Making money on eBay as a business start up

[Andy_Moneymaker]

I have a couple of eBook's on making money through using eBay. Recommendations vary from selling home made products, selling products from wholesalers, drop shipping and other methods.

I wondered if anyone has experience running a self employed business on eBay, if so any pointers as a newbie, sectors to avoid, any threads or articles on the money shed worth reading.

Any advice would be great.

 

[Jon]

I used to sell things on eBay but the margins kept decreasing

I used to do drop shopping but again the Margins keeps decreasing

Unless you are selling truly unique items you are just going to get squeezed out of the market by sellers from China

In summary, you can earn more money doing other things that aren't so labour intensive

 

[Andy_Moneymaker]

Thanks Jon,

As you rightly say, niche is the way to go with selling.

Interested in your other comment about less labour intensive methods of making money, if you have any suggestions I would be grateful, my weakness would be anything that involves the written word unless I employ a cheap VA.

I do need a replacement income for my matched betting, as I have been doing that for a decade and as you can imagine my fully functioning bookies accounts are sparse.

 

[Jon]

Off that top of my head

Web search evaluator
Affiliate marketing via a blog or website you might own
Smartphone apps like Field Agent / Task360 etc
Whatuserdo
Etc

Whatever you do when it comes to earning online if it doesn't pay above the minimum wage then don't waste your time on it lol

 

[Twiggy]

Basically, ... what Jon said.

I ran an ebay business, as well as an ecommerce website, for years as my main income. I was importing items from the USA, business was great until I got competition, and they all started appearing above me in the searches. It was a constant battle for sales, and it wore me down.

On the other hand, I buy and sell vintage from time to time on ebay.

If you have something that does sell, you can always just aim to make a part-time income from it and do other things. Ebay is volatile, they change their criteria for searches all the time (you can go from hero to zero, fast), so best not to put your eggs all in the same basket.

 

[Andy_Moneymaker]

Thank you for the advice, what is coming across apart from being a specialist in one market is the ability to adapt when market conditions change. Amount of people selling on eBay is huge, just wonder if a alternative market such as Amazon marketplace or a smaller set up is worth considering.

Lots to consider as options other than selling physical items are plenty. Right back to research.

 

[My Money Spot]

One thing to consider when choosing your selling platform is what are the buyers expecting?

If I am shopping on eBay I'm looking for one of two things, first is a bargain, I want to pay the least amount possible for an item OR I am looking for a rare hard to find item for which I am willing to pay more. I think most people probably fall into these two categories on eBay. For bargains as long as your feedback is 99% or above and you have the cheapest price you are most likely to make the most sales and as [member=1]Jon[/member] said competing with China or someone who can afford to import from China and list as UK based is going to be an uphill battle. You can't really consistently sell to the second category.

If I am headed to Amazon to make a purchase I'm looking more for convenience I might pay a little more to not have to head into town. I'll pay above eBay level prices to get it delivered a lot quicker.

There is money to be made in both markets. eBay is best for flipping items e.g. I picked up a mug for £1 and sold it for £10 whereas Amazon is more suited to selling multiples of an item. There is a tonne of cash in Amazon FBA check out http://www.nichepursuits.com/tag/amazon-fba/ but you need decent capital to start.