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making a living on ebay?
- Thread starter 50greg
- Start date
Hi Greg,
It really all depends on your product/products you have to offer. Back in 2002 & 2003 I was making a suplimental you could say income off of ebay combining my sales there with my business I owned at the time. My stuff was music related. Thats about all I know for money making things out there as in whats in demand, etc. But at one point, I was just off ebay alone racking in between 250 - 300 bucks a week (I did have an assistant at that time though, which is what helped rack in that much durring that period). On my own id say I averaged about 200 a week.
Wether it involves moving heavy inventory, boxes etc all depends on what your product would be and is totaly up to you. I will say ebay does get you good (espessaly these days!) in the listing fee charging they do. Ive sold some stuff recently and they seemed to have raised their prices in stuff. One of the items I put up was a starting bid at 50 bucks, then ebay ended up charging me just that to list what I did! So, these days its really a profit minded thing and you have to go in with a stradigy to average more than ebay screws you for in the end of it all lol.
You will have to be very ontime also with shipping out whatever you sell. As a previous seller out there I can tell you and warn you..there are some real brainless droans out there as buyers and use the feedback forum shit to try to give you a bad rep if they didnt read your auction right or in one case with me...some asshole tried to claim I ripped him off and never sent him what he bought (when I sent him a 2nd one when he said he didnt get the first, and had proof he recived it!).
So, the whole ebay thing is a risky type thing...but if you plan for all this stuff and know about it ahead of time..it can be alot smoother and possibly successful. Which is why I just typed all this 🙂 So good luck and hope all this info helped.
It really all depends on your product/products you have to offer. Back in 2002 & 2003 I was making a suplimental you could say income off of ebay combining my sales there with my business I owned at the time. My stuff was music related. Thats about all I know for money making things out there as in whats in demand, etc. But at one point, I was just off ebay alone racking in between 250 - 300 bucks a week (I did have an assistant at that time though, which is what helped rack in that much durring that period). On my own id say I averaged about 200 a week.
Wether it involves moving heavy inventory, boxes etc all depends on what your product would be and is totaly up to you. I will say ebay does get you good (espessaly these days!) in the listing fee charging they do. Ive sold some stuff recently and they seemed to have raised their prices in stuff. One of the items I put up was a starting bid at 50 bucks, then ebay ended up charging me just that to list what I did! So, these days its really a profit minded thing and you have to go in with a stradigy to average more than ebay screws you for in the end of it all lol.
You will have to be very ontime also with shipping out whatever you sell. As a previous seller out there I can tell you and warn you..there are some real brainless droans out there as buyers and use the feedback forum shit to try to give you a bad rep if they didnt read your auction right or in one case with me...some asshole tried to claim I ripped him off and never sent him what he bought (when I sent him a 2nd one when he said he didnt get the first, and had proof he recived it!).
So, the whole ebay thing is a risky type thing...but if you plan for all this stuff and know about it ahead of time..it can be alot smoother and possibly successful. Which is why I just typed all this 🙂 So good luck and hope all this info helped.
Greg, dsk makes some good points, and I have a few to add. I sell antiques, as many on here know, and I did Ebay for most of last year with mixed results. I sold some items, but the items I was involved in, antiques and jewelry, were difficult to move because some of them were high priced, and many were scared away by that.
I can tell you, that I took an extensive Ebay training program offered to only a select few who have been on Ebay for a while called onramp program. Several times a week, I would get calls from this guy, who would go over Ebay selling strategies with me, and how to sell. What DSk said about the good feedback is imperative. I was advised to first register an account with Ebay, and buy a few cheap things, paying extremely timely, to get some good feedback, so people would know I was a good risk to deal with.
Once I started listing my items, good pictures of the item are essential. Digital camera or digital development are best for this. People on Ebay will browse quickly, and only stop to look at the best pictures. They arent likely to spend time squinting at a bad picture.
Selling inexpensive items at first is best. Many times, the bids for these kinds of things will be competetive.
Finally, I was told that to maximize my sales, I should clearly state my payment and return policy in my listing, saying something like : I accept Paypal, check, money, order, etc. Furthermore, I was also advised to offer a detailed shipping and return policy, saying something such as:" I will ship within 24 hours, or, upon my receipt and clearance of funds." Usually, the wise choice is to wait til the payment has cleared, or to accept only money order or cashier's check, so you cant get screwed. I was also told to offer a return policy to my customers for added assurance, saying something like:" I will accept returns within 7 days for full refund, buyer to pay all return handling costs" This way, my customer rest assured he is dealing with a reputable merchant who will be flexible with customer satisfaction. All Ebayers dont do this, but this is what I was advised.
I hope these pointers help. Please message me any time or post again if you want to talk further. Ebay is a major marketplace, and can be used as a good means to sell merchandise. Good Luck!
Mitch
I can tell you, that I took an extensive Ebay training program offered to only a select few who have been on Ebay for a while called onramp program. Several times a week, I would get calls from this guy, who would go over Ebay selling strategies with me, and how to sell. What DSk said about the good feedback is imperative. I was advised to first register an account with Ebay, and buy a few cheap things, paying extremely timely, to get some good feedback, so people would know I was a good risk to deal with.
Once I started listing my items, good pictures of the item are essential. Digital camera or digital development are best for this. People on Ebay will browse quickly, and only stop to look at the best pictures. They arent likely to spend time squinting at a bad picture.
Selling inexpensive items at first is best. Many times, the bids for these kinds of things will be competetive.
Finally, I was told that to maximize my sales, I should clearly state my payment and return policy in my listing, saying something like : I accept Paypal, check, money, order, etc. Furthermore, I was also advised to offer a detailed shipping and return policy, saying something such as:" I will ship within 24 hours, or, upon my receipt and clearance of funds." Usually, the wise choice is to wait til the payment has cleared, or to accept only money order or cashier's check, so you cant get screwed. I was also told to offer a return policy to my customers for added assurance, saying something like:" I will accept returns within 7 days for full refund, buyer to pay all return handling costs" This way, my customer rest assured he is dealing with a reputable merchant who will be flexible with customer satisfaction. All Ebayers dont do this, but this is what I was advised.
I hope these pointers help. Please message me any time or post again if you want to talk further. Ebay is a major marketplace, and can be used as a good means to sell merchandise. Good Luck!
Mitch
Thanks for your replies, guys. I recently saw part of a CNBC report on ebay which said several disabled people made good livings by running their businesses strictly through ebay, so I thought I'd look into it. Alas, at the moment I have no merchandise to sell, anyway.
Lost_My_Mind
TMF Regular
- Joined
- Dec 27, 2001
- Messages
- 290
- Points
- 16
Dsk, You said you delt with music sales, does that mean mostly cds? Can you tell me how to get started? Where you bought your wholesale disks from? Ect?
I'd be really curious about the successful sellers experiences as well. I've looked into selling on ebay, but a lot of the "services" being provided were nothing but scams. I want legitimate information like where to obtain items to sell, and marketing strategies.
I'm absolutely drained at my job. If I can do an in-home business to build income like the power sellers do, I'd leave my job in a heartbeat. I'd want to start small, but would want a 5-10000/month income.
Any experienced sellers on those levels to share some wisdom and knowledge with?
I'm absolutely drained at my job. If I can do an in-home business to build income like the power sellers do, I'd leave my job in a heartbeat. I'd want to start small, but would want a 5-10000/month income.
Any experienced sellers on those levels to share some wisdom and knowledge with?
Lost_My_Mind
TMF Regular
- Joined
- Dec 27, 2001
- Messages
- 290
- Points
- 16
kis, where exactly in ohio are you? If we're close enough in location, and have the same idea, we could team up.
Lost_My_Mind
TMF Regular
- Joined
- Dec 27, 2001
- Messages
- 290
- Points
- 16
Ok, 1 free hanson self titled debut album! DEAL!
Lost My Mind said:
Actualy I sold mostly vinyl. Im an ex DJ and when I stopped Dj-ing, I had plenty of duplicates of very hard to find and sought after underground dance classics from the late 70s on 12" singles, Promos, LPs etc.. so thats kinda how I started it. Then after that me and a guy that worked for a well known distributing company (cant mention names) worked together and found out what was in demand for some of this obscure stuff on CD. And we did many long involved projects of compilations of certain artists etc and sold em exclusively on Ebay. So everything was completly self ran, distributed, etc for the most part. It was practicly a job in itself lol.
