Selling on Ebay

E

EmmaH

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Has anyone tried making money from this?

I have done before, about 2 years ago. I bought a number of clothes (Sports socks) wholesale and sold them on Ebay.

It did not go to plan and I ended up giving the remaining stock to a local School just to get rid of it.

Has anyone managed to make any decent money from using Ebay or is there another platform I should look at if I was going to go back into it again
 

Devsmoney

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Hi EmmaH, I've used eBay to sell second hand goods as well as new stock. I've found it's not really worth it unless you know the item is going to sell for a decent amount due it being popular (items that hold their value). Items such as the main brand buggies and technology items are almost guaranteed to sell and sell at a decent price.

I've also sold second hand clothes and unless they are the really expensive brands, they just don't sell for much. I like to list clothing items as an auction with a 99p starting price to avoid additional fees. They usually sell for that price, which doesn't leave me with any profit after eBay fees, paypal fees and especially now as eBay charge on the postage!

It may be me! It may be the way I list things. Some make better profits than others.
 

Gbear0382

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Its become much harder recently for eBay traders with the extension of the 10% fees to postage costs as well.
 

angel76

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I find it really difficult to make money on ebay these days unless you have something that is of higher value or popular.

The new fees that now include the postage make it worse. I had quite a few items of clothing and they weren't worth bothering to sell as by time I'd paid the fees etc I got virtually nothing.
 

Devsmoney

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I didn't even know about the ebay postage fee until I recently sold several items that I had to send via next day special delivery.

I like to charge cost price for the postage and then add about 20p on top as I use a lot of recycled packaging, but I need to drive to the post office. I wasn't impressed when I realised nearly £2 had been taken from each item for the postage. This meant I had to cover some of the postage out of my own money!

I don't get how they can justify charging a % on the postage costs! it's awful.
 

The Funky Blue Dog

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I've got a few bits listed on eBay - mostly rather unusual vintage items that I've acquired from relatives. Nothing particularly valuable, but because they're a bit niche they're ticking along quite nicely. I've noticed that the rules/regs and fees etc have changed quite a lot since I last sold on eBay a few years ago - it doesn't seem to be as "fun" as it used to be, as I'm paranoid about breaking one of the multitude of rules.

Apart from one particularly hefty item, I've decided to list everything with free P&P and a slightly higher starting price. It means my listing and selling fees are higher too, but I think it makes the listing more attractive to buyers. It also means I don't have to fiddle around calculating a precise postage fee - you get your wrist slapped if you set this too high!

In the past I've tended to list on a Thursday night for 10 days so that they finish on Sunday nights - to take advantage of two weekends of browsing by potential bidders. This time I'm trying 7 day listings Sun night - Sun night and so far it's going well. I wonder whether buyers lose interest if you have things listed for 10 days? What have other people found?

BTW - it's free listing today
 

lillyinthesun

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It is certainly much harder to make a profit on Ebay than it used to be, especially considering how much to costs to send things via Royal mail.
I tend to sell things on Facebook via my local 'For Sale, Free and Wanted' page these days. There are no listing fees or postage costs so you can afford to sell things a bit cheaper than you would on Ebay.
 

Jon

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I do think a lot if people have migrated over to amazon on selling because of the rise in fees with eBay
 

Money2014

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Amazon is just as bad though. They take a percentage from the sale and they also set the postage cost so that you can't alter it, on top of that they take a cut from the postage too!

Maybe that's where eBay have copied it from.
 

RedAlix

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I try and sell second hand stuff on ebay but I never make much. I listed a few bits last weekend as it was free listings so at least you can set the minimum you are happy with accepting without having to pay extra. Fingers crossed they sell!
 

The Funky Blue Dog

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Free listing again today (Sunday 2nd Feb)

I'm using it to list some heavy books with combined postage. If they don't sell I'll probably try Amazon Marketplace
 

Phoenix

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At DS Domination they show you how to copy and paste, basically if you find an item on eBay let's say a child's bike, selling for £39.99, I will locate the same one on Amazon, if selling it cheaper let's say £34.99, I copy it and paste it on eBay and sell at £36.99. Once sold, I buy the one on Amazon for £34.99, invoice coming to me, and drop ship the item to the customer and made myself £2. This is perfectly legal operation, DS provide full training and support. Teaching how to make short cuts, how to have multiple accounts with eBay, showing how to sell on the vast market in the USA. More and more are joining DS. I am trying it out for 30 days, currently have 20 items listed and this week going to start selling on American eBay.
 

Jon

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Hey,

how many of your items have you sold so far then?

wow!, Ebay USA, that going to be all OK from a customer service POV in terms of import taxes or are you buying the item from Amazon US and dispatching it to the customer over there?
 

RedAlix

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Phoenix said:
At DS Domination they show you how to copy and paste, basically if you find an item on eBay let's say a child's bike, selling for £39.99, I will locate the same one on Amazon, if selling it cheaper let's say £34.99, I copy it and paste it on eBay and sell at £36.99. Once sold, I buy the one on Amazon for £34.99, invoice coming to me, and drop ship the item to the customer and made myself £2. This is perfectly legal operation, DS provide full training and support. Teaching how to make short cuts, how to have multiple accounts with eBay, showing how to sell on the vast market in the USA. More and more are joining DS. I am trying it out for 30 days, currently have 20 items listed and this week going to start selling on American eBay.


What about ebay and paypal fees? I'm guessing on £34.99 you will pay £4.88 in fees so you won't make as much. maybe I'm working it out wrong.

Also what happens if what you have sold goes up on Amazon of is out of stock?
 

Phoenix

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All the trainings help, plus a support group,the US Army chap who started DS has had 10 years experience dealing with eBay and Amazon. He knows all their costs and how to get around them. Items out of stock doesn't happen very often but again DS explain what to do, if the price has gone down, pass the saving to the customer.
 

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