I have spent the last 2 or 3 days LURKING around this site, then, when I saw this post, I decided to join and reply.
The views below, are my own observations and thoughts, and indeed, my way of doing things, and right or wrong, are here to be shot at. Having said all that, here we go.
eBay the biggest market place in the world.
Open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.
eBay…..the way to an easy fortune.
Well if you read and believe all the hundreds of “Get rich quick” schemes that you see for sale on eBay.
This is it, the way to an easy life.
What a load of old tosh.
Yes money, can and indeed, is being made on eBay.
However, I would hazard a guess that less than 5% of all eBay Powersellers, not just eBay sellers, but eBay Powersellers, are making what I would term a decent living after all expenses. I would call £600 a week a decent living. I think for this day and age that is about right.
If you really do want to earn money, not pocket money, but real money, then you will have to put some effort in. If you really want to become a POWER SELLER on eBay, then, in the early stages, you will have to get off your backside and work at it. All the adverts you may have seen on eBay, promise you that you can earn thousands of pounds for doing nothing, all you have to do is pay them a few quid and they will show you how to do it. I know, because when I first joined eBay last summer, I bought half a dozen or so of these GET RICH QUICK, WITHOUT ANY EFFORT, type of things. Trust me, they don’t work. Well if you believe that you can earn thousands by doing nothing, then next Christmas Eve, sit by your chimney and a man in a red suit will pop down. No seriously, you will have to put some effort in to it; also you will have to spend some money to buy your stock.
The first thing that you have got to realise is:
eBay is a BUYERS market and NOT, repeat NOT a sellers market. The sooner that you realise this, the sooner you will start looking like earning money from eBay. At present I am a Powerseller (Just dropped down from Titanium to Platinum) and I will sell anything, yes anything that will show me a profit, whilst giving my customers a bargain. Anything legal that is.
People log on to eBay looking for bargains and that is precisely what you must give them. Unless of course you can sell them “THE DREAM” You must have seen the ones on eBay. Send me a tenner and I will show you how to make money on eBay. Or send me a tenner and you can give up your job and do what I do. I know they are CRAP, you know they are CRAP, but it’s that little thing in your head that keeps saying, maybe this is the one.
Been there, done that, got the postcard... The problem is these people who are selling this type of thing, just keep on selling the same thing, the only thing that they do is change the format. Different title, more padding in the content, but the same thing at the end of the day.
Hold on a minute, what they are doing is right; this is the way to make money. No not sell what they are selling, useless info, but changing, or appearing to change, what they are selling.
What do I mean by this, well what exactly do people want to buy from eBay??????
Answer 1 is, the things that they buy on a regular basis, so they look on eBay to see if they can get them cheaper.
This could be clothes, household goods, even nowadays, mobile phones and other electronic bits and bobs.
Answer 2 is, something unique, something they can’t get anywhere else, so they are looking around eBay to see what’s available. It may be for themselves or a present for someone.
Answer 3 is, the specialist things, such as, say Fossils, Coins, or other such collectables. They search eBay to see what bargains are to be had to add to their collections.
Answer 4 is, Ah now this is the $64,000 question, what are they looking for. Because if you knew that, you would search out a supplier or manufacturer and sell it to them.
I realise that a myriad of things are sold on eBay, some specialist things, some, common or garden things. Many purchases are impulse buys; this is why Sunday evening is a good time to have your auction end. People like to look around on a Sunday evening; don’t ask me why…….I don’t know. But it’s a fact.
Anyway let’s get back to the statement I made earlier, eBay is a BUYERS market. Right so if it is a buyers market, then you have to go along with this and sell them goods that are the right price. Not the right price for you as a seller, but the right price for them as a buyer.
Sounds good, of course it is…………now the BIG question. Where the bloody hell do I buy things from to sell “AT THE RIGHT PRICE” a price that will make them WANT to buy.
Well speaking personally, I go to
www.Alibaba.com for all my imports.
I also use
http://www.auctionguides.co.uk/ and
http://www.giftwareindex.com/dir/all_products.htm
Also I talk to people at every opportunity, you never know what will come from it. For example, one of the manufacturers in China, that I deal with, has a cousin who lives 15 minutes from me. I met him and have purchased a container load of goods, with 60 days credit (Yes I thought that I had died and gone to heaven). Having made just three phone calls and one visit to show a sample that I was given, I have sold the entire container load. As BT says, it pays to talk. By the way, I’m not bragging or boasting in that last bit, just stating a fact, that you MUST talk to everyone you come into contact with, you never know. For all those interested the container is a load of black plastic bags, the dustbin type. Nothing fancy, just black bags.
Right back to the main topic, eBay, it can work for you, but it is bloody hard work. You may think that you have found a niche market, so you buy your stock, put up your listings and within two weeks 20 others are selling the same thing, only cheaper. This is particularly so of the smaller Far Eastern suppliers. You buy from them, and then before you know it, they are on eBay selling the same thing. One tactic that they use (Heaven only knows how they get away with it) is sell for 1p and charge £39.99 postage. The same thing that you are trying to sell for £35.00 with £5.00 postage. Yep, it works out the same, but buyers see the 1p and…….well the rest is history.
When they get a pull from eBay about this, all they do is list the same thing for £20.00 (That’s the price that you have paid wholesale) and charge the normal postage, about a tenner from China. So they are now selling £10 (with the postage included) cheaper than you.
This is the beast known as eBay.
If you want to get involved, or maybe, you are already involved, in eBay. It’s hard work, it’s soul destroying, but maybe, just maybe, you will find the answer to that $64,000 question.
Sorry to bore you and thanks for your patience.
P.P.
ebay sellers
Linear Mode
December 2008
