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.
I have been selling on eBay for a while now and just recently started selling on Amazon too. I started with things around my house and it progressed from there.
I buy cheap things from thrift stores and sell for a profit. Basically I just walk around and see what looks good that day. You can find a lot of items brand new in the package at thrift stores. If it's something I have never sold before, I start small and buy only two or three things. Then I see how fast it sells, what kind of profit I can make. If it's a winner, I buy more. If not, I am only out a few dollars.
Example: I saw some really cute jewelry boxes for 0.50 cents each and tried to sell those. No takers! I bought three, so lost the $1.50 and ended up donating them back to the same thrift store I bought them. However, I did buy two barbies for cheap and ending up selling them for 10x what I paid. Now I keep a lookout for more Barbies whenever I can find them. In the process, I have learned a lot about Barbies and what to look for. In the beginning I had to research everything, now I can tell just by looking what I can sell it for.
I was thinking about putting together a seminar in my area and teaching people the things that I have learned and the in's and out's of selling online. Would love to hear everyone's thoughts on this (good or bad!) Would you pay $100-$150 for a four hour workshop where I share all of my best tips?
I sell on ebay but more as a hobby and supplemental income.
I try to provide reasonable service but will not bow down to customers with unusual demands. I've received negative/neutral feedback or filing of complaints on rare occasion because of this but have yet to receive any official sanctions.
I've sold on ebay for about 12 years now. You used to be able to make a living at it but that's very hard to do now.
I was selling clothing but it got really competitive and inventory got harder to find. You look up a clothing item now on ebay and there will the thousands similar to it so there's just too much competition. Ebay takes a high commission and is imposing all sorts of rules--like same day shipping and free shipping--who can do that except big box stores and that's what ebay is courting.
Some of us clothing sellers are branching out into whatever else we can find. I used to sell antiques but there's not much interest anymore but sometimes you can find (either in your own or elsewhere) old coins or even sterling silver for people to melt down.
There are tons of videos on YouTube about selling on ebay and I guess they could be helpful to someone just starting out. However, if I were just starting out, seeing how things are now, I wouldn't even start at all. I do buy on ebay though--it's a buyer's market.
I find eBay's commission to be extremely low. I sell regularly and their commission rates are 10-16% roughly.
What are the commission rates you're getting from local auction houses? Around here, we've always had rates 25-50% depending on the item. And even then, the reach isn't nearly of what eBay is able to provide.
I make 200 to 500 dollars bi weekly selling on amazon for pretty much doing nothing. The only labor involved is packaging my sales and driving to the post office once a day.
I make a certain novelty item, and they sell fairly well whenever I list them. I don't make a ton of money from it, I but make enough to have extra spending money and put extra cash into my investment account. As with any business you get out what you put in, and you have to have something that's obtainable for cheap and that's in demand or desirable. I basically just copied what I saw someone else creating and selling. I've purchased items from quite a few sellers who seem to do very very well on ebay. And I have a relative who's been unemployed for a few years, but sells clothes on Ebay. He's able to pay his rent, so he must be doing pretty well. We both use social networks like twitter, facebook and instagram to get new customers.
Since Ebay has changed its bidding rules (all bidders are anonymous, they use initials now) I only use buy it now. I think there are some shenanigans going on to drive up the prices during bidding (shill bids).
i think shill bidding is a minor problem, most of the time shill bidders get scrwed and wind up paying final value fees for nothing. also, if you only bid a price your happy with who cares if someone drove up the price, you still paid a price your happy with for the product you got. i dontdo auctions simply for hte reason i generally buy with a purpose and i dont wanna wait 5 days to maybe or maybe not get an item and have to start the process all over again
And people can inspect your feedback and discover that all the items were penny items. That won't add much credibility, but I know what you are saying. It'll give you a higher feedback number, which will help if the buyer doesn't do his research.
the vast majority of buyers dont even read listings of whatthey are buying let alone closely inspect someone's feedback.
Last time I tried to sell something it was being bought and never paid for by the same person 4 times in a row... couldn't give them negative reputation because they never paid for it, their reputation was hidden, ebay didn't remove their account....
Haven't been on ebay for any reason since.
dont do auctions do buy it now and require immediate paymet
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.
