Is eBay worth Selling on anymore?

[yankee]

Originally Posted by Dmshark25

Stealth accounts are just as good and for me even better than my original, I have accounts that ran 20K a week this holiday season

Yup! 20K a week is very doable. moving 1000 pieces on a 100 pieces account is also doable if you are creative and bundle goods or sell in lots. Then move onto the next account.

[yankee]

Originally Posted by pokerpro

Seriously, if it wasn't for eBay, I'd be be living in my car on some beach, somewhere.....which does not actually look half bad when I read what I just typed???..........anyway, no way could I make 30% of what I do now, unless I went back to school and became a brain surgeon. lol.

Brain surgeons pay huge amounts in taxes and insurance and have a lot of stress. I prefer ebay LOL and being dead serious.

[yankee]

Originally Posted by bananaappeal

with your figures you'd spend most of your time wasted on flipping through stealths.

I am all for private websites but good riddens not selling on ebay would cost me a fortune or two.

[bananaappeal]

I'm definitely in favour of OP moving into eBay again if he has great success with Amazon. OP just seemed lazy in regards to operating high selling stealth so I thought I'd lend another easy avenue.

[trav]

It isn't really laziness. Just want to do it the right way. Maybe I am overthinking it. I sell online for a living. That is what I do. Just trying to figure out if people are still having a lot of success on ebay. Didn't want to spend the time invested in it if it isn't doing as well anymore. I also know some people really struggle with the new standards just because some buyers know how to game the system a bit.

Just wanted some opinions. I operate a website and do Amazon and those are doing well, but would love to capitalize on ebay again. Seemed like some things just did better on there before.

I am a little confused on a few aspects of setting up an eBay Stealth account with a business though. Just seems harder to do "stealth", just because of some of the tax and banking issues that come along with it. I guess that is why I am a little extra cautious about doing it. Plus I am a little unsure how EB verifies business accounts. Do they look into who are the principle owners, which I couldn't lie about on articles of incorporation with the state or while applying for an EIN for example.

[pokerpro]

Yea....but they get girls way outta their league.......

[vogeltron]

Originally Posted by pokerpro

Seriously, if it wasn't for eBay, I'd be be living in my car on some beach, somewhere.....which does not actually look half bad when I read what I just typed???..........anyway, no way could I make 30% of what I do now, unless I went back to school and became a brain surgeon. lol.

More than anything it is the freedom that comes with selling online. I mean it is hard for me to take a vacation etc. But I am right there with you. I double Majored and am actually in a MBA Program for grad school. eBay is still how I make a living since I started at age 16 over 10 years ago. There have been some rough times. Way back selling on eBay was like printing money. It has become much more harder and complex especially if you have to run lots of stealth accounts here in states.

To get back to the point. There is still money to be made and they have a huge customer base. I have begun to venture out into Amazon world as well for the first time. Having success a few months in on a smaller scale. Knock on wood.

[trav]

If you have any tips or hold ups you have run into with setting up business stealth accounts, I would greatly appreciate it. The biggest things I see are probably more on the paypal side, because they are going to want an EIN and business bank account

[vogeltron]

Originally Posted by trav

If you have any tips or hold ups you have run into with setting up business stealth accounts, I would greatly appreciate it. The biggest things I see are probably more on the paypal side, because they are going to want an EIN and business bank account

Depends on how you run the account. I do have and EIN account as I use for my main seller account. Then I have a handful of stealth accounts that I use on the side.

Tax ID is one issue. Now, I am hearing public database questions and phone verification are becoming more troublesome. I wish I could add experience on this. I haven't really made new seller accounts for two years. All my stealth's are well established.

[trav]

Originally Posted by vogeltron

Depends on how you run the account. I do have and EIN account as I use for my main seller account. Then I have a handful of stealth accounts that I use on the side.

Tax ID is one issue. Now, I am hearing public database questions and phone verification are becoming more troublesome. I wish I could add experience on this. I haven't really made new seller accounts for two years. All my stealth's are well established.

So do you just report all the stealth accounts under that EIN on your main account? Doesn't paypal report your earnings if you make over a certain amount on them?

[yankee]

Originally Posted by trav

So do you just report all the stealth accounts under that EIN on your main account? Doesn't paypal report your earnings if you make over a certain amount on them?

Whoever receives the income has the tax liability.
If you withdraw into a company account, that company is responsible. If you withdraw into a personal account, then you are responsible.

You may be over analyzing this.

Open an account, sell items, collect funds, withdraw. whoever receives those funds is responsible. It is that easy.

[GreenBean]

Originally Posted by yankee

Brain surgeons pay huge amounts in taxes and insurance and have a lot of stress. I prefer ebay LOL and being dead serious.

But but but, yesterday you said you were casual.

[yankee]

Originally Posted by GreenBean

But but but, yesterday you said you were casual.

I am casual about my seriousness about business LOL

[vogeltron]

Originally Posted by trav

So do you just report all the stealth accounts under that EIN on your main account? Doesn't paypal report your earnings if you make over a certain amount on them?

My stealth accounts do not meet the IRS threshold for PayPal reporting. I do claim the income. I have my main account which has the EIN attached. PayPal does report the income on the 1099k form I get each Jan/Feb.

[trav]

Thanks for all the insights. Yes, I am probably overthinking it a little. lol Just didn't know if that would cause problems if your many paypal accounts had different names under them.

I suppose I would rather overthink it then under think it. I appreciate all your patience with me though! Everybody has been super helpful with my questions.

[jeffweico]

It all depends on what you are selling. Some of my items do better on eBay, some do better on Amazon. I never stop researching and am ALWAYS looking for new products to sell. Niches come and go - popular products become unpopular and unsaturated niches become saturated. That is the way it works.

But most of the time when I hear someone saying "I can't make money on eBay" what they mean is, they cant make EASY and FAST money on eBay.

Newbies are all looking for that mythical source of $100 iPhones that they can re-sell on eBay for $500... The problem is, that source does not exist, I don't care HOW MANY $20 "wholesale guides" you buy.

Making money on eBay takes work. If you have a lot of money, you can buy a huge amount of an everyday product like HDMI cables and compete. But you have to buy in a huge quantity or others can easily beat your price. And you will have to fill a TON of orders to make any decent money.

For those who don't have a lot of money to invest, we try to find niches where we can make a few sales each week or each month and where competition is limited.

And some people just look to buy products at a VERY CHEAP price so they can re-sell them for a decent profit. Usually books, collectibles, comics, coins... something along those lines.

There is PLENTY OF MONEY to be made on eBay! But whether or not YOU can make some of that money is something that only YOU can answer.

[vogeltron]

Originally Posted by trav

Thanks for all the insights. Yes, I am probably overthinking it a little. lol Just didn't know if that would cause problems if your many paypal accounts had different names under them.

I suppose I would rather overthink it then under think it. I appreciate all your patience with me though! Everybody has been super helpful with my questions.

If it is stealth. If you keep them under the tax id threshold and pay attention to the PayPal Tax 1st request you should be fine on those. How and when they send those is a completely different topic I am sure for subscribed or executive members. To be honest I would be interested to see what other stealthers have to say about it here in the States myself.

[isitworththestress]

Originally Posted by trav

Is it worth selling retail goods on Ebay anymore?

So our ebay account got banned a little over a year ago now and we just haven't pulled the trigger on doing a stealth account yet.

I am looking at either buying an account or trying to setup a new corporation and giving ebay a go again.

Is eBay really worth it though these days?


.

I suppose it all depends on why you got kicked in the first place, as if you have not sorted that problem out then it may be a pointless task.

Ebay does not change for the better so any problems you faced before will have possibly increased rather than decreased.

But it is always down to the individual, as you may find rather than thinking of ebay as a selling venue it may benefit you thinking of it as another advertising expense of time or even money in some cases for your off ebay venues.

[rsot]

Like any other business, competition will be present and you will need to deal with them in order to succeed as well

[aking]

There are ways to be successful on ebay. I just got back into selling on ebay again after a 4-5 year hiatus. I am not a lot more cautious in my actions, moreso that I was previously. I have only been actively selling for about 4 months and have about 7 accounts going strong.

All my profits are being invested back into my accounts and figuring ways to make my ebay process more efficient. My main goal is to please customers, ship fast and provide quality products. You have to treat it as if it is your own corporation even though it's a 3rd party platform.

I am always researching and keeping a list of potential items to invest in. I work with my current suppliers and they provide samples with orders and ideas on new products to grow my business. Like anything, you will only get out what you put into it. You have to do your own leg work and find products, they are everywhere.

Anything will sell on ebay...you just need to figure out how to sell it!!!

[ftf101]

Getting my original account banned on ebay was a blessing in disguise. I now do 10x the business as my stealth account is in much Better standing since we stealthers have to be much more cautious and take very good care of the account. Sell over 50k a month on stealth account

[vogeltron]

Originally Posted by ftf101

Getting my original account banned on ebay was a blessing in disguise. I now do 10x the business as my stealth account is in much Better standing since we stealthers have to be much more cautious and take very good care of the account. Sell over 50k a month on stealth account

I wish I never would have lost my original account 6-7 years ago but you are right. The knowledge I have learned is invaluable.