good at first blush, when compared to Amazon it is a very bad result.

As an EPN and Amazon affiliate, from experience Amazon is eating eBay's lunch. Many products that used to only be sold on eBay are now on Amazon, and Amazon converts better.

Not only are EPN payouts are awful, there is no transparency and eBay intentionally makes it impossible to verify if commissions are properly calculated.

Combine that with repeated and increased hurdles on sellers and it is easy to see why there is a migration to Amazon by sellers and affiliates.

And now Amazon and others are starting to nibble at the PayPal machine. Obviously, many Warriors have their own issues with PayPal.

I'm no stock predictor, but I expect a massive nosedive in stock price in 5 years compared to now. The company looks like Yahoo in my opinion.

.
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Weby Digital

12 years ago

Generally i use amazon to sell as an affiliate and ebay to sell phisical products

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RichardDean

12 years ago

I still sell on ebay... Most of the stuff is used... Some new things... say I go to a to a store and find a good deal I then turn it one ebay and make some money...

I'm just about out the door going to a store where they have a clearance on lego's.

I buy the set and take out the people sell them in a auction then sell the other item...

One set I bought for 12.00 clearance sold the 5 people for around 75.00 and sold the other stuff in the set for 18.00.

For some reason people buy lego stuff it's a easy sell.

I get stuff at the local donation place for almost nothing then triple my money on ebay.

I bought a laptop for 15.00 it worked.... I got a bag for it 3.00 bought a USB WiFi 7.00 off ebay then sold it for 125.00 on ebay.

I got a ipod touch 8 gig 5 houses down from me for 3.00 said broken on it... the glass was cracked and no charging cord. New glass ebay 10.00 cord 3.75 I jail broke it sold it for 127.00 on ebay.

So ya I still sell stuff on ebay. But I use to sell more years ago now it is just for fun that way it don't seem like work.

If I find a good deal on something I flip it on ebay.

Richard

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Jay F

12 years ago

I too was an ebay affiliate back when they were with CJ. Switching my links was a pain. My site pushes visitors over to a collectibles area. My commissions have definitely dropped off. I think this is because buyers of collectibles know that auction action has really dropped from ebay and gone to sites specialized in the collectable area. My last deposit received was a measly $88.

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cashtree

12 years ago

Sellers pretty much only accept paypal on ebay now adays, it's pretty lame, I was hoping a real competitor would come up and challenge ebay but that never really happened.

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solado

12 years ago

My girlfriend is making a living from ebay selling low value items which is surprising considering the hike in fees (eats a large percentage of her profits). She got into ebay early 2011 when she was made redundant from her regular job.

She buys £1 sweets, adds some bows / ribbons to some nice wrapping and sells them as gift sets for £6 and shifts quite a lot, I guess her artsy crafts came into play.

I tried to get into the entire buying and selling but they have various methods in place where existing sellers will appear above your listings no matter what you try... so needless to say, I gave up rather quickly for other pastures.

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Is Ebay a Sleeping Giant?

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