The Wholesale Forums

[Friedrich]

Hi, i'm a young seller (prefer that term to entrepreneur as i haven't really achieved anything yet) and after researching ebay i have concluded that its ability to create good margins for profits is now dead. Its fees are too high, people miraculously expose my niches straight away and even with my ebook business they can even pirate my work.

I started from £0 and made £450 in 2 months. But, i'm convinced now that ebay is not the right place for me to sell my stuff anymore, its simply being slowly taken over by monopolisers who have failed in the high street.



It'd be cool to have your input.

[craftystylez]

Well I have been selling bits and bobs on ebay since I was 15, now 21.

Fees are way too high for me, but there is NOWHERE else on the internet that will get you the amount of sales, traffic, interest etc that ebay does. I guess I love the site in some strange way, has made me a fair bit of money.

Having said that the best way would be to use ebay and have a link to your own site. Maybe sell the item for less on your own site and use ebay indirectly for advertising. What I'm planning to do.

[conrad]

plenty of people on here do well out of ebay, for me its the best selling channel, im sure others would agree, if ebay closed i think we would see a lot of people feeling very bad about it.

get good products and good keywords and do lots of research and you will find ebay has got room for more sucess

[Saajan]

Originally Posted by craftystylez

But there is NOWHERE else on the internet that will get you the amount of sales, traffic, interest etc that ebay does. I guess I love the site in some strange way, has made me a fair bit of money.

I agree. eBay is the number one selling platform for people looking to start their own business. It's totally worth it.

[Rob001]

As above, Theres no better than ebay at the moment on the tinternet.

Untill then we all have to put up with it im afraid, Theres online giants and depatment stores opening and showing the force they have on ebay every week, There is nothing we can do im afraid.

[Ph4ZeD]

Daily threads about this topic are really starting to bore me. Yes eBay can charge whatever they like. This is because there are no genuine competitors. Do we have to keep saying it over and over?

[jedi777]

Originally Posted by Friedrich

Hi, i'm a young seller (prefer that term to entrepreneur as i haven't really achieved anything yet) and after researching ebay i have concluded that its ability to create good margins for profits is now dead. Its fees are too high, people miraculously expose my niches straight away and even with my ebook business they can even pirate my work.

I started from £0 and made £450 in 2 months. But, i'm convinced now that ebay is not the right place for me to sell my stuff anymore, its simply being slowly taken over by monopolisers who have failed in the high street.



It'd be cool to have your input.

You just have to work around the fees as you wont find anywhere else with the same amount of traffic as Ebay.

[Acetech]

Ebay has been very quiet for me this week though I now have my ebay shop and more items listed, just putting it down to a slow week and will list some stuff on Sunday as normal. Like has been said,, they monopolise the auction market so currently we have little choice, I do now however link to my website from my me page too now, so hopefully will start boosting that as people come accross it.

[simon99ctg]

Ebay isn't dead. You have to understand that its business model is in conflict with yours. Your model is about maximising your profit on the individual items you sell. Ebay's is about maximising profit from their platform. They do this through fees, but also by trying to increase buyer and seller traffic. Increased seller traffic means more competition for you, resulting in lower profits. Increased buyer traffic doesn't necessarily mean more profits for you, since ebay's relationship with buyers is based on the assumption that buyers will find what they want cheaper than elsewhere, and if this is isn't the case, the buyers go elsewhere.

You need to work within these parameters. You're never going to make massive profits on ebay, except in exceptional cases, because it's a platform that encourages open competition. Hence why all books about ebay profit-making stress niches. But niches are not static, and as soon as one person realises profits can be made through a niche, others will eventually realise it too and follow, and the profits will vanish. A niche is a market segment, which has good buyer traffic and low seller traffic, and these "irregularities" only last for a finite amount of time before equilibrium between buyers and sellers is restored.

So you need to work hard to make ebay work for yourself. Understand why buyers might choose to buy from you or bid for your items, rather than someone else's. Trust, service, reliability, marketing - all of which are really hard work on your part, not just getting an item and listing it and collecting. Oh, and cutting all your costs to the bone....

Good luck,

Simon

[smurf1905]

Ebay isn't dead, but in my opinion the prices are toooo high...
Is it really nessesary to have these high prices?