Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Like I said in my initial post, I am aware of all the pitfalls of eBay as I've been around it for years. I do appreciate everyone's statistics but I'm more so looking for selling ideas..... Anyone?
I think its going to be hard to find a new product to buy and sell on ebay, because if there's any money in it then some big company is already doing it. Instead, i think you should try to continue what you have already done so far. Sell used stuff. Try and pick stuff up at garage sales really cheap or try storage auctions and flip the stuff on ebay. I really think that is what your best bet is. Thats basically what i am trying to do also.
It's so sad to see a once great idea, ruined by corporate greed. I used to buy all kinds of things on e-bay, books, etc, it was the everyday persons auction site. It was good for "everyday" buyers and a good source of income for "everyday" sellers. I never even go on there anymore. They are going down if they don't watch out.
If a seller could integrate the simplicity of craigslist with the feedback methodology of ebay, you could have a better mousetrap IMHO. The thing is, ebay has the market share and unless you have a high margin item to sell at a multiple of times, you can not make a great living at selling on ebay. They will get the majority of your gross profit. There may be free forums like craigslist but you can not trust you will be matched up to a legitimate buyer or seller w/o arms length meetings most likely. If you could create an escrow service for craigslist that allowed both parties attain satisfaction with the transaction, then you'd have a service that would take market share from ebay. Also, if Microsoft or another cash-heavy co. wanted to throw a few hundred million dollars at getting into the online auction, they could compete easily with Ebay if they could offer sellers lower costs.
As already said, shipping costs and ebays fee's have caused it to be a flop(for sellers).
I used to be a big ebay seller myself and did well, but once gas and shipping went up it wasn't worth it anymore as the buyer looks at "price shipped".
Lower volume on ebay has brought the fee increases, which is an "big oil" tactic that isn't going to work so well for them moving forward..imo.
To the OP, not meaning to be insulting but if you were up on ebay like you say you would know there's not enough room left anymore to make a profit buying things to resell.
Stuff around the house, not bad as its essentially all profit to you if you otherwise would give it away to goodwill or something but to buy and resell just not enough room to make money anymore.
I do quite a bit of selling on ebay but I buy my stuff at storage auctions. I usually have made all my money back through coins shops, craigslist, etc by the time I go to ebay, everything else is purely profit so hafl the crap I sell I'm probably breaking even just raising my score, occasionally I'll do good with certain niche items.
If you do want to buy and resell like smoeone else said your probably gonna make a dime an item but if your selling a few thousand a month you can make some money.
If you wanna find cheap stuff go to auctions be it police auctions, dea auctions storage auctions. www.freestorageauctionlists.com is a place where you can find some in your area. For police an post office auctions youll have to figure that out for yoursel.f
Now that we have a worldwide garage sale that can be reached by anybody with an internet connection, everyone thinks the junk they have is worth a fortune, so it's harder to ferret out products that sell for profit. To me ebay was like mining, i'd find a good collection to buy, but once that ran out, I had to find another deal and so it was spotty at times sourcing good stuff to sell for profit. It's tougher today as now everyone is wheeling and dealing and on top of that we already have an economy with citizens that have homes filled with crap they bought on credit and a lot of people are barely making it.
I found I was paying quite a bit in ebay fees that added up to a big sum, so something to consider.
Now that we have a worldwide garage sale that can be reached by anybody with an internet connection, everyone thinks the junk they have is worth a fortune, so it's harder to ferret out products that sell for profit.
wanneroo speaks truth. You have to find a niche that nobody else has discovered and market it like crazy. Blog, twitter, and facebook it all over the place because they sure aren't going to find your unique product using eBay broke-search.
I am a fan of Tim Ferris and the 4 hour Work Week. There are lots of great ideas to help you make money online. Get the book from the library and in the back are resources for products, places that will produce your products, etc.
Also, on his blog, he often does real life challenges and posts the top 10 money making ideas.
There are many many ways to offer a great product or service, at a great price and make a living doing it.
Last edited by RebekahOwen; 04-04-2011 at 06:32 PM..
I am a fan of Tim Ferris and the 4 hour Work Week. There are lots of great ideas to help you make money online. Get the book from the library and in the back are resources for products, places that will produce your products, etc.
Also, on his blog, he often does real life challenges and posts the top 10 money making ideas.
There are many many ways to offer a great product or service, at a great price and make a living doing it.
That's great but have you actually run an ebay business and made a profit over a period of time? Doesn't sound like you have.
I sure wasn't working 4 hour work weeks, nor was I making big money.
I'd get up in the morning, answer emails about my auctions or deal with current buyers, then I'd spend a bit of time until around 2 or 3 pm packing up sold goods when I would head off to the post office to send everything out, then back home for random accounting, office work, clean up, inventory, photos, item descriptions, etc. Dinner and then back on line trying to ferret out products to buy and then sell on ebay. Saturday would be busy as many of my auctions would end on that day.
Some would say find a drop shipper for cheap junk from china and let the money roll in. But if it's that easy, a bunch of others are already doing it and are, just check ebay. You end up selling high volumes at low profit margins paying tons of ebay fees along the way and you still have to manage your auctions, answer emails, do accounting, liaison with drop shippers, etc.
Anyone that thinks you can put in a few hours a week on ebay and make a livable wage, is not on planet earth. It's a real job, with real work and a lot of hours and effort to make a profit.
One of his "real life" spotlights was on an ipad case - the DODO Case - that sold 10K units in the first few weeks of the release and was turning a profit in the first few month.
Another was a guy that makes hemp bags and apparel for martial artists. Both great examples of targeted niche markets and the blog talks about how the product was conceived, marketed and the profits made.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
