Does anyone do much on Ebay nowadays

[Annie Beau]

Ebay just seems to be absolute s^^^ at the moment. A few years ago, I used to sell enough to pay my mortgage, selling a few items a day whilst also having a full time job. Now Im lucky if I can sell enough to buy a Greggs pastie. Yet according to some of the reseller Facetwit groups I am on, everything is fab and theyre all selling loads. I am seriously thinking about giving it up - except i have a flamin house FULL of clothing I would never ever wear and could do with a bit of the money back

 

[homie]

Its definitely not as profitable as it used to be. You have to be in the right market and priced competitively. That means you have to buy your items as cheaply as possible to turn a profit. Its not the selling I find hard, but sourcing things cheap enough in the first place.

I don't do facebook but am well aware of all the people showing off how well they are doing. Just remember most of this needs to be taken with a pinch of salt and for every one person making £1000 a month there are another 100 sulking in the corner making pennies.

 

[unicornrider]

I have made £500 on it in the last 2 months, but now have run out of stuff to sell. I was fortunate to have a few really nice horse items that people go mad for. My main bugbear with it and I have one ongoing at the moment, is non payers, bid at the last minute of an auction then don't bloomin pay up. It always happens on my bigger ticket items and is so frustrating as it takes 8 days to then be able to do a second chance offer or relist. I am not convinced on the fees either, I have a rather large bill to pay from there. I would use it sparingly now. It's funny what does sell I got £20 for a baseball cap that was free to me, then a set of boots that cost £60 new and look brand new, people won't touch for £20.

 

[Jon]

I stopped trying to 'do' ebay years ago. I stopped as I have 2 main issues with it

1) It's too much manual work for my liking

2) I found it was a race to the bottom once China etc had their listings all appear to UK potential buyers!

 

[Stims]

I explored the idea multiple times but in the end only ever used to to sell things i already had. As Jon mentions above i knew i couldn't compete with the listings and prices on there already. I do still like the idea of flipping to make a bit of cash though.

If you have a lot of clothes i would consider trying out 'Depop' and Facebook Marketplace. Depop is an App my other half is obsessed with where you buy and sell second hand clothes and Facebook brings the traffic.

 

[RickyRaj]

I mainly use it for stuff that I need to get rid of and the occasional purchase. In the early years (circa 2003/4) I used to sell Blockbuster's ex-rental dvds which were popular and allowed me to turn a small profit.

 

[Jon]

Ebay just seems to be absolute s^^^ at the moment. A few years ago, I used to sell enough to pay my mortgage, selling a few items a day whilst also having a full time job. Now Im lucky if I can sell enough to buy a Greggs pastie. Yet according to some of the reseller Facetwit groups I am on, everything is fab and theyre all selling loads. I am seriously thinking about giving it up - except i have a flamin house FULL of clothing I would never ever wear and could do with a bit of the money back

How much have you spent on clothing to sell on eBay just out of interest?

If it’s not too much is it maybe just worth taking it all to a charity shop instead?

 

[mcp]

You need to find a niche. This is not easy and I'm not telling you what mine is obviously!

I tend to average about £500 per month on there with 300-320% of that profit. I'm lucky because I have a real passion for the subject/area that covers the items I sell.

 

[Jon]

You need to find a niche. This is not easy and I'm not telling you what mine is obviously!

I tend to average about £500 per month on there with 300-320% of that profit. I'm lucky because I have a real passion for the subject/area that covers the items I sell.

My niche of PS3 game saves, TV aerials from poundland and hotpants from Germany did not pay off for me...

 

[Annie Beau]

Might give Depop a go.is it paypal and postage though? Couldnt be bothered with the people popping round to try an item on.
Ive sold same kind of clothing for years and done really well with it, its just recently theres been a significant dip. Strangely, there are a few items I had on a BIN for a tenner with no interest - put on auction wth starting price of three quid and they finished up on 15 and 19 pounds,
I was looking at Amazon Merch - interestingly though a forum I go on about that has a few people stating they know for a fact that Amazon are throttling sales.

 

[Annie Beau]

How much have you spent on clothing to sell on eBay just out of interest?

If it’s not too much is it maybe just worth taking it all to a charity shop instead?

I reckon at the moment Ive got about thirty items upstairs which should go when the weather gets a bit warmer. I have two chazza shops near me which are clearance stores. One sells items for a pound - I do well with coats and jakets from there.but thats usually from Sept to Feb The other is 3 for a pound - they tend to have a lot of well used Primani but theres usually a few decent items - picked up two Monsoon skirts there last week.
I dont think I can bring myself to gve it up though, Ebay is a virtual pair of comfy slippers, I can list with my eyes shut. Might try just tweaking and keywording listings as they finish, see if that helps

 

[katykicker]

I make money in a few ways on eBay (not a fortune):

Old baby items (odd bit of clothing, toys etc)
Review items I no longer want
Items I pick up in the charity shop

I don't make £1000s a year or anything but enough to make it worth my effort

 

[leighm88]

I sell from time to time on eBay, but only things that I want rid of. I don't buy things specifically to sell on eBay. I know there are probably some success stories out there, but I think by the time eBay and paypal take their cut their isn't all that much left. I usually pass my kids clothes and toys down to relatives and friends but if we have stuff that there isn't anyone suitable to give to then I just put it on eBay for the sake of getting rid of it. I know I could put things on Gumtree etc but like someone above said, I can't be bothered waiting in all day because someone might come for a look at something.
I always find my textbooks sell really well though. It's strange how little effort people put into looking for things. For example I will see someone else listing the same text book for say £10 and it doesn't sell, I'll list mine for a 99p start and it will end up selling for £20 odd.

 

[fraserbooks]

I used to sell books on Amazon which I made a reasonable amount from but I ran out of storage space. Postage is a big factor and Amazon have a sort of cliff that once you are selling less than 40 items a month the fees change so that it is difficult to compete. I tried E.bay but thought listing was a lot of work if you sell individual items.

 

[mabozza]

I just won £300 plus worth of seats for my new wee tourbus (ALSO bought on Ebay) for £10.50!!! result! Ebay can be great

 

[Queen Jess]

I used to sell books on Amazon which I made a reasonable amount from but I ran out of storage space. Postage is a big factor and Amazon have a sort of cliff that once you are selling less than 40 items a month the fees change so that it is difficult to compete. I tried E.bay but thought listing was a lot of work if you sell individual items.

I sold quite a few books on eBay, but just what I didn't want anymore. It can be a very slow game and not much per book (depending on the book of course). I still buy secondhand books from there just to read and generally they are slightly less than the postage but give free postage, so no idea how they make any money.

 

[homie]

I would say forget amazon for books. Their fees are way too high and the postage never seems to reflect the size and weight of the book. ebay for books has been ok for me but they do take longer to sell.

 

[Jon]

I would say forget amazon for books. Their fees are way too high and the postage never seems to reflect the size and weight of the book. ebay for books has been ok for me but they do take longer to sell.

Do you think they do better on FBA? I know you can't ignore the weight issue with books but I feel they are a more natural fit than ebay.

 

[homie]

Do you think they do better on FBA? I know you can't ignore the weight issue with books but I feel they are a more natural fit than ebay.

I think books sell quicker on amazon but amazon take a bigger cut of your profit so its swings and roundabouts as to which is best.

 

[Jon]

I think books sell quicker on amazon but amazon take a bigger cut of your profit so its swings and roundabouts as to which is best.

yeah i suppose if Amazon are taking a bigger cut then the most important thing you can do it is get the items at the cheapest price possible!