[fun4lifeclub]

I'm curious if anyone has had any true success in selling items on eBay. I used to sell vintage jewelry and did somewhat well but nothing to support myself with.

I see all these 'drop shipper' business' and wonder if they are truly legit.

MK

[waveformpc]

I made around $500/week building and selling mid range to high range desktop computers. I essentially cloned Alienware systems, and sold them for about 3/4 the price that Alienware charges.

Overall though, it sucked. There are WAY too many listings, and the only way to attract bidders is to offer a $1 starting bid with NO RESERVE - quite risky. The overhead is quite high as well after eBay takes their percentage, and PayPal takes their percentage...

It's all just a price game - all the sellers try to shave a few bucks off to attract bids, sometimes jacking up shipping costs to around $100. Most system builders leave out important parts, like the operating system, keyboard, mouse, and use the cheapest parts you can find.

It just wasn't for me. I would much rather build a brand and create solid quality systems.

[fun4lifeclub]

I've found in selling my vintage jewelry and the gemstone jewelry that I make myself it is too risky to start the bidding low and not have a reserve. Unless you have a totally unique item its hard to sell anymore.

Now buying is a different story. I buy wayyyy too much. Haa haa.

MK

[skatewhale]

This is one of the problems for Ebay, I've had past experience selling on ebay. It's all about Price Price Price!

You can actually list item on Ebay at $1, if the price didn't reach what you want, just Cancel it 12 hours before the auction ends. I know this is a violatin of Ebay's policy, but if you are selling one or two things, it's ok. Too many times will certainly get you into trouble.

One of my tips would be to PUt up a lot of pictures about your item! Trust me, buyers really love to see a lot of REAL pictures! Different angles, different sides, Close shot and Far shots.

Sweet Luck!

[skatewhale]

I've had past experience selling on ebay. Everything there is so cheap! This is one of the problems for Sellers, It's all about Price Price Price!

You can actually list item on Ebay at $1, if the price didn't reach what you want, just Cancel it 12 hours before the auction ends. I know this is a violatin of Ebay's policy, but if you are selling one or two things, it's ok. Too many times will certainly get you into trouble.

One of my tips would be to PUt up a lot of pictures about your item! Trust me, buyers really love to see a lot of REAL pictures! Different angles, different sides, Close shot and Far shots.

Sweet Luck!

[bigpund]

i have had some small luck with selling different sporting goods (specifically rock climbing equipment). this can be high ticket items in the different outdoor equipment stores, so a lot of people turn to ebay for the equipment. the key is to have good description and know the orgin of the items that you are selling. for instance, i started out by buying other lots on ebay at high prices, around $200 and then split them up and sold the items seperatly. however, climbing gear is not something that you want to trust your life to unless you know how it was used before and if it is still in good condition. so i kept constant contact with the people i purchased from finding out the different uses that the items had served and if they had ever had any problems with them. because of this, i was able to insure my customers that the gear they would get would be in working and safe condition.

anyway, ebay is getting very saturated with too many sellers. sellers are having a hard time making a decent profit because ebay either keeps raising the fees every few months or because there are more and more people selling stuff. overstock, amazon, and yahoo are becoming places where you can make better profits if you are selling the right stuff. perhaps checking out one of those could help you out. they have lower fees than ebay i believe too.

best of luck!

[bonafizzle8]

A buddy of mine and myself have a little thing going where if one of us has something going on eBay and it isn't bringing what we want, we bid on the stuff for each other. This is unethical (and perhaps illegal) as all hell, but has worked out well, especially when we wait until the last 20 minutes or so and start a bidding war with a legit buyer... That way, the bidder's competitive instinct takes over and he bids much more than he would've had to had we never padded the bids... If we accidently win the auction (and this has happened) we leave no feedback and the auction is relisted...

[bonafizzle8]

BTW if you're buying paintball paraphernalia(sp?) on eBay, don't buy it if the location is Chicopee, MA, or W. Springfield, MA, or you'll probably get screwed.

[ppanwar]

I have sold only few things on Ebay. It has become quiet competitive as there are so many sellers selling the same item.

A lot of sellers are starting their own Auctions due to intensive competition on Ebay and loss of profit.

[waveformpc]

What I don't understand is how some sellers sell brand new Dell computers far below the price at which Dell sells them. For example, Dell sells it's XPS Gen 2 Notebook (mid range model) for $2700, while I can find the same thing on eBay for around $2100 or so. I assume they are getting these at wholesale via Dell's reseller program.

[mxer210]

It's common for electronics being sold on ebay to be stolen. Frauders often put an item up for auction far below retail price, once someone buys it and the auction ends, they use a stolen credit card to buy that product at a smaller online electronic store that is an easy target. They then put the auction winners address as the shipping address when checking out at that store.

This actually happened to my audio store.

[bigpund]

Originally posted by ppanwar
A lot of sellers are starting their own Auctions due to intensive competition on Ebay and loss of profit.

Agreed. A lot of people are setting up their own websites with either there own auction software or links to their listings on different auction websites. It may even benefit to have an ecommerce site set up with some of your products and then advertise that in your ebay auctions. People are also having more success with profit margins by selling through their own ecommerce/auction websites.