Your eBay stories...

[HAHlala]

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?

[franknu]

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

[dan_ebay]

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

[glacier922]

Originally Posted by franknu

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

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

[Burger Box Man]

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.

[hAve]

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

[mao]

Originally Posted by hAve

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

So is £2000 per month not good times lol?

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

[Maliquest]

Originally Posted by franknu

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

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.

[vogeltron]

Originally Posted by Maliquest

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.

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.

[hAve]

Originally Posted by mao

So is £2000 per month not good times lol?

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

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!

[ItzakJano]

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

[HAHlala]

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.

[dealagreeproceed]

Originally Posted by franknu

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

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

[dealagreeproceed]

Originally Posted by dan_ebay

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

[dealagreeproceed]

Originally Posted by Burger Box Man

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.

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

[franknu]

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

[dealagreeproceed]

Originally Posted by franknu

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

Sounds like a headache. I like simplicity...

[franknu]

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..

[Hercules]

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.

[luckoftheirish93]

Originally Posted by Burger Box Man

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.

hahaha soo true,

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

[vettefever17]

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

[tempusfugit]

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!