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Is eBay worth Selling on anymore?
 

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 guess my main hesitation is that we did around 15-20 K a month so not sure that a stealth account is going to help us much. Seems like they more cater to the casual and hobby seller (No offense intended) that sell smaller quantities of goods/month. I may be wrong, but just kind of seems to be the vibe I get from the book and reading the forums.

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?

We do really well with Amazon and honestly, I can't think of the last time I have thought to buy much off ebay nor do I hear any of my friends or family talking about ebay. I think more people go to Amazon.

Any thoughts on this? I don't mind jumping through the hoops, but just curious if seasoned sellers on ebay have noticed a significant drop in sales over the past year or so that I haven't been on ebay? Keep in mind I mostly sell new standard retail goods and not used collectibles.

Re: Is eBay worth Selling on anymore?
 

Who caters to the casual seller?

Dont be making assumptions

:boink:

Re: Is eBay worth Selling on anymore?
 

No offense intended as mentioned in the post. Just what it seems to me. Didn't mean to hurt feelings.

Re: Is eBay worth Selling on anymore?
 

It depends on a country and so on.
So many countries dont allow to sell on Amazon as they dont allow their banks to withdraw.
So obviously in these countries Amazon is not so popular as EB.
Same as Macintosh its very popular in US but not in EU
Once i lost all accounts on EB, time to time i can see some movement in Bonanza.
Sales are really low to compare, but every little helps

Re: Is eBay worth Selling on anymore?
 

Find the right product and the people will come. No matter what the platform.

Re: Is eBay worth Selling on anymore?
 

That is a good point. I have tried bonanza, but haven't had much luck with it. We have about 5,000 products on it and maybe sell something every 1 to 2 months.

I agree that every sale helps, that is why I am entertaining EB again. It is getting more competitive on Amazon, so having an extra 5-10 k even a month from EB would be worth it. Just curious if that is possible with a stealth account with say an average sale price of $15

Re: Is eBay worth Selling on anymore?
 

Correctly made and run stealth accounts work to sell items of any amount.

My accounts are all business, nothing casual there. That is USA accounts too.

Re: Is eBay worth Selling on anymore?
 

I am pretty casual...

Re: Is eBay worth Selling on anymore?
 

Been meaning to talk to you about that attitude.


:pound:

Re: Is eBay worth Selling on anymore?
 

Said the power seller - LOL!

Re: Is eBay worth Selling on anymore?
 

Stealth works fine for all sellers, from casual to Powersellers....I know A LOT of people on this forum who sell 1,000 - 2,000 items a month.

Re: Is eBay worth Selling on anymore?
 

Was doing around 15k a month ALL Stealth (900 item a month - 30 a day 15$ per piece )
BUT you need quite a few accounts
As you cant cross 20k a year so you should Average 1-1.5k a month per account OR you can stop way earlier and let it sit
The best strategy there is loads of accounts
You sleep better then. less chances to go all of them down
It does take more work, but this is Stealth, this is a way to go

As regarding Bonanza sales for sure are very low, but i managed to sell 9 items in a month having just 200 inventory
So this is not too bad having in mind was selling 2-3 items a month for years.

Re: Is eBay worth Selling on anymore?
 

I have so much to say but to sum it up, when someone asks me a question such as, "Can you really make money on ebay?" My answer is, "I have no idea if you can. Can You? "

Re: Is eBay worth Selling on anymore?
 

I LOVE IT! lol :pound:

I think that sums it up. I have had friends, family members, strangers even say things like oh that will never work out. How on earth can you make a real income on ebay...so on so on.
I have been a stay at home "stealther" for the last 3 years. And I have about $3,400 in bills a month thats just bills absolute things that need to be paid. No over and above. And never had a problem paying my bills.

Could cut back on vacas to casinos tho! HA

Re: Is eBay worth Selling on anymore?
 

Oh and to be a little more helpful to the question,
Yes you can sell LOADS on ebay in stealth accounts. Thing is if you do it small and personal info not doing as business accounts and you can not verify the information to lift your limits then you will need MANY accounts.

A better thing is to go the business route, do DBA's and Ein's stuff like that and you will be able to list a lot more on single accounts way faster then waiting for 10/1,000 limits to be lifted every few months.

Hope that helps!

Re: Is eBay worth Selling on anymore?
 

Thanks for the feedback. I agree with the Business Account approach. I am looking at setting up a new corp right now, but was a little worried that ebay would find a way to link my new corp to my old corp if they looked at the articles of incorporation with my state, because my name is going to be on both of them if that makes sense

Re: Is eBay worth Selling on anymore?
 

Any chance I could pick your brain one of these days on the best way to setup a Business Stealth account? I love the book, but there are just a few questions I have more toward the business side.

Re: Is eBay worth Selling on anymore?
 

It is easy.
Start selling on a stealth or ten. When paypal requests tax info, make the decision to either move onto another stealth or ad an EIN.
It is that simple.

Re: Is eBay worth Selling on anymore?
 

On the ebay side I don't think there is a difference in selling limits between new standard or business accounts. On PayPal is where you might need the business account but can wait until tax info is requested like "powerseller yankee" said to convert it. The amount you're talking about is possible but have to start slow with multiple accounts

Re: Is eBay worth Selling on anymore?
 

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

Re: Is eBay worth Selling on anymore?
 

Consider building an eCommerce? with your figures you'd spend most of your time wasted on flipping through stealths. You obviously have good amazon setup - simply use that setup to funnel customers upon various other popular advert methods.

If you have to ask whether or not eBay is a worthy avenue then you need more confidence in your product.

Most successful eComm stores operate a very simple one-click sale method and are very PayPal friendly.

Re: Is eBay worth Selling on anymore?
 

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.

Re: Is eBay worth Selling on anymore?
 

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.

Re: Is eBay worth Selling on anymore?
 

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

Re: Is eBay worth Selling on anymore?
 

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

Re: Is eBay worth Selling on anymore?
 

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.

Re: Is eBay worth Selling on anymore?
 

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.

Re: Is eBay worth Selling on anymore?
 

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

Re: Is eBay worth Selling on anymore?
 

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.

Re: Is eBay worth Selling on anymore?
 

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

Re: Is eBay worth Selling on anymore?
 

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.

Re: Is eBay worth Selling on anymore?
 

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?

Re: Is eBay worth Selling on anymore?
 

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.

Re: Is eBay worth Selling on anymore?
 

But but but, yesterday you said you were casual.


:pound:

Re: Is eBay worth Selling on anymore?
 

I am casual about my seriousness about business LOL

Re: Is eBay worth Selling on anymore?
 

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.

Re: Is eBay worth Selling on anymore?
 

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.

=}-

Re: Is eBay worth Selling on anymore?
 

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.

Re: Is eBay worth Selling on anymore?
 

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.

Re: Is eBay worth Selling on anymore?
 

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.