Anyone making GOOD money on eBay? (fees, small business, court, profit)

[Alaskan_Adventurer]

Hello. Anyone actually making above average money through ebay? It seems like it would be difficult now, due to the heavy competition. I assume the key would be to find some nice niche products so that you won't have the above mentioned competition.

[citigirl]

It depends on what you are selling. We lived for 7 years on Ebay when living in California, so you know what kind of money that takes. We now have an internet store and still sell on Ebay.

[Anarchy]

Do you mean "greedbay" i used to sell loads on "greedbay" back in the day before eveyone flooded it and used to make easy money and the fees were not too bad. I try not to bother anymore unless i have something that wont sell on any other acution sites because of the fees im sick of them.

Ebay is good to advertise and drive more traffic to your website.

[Humanoid]

If you sell something unique then eBay works fine. About 7 years ago I use to sell more or less "generic" items on eBay for extra income and it did pretty good. I tried it again about 4 years ago and noticed it was much harder and the margins were so low that it wasn't worth it. Now, we sell items that you can't get anywhere else (they are our products) and we do fine with it. But at this point we mainly use eBay to advertise and sell things that we are having trouble moving.

[Shenandoah]

8 1/2 years ago when I first started on Ebay, it was great. Used books going for $50+. Same books selling now (if they sell at all) for $3 or less.

So now, I'm just using Ebay to get rid of stuff that I can't or won't sell at a yard sale. Christmas shopping season is better, but the rest of the year I just may clear enough to pay my fees. Maybe. And there are months that are too dry that I won't sell. And July - September are my dry months. I'll hang it up until Christmas season starts.

I had a niche, 8 years ago. Until everyone flooded in, and Ebay drove up the fees. Friends of mine and myself tried to open up an auction coop, but that went kaput went one of the senior partners got greedy and tried to steal the website by changing passwords.

And so, I struggle along. Trying to find another niche.

blessings, Shen

[Anarchy]

The people that use ebay now want to get everything for nothing, I know its an auction site but some just want stuff for stupid prices which nobody could do unless they were willing to take a loss.

[Humanoid]

People always want "to get everything for nothing". eBay is no different in this regard. Also, sellers on eBay will cut a loss or sell for little profit to drive others out, but again this is not unique to eBay. 7-8 years ago there was a lot of money on the table in eBay, but now that money is gone. Doing well on eBay now is just as hard as doing well with a brick/martor shop.

[Prettygyrl777]

I used to sell used clothes, garage sale finds, used dvd's etc. on ebay (sometimes I would list just for the fun of it to see what I would get). This was around '99-2003. Obviously Ebay is saturated with merchandise and it's not as easy to turn a profit anymore. And yes, the fees increased -alot- since I first started. I still use Ebay from time to time (as a buyer) but it has lost its appeal. There are a bunch of auction sites out there, too, so people are going other places.

[katzenfreund]

Ebay used to be a great place to sell, but it is a waste of time now. Items I used to sell for $50 + a few years ago, you can't even sell for $10 anymore. I'd rather give the items to Goodwill, not worth the trouble...

[John23]

With ebay, if you want to turn it into a small or full time business...

-You have to have the right strategy and policies. You hear about disputes that drag on for weeks or people going to court over something, to me that'd be crazy.

If you go to a real store or restaurant, and if your food isn't the way you like it, you call the manager over and they fix it on the spot. You have to do the same thing with any kind of small business, or your time management will go out the window, you're going to waste alot of time.

And some people are into over charging on shipping, $5 for a $1 item. Now, maybe $4 for a $3.25 item, but why drive away people. You've got to play it honest.

You have to make it easy to buy. The people with long complicated terms, I dont understand. Or private checkout systems. Maybe for some people it works great, but why put up hurdles.

Generic items, like DVD's, games, electronics, I dont see how people make it. Where you sell something and compete against Best Buy or Walmart. The margins would kill you.

You have to sell something unique, or something where you add value. I can think of a toy seller on there I buy alot from. He's the most honest in the category, he's got alot of trust. But it takes awhile to get up and running and build a reputation.