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Profitability on eBay anymore
 

How much are you guys paying out everytime you make an account? I know a lot of us are spending $10 on tracfones everytime we need a new phone #. Also, you have to pay $25 per bank account if you dont't alreaydy one you can transfer $ into.

Is anyone actually making $ on ebay or just obsessed with making accounts? I rarely hear anything about profitability on ebay.

Just a thought...:thumb:

Re: Profitability on eBay anymore
 

I certainly aint making them for fun!

Re: Profitability on eBay anymore
 

The profitability comes when you know how to run an account and it turns from a small account to a giant with nice limits and good feedback. Selling the wrong items leads you to keep making accounts....

Re: Profitability on eBay anymore
 

eBay is DEAD ... In all these years I have never seen eBay sales this bad ... No traffic whatsoever ... no views ... no sales ... high return rate due to abuse ... extortion ... high final fees ...

Re: Profitability on eBay anymore
 

eBay, like any other marketplace is constantly changing. If your items have slow sales, it is time to look for new items to sell. Ditto if the competition brings down your profit to 1%.

I too, get frustrated, because I am an adult with a family and all of the expenses that come with it and I have to compete with sellers from other countries where $5 per day is considered a bigtime payday and with college kids doing this for beer money.

All you can do is find new niches. It is a never-ending process. But eBay IS profitable if you are selling the right things.

Re: Profitability on eBay anymore
 

I'm still making money , if I wasn't I would never be jumping thru all these hoops making accounts , I do it because of the money , you need to play there game, and it has been changing constantly and dramatically, but as long as u adapt it is definitely still profitable ,

I feel the day of just having a few big accounts that you are selling big sales on are over but u can still make them same sales just over many many many accounts

Re: Profitability on eBay anymore
 

Yea, I agree with some of the comments here. It wil depend on your items and having the right niche. I'm doing research as we speak to find the niche. Trying to stay away from Vero items is difficult. Finding a non vero item with decent profitability is not easy. I'd like to have a 20-30% profit per sale.

The days of 300% profit per item is over I guess!

Re: Profitability on eBay anymore
 

I agree 30% is a good margin nowadays. Its hard to compete with China.

Re: Profitability on eBay anymore
 

Build your own websites if you are truly bored.

Re: Profitability on eBay anymore
 

Always good to vary it up - websites...eB...amazon...others

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Adapt or perish. Plain and simple.

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Competition never sleeps

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Yea, everything I think about selling there's always a China listing for a little of nothing. I'm not sure how China is able to get away with selling so many items over here.

Re: Profitability on eBay anymore
 

Extortion and scammers are on the rise that's for sure... Especially now that they are catching onto the new defect rules....

I had 3 negative feedback in couple of years on one of my best accounts. Now I have 31 defects in 2 months for idiotic things. People asking questions, simple things.... I can see my best account drowning fast and no way to stop it. Very frustrating.... So yea losing accounts faster then ever makes it a lot harder to make money.... Starting with lower limits etc.... First time ever I even got scammed here.... (Sandy drama)

Re: Profitability on eBay anymore
 

I am 50/50 myself. There are low margins on ebay unless you have a reasonably exclusive distribution deal, and alot of those are taken. Just buying off alibaba etc, you are paying too much for decent margin IMO and sometimes you have to sell alot to make anything, it can seem too much outlay or too much hard work.....

also I fell in to the trap of making too many accs, then not having enough goods to sell on them, as my main powerseller accs are still standing and they sell 75% of everything...and why change that.....so what is the point of like 20 plus stealth accs, sitting there doing nothing....

I am always looking for stuff to sell on my stealths but never see anything much worth what I know about already, but I always research periodically when I have the time......which is hardly ever....and research can turn in to days then weeks if you do not call a halt to it....

however you would be silly to sell stuff that has too little or no profit, so whatever you sell, you make some money and that is not hard to do...but what I call big money, no not on ebay, or az, not for me anyway....glad I married well har har....

Re: Profitability on eBay anymore
 

Been seeing a huge drop-off in profits lately. Been moving to other avenues of making money. One of which is what others have mentioned, my own website. But that is a completely different story.

Re: Profitability on eBay anymore
 

Profits and sales ALWAYS decline during the summer months. People are outside and on vacation, visiting family, etc. Things should pick up somewhat in September. But if you have been selling the same items for a long time and seen a steady decline in profitability, you should be doing your research and finding new products to sell.

And, as one person noted above, the days of the 300% profit margin are gone.

Re: Profitability on eBay anymore
 

Cant wait until Fall comes around again to see if we do get that bounce back, Should be an interesting holiday season this year.

Re: Profitability on eBay anymore
 

change what you're selling. Ebay has been amazing for me this year.

Re: Profitability on eBay anymore
 

Maybe better on .com but it's been really bad on the UK site for a while now.

Re: Profitability on eBay anymore
 

Force the profit margins within customer acceptable method/route

Re: Profitability on eBay anymore
 

Like I said, yes I totally agree that during summer months it's slower than usual but not THIS slow. Either this is done on purpose to get rid of/discourage as many sellers as possible or eBay has lost a huge chunk of their customers due to recent events. Decline in sales begun about 2 years ago but this year was especially bad beginning end of March and then at the end of May it turned even worse than before. You have to have a lot of products in your arsenal to keep you afloat. Profit margins are very small, significant amount of returns, very few views, extortion and negative feedbacks are on the rise. I don't know what eBay is thinking so either they are allowing this intentionally to go on or they are just as clueless as the rest of us. eBay is sinking ... And there are no good alternatives either.

Re: Profitability on eBay anymore
 

I never used ebay as seller. Only auction site I did well with was StormPay but they closed. Bulk my income from selling virtual goods on my own sites. Plus to that if get bad purchase I lose nothing 99.99% of time. My income from my own sites always slow July and August. Which I love I had 10-20 competitors beg me to buy there sites. Happens every year. Thankfully I built up affiliate income from very addictive item that I can live off if need too.

You can even buy profitable websites cheap. I am saving up now profits next 6-9 months so I can do more of that next year. Its risky though either make lots or you lose what paid for it but the hidden gems make it worth it.

Re: Profitability on eBay anymore
 

This is my tactic - diversify!

I also have a few sites that makes virtual sales, I also make a living from Fiverr (of all places!). But, if the interweb collapsed tomorrow I'd be probably be screwed!

Affiliate marketing is good once you find your spot. Took me years of reading BS gurus advice until I did my own thing.

Re: Profitability on eBay anymore
 

Fiverr has really good potential indeed

Re: Profitability on eBay anymore
 

Good ole' stormpay!

Re: Profitability on eBay anymore
 

:rip: Alertpay

Re: Profitability on eBay anymore
 

The real money comes from the additional gigs that you charge for (aka extras - charge up to $40 per pop, I think). Once you hit levels 1 or 2, then you can charge extra. Of course make sure you're not spinning your wheels - look for a gig that takes about 20 mins to complete.

The hardest part on 5'er is getting actual buyers. I had to use YouTube, niche-related forums, blogs, etc, to really push it - then the orders came!

One word of warning - make sure you create other 5'er accounts as they can and do ban people! You can build an account up to level 2 quickly, and without making any sales.

Re: Profitability on eBay anymore
 

That's amazing

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The way we were!!!!

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:cheer:

Re: Profitability on eBay anymore
 

Re: Profitability on eBay anymore
 

wrong thread again, rsot.

Not a fav tune so not needed there.

:FF:

Re: Profitability on eBay anymore
 

Ok - a good tune nonetheless /back to topic

Nice tips RetroRedneck

Re: Profitability on eBay anymore
 

Once saw $4000 a month profit site sold for $6000. I did not buy as did not really want to have to store or ship inventory. I do not need to make more money but I looking into diversify as what I do only takes few hours a day got it automated for most part. Just wish I could find small scales established sites to see if I want to deal with selling real items. Until find right site I spending few grand monthly promoting one affiliate had success promoting. I set aside 5% of income to buy new sites so when see one like can buy it.

Re: Profitability on eBay anymore
 

Not sure why RSOT and GreenBean keep spamming this great thread.

Re: Profitability on eBay anymore
 

ignore...its just a Jersey thing....

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because everyone can access same suppliers generally, you can do all the research in the world and you can be in the middle of an auction and suddenly all sales go to under-cutting scoundrel....you have to wait it out or cut your own prices....

actually ebay is not a bad supplier, china sellers there often cheaper than so called wholesale...........

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They are always on each others a$$ on every thread. Quite annoying

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I'm quite lucky in the fact that I am living overseas in a country where the cost of living is about 6 times lower than in UK, if I was back home then I would be struggling.

I also do some freelance sales and marketing work which to be honest is much less hassle and better money, although very boring.

For me being an expat in a foreign country it's important not to have the eggs in one basket.