Can eBay Make You Rich? 235
adamlazz writes "For 11 years, eBay has been a great resource to buy or sell goods without leaving your computer. And with many stories of people getting rich exclusively from doing business on eBay, NewsFactor has decided to go in depth with these stories, and explore what it takes to really make your million on eBay. From the article: 'A tiered system designed to reward qualified sellers, the PowerSeller program is by invitation only, and has a number of criteria that must be maintained to keep the designation. At the lowest level, Bronze, a PowerSeller must average at least $1,000 in sales per month for three consecutive months; have an account in good standing; and get an overall feedback rating of 100, with at least 98 percent of the comments marked as positive.'"
Why couldn't you get rich via EBay? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Why couldn't you get rich via EBay? (Score:5, Insightful)
I don't personally want to use something that could leave me high-and-dry if something goes awry, and I'm too lazy to research aspects that mitigate the risks. So, I don't eBay. I work a state-level IT job. Not a lot of reward, but not a lot of risk either, and I don't have to worry about stability.
Re:Why couldn't you get rich via EBay? (Score:5, Interesting)
I was running my own business up until early this year and I can confirm it is possible to make (some) money on eBay. I have come to see eBay as the business equivalent of a hidden reef for shipping. At first glance it appears to be a good way to get to customers and make some money but once you have taken into account all the factors the profit margin is tiny. I worked out that if I did nothing but pack boxes all day I could just about turn a profit over all.
The problem is that every company is trying to grab their portion of the market and they all do it by having the lowest price. There were times when I would look at items for sale and consider bidding on them myself because they were going for less than I could get them from my supplier (and I felt I had a good deal from my supplier). Six months or a year after first appearing most companies have vanished, presumably because they have burnt through their seed money trying to grab a portion of the market.
I'm not saying this situation is wrong, it's capitalism in action and it's great for the shoppers. It is, however, causing a lot of businesses to go to the wall and using up a lot of people life savings on route.
Re:Why couldn't you get rich via EBay? (Score:4, Insightful)
Companies like UPS and probably others can "markup" your shipping cost.
So even if you see the UPS invoice, which will show what the send wants to see as "shipping cost", the real cost could be lower and the sender will get his cut at the end of the month/quarter/year.
Re:Why couldn't you get rich via EBay? (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Why couldn't you get rich via EBay? (Score:5, Informative)
Yahoo! Auctions.
Yahoo! does not charge ANYTHING to list, sell or buy. When enough people start switching to Yahoo! auctions, it will put eBay out of business. Yahoo! ought to actually start a new site, use the same software to run it, and advertise it on television the way eBay does with their site. eBay also actually has a contest with the US Postal Service - there are actually ads in the Post Office to get people to enter an eBay contest.
Add to that the fact that PayPal (owned by eBay) charges you a fee on the TOTAL price (including shipping & handling) - you end up paying eBay TWICE.
It's time to stop paying eBay and start using services that actually make sense for the seller.
Hopefully Yahoo! will purchase StormPay or any of the other online payment services, keep the fees low there and take down the eBay behemoth.
Re:Why couldn't you get rich via EBay? (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Why couldn't you get rich via EBay? (Score:2)
Discount stores and mail-order retailers are flooding the market, but (some) independent artists, antique dealers, rare-book dealers, etc are doing quite well.
Re:Why couldn't you get rich via EBay? (Score:4, Interesting)
I quite agree. It became apparent quite quickly that there was little money to be made as a reseller. I'm not at all surprised - it is what I expected the Internet to do. Manufacturers needed distributers and resellers before the Internet because they couldn't hope to reach all their customers any other way. That's not so much the case anymore. I imagine we will see more and more manufacturers selling their own products direct to customers via the web.
My next venture will actually involve me manufacturing something. I just have to decide what :o)
Re:Why couldn't you get rich via EBay? (Score:3, Interesting)
Yeah, the key is to find large quantities of stuff that's cheap because the seller has no market. A friend of mine trolls yard sales and library sales for books. Hit a sale at the end of the day and they'll sell you whatever is left for a dollar a grocery bag full just to get rid of 'em. Given a large enough pile of obscure books, all listed for $5-$
Re:Why couldn't you get rich via EBay? (Score:2)
Nope, aint gonna happen, for the same reason cinemas didn't disappear with the advent of TV or newspapers and books didn't disappear with the advent of the internet. There will be changes, defiitely, and some shops will go bust. In fact, some shops ha
In other news... (Score:2)
In other news, massive layoff of state-level IT workers due to outsourcing. Film at 11.
Re:In other news... (Score:2)
Um, the government tends not to outsource jobs.
Re:Why couldn't you get rich via EBay? (Score:2)
People have been going into business for themselves since prehistory. eBay is just a variation on a theme, it's very similar to opening up retail shop in a strip mall. It has a few advantages that make it more convenient/less risky than the shop at the mall - you don't need to lease the space, there's more driveby traffic that might actually be looking for your product, you can expand without leasing m
Re:Why couldn't you get rich via EBay? (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Why couldn't you get rich via EBay? (Score:5, Insightful)
If your profit margin was constant while eBay was raising fees, you would have to be raising your selling price (so that the increased fees were not cutting into the profit margin).
In other words, yes, you can. If eBay raises its fees, then you raise your price (or reserve). If you are still unable to compete in the marketplace, then you need to figure out how to spend less capital on something else (because, if you're unable to compete, then someone is succeeding, and you need to do what they're doing).
More generally, when the market changes, businesses must change to keep up. Unless you're the RIAA/MPAA, in which case you can wave your arms around and sue people a lot.
Re:Why couldn't you get rich via EBay? (Score:2)
Slavery is a crime in every civilized nation.
Stealing what you sell?
Theft is a crime in every civilized nation.
Losing money just to undercut the other guy?
Depending on your market position, this may be a crime. If you're not a monopoly within the market, there is nothing illegal about artificially deflating your prices to drive customers to your business.
Re:Why couldn't you get rich via EBay? (Score:2)
Re:Why couldn't you get rich via EBay? (Score:3, Insightful)
eBay is the perfect place for unique, must-have items. For example, my wife is trying to find an extra baby blanket to match the one my daughter uses, just to have an extra one. The price gouging is insane; people are asking $50 for these blankets that sold new for far less. Of course, since they're not produced new anymore, Random People On The Intarweb are the only place to get them. And said People know full well that a desperate parent will shell out the cash in
And the answer is... (Score:5, Insightful)
Instead, all they want is pointless, worthless crap, or space on a giant banner ad site no sane person would ever visit save out of morbid curiousity after seeing an article carried by the AP. And no, I'm not about to link to the wretched thing.
Thus, the formula appears to be:
1. Invent completely something idiotic, yet popular[*]
2. ???
3. Profit
[*] These traits are entirely too compatible. For example, take Adam Sandler or Jim Carrey...
Re:And the answer is... (Score:5, Insightful)
Why do you care? If the thing that I want seems pointless to you, what do you care? I'd bet that you purchase some things that seem pointless to me. But the advantage of me earning my money and you earning your money is that we each get to decide what to do with it, even if it seems pointless to someone else.
Just out of curiosity, how would you propose that purchasing be done? Are you suggesting that we prevent people from purchasing what you think of as pointless crap? How would you implement that? What if that enforcement agency looked at slashdot, saw all of the -1 rated posts and concluded that this was a pointless purchase? Don't you think that you'd feel your freedom was impinged upon? Don't you think that if you enforce purchasing controls, that ALL people who aren't allowed to purchase something they want (even if it's "pointless crap") will also feel that their freedom was impinged upon?
Personally, I don't see any way of solving the pointless crap problem without dramatically curtailing individual freedom. IMHO, I'm happy to live with the problem of folks buying "pointless crap" if it means we get to keep individual freedom.
Re:Why couldn't you get rich via EBay? (Score:2)
Re:Why couldn't you get rich via EBay? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Why couldn't you get rich via EBay? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Why couldn't you get rich via EBay? (Score:5, Insightful)
The prime difference when it comes to eBay, and the one that makes it horribly dangerous, is that very same easy access to other shops. There is ZERO customer loyalty on eBay, people just check your feedback once they have already found what they want. You could be selling some doodad at the same price as a competitor, but that other fellow may charge a dollar less for shipping and you've just lost the sale. People come to the real mall with a specific store in mind, then walk around the rest to see if there's anything else they want. People come to ebay with a specific product in mind, and they will compare everyone's offerings to get the best deal. It's the Walmart effect, automated and unsupervised.
Re:Why couldn't you get rich via EBay? (Score:2)
Because once you start to make money, people will notice and undercut your price. Some will sell below cost, because they just want to move stuff. So unless you have something unique, with a lock on the supply, you can't keep a fat profit margin. That's the difference with shops; you're competing with t
Re:Why couldn't you get rich via EBay? (Score:2)
Re:Why couldn't you get rich via EBay? (Score:2)
If course not, but some people do it, maybe because they don't know their true costs and overheads.
Re:Why couldn't you get rich via EBay? (Score:4, Insightful)
I've told the following to many, many people who wanted to sell on ebay as a primary source of income:
1. Find alternate sources of cheap product (e.g. buy used cars locally and sell them on ebay) or deal in unique/collectible items (e.g. movie props from the studio you work at or jewlery from your pawn shop). You can't make money buying at wholesale because your competitors are doing the same thing. Before you know it, you'll be listing at $1 over cost and spending 12 hours a day packing items and wondering if McDonalds is hiring.
2. Have a secondary revenue stream with reasonably profitable addons. e.g. If you sell electronics, have model specific batteries, memory cards, cables, etc. that you offer at 50% over your wholesale cost.
3. If you're doing enough sales to reach powerseller (even bronze) status, you should quit ebay and sell directly through your own website.
4. Your reputation is your only valuable asset. Even 98% is a terrible feedback score. Buyers only leave negatives when they've been badly screwed or to be jerks (these can be removed). If you lose 10% on your selling prices because of your feedback, that's probably your entire profit margin. BTW, don't overcharge on shipping, it just pisses people off and reduces your final selling price by an equal amount.
5. Don't openly connect your local store to your ebay ID. People will expect you to take returns at the shop, and your shop customers will expect you to sell to them at your ebay prices. This assumes that you're selling regular inventory rather than closeouts.
6. Be overly descriptive in your item descriptions and check your spelling. I once sold a used soundtrack CD for an obscure Anime title for 3X the going price (reg $15, new) because I listed the composer. People searching to expand their collections will pay top dollar. Typos will cost you a ton of money because prospective buyers won't see your item. Ur l331 $p33|{ |$ @ L1@b1L1TY.
7. Even after all of the above, you'll quickly realize that ebay is only good for two things: liquidating excess product at cost or building your customer base.
I used to sell on ebay a LOT. I built my feedback score up to over 1000 100% positive with bronze power-seller status, and eventually quit ebay alltogether. I quickly realized that between paypal and ebay, my fees on a $10 item were about $1.50 for a no-frills listing. I was then adding about $0.20 for a service to streamline my auction listings. All this for the privelage of selling at rock bottom prices. I now consider ebay useful only as a glorified garage sale (it's original intent).
Re:Why couldn't you get rich via EBay? (Score:3, Funny)
As an adjunct to this rule, I would suggest the following:
The title should be carefully crafted and contain terse, properly spelled descriptive terms that people are likely to search for, as most people search by title first. "WOW!", "RARE!", and "L@@K!" in the title just make you look like an idiot.
I occasionally search for the terms "WOW!", "RARE!", and "L@@K!", but only for entertainment at the seller's expense.
Re:Why couldn't you get rich via EBay? (Score:3, Informative)
No, those comments can't be removed. Ebay claims they can, however they really don't do much about it. I had excellent feedback for the longest time, then I bought an item from one of the mega-sellers. I followed the sellers instructions after winning the auction, paying promptly. The seller claimed he would email me a con
Re:Why couldn't you get rich via EBay? (Score:2)
-Eric
Re:Why couldn't you get rich via EBay? (Score:2)
Better question (Score:5, Insightful)
Worth the effort? (Score:3, Interesting)
It depends on what your goal is. I don't think you can get as rich as Bill Gates is by dealing on Ebay but you I know a few people who earn a living selling merchandize on sites like Ebay. If you happen to have a small corner shop that sells, say sports goods, photographers sup
Re:Worth the effort? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Worth the effort? (Score:2)
I agree completely it's a bit like this whole daytrading fad, it's the couchpotatoe's dream, making money whilst sitting on your arse and despite the fact that you have only basic education and no specialist knowledge of economics. There are certainly day traders, professional bank or investment firms employees and some savvy amateur traders, that know what they are doing but one gets the feeling that for alot of the amateur day traders wh
Re:Better question (Score:2)
The answer is yes... (Score:5, Funny)
Well (Score:5, Insightful)
"Getting rich on ebay" is akin to "keyword spamming with listings."
There is a group that makes money legitimately. However, that group is not insanely rich.
Re:Well (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Well (Score:2)
As a buyer it costs money if anything goes wrong (Score:5, Interesting)
Now, the only reason that a seller can't sell 100 low value items, then ship turnips instead is that it'd affect their feedback score.
I use to buy lots on Ebay until I had a problem with a low value transaction. I'm not planning to use Ebay again.
I'm posting anonymously because even though what I am saying is true, I wouldn't want Ebay or Paypal to initiate legal action as prooving that I hadn't slandered them would cost a mint.
Re:As a buyer it costs money if anything goes wron (Score:3, Interesting)
YES! (Score:5, Funny)
Haven't you seen the infomercial? That guy's made millions! And it couldn't be on an infomercial if it weren't true, right?
A system open for abuse? (Score:2, Interesting)
What's to stop someone from using cheap chinese labour from making thousands of bogus accounts just for blackmailing ebayers?
Re:A system open for abuse? (Score:3, Interesting)
Problem is that for the rest of us - IIRC, only one feedback counts per account (per time period?) - this was different in the begining, until people started boosting their feedback with false purchases (a week?
That all said, I hate the vultures on ebay who charge bullshit shipping prices and I've bi
Actually... (Score:4, Interesting)
I have a collection hobby, and I actively pursued ebay for more items of my hobby
when I saw weak or less than informative listings in their infancy I'd write the sellers, correct the name or spelling or whatever I knew about the piece to help the seller do a little better.. I have two feedbacks in my history that have no item #-- just sellers who bounced a thank you...
'course, my motivation was- folks who wanted the same series of toys would have less cash for the ones where I didn't help the sellers out....
Re:A system open for abuse? (Score:2)
Ebay made me rich in experience! (Score:5, Funny)
Realy, I learned a lot about the value of things by selling on Ebay!
Sell something realy good and expensive - nobody will bid.
Sell the contents of your wastebasket - undreamed of profit!
Re:Ebay made me rich in experience! (Score:5, Interesting)
This the marginal law. If I have a thousand coconuts, the last coconut provides me very little value. On the other hand somebody without coconuts at all would want to give you good money for the first coconut, less for the next ones, and very little for the 100th coconut. But as economy works, there will only be one price: The price at which the seller would think the price of the last sold coconut is still fine, and the buyer thinks the same of the last bought coconut. And that is the marginal principle. If you try to sell something where the marginal value of the (one piece of) good you are selling is higher than any buyer would have of buying it, there is no provision for a trade.
So, yes, funny but more than that.
Um... Isnt that the very definition of trading? (Score:2)
Re:Ebay made me rich in experience! (Score:2)
Why does this sound like Amway? (Score:5, Insightful)
Tiered sales .... um, hint #1. Invitation only, hint #2. Minimum sell to achieve "privileged" status ...hm.
Can't I just buy the box of soap and go home?
Re:Why does this sound like Amway? (Score:2)
They show their "conventions" on CNBC sometimes. 1000's of middle aged, overweight women (and some men). Sadly, the thought that poped into my head was "wow, that crowd makes a Star Trek convention look like 90210."
If any other organization was taking 10% of your income, they'd be called the mob, and arrested for shaking down merchants
Re:Why does this sound like Amway? (Score:2)
There's an organization here that takes about 30% of my income, and there's nothing I can do about it. The locals call this organization, "the government". Instead of calling it a fee, they call it "taxes".
Unfortunately we can't arrest them, they hold all the arresting powers and they aren't likely to use it against themselves.
Help us...
Re:Why does this sound like Amway? (Score:2, Funny)
*reviews parent*
Or maybe you mean a whites only party?
*reviews again*
No wait I get it. You're anti-communist(TM).
*reviews again*
You're killing me here. Have mercy. What do you mean? Western politics? Oriental fairy tales? You ruined my day.
Re:Why does this sound like Amway? (Score:2)
Re:Why does this sound like Amway? (Score:3, Insightful)
Tiered sales ....
Well, you've just shot your argument down right there with the first two words. Recruiting new members to sell stuff is not part of PowerSelling. The invitation only comes after you've already sold stuff on your own, with nobody else in the program making money off of you on your way there.
Top ten ways to get rich (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Top ten ways to get rich (Score:2)
Re:Top ten ways to get rich (Score:2)
My cousin does the same (buying used locally, and selling on ebay for a small profit). While he makes a couple hundred a month, he could easily make more money for less work. He considers it a hobby that pays money. It can be argued that the auctions are a form of gambling with a small risk and reward. There is a thrill when a bidding war starts. There is a risk that a buyer
Another assumption... (Score:2)
eBay is a flea market (Score:4, Insightful)
The trick is to figure out who the 'hustlers' are so they can be avoided like pariahs. eBay can and is a peer-to-peer environment for many of us. I get cool older/odd/unobtainable tech there and don't regret participating in the least.
Anyway, most of the 'hustle' people are similar to the same sort of people at the flea market. Their 'booths' suck.
Not what it is cracked up to be.... (Score:5, Interesting)
While this article alerts the viewer to the hard work necessary to get a profit, I feel the title alone makes people think it's more promising than other ventures. I say no.
For me, ebay was booming goldmine from 1997-2001 for items in the mainly sub-$500 range. Back then, I generally got the prices I wanted for many items and once in a while something skyrocketed in price beyond my dreams. In fact, many items I could not sell locally for years found an interest buyer on ebay. About 75-85% of what I listed sold. Better yet, people emailed me after auctions to make offers and I often sold another 5-10% on the remaining 15-25% or so. Ebay fees were also reasonable. The one downside was the shipping. Many people don't realize it the time it takes to package 5-10 items and ship them off (my items were fragile) including filling out insurance/delivery confirmation tags by hand. It take a good chunk out of your day. Also, as paypal was not the norm back then, cashing checks or money orders took quite a bit of time. Remember, I was a mom and pop operation, I could not automate these processes beyond a certain point.
To make a long story short, what happened?
1. After this period, ebay has clamped down. Every single fee has been raised, doubled, tripled, or more in price. Items that used to cost 50 cents to simply list now cost over $2.00 to list in some cases. More and more pay-for "options" were added, which wouldn't be so bad but they had the effect of making competition stand out more - so on one level with seller's it became a cold-war style game on who could outspend each other. The "gallery option" of a small thumbnail (which is almost ubiquitous in some categories) added (now) $.35 cents PER auction.
2. This all sounds like chumpchange, but my ratio of auctions sold went down, over time, to 25-40% selling rate. Worse yet, I hardly get after auction offers, as ebay clamped down on emailing members outside the control of their system a few years back. Also, the prices I had to accept were declining and going below what I actually could get locally for them. The fees started killing me. The profit margin was killing me. The shipping was killing me (if you ever see a guy with cheap prices on ebay but expensive shipping, that's because shipping is his profit margin, ebay doesn't collect fees/shipping off of that besides Paypal).
3. Everybody pays now with paypal. It is great and convenient but another expense.
4. The downswing in sales had several causes. One of which is because of ebay's success as a marketplace, every started selling there. While the amount of sellers went up exponentially by my estimate since 2000, the amount of buyers went up only linearly, creating a glut in that market. By looking at certain listings, it also is apparent to me that many must be or take sellers that work under minimum wage of the US. Some of that is because they are foreign sellers. It's fine that they sell, but I can't compete at their undercut prices - just a fact of life. They don't have the expenses I do. It's ebay's form of outsourcing.
I know other companies that had an ebay branch that have been losing money for years by creating too many listings, dazzled by revenue, but not checking all the expenses or just hoping to "build an audience" until they become profitable (customer loyalty is not strong here if prices differ more than a few percent). One such colleague just stopped after posting over 200 auctions daily for the last 7 years in addition to his regular business (he has workers, not that he sat there posting himself). After all this time, he ran the numbers and just noticed it did not make sense. After paying his workers, he was actually losing money. (The reason he never caught this was that the workers were considered as a expense on the whole company before, not that branch - he didn't seperate expenses). He just quit
Re:Not what it is cracked up to be.... (Score:3, Interesting)
Well said, I too ran a mainly eBay business and found exactly the same problems. The nickle and dime death is the biggest problem. The fees are at the level where there is virtually no profit. I gave what I feel was very good service and I had people coming back on a fairly regular basis. Even so I would often be making £30 sale. By profit I mean what's left after shipping and fees. That £1 then had to pay for premises and other business expenses and provide me with a wage. I struggle to see how
Re:Not what it is cracked up to be.... (Score:2, Interesting)
It seems like you need to really work hard in order to make any real money off the profits.
The biggest kicker is that after all is said and done and you want out, you work so hard to build up a company that you can't sell. I know some people who's whole business model revolves around their future sale of their business that they worked so hard to build.
There never really seemed to have an end in eBay.
Maybe i'm
An easier way to get rich on eBay (Score:2)
Ebay is getting rich, not you (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Ebay is getting rich, not you (Score:5, Interesting)
That is because they are often stolen goods.
fenceBay is the greatest thing for theives since the invention of the crowbar. It's like a pawnshop that doesn't care and finds you buyers across the country to avoid those pesky "hey, Bill, that laptop you just bought looks an awful lot like my stolen one" moments.
All for the low, low, price of about 10% of purchase price (which is actually quite good, dishonest pawnshops will charge you far more and will give you up if the 50 come looking for you)
Now, granted, some people troll fatwallet and slickdeals looking for bargains, buy up all the stock and list it before it is even delivered, but you really can't say with a straight face that ebay isn't used by a good number of theives.
Thieves... (Score:2)
But of course nothing beats this story: [sptimes.com]
however, death & taxes catch up (Score:4, Informative)
See an explanation here. [thisismoney.co.uk]
Also, eBay makes UK users fill out an anti-money-laundering form and performs an additional verification once a paypal account receives £4500 (US$8300). This probably goes into the UK Gov anti money laundering and terrorist profiling systems.
Most IT folks who run home businesses should structure them carefully, because they could be subject to higher rate tax of 40% on profits plus 17.5% VAT. If you setup your ebay/paypal account as a limited company then you will only pay 25% tax and VAT can be paid as an offset percentage (agree with tax man) between 9 and 17.5%.
rd
Making a living on eBay (Score:5, Interesting)
How many are making a decent living off eBay sales? How many people's lives have been transformed by the ability to give up their day job and do what they like while getting paid for it?
For example this artist [ebay.com] who left her job as a web designer nad is now making lampwork glass beads and selling them on eBat.
Disclaimer: I know her personally and this is a bit of promotion - but I think it's a valid example because it would be difficult for someone living in a remote place to have this kind of access to the markets that appreciate her art without eBay.
Re:Making a living on eBay (Score:2)
So that more people sell stuff on ebay (greed, you see). eBay would love to get more people listing stuff because they take about 10% of the purchase price.
Re:Making a living on eBay (Score:2)
If you don't want eBay's services you are welcome to hold an auction directly on your personal web site.
Re:Making a living on eBay (Score:5, Informative)
I do it just about every week (make a living off of eBay). I left a shitty office job with a decent chunk of savings in my bank account, deciding to live off of my savings until I needed to find another shitty office job to subsidize my writing and art ambitions.
It's a couple of months later, and with the exception of one week where I had to take a few bucks out of savings, eBay has paid for my gas, groceries, cable, etc. And the week after I had to dip in I was able to replace the money with an eBay surplus.
People complain about eBay and PayPal fees, but don't seem to get that eBay is providing the world's stage for you; it's the best damn advertising you can get. Yes, eBay has some ridiculous policies, but there are ways to work with them, and around them. For example, when I send out a package I include an enclosure with my name and website and an invitation for a future order. As previously stated by other
In fact, that's how the lion's share of my large orders come from. Someone buys one off of eBay, then comes back and spends a couple of hundred bucks with me, off eBay. I guess someone would say that that wasn't really making money off of eBay, but I disagree; I would never have found that customer otherwise.
As to PayPal, you just have to be careful with them. They are HEAVILY slanted toward the buyer, and their fees can be noticable. However, it is so convenient it is worth it for me. I have a PayPal debit card that I use for everything (and get 1% cash back instantly with each purchase, which helps ease the pain) and I never have to bother with money orders and checks and waiting and all that B.S. For orders under twenty bucks I don't worry about it, but I get delivery confirmation on anything above that to protect myself as much as possible.
Now, I completely realize that this could dry up tomorrow, that eBay sales and the follow-up sales won't last forever, but right now it sure is nice to be working no more than 90 minutes a day and making enough to live off of. I get great pleasure in making nice packages for people to recieve as well, and I have time to live my life instead of living in a cubicle. What it takes to make it on eBay is to understand how it works, and to know what will give you the best profits. Selling old clothes for
I guess the moral is don't quit your day job...unless you have the savings to back it up in case it doesn't work out and you have a decent mind for business and a good product to sell.
AE
Re:Making a living on Slashdot. (Score:4, Informative)
LOL, and I see even less about you than that, since you are Anonymous Coward.
No "wonder product" for me, the portion you quoted was simply the distillation of what I've learned, not a singular description of how I'm doing it at the moment. By "a good product to sell", I mean not the modly clothes out of your basement (even if they *DO* still have the tags on them, LOL), no product in particular (at least for me).
As to what products I sell personally, I started with stuff I already had. I've been moving dozens of boxes around since college and finally cleaned them out - from MIB action figures to vintage books, anything I didn't really want any more I got rid of. Then once I started learning how eBay "worked" by exhausting that supply, I looked for products that weren't already deluged with sellers (i.e., don't start trying to sell cell phone accessories...), or that were especially good bargains at retail and resold them.
For instance, I'll go to Ciruit City and find some video game accessory inexplicably marked down to a ridiculous price (like $2.99 for a game shark-type device), and resell it for $20-50 on eBay (many sales like that are reigonal, or when an item is stopping being manufactured, so people in other locations that are already sold out or never had the sale push demand). I go to Circuit City, Best Buy, Staples, stores like that every week or two anyway, so I was already seeing these types of bargains (it's not something I go out intentionally to do).
Lately I've found reselling DVDs, especially to non-US buyers, to be extremely profitable. Multi-standard DVD players and TV's are much more common in other countries, and they have to pay local importer specialty shops tons to get NTSC, or Reigion 1, exclusive titles (especially certain genres of boxed set). They pay huge premiums for the service (sometimes double to triple what they can pay to have it shipped and pay the duties themselves). They'd rather buy off of eBay, especially since places like Amazon won't ship non-reigion local DVDs to them.
Now, if you go to sell a title there are already 36 copies of out there for buy-it-now's of $8.88, then no, you won't make any cash. So it's not fool-proof, you have to actually figure out what is rare, accquire the product here (new or used), and get it up there. And by maintaining a simple list out there via free web hosting, I was able to list the titles available and take direct orders once the eBay contact was made.
That's just one example. One I'm sharing because I've started selling something totally different in the past week or two and I'm winding down with the DVDs for now, I think. That new one I won't share - have to keep some secrets.
It's funny, because I would never define myself as someone who makes a "living" off of eBay, until I read this article and actually realized it's really what is happening. I left my last job expecting to at least take the summer off and wholly live off of my savings, but each week I found myself being able to get by just with eBay. I don't expect it to last forever, and I have no designs of becoming a "power seller", but at the moment it's working for me.
AE
Another (Score:2)
Nanaimo, BC, Canada artist Richard Hoedl ( Canadian surreal oil painting landscapes ) [stores.ebay.ca] makes most of his income from selling his paintings on Ebay.
He (and his web contractor ;-) ) is working on a site to teach artists to make a living from their art [yourartbusiness.com]. It's not ready to go live yet, but progress is fast.
Want the short answer or the long answer? (Score:4, Funny)
Long Answer: No, it can't make you rich.
ebay WAS good for me.. (Score:3, Informative)
It was a good business and a good extra income, I sold old items and collectibles that I managed to buy in Portugal for what I believe the stuff ws 'really' worth and then sold it on ebay where I coud get a good profit. The main things that made me quit Ebay were
1) The raise of Euro - When the US Dollar was high it was VERY profitable to sell stuff on the US not only did I made some profit from the Item but the dollar value was good for me.
2) The raise of fees by Ebay.
3) PayPal - more and more peolple want to pay with paypal, and that eats profits BAD.
4) The decline of the market.
I do believe you can get rich by using ebay but, if you live in acountry where the 'money is cheap compare to USD' youll get much better quicker
Make a Million profit on ebay 2006? No way. (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Make a Million profit on ebay 2006? No way. (Score:2)
I think I see a pattern emerging here...
The multi-informative post (Score:2)
2. First of all... I think "profit" is meant and not "sales". I could sell $5000 worth of cash for $1000 and easily make more than $1000 in sales per month.
3. Why do people love to collect Mammy cookie jars [ebay.com]?
4. What in the goddamn fuck is with those stupid, stupid "Mystery auctions"... where people auction off things saying "OMG OMG!! THIS BOX COULD BE FILLED WITH UP TO $10,000 in CASH!! AND YOU ARE BIDDING ON THE BOX, ANYTHING THAT COMES INSIDE IS MY GIFT T
Re:The multi-informative post (Score:2)
The question is... who has the mental disorder... the people creating these auctions or the people gullible enough to participate?
eBay is the perfect retail environment (Score:4, Interesting)
There are demonstrably people out there who can't or won't google for items before bidding silly money on them, which means that they're unlikely to check your selling history either to see that you've sold a hundred identical "used but unopened, unwanted presents". That seems to be the trick; pitch your "used" item as a bargain, then watch the idiots spend more than they would on a "new" item, apparently convinced that all the other idiots bidding against them must know what they're doing.
The only thing that keeps me coming back to eBay now is the opportunity to message the winning bidders in these auctions with links to where they can buy the same item new for less, often much, much less. Curiously, I've yet to receive a response to these helpful messages that's not a variant on "FCUK OFFF!!!!!!!eleven!!!!"
Can eBay Make You Rich? (Score:4, Interesting)
$19 to ship a saw blade? Are you fucking kidding me? [ebay.com] (and yup, that's from a power seller)
Before the apologists chime in saying "OMG GAS IS SOO MUCH AND I HAVE TO PAY FOR PACKING MATERIAL AND THAT IS WHY SHIPPING IS $12 FOR SOMETHING THAT WEIGHS 1 POUND" - USPS will provide (and even deliver) free boxes, packing material, tape (ok, no tape anymore, people sort of abused it, but then again, they did send you 24 rolls at a time) and will pick up your packages from your doorstep if you ship priority mail. A one rate envelope ships cross country for under 4 bucks.
You can't defend abusive shipping or handling costs. I'm surprised that ebay hasn't made a serious effort to get rid of these sellers, but that's probably because they make enough on paypal fees to make up for what they don't get in listing and closing fees.
Re:Can eBay Make You Rich? (Score:2, Interesting)
That's small change. Try $134.97 to ship a Golf Pouch [ebay.com] which costs less than $20 to Singapore.
Re:Can eBay Make You Rich? (Score:2)
Re:Can eBay Make You Rich? (Score:2)
And of course do you want to buy something from someone who treats the places they buy things from like that? Doing business with people who have shown they are dishonest in
No (Score:2)
Well they won't supply items for you to sell, they take a percentage of each sale, and you have to do all the actual work yourself.
So, "No".
Unless you own Paypal.
make a million accepting money orders (Score:3, Insightful)
rating system (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:rating system (Score:3, Interesting)
Sellers aren't going to blink at selling to someone with a 90%+ positive rating, especially if looking at the feedback makes it clear the negative feedback is all retaliatory.
And if a seller does get all freaky and won't deal with you because you've been hit with some revenge feedback, he's probably not someone you want to deal with anyway. His loss.
Bronze math (Score:2)
So if I go a month at $3000, then two months at $0, I can be a PowerSeller(TM)? After all, I've averaged at $1000 in monthly sales over three months.
Perhaps you meant a PowerSeller(TM) must have a minimum of $1000 per month for three consecutive months.
I would be ever so happy if editors and submitters understood the math they were taught in the sixth fucking grade.
Re:Bronze math (Score:2)
Should do some research (Score:2)
Ebay is a mediocre resource. It may have been great awhile ago, but it stopped being great a few years ago. Ebay bends to the will of the power seller, and does nothing to enforce their rules and ToS. Trying to report violations (like an asian seller who marks his location as Hong Kong, Canada) and clearly states the item ships from the pacific, gets you a canned response from ebay about how they just snuggled that seller las
Maybe, but... (Score:2)
Alternative for sellers and for buyers? (Score:2, Insightful)
So, I ask you former eBay merchants: where have you moved to?
And where are you finding bargains as buyers?
I think you are using that Piraha counting system (Score:2)
http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn6303 [newscientist.com]
This is the numbering scheme used to count the people that get rich on EBay.
confessions of a former ebay store owner (Score:2)