Ask Me Anything about selling on eBay

[TheKingGeek]

Hey Tom thank you for doing this. I recently decide to give eBay a try as I found a few products selling for $400+, found a legit provider giving them to me for $140. I already test the product for a few weeks now but I don't know how to start. I reside in USA and have an account in which I've made lots of purchased, you know mundane stuffs: Electronics, Clothing,etc

I have the account since August 4, 2012. Below are all my questions, and sorry if they seems stupid.

1) Can I use the account to sell even though it doesnt have a Company/brandy name?

2) For the product I plan on selling competitors are selling it for the retail price in Bonanza,ebay,amazon etc $400+, which margin would you recommend?

Been selling on eBay/Amazon/Etsy/Bonanza/eCrater/own website since 1999

3) Should I create account in all those sites?, I mean traffic is traffic and I see the product in bonanza gets decent amount of views.

4) What is proper SEO for eBay/AMazon? How many pics should I include? Can the description be all high quality images or do I need text in the description in order to rank? Maybe combining both might work like high image and under it the same content but written.

5) How should I manage shipping? Should I offer free shipping since profit of each sale will be pretty good, and should I ship outside USA?

Thank you very much! Hope you will be able to answer me soon!

 

[campbelljof]

How to sell pre design logos in eBay? My friend have so many unused logos which was created for different clients and want to sell them. Please tell me the procedure although they have uploaded their designs in a logo store Designhill and waiting for response.

 

[jackerris2]

But you say above that you have a working 10/1000 ebay account and a working paypal account with 21 day hold. How did this happen?

The ebay accounts were made using Virtual phones, and the paypal accounts are unverified.
All get banned real fast..

 

[toml3030]

1) Can I use the account to sell even though it doesnt have a Company/brandy name?

yes, but if you start getting around the paypal 200/$20,000 per year reporting limit they will ask you to upgrade to business account. But nothing wrong with selling as an individual.

For the product I plan on selling competitors are selling it for the retail price in Bonanza,ebay,amazon etc $400+, which margin would you recommend?

I would mark it right below the competition. Remember that 1. Price isn't as important a factor as you would think. and 2. No need to get in a price war if everyone can make a buck.

3) Should I create account in all those sites?, I mean traffic is traffic and I see the product in bonanza gets decent amount of views.

Amazon is definitely worth it, Etsy you may have trouble if you can't get by their "handcrafted" rule, and Bonanza is frankly a waste of time because their conversion rates suck and quality of buyers there is pretty poor.

4) What is proper SEO for eBay/AMazon? How many pics should I include? Can the description be all high quality images or do I need text in the description in order to rank? Maybe combining both might work like high image and under it the same content but written.

SEO doesn't help you THAT much because Amazon and eBay doesn't organically rank listings based on keywords. If you have high sellthrough and low defect rate, search rankings will take care of itself. My guess is that what category you sell in is a big factor whether SEO helps you that much or not, because I have taken tips and advice from SEO wizards in different categories from what I sell, and they haven't made a difference for me.

5) How should I manage shipping? Should I offer free shipping since profit of each sale will be pretty good, and should I ship outside USA?

Making it $3 cheaper sells more than offering free shipping, but if you charge for shipping, you will have retards starting false cases against you to try to get shipping charges back. For clothes and electronics I would not sell outside US, especially if you are selling used.

 

[toml3030]

The ebay accounts were made using Virtual phones, and the paypal accounts are unverified.
All get banned real fast..

So if you know that using virtual phones is a problem, do I really need to tell you how to take care of this problem? And you can use unverified paypal to receive funds.

 

[jackerris2]

So if you know that using virtual phones is a problem, do I really need to tell you how to take care of this problem? And you can use unverified paypal to receive funds.

Bro, my accounts get banned really fast that way. I just want to be able to have an account that is
1. Verified (no limit)
2. Ebay account with higher limits.

 

[toml3030]

Bro, my accounts get banned really fast that way. I just want to be able to have an account that is
1. Verified (no limit)
2. Ebay account with higher limits.

Dude, there is a reason why your accounts are getting banned really fast. If you can't figure out what that reason is, you can buy 100 clean accounts and they'll all get banned, because you're doing something to link new accounts to old ones.

 

[jackerris2]

I'll try to figure that out.
Is there any way I can get a verified paypal account for personal use?
I hate the 700$ limit/identity verification locks

 

[Bane Bentley]

Why exactly are you risking a high revenue business such as the one you have with running multiple stealth accounts?

Why not re-invest and become some mega eBay "enterprise" shop?

Just asking because many times I notice people doing gray stuff and doing well, so was wondering if going 100% legit is counterproductive to your margins.

 

[Fizzbizzgal]

Hi and thanks for the thread. I have an ebay account I would do pretty well but I am an idiot in my personal life. Everything goes into my boyfriend's account and after I pay him the company town store equivalent of "rent" I have very little to save and start over.

I'm not asking for a hand out, I hope u can give me advice on how I can sell while minimizing risk of getting caught by him. Can u tell me more about tethered phones? Can u point out any ideas to help me help myself?

I would be be grateful for any help. I just got beat up by him again and I need to make enough to share an apartment and buy a cheap car.

I know there are resources out there, but I'm ashamed of how far I let this go and need to dig myself out.

 

[toml3030]

Why exactly are you risking a high revenue business such as the one you have with running multiple stealth accounts?

Because my niche is never going to be big enough where I'm going to have 8 figure $ sales a year.

Why not re-invest and become some mega eBay "enterprise" shop?

1. unless you have sales of $5mil+ a year, you don't have much pull with eBay, and you can get shut down in a day. 2. It's often better to make $250K a year by running 10 accounts that make $25K each than one mega account making $250K a year. For one, a $25K account doesn't attract hordes of copycats and chinese competitors trying to undercut you. Remember, anyone can find out what you sell for how much on eBay. It's beneficial to disguise what you're doing somewhat.

Just asking because many times I notice people doing gray stuff and doing well, so was wondering if going 100% legit is counterproductive to your margins.

Remember from my op that my goal isn't to maximize margins but going for a high profit, low risk strategy.

 

[toml3030]

Everything goes into my boyfriend's account and after I pay him the company town store equivalent of "rent" I have very little to save and start over.

sounds like dropping the boyfriend is the first order of business

 

[dnouche]

Excellent thread OP. Can you explain how you select a niche and a product? Do you primarily select niches where you can manufacture the product? If you were a newbie, where would you start?

 

[Fizzbizzgal]

sounds like dropping the boyfriend is the first order of business

Sigh...ya think? what a BRILLIANT solution to my problem: completely ignore what I asked, which to you, should be a basic answer, then "derp, drop the boyfriend, derp."

So how how are you so successful when your reading comprehension skills hover around that of my three year old niece?

I genuinely needed advice, and that's the best, Mr. Successful EBay can do.

Sure, your buddies will circle the wagons in outrage, around you, but to any lurker who sees this, just know that if you ever wondered about the character of this guy, just read his lackwitted response to me. He knows he could have briefly answered my questions, or heck, even simply ignored me entirely. Instead, he illustrates his own ignorance.

 

[password01]

Hi and thanks for the thread. I have an ebay account I would do pretty well but I am an idiot in my personal life. Everything goes into my boyfriend's account and after I pay him the company town store equivalent of "rent" I have very little to save and start over.

I'm not asking for a hand out, I hope u can give me advice on how I can sell while minimizing risk of getting caught by him. Can u tell me more about tethered phones? Can u point out any ideas to help me help myself?

I would be be grateful for any help. I just got beat up by him again and I need to make enough to share an apartment and buy a cheap car.

I know there are resources out there, but I'm ashamed of how far I let this go and need to dig myself out.

I'm sorry to hear about the situation you are in with your boyfriend. I don't completely disagree with the OP to be honest. You need to reassess the whole situation with your "boyfriend". I'm no lawyer but you should consider contacting the police. You should probably also try and utilise whatever resources are available to leave this guy. You could also potentially file a suit against him via the police that he extorted your money from you etc.

In most of the ideas you see on this site where you want to make significant money to buy things like car and apartment you need to treat it like a real business. You need to spend lots of time working on this, and be organised by having personal and business bank accounts etc.

It's going to be difficult to trade on eBay without your own bank account. I can't really see a way that you will be able to successfully trade on eBay without your own account. Why can't you go to the bank and open one?

Tethered phones are used for getting a new IP address each time you want to access one of your stealth eBay/PayPal accounts. No offence, but I think you are a little of that just yet.

I hope your situation improves but please not it will only happen if you make it so. You need to sort out your BF before anything else as he will prevent any progress.

Chin up and all the best

 

[toml3030]

I'll try to figure that out.
Is there any way I can get a verified paypal account for personal use?
I hate the 700$ limit/identity verification locks

Looks like to me you need to figure that out first before you start making paypal accounts and see them getting banned also.

 

[toml3030]

Can you explain how you select a niche and a product?

Generally I don't sell anything that I can not sell for 250% gross markup from my cost, and that doesn't already have hordes of competitors. Some chinese competitors are okay, since people will pay premium to have the items shipped from US, but what I avoid doing is to sell the exact same stuff that there are already dozens of sellers for. That tends to get me away from branded name products.

Do you primarily select niches where you can manufacture the product?

Yes, because that is an enormous edge. By manufacturing myself or getting merchandise directly from the factory floor in asia, I'm often cutting out two middle men (exporter & wholesaler). Plus, I can brand my own products by making minor changes to what everyone else is selling.

If you were a newbie, where would you start?

If I were to start now, I would start by becoming really knowlegible about a niche. The "general seller" type of accounts are the ones that have absolutely no pricing power in the future. You want to be the go to place for that niche.

 

[toml3030]

Sigh...ya think? what a BRILLIANT solution to my problem:

This thread is "AMA about selling on eBay", not "how do I hide my eBay profits from my boyfriend"

So how how are you so successful when your reading comprehension skills hover around that of my three year old niece?

I have a better choice of romantic partners, for one.

I genuinely needed advice, and that's the best, Mr. Successful EBay can do.

I gave you very good advice. Drop the abusive asshole you call your boyfriend. That should be the first order of action.

Sure, your buddies will circle the wagons in outrage, around you, but to any lurker who sees this, just know that if you ever wondered about the character of this guy, just read his lackwitted response to me. He knows he could have briefly answered my questions, or heck, even simply ignored me entirely. Instead, he illustrates his own ignorance.

Oh boo hoo hoo. No one really cares about your drama.

 

[toml3030]

I'm sorry to hear about the situation you are in with your boyfriend. I don't completely disagree with the OP to be honest. You need to reassess the whole situation with your "boyfriend".

The situation is like asking what to do about other health problems when you have a gaping chest wound. You have to get the gaping chest wound (the asshole boyfriend) taken care of first before you worry about anything else. If the asshole boyfriend is stealing all her eBay money, how the hell am I supposed to know what she can and can not do without being discovered by him?

 

[MAROSS]

Hi tom,

So I have recently been selling on ebay and I've been doing really well for me getting like 5 sales a day and making quite abit of profit. I'm not going to say what I sell in this thread because of competition. So all is going well been selling for like 2 weeks and getting alot of buys all positive reviews and not a single negative one and then suddenly today ebay remove my products because they're counterfeit. It doesn't make sense how exactly would they know if its counterfeit when I've had no complaints at all. I think different sellers have flagged my items to get them removed is there any way to avoid this? like would an account with high rep and has a shop get away with this?