Seems like I hear so much negative talk about eBay lately. Is I still worth it?

... no ebay is dead. nobody going there any longer ...

It depends. Suprisingly, used items and antiques do pretty well on ebay.

Everything new, it seems everyone wants it for a dollar.

Many people are leaving ebay because they are reporting taxes now. Actually, just about everyone will be reporting taxes now, as the IRS is demanding it.

Originally Posted by marusia

It depends. Suprisingly, used items and antiques do pretty well on ebay.

Everything new, it seems everyone wants it for a dollar.

Many people are leaving ebay because they are reporting taxes now. Actually, just about everyone will be reporting taxes now, as the IRS is demanding it.

I think its if you make over 50k a year

No, it's if you have 200 transactions and a total of 20K a year. Paypal is reporting too.

Yeah, the day I decided to leave ebay was the day I decided to leave paypal as well. I actually found a cc processor that has (much) lower fees than paypal anyways.

ebay dead ? what wrong.i'm still active on ebay

Oh but didn't you just offer an ebay JV?

Yeah, the day I decided to leave ebay was the day I decided to leave paypal as well. I actually found a cc processor that has (much) lower fees than paypal anyways.

i just set up another account on there, my last try was dropshiping mobile phones and it failed i had 2 customers said they had faulty phones they done a charge back and sent me back 2 empty boxes, i got scamed for £300

Well darn, I was hoping to be able and sell on eBay

You CAN sell on ebay. There's just a lot of people boycotting them for various reasons. It's still the #1 site people go to to buy, if I'm not mistaken. I just don't want to be a part of it anymore. There's still lots of money to be made there. I just hate ebay, and I hate paypal with a passion.

If you hаvе a niche, аnd nоbоdy elѕe iѕ supplying the product(s) you have then уоu сan make а lot, depending оn the demand. The market fоr items ѕuсh аs electronics іs quitе saturated and yоu wіll need a decent start uр capital in order to break іntо thіs area and make az profit.

Overall though, I strongly belіeve іt іs pоѕѕible tо still make a decent profit on ebay, but this depends entirelу on finding а niche, or hаvіng а decent start uр capital. You wіll nоt success simply buying 50 pounds worth оf electronics and expecting to get 200 back. This is extremely unlikely. Please alsо tаkе іnto accout fees whеn you аre selling!

eBay is really annoying IMO. They take down your listings for any reason, always side by the buyer, and screw the seller.

Not to mention the holds in paypal accounts,,,, they are really anoying.... even if you sell legit stuff,, dont work that well but this is a necessary evil to keep ebay from be associated with thieves and fake stuff,

Ebay is still a viable source for making money, it's just harder to do it nowadays but what else is new?

Like others have already said, there are still many niche's out there that are not overly saturated. However it now seems that volume has taken a precedence over high profit margins. That's okay too, just gotta go with the flow.

With sellers being at the mercy of buyers, it doesn't make sense to invest in high priced items. You just don't know when a scumbag tries to pull a "significantly not as described" BS with you and you just have to bite the bullet and consider that transaction a loss. I know a few sellers who have lost thousands of dollars on a single transaction because some POS human being decided to say they received a fake item or an empty box.

Ultimately with eBay progressively getting worse over time, one should see it as more of a marketing tool then a big profit maker. It's a great way to make life long clients since you can market to anyone who has purchased from you. Send them a thank you card with your own personal website and your contact information. (Give a discount if they buy from you directly).

So find a niche, hedge your losses by staying with relatively low priced items and build a customer base in which you can market to your own website.

i use to be a ebay seller also, but i left ebay in 2008. they increased their fees so much that it was impossible for me to carry on with work and DHL also increased their charges to ship internationally. due to these two reason i left ebay,

I think I am done with ebay for a while,And paypal you have to be very careful when dealing with them. Smh

Originally Posted by vegasbound

With sellers being at the mercy of buyers, it doesn't make sense to invest in high priced items. You just don't know when a scumbag tries to pull a "significantly not as described" BS with you and you just have to bite the bullet and consider that transaction a loss.

No truer words have been said. I've found that no matter how good the product ( real or fake ) sooner or later your gunna run into the douchebags buying your stuff. Theres just no way to filter them out!

I'm of the opinion that its impossible to sell on ebay without getting a few negatives. Theres just no pleasing some people!

And this is not all , some guys do it for fun , or they are competition trying to bring you down,,, it is not because they were not happy with the product it is because they want to destroy your business....

Originally Posted by 2DHades

... no ebay is dead. nobody going there any longer ...

If that was true we should see many alternatives flourishing. Where are they?

(This is not a retorical question. I really want to know alternatives to ebay. )

Originally Posted by andyelle1

If you want to be ebays and paypals mug and compete with people selling fakes then yes. I gave up a long time ago when paypal told me that they can hold my money for anything and there is nothing I can do about it. I would not give these scruffs a penny of my money.

Originally Posted by pla123

Not to mention the holds in paypal accounts,,,, they are really anoying.... even if you sell legit stuff,, dont work that well but this is a necessary evil to keep ebay from be associated with thieves and fake stuff,

Originally Posted by vegasbound

With sellers being at the mercy of buyers, it doesn't make sense to invest in high priced items. You just don't know when a scumbag tries to pull a "significantly not as described" BS with you and you just have to bite the bullet and consider that transaction a loss. I know a few sellers who have lost thousands of dollars on a single transaction because some POS human being decided to say they received a fake item or an empty box.

It seems the real problem is paypal and it's buyer overprotecting measures. More and more "buyers" start to learn that it's just too easy to get a free iPhone or whatever.

Originally Posted by vegasbound

Ultimately with eBay progressively getting worse over time, one should see it as more of a marketing tool then a big profit maker. It's a great way to make life long clients since you can market to anyone who has purchased from you. Send them a thank you card with your own personal website and your contact information. (Give a discount if they buy from you directly).

I think this is a great tip. You can also list items as decoy just so prospective buyers contact you with questions and then you can redirect them.

I'm seeking advice on how to convince buyers to buy outside of ebay without paypal.

Paypal has screwed me 3 times in the past. Stay away if you can.

it all depends on how much you pay for your items. They suck for sure, there are other better methods mainly having your own ecommerce site, but to make quick money it is there, but it takes a while, and trial and error to find the right products and it's very likely in your quest to make money your going to make some mistakes which could cost you your ebay and or paypal accounts.

Remember this, ebay doesn't care about sellers, only buyers. Sellers cannot leave neg feedback, but buyers can. Buyers don't have to pay for items and can withstand many unpaid strikes on their account, but Sellers will get restricted or suspended just from a couple of substandard feedbacks.

1. Clearly list item and all aspect and defect.
2. Take as many pictures as possible, host them yourself so you can list them for free. Pics from every angle.
3. Always offer money back guarantee to unhappy customers for any reason.
4. Ship immediately. If they pay at 7pm, then ship out following morning, go to PO twice a day, if they buy in morning ship that afternoon. I normally stop packaging around 3pm so if you buy from me at 3pm i will be shipping out that afternoon, after 3 and I ship following day.
5. Include communication with buyer included in packaging. I always include a letter thanking them for the purchase, and reminding them that there positive feedback is important to me.
6. If someone emails you a stupid question like "is this item fake" in other words if you have a buyer that is LOOKING for problems before they buy, I block them immediately. My product can be 100% legit, but I sell to this guy, then there is problem with item, the first thing they will do is leave bad feedback so block any buyers with questions anticipating presale problems.
7. Respond to emails asap, be jonny on the spot, always apologize if there is problem, and always be very thankful to customer for purchase. NEVER give customer attitude.

This is the only way eBay wants you to do business. Its the only way to increase chances of success.

Now.

NEVER base your life on eBay. Do some google searches and you will find that eBay are pieces of crap. They do not care about you 1 bit. If you were seller from 1999 and have 200000 feedback 100% positive, they can suspend you for any and every reason and they don't have to give you a reason. This has happened to so many people. Ebay is not a longterm viable secure future. Ebay should only be small part of your overall plan to make money.

Peace.

selling on eBay and other online market places involves paying different fees like store fees, order commissions, listing fees etc.. only advantage is they have millions of worldwide buyers whom you can directly reach.
Having own ecommerce site will reduce all the fees and you can setup preferable payment methods and hire good SEO services to market your listings.

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Complete eCommerce Store Management

It all comes down to what you have for sell. If the item(s) are known for being replicated you can forget about turning this into a career. If you have something more "lowkey" people usually don't sell, or don't sell as much of, then eBay may still be worth selling on.

I'm making money off Ebay you just need to find a good service, I make my own product costs me about $1 in supplies to make and then I sell it for $5. Good luck finding a niche btw that is the hardest part.

Make sure you use Delivery Confirmation on anything you ship. If it's over 250 bucks you must use Signature Confirm. or PayPal will side with the buyer every time.

i hate paypal, i think it's owned by ebay

Originally Posted by djhickory

i hate paypal, i think it's owned by ebay

It is.

I think you can still make good money, even with replicas. Just a case of finding low key products that wont attract attention (non vero of course).

ebay isnt dead ll

It's not dead...sell legit products and every once in awhile sneak a fakey in there to jump up the profits. Greed is not good on ebay...Gordon Gecko wasn't talking about Egay when he made that comment.

My neighbor buys in bulk porn flicks from Vivid that didn't pass the perfect quality picture test. He sells them on Ebay and makes enough cash to have a nice house, new truck, new car, a motorcycle, dirt bike, and an in the ground pool. He's doing great.

Go to other ebay marketplaces - On Ebay germany for example its easier to sell then on Ebay UK or Ebay US.

I sold hacked rapidshare accounts on ebay germany for over 1 year. I didnt even get a warning from them..

Mad money to be made on eBay bruh, sell replicas and make stealth accounts.. works for me

I lol'd at some of the comments. Ofc there is still money to be made on eBay

good thread!

ebay and amazon is getting very hard to sell, because they protect their brand

as with most things as long as you do your homework before starting out then there is money to be made...preparation is key...jumping in unprepared means jumping into a great big hole

Originally Posted by marusia

Yeah, the day I decided to leave ebay was the day I decided to leave paypal as well. I actually found a cc processor that has (much) lower fees than paypal anyways.

Care to share? And how do they handle charge back / claims of unauthorized purchases? Those are beginning to piss me off.

Well , Ebay is the largest trafficed market place in the world after amazon ... Why bother go somewhere else ... It is death for some troublesome seller but for most people ... it is still good to pplay ..... too bad ... i just cant register anymore :P