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Your eBay stories...
 

I'm interested to know more about peoples stories with eBay and how they got started etc.

When did you start eBay? How soon did it become a full time business or do you still work another job?

Did you start as a business seller straight away or were you just casually selling old items for a while?

Do you have employees now or are you just doing it alone?

Did you make any big mistakes with eBay that you regret?

Do you still enjoy selling on eBay?

Re: Your eBay stories...
 

My advise is stay away from ebay if you dont want to loose your money and time and 5 years down the road realize that you made a big mistake it is lot of risk and, working 14 hrs a day to just pay rent if that is the direction you want to go you can go ahead and do it

Re: Your eBay stories...
 

roughly 2 years ago, went full time after about 3 months.

My mum had been using my account after hers got banned, i took it back lol

3

Sold a bit too cheap, 20 items at £4 profit makes the same money as 10 items at £8 profit but the first scenario gives cash flow issues if you're buying from china with a average of 2-3 weeks wait

I despise it, I hate having to read any messages, literally makes my blood boil every time someone says they haven't got something. I have a list in excel of 3-400 buyers who've said not received, if any pop up twice they get sent poo

Re: Your eBay stories...
 

Wait, what? 14 hrs a day??? I only work 1.

Re: Your eBay stories...
 

I hate ebay with a passion. I hate paypal for holding my money and it pending for weeks when i need it. I hate all ebay buyers. Everyday when i open my ebay, the worst thing i see is i have unread messages. Sometimes i wish i could close my laptop and never look at ebay again. On the other hand, ebay is fast easy money.

Re: Your eBay stories...
 

Started of carboot sales, got two big plush Siberian Husky toys for £2.5 and sold them for around £50, after this shoe racks of local shops with £30 shipping...heh...after that china sellers etc....

Now earning around £2000 per month.

there was really good times and I believe there still will be

Re: Your eBay stories...
 

So is £2000 per month not good times lol? :boink:

I started ebay around 3-4 years ago on and off, but id say summer this year ive just started taking it really seriously, maybe only selling 20-25 items per month, now im up to minimum 300 items per month, its no where near the big sellers on this forum, or anywhere near 2g a month, but what im making im happy enough with and it takes me the misses and daughter 4 holidays per year (from next year lol)

Ebay is quick, fast money, once you get past that darn 21 day hold and down to 2 hour withdrawals its a breeze (not really cos u always have dishonest customers)

I hope you do well at ebay mate, good luck

Re: Your eBay stories...
 

Amen. NEVER use any one thing as your sole outlet for sales if you dont have a main job. You will not get ahead unless you have a true niche (in with the manufacturer, etc) You need Amazon, Ebay, swap meet, Facebook, craigslist, etc if you want to make a decent living, such as the 6 figure income. Yes, there are people on ebay who SOLELY make 6 figures on just ebay alone but those are the guys who have that niche and Id love to know how to find my own.

I have no story except I wish I was back 10 years ago knowing what I know now and selling on ebay. Wish I had my chinese supplier selling flash drives. I would literally be a millionare if I did it right. Those days are over.

Re: Your eBay stories...
 

I started in 2004 on eBay and online sales have been pretty much all my income since then. I agree with the statement above. eBay alone is really hard now because it doesn't have nearly the traffic it use to. The fees are higher and the theme has changed from what use to be a big garage sale to more of an Amazon copy cat. Like stated above you have to take an all of the of above approach. eBay & Amazon plus whatever (Etsy, Swap Meets, Website, etc) might help drive sales.

Re: Your eBay stories...
 

Nooo, it's typical right now, I used to make £4000 per month and 1 weekend it was £1000 per weekend (christmas shopping weekend) - That was crazy!

Re: Your eBay stories...
 

Im 5 years selling on eBay, 2 years using stleaht account, few month on this forum.
First 3 years it was just the feeling of something big could happen.
Last 2 years what the beggining of nice income.
Lately, ive quited my job for the opertuninty of spending 12 hours a day on ebay, eBay forums (such as this), and eShop + ecommerce.

I just feel this is the right thing for me to do.

The problem is that im searching over 2 years for a source for Israeli seller such as me, realy hard though.
So im just dropshipping at the moment

Re: Your eBay stories...
 

I thought I should probably share my story too since I started the thread..

I started my eBay account about 5 years ago and in the beginning I would just sell old things around the house but once I ran out of old things to sell I started almost instantly buying in small amounts of wholesale items (10-30 items) to re-sell which I did. I sort of did that off and on. I then started my own e-commerce website selling niche items which became really popular on social media etc and I stopped selling on eBay completely for maybe 2 years a part from maybe a couple times I would list old items again but I wasn't making any money on eBay really. But just this year I have decided to start again and put my effort and time into it as my website sales have been going down slightly which sometimes happens but I have enough time to do eBay too so I may as well give it a go.. Its just finding the right sort of products to sell.

Although eBay is good for money if you know what to sell it does cause a lot of stress just because of eBay being pretty unfair with sellers and always on the buyers side which means your always sort of losing out.

Anyways I'm going to give it a go and take it more seriously and we will see what happens.

Re: Your eBay stories...
 

uhhh what. if your working 14hr days on eby only to be able to pay rent then your doing something MASSIVELY WRONG :attention: (or your rents extremely high)

Re: Your eBay stories...
 

:pound::pound::pound::lol::lol:

Re: Your eBay stories...
 

similar feeling at times mate.... those unread messages are the worst lol...

the only thing worse than eby buyers are buyers in real life lol

Re: Your eBay stories...
 

I am doing something wrong ?

Ok, I sell parts. computers parts, NEtwork equipment, tv parts. printing equipments, mainly parts, so, you need to test, take apart, ship, list answer messages, fix issues, relist when account shouts down. and do it all over again, If you buy new Item. to get a 20 % profit it will only take a couple of 2 to keep it for free. Good Items are expensive and you make little money. and on ebay any customers can keep them for FREE

Re: Your eBay stories...
 

Sounds like a headache. I like simplicity...

Re: Your eBay stories...
 

that is ebay, you will still need to put the time, there is just no way out of it if you want to make any money at it..

Re: Your eBay stories...
 

All I can tell you is there's a way to make big bucks on ebay/amazon but it takes lots of time to find it.
Or you may be lucky like me and stumble upon it after a few years of research.
It was staring at me in plain view, obvious to me now. I thank Aspkin for being born.

Re: Your eBay stories...
 

hahaha soo true,

easy easy money though and it looks great on your C.V

Re: Your eBay stories...
 

I have ebayed for years with just minor used or found items for quick cash. I've sold everything from found silver coins from banks to arrowheads from past digs. I didn't really make it into a machine until I accidentally found a few niches trying to arbitrage between online websites and Ebay prices.

As far as time and investment into it, I have set parameters that make the business highly profitable. The trick to ebay if you arent dominating a niche is to have many products and alternating them. Never stop looking for the next thing, and keep the profit margins high to make it feasible. These few steps have allow me to blow away any job I can work 40 hours a week with in my location. I work roughly 30 minutes a night packing and shipping. But I also browse many hours a week for fun to keep things going.

What mistakes have I made? Quite a few. You will always make plenty of mistakes in the stealth game. One major mistake I made in the past is becoming too in love with a product and account. Any of these products can die or dilute down to hardly any profit in a moments notice. Ask me how I know. haha

Re: Your eBay stories...
 

We started on Ebay in 2002. At first we were selling assorted "finds" in the antique category.

We now are firmly entrenched in a high profit niche that has paid the bills in the past as a stand alone although I have put it on a back burner for a while out of protest with Ebay policy and in fear of damaging our account with the defect system. I like what I see in the Fall Update though and believe we will be playing hard again in the Spring.

It is just my husband and I. I handle all buying, selling, shipping, customer service etc and he does the skilled labor part. He works a full time job currently but we plan on being able to transition into this to supplement retirement one day.

Even with him working we can make a tidy profit if I don't mind not seeing him all weekend because he is at his workbench. He actually loves the work and it is way of unwinding so he doesn't mind.

I used to love selling but the last couple of years site policy made it almost unbearable. I have high hopes that the new CEO will indeed bring back some support for sellers and it will be fun again.

The only mistakes we have made have been not buying some hard to find items for our shop when I seen them at auction thinking I would find another later that would end cheaper. All the tools and parts I am buying are over 100 years old though and sometimes you just don't find another one.

I can't imagine competing with the Chinese or selling in a high scam category but we love what we are dong on there. As others have said it is about finding that niche!

Re: Your eBay stories...
 

[QUOTE=tempusfugit;719633]

I have high hopes that the new CEO will indeed bring back some support for sellers and it will be fun again.

QUOTE]

don't hold your breath :doh::juggle::doh:

Re: Your eBay stories...
 

[quote=dealagreeproceed;719638]To be honest everyone back in the Day complained about Meg. The fees were about half of what they were now and life was actually pretty good. I am just hoping it doesn't get worse.

Re: Your eBay stories...
 

Been selling online since I was about 14 or so, I am 31 now. I sell solely on eBay.

It took me 10+ years to find the true secret to making money on eBay. Last year working from home, having my father help...I brought in about 600K last year operating at a 71% profit after all fees. Product cost, shipping, ebay, paypal, boxes, etc.

Private labeling and manufacturing your own products that sell for massive profit is the secret. Then focus solely on having the best possible product and customer service that the China folks cant compete. You will own 95% of the market on eBay for that item.

Re: Your eBay stories...
 

Wow thats a lot! Well done. Can I ask how many items you sell a week to be making that? and how many items you list a month? My sales are gradually growing by the day but I would love to be on a much higher level like you are one day.

Re: Your eBay stories...
 

I deal with lower volume, but high profit items.

Example:

Product X I manufacture for $6.50. The competition sells the same item for $249.99 on eBay. I list a 3 day auction for $.99 cents. The product usually sells for $130-$200. I then second chance offer every bidder and tell I only have few of the items left and I will honor there bids. All listings are private so the final sales prices are not visible.

A 3 day auction on product X can bring in around $3,000 - $6,000 in sales.

I currently manufacture about 15 products, some sell better then others. One product I manfacture I make for $100. It sells on eBay for about $895.

Re: Your eBay stories...
 

dam im not doin nothen compared to you

Re: Your eBay stories...
 

That sounds like the dream!

Re: Your eBay stories...
 

Everyone starts somewhere :)

Re: Your eBay stories...
 

You speak the truth, sir. The ultimate in eBay money is to make your own product so buyers have to come to you if they want the exact same thing you're selling.

I do pretty much the same thing. I have about 8000 products that sell for around $100-$700 have a profit margin of upto 65%, but they are low selling, as in some items sell only 1 a year. The chinese can't really compete with me on such low turnover items. Since I can manufacture 1 item at a time if necessary, I don't have to carry inventory.

Not only is Chinese competition not an issue, since I manufacture my own stuff, I don't have to worry about VERO police.

Re: Your eBay stories...
 

[quote=vogeltron;719737]
You could totally see when Meg opened up eBay to Chinese sellers that it was going to start sucking for US sellers. They charged $2 to list a designer handbag for US sellers but let chinese sellers list for free and didn't police them for ⊗⊗⊗⊗. Literally 99.9% of designer handbags on eBay became chinese ⊗⊗⊗⊗ virtually overnight.

Re: Your eBay stories...
 

Been selling on ebay for 2 years. Part time as I have a fairly high paying job and started dabbling in ebay to supplement my pending retirement. Make about $1-2000 profit a month and am piling back into product ( I kit bash) items. Then I found a "niche" and posted simultaneously on ebay and etsy. Sell 10 times the volume on etsy as I am selling on ebay, BUT this is just ONE niche item. Last time I tried etsy I sold 3 items in the first month. Sold 100 in first two weeks with niche item. Gonna pound it while it is hot. But the fees on etsy are WAY lower than ebay. Too bad etsy doesn't take on ebsay with their MUCH lower fees. Same shipping discount AND they do not charge fees on shipping. So trying to get my profits up to $10,000 a month to match my lost income when I retire. Problem is products. Found some great products in China but you must buy 5000 items so have to pay through the nose to buy on aliepress. That is my story and I am sticking to it.