Opening a buisness on eBay?

[peterj]

I decided i might try and make some cash on the side by opening a small buisness through eBay. I am into nutrition and muscle building products, so i thought i could do that? What are your thoughts, will it just back fire? I am located in Australia.

[disneysteve]

I think you need to do your homework. Spend a little time searching on ebay for the types of products you are thinking about selling. Look at how many auctions there are for these items and also check completed auctions to see what the typical selling prices are. If the items sell well and those prices are reasonable enough for you to sell your wares and make a decent profit, go right ahead. If the site is swamped with similar items and most auctions end without a buyer or sell for very little, I'd look for another line of merchandise to deal with.

[rennigade]

the amount in fees ebay gets a cut of is nothing short of highway robbery. I just sold an item for 179.99...ebay took $16 in final value fee, paypal took $5. Yeah they have quite the business going on. And apparently they will be raising final value fees in march? I wish there was more competition against them besides craigslist which they partially own anyway. And at this point I wouldn't even consider craigslist competition.

As for your business...Unless you can purchase the products at a heavily discounted price I wouldn't even waste your time.

I will personally never sell anything through them again. I will continue to buy however.

[disneysteve]

I will personally never sell anything through them again. I will continue to buy however.

So you don't think selling is worthwhile, but you think everyone else should continue to do it.

I started out selling collectibles in 1986, long before ebay came along. At that time, selling consisted of placing paid ads in collector's magazines, then mailing a paper catalog of items for sale that cost money to produce. Selling also involved spending a few hours packing merchandise, waking up before sunrise and loading our car to drive to a one-day collectibles show and sale where we paid $40 or $50 per table to display our merchandise and hope to make enough to cover rent, travel costs, cost of merchandise sold and make a decent profit on the day.

Along came ebay, where I started selling in 1997. Now, selling was much easier, and has gotten far, far easier since then as they have fine-tuned the system. Today, in about one hour, I can easily post 6-10 items for sale and then just sit back and wait for them to sell. Once they do, I just print the postage right on my home computer and the mail carrier picks them up from my office to be delivered. It couldn't be any easier. And for all of that, I still have a lower overhead than years ago when I sold in person at shows.

Ebay remains the premier place to sell almost everything with a worldwide audience and an excellent interface. There are things that don't sell well and you really can't make money selling cheap items because there are fees to consider and postage to consider, so it isn't right for everyone and everything, but I'm still a big fan.

[wfhouses]

There is so many people selling the same items on ebay it has become a joke. Research your items you want to sell carefully and choose your categories carefully.

[Goldy1]

My quick advice is don't quit your day job and remember it's a continually changing site and marketplace. side cash;sure. big business:not so sure.

[SmarterSpend]

I personally used eBay to sell cell phones for about 6 months- they are very biased against the seller. If someone disputes your item, you're guaranteed to lose 95% of the time. Needless to say, after 6 months of 100% feedback, I realized the amount of time I was investing into shipping and their fees (Listing, Final Value, Paypal) made it almost impossible to make money.

[skruggie]

You shouldn't think of it as an ebay business, rather an online selling business. With the practically daily changes to ebays fees and rules, it's not a good idea to count on the site as a way to make money. It's fine to have it as part of an overall business plan, but nothing to rely on for income. Not to mention the competition on ebay is apples and oranges compared to the days where you could really make money on that site.

I've been selling on ebay since 1997, and I also have a website where I sell my merchandise in companion to ebay. A lot of my customers there originally started as my ebay customers.

[biff]

I decided i might try and make some cash on the side by opening a small buisness through eBay. I am into nutrition and muscle building products, so i thought i could do that? What are your thoughts, will it just back fire? I am located in Australia.

Steve is correct. The Ebay marketplace is probably flooded with competition for your product. You have to make sure you are getting your supply real cheap in order to make it worth your while. Also take into consideration, the Ebay/Paypal fees, and that the buyer has to pay shipping as well.. Also you have to consider that not everyone is going to be happy with their purchase, and will want to return, or worse yet do chargebacks on you if they are unhappy. Just my two cents.

[Mike75]

I don't know why people are so afraid of ebay these days. If you are a smart businessman, then you can surely make money there and on any other such portals. Just be cautious and don't hurry into things.

[cicy33]

I don't know why people are so afraid of ebay these days. If you are a smart businessman, then you can surely make money there and on any other such portals. Just be cautious and don't hurry into things.

It has nothing to do with being afraid of ebay. I sell from time to time and I buy from time to time. The problems are real and ignoring them or not advising someone of the pitfalls would be just plain dumb. The fees are high, the shipping costs are a serious issue. If the cost of the item plus the cost of shipping makes the item to high for people, they won't buy. If you are selling something that is low cost then you are probably not going to make much if any money. The fees from ebay and from paypal will eat up the majority of the profits. Ebay is absolutely a place one can make money but it is not a place to just jump into. If you list an item and it doesn't sell, you still have to pay the listing fee. plus you didn't make any money selling it so now you have to relist and hope it sells the second time for an amount that will profit you something.

[BlackDiamond]

I make about $400 a month on Ebay selling random junk I have around my apartment. But I wouldn't make a career of it. It's 100 times more stressful than my real job. Haha. Also, I would not purchase anything solely to sell on Ebay.

The odds of making a profit are slim to none unless you really know your stuff. I spotted a Versace wine stopper at a flea market for $3 once. I bought it because I knew it was a Versace and would sell for at least $20. It is also green and looks very mystical. I will include the phrase "absinthe stopper" in my listing. This should bump it up to at least $40 with the goth/artsy crowd that fancies absinthe. The flea market dealer had no clue what it was. This was the only item I ever bought "just to sell".

So I only aim to sell about $400 a month (prior to fees). This month, as of right this second, I am at around $291.97 so I am right on track to do $400. I set up new listings once a week and keep track of earnings weekly. Last month I made $411. Some months I go more, some less.

What I sell :

@Disney and Disney world memorabilia (snowglobes, figurines, rare cds, dvds, books) that I've owned for 15+ years. The most I have ever gotten for anything was $200 for a certain very rare snowglobe. The least was probably $6 or so for smaller, more common figurines. 50% of the time, snowglobes and figurines do not sell. I wait a while and list them again.

@cds, dvds that are used and in very good condition. CDs I will only list on Ebay if they are in great shape and not very common, otherwise I take them to the local used cd shop and get more $$ for them that way. Anything I make at the cd store I include towards the $400 monthly. This month, $71 came from that. Dvds almost always sell. There is a large market for secondhand dvds.

@comic books & related toys/action figures. The books always sell. The figures, it's about 50%. I made $50 off one set of figures last week which was fabulous. But the other 3 sets I had listed for less $$ did not sell.

@other random odds and ends. I have accumulated a large quantity of figurines, art books and other non-essentials over the years. Many were unsolicited gifts from my mother, who would never loan me $100 but thinks nothing of dropping $1500 on junk for her kids every holiday. I don't sell enough of these to keep track of what % sell.

Now for the reality check:

Eventually, I will run out of stuff to sell and then I will be done with Ebay.

Ebay has high fees and is not very seller friendly. Basically, sellers have no rights. You can't even leave people bad feedback to warn other sellers not to let them bid. It's really horrible. There are many, many bad buyers who have figured out how to scam the system.

Paypal has even higher fees. And you are not allowed to accept payment any other way. A buyer can chargeback anything, at any time, for any reason and it's not even worth fighting.

Even with insurance, if a buyer does not take the proper steps to assist in the claims process, USPS will not refund you if something breaks in shipping. UPS will only refund you if they pack and ship. This process takes 2 months and if the buyer does not cooperate, you are usually out of luck. They know they don't have to cooperate, so they usually don't. That $200 snowglobe I sold? UPS packed and shipped AND BROKE and thankfully, my buyer was so upset with how badly UPS packaged it, she was more than helpful and willing to wait for the claim to go through for her refund.

Buyers throw hissy fits about having to pay actual shipping costs. Plan on losing $3-6 on any item over 2lbs because if you charge real shipping, no one will bid. My feedback is 100% but several have given me low ratings on shipping costs--- and I always lose a few bucks on shipping.

I'd say, even with the $400/month I bring in, after fees, shipping differences and damages… It's probably closer to $350/month.