Ebay Business

what's a good way to find a good product to sell?
If im not in the USA should I even bother? I feel the US market is the best for this kind of business.

garage or carboot sales

should I sell on a regular user account or should I register as a "business" ?

regular for now until it becomes a full time business

Garage sales and Craigslist

I make a lot selling NES/SNES/N64/Gamecube games. Certain PS games as well. Other items that I always sell are musical instruments (brand name ones, not cheap shit), academic textbooks (you can always find tons of these at Goodwill/Savers/Value Village after a semester ends), and sterling silver. You'd be amazed at how many people don't know how valuable sterling silver flatware is. They think they're just regular forks and knives. I bought several cases of them over the years for not more than 50 bucks a case that are probably worth several thousand a piece.

Antique dealer here, I work full time for myself and do quite well. I do an Ebay sale once a month, usually about 30 items.

EBay is a mixed bag.

On one hand you can make great money on rare items (usually rare games, quality products in general, medals, coins etc) but common items have flooded the market and it's not worth listing for a miniscule profit. It's better to research what sells, what you are likely to find and how to sell it. Start auctions at .99 or 9.99 to encourage higher sales as people want bargains. Be careful of shipping overseas as people can screw you if you do not have insurance and the item isn't tracked, which often costs more than the item itself.

Beware of the risks, but go ahead and try. I did and with a lot of trial and error ended up ok.

Good luck user!

I sell vidya and weeb stuff mostly. I go to flea markets/swap meets and buy up any cheap stuff and resell. I buy limited edition stuff too if I know it's popular and limited print I take a chance and it's worked out pretty well so far.

I put this stuff up 2 days ago, the remaining 21 items are worth 522 bucks and I still have like 60 items to put up on the 1st.

>Are there any benefits to registering a new business account when selling a large amount of items?
Plenty small benefits, mostly in terms of reduced fees but also more prominent listings etc

>Should I stick with a regular user account?
Until you know what you're doing it wont make any difference

Amazon is generally better once you reach a big enough level, but ebay is typically better when you're a bedroom operation.

>There are incredible success stories with people generating annual incomes of 50 000 to 100 000 dollars. Ebay is synonomous with success so join Ebay and never look back.
>$50,000/$100,000

Implying that's a lot. You can easily do more. I run my business out of a bedroom, and I'm already doing $30,000 in sales a year. Profit is a whole other factor.

Nice

You've gave me some hope

Currently putting up my first 20 listings

Not sure what you thought was bad but I've had no troubles with eBay so far in 3 months of selling. Good luck friend.

Be sure to add insurance to all your listings. Don't do the SlipCover insurance, though. Do the USPS insurance. It's free until a certain amount.

USPS insurance is included @ $50/$100 with Priority Mail.
Commercial Base/Commercial Plus.

Priority Mail Express includes $100 if I'm not mistaken.

It is not included with other services.

I started eBay exactly 5 weeks ago. The more you sell the more your seller limits disappear. Out of all that 3.5k is profit for me.

What would you recommend newbie with some textbook knowledge about marketing and business in general except kill himself?

anybody got any good tips for sourcing items to resell?

so far i'm onto an wholesale factory outlet company, but their prices are uncompetitive, and they want be to sign a 3k contract before they'll even discuss drop-shipping and trade discounts.

they sell electronics and dvds. although i'm open to sell basically anything.

anyone had any experience sourcing items?

How do you guys do it? do you buy in bulk on alibaba and then sell on ebay? And what's the benefit of selling on ebay over selling on amazon

>uncompetitive
Don't even look at toys and games. Practically nothing left after eBay takes. And that's assuming you can sell through an order before you hit the poorfag segment that only shops at fire sales but will send back anything with so much as a scuff on the bottom of the box.

>biz needs want to find items to sell on ebay
>sad pipe when they realize cant sell their sister's ass

this nigga knows whats up, if you can hussle 500 a week on ebay you aint worth shit

If you're not branding your own products then don't waste time with U.S companies; hell, I wouldn't fuck with them anyway. They're essentially a middleman. You need to be looking for a manufacturer of an item to resale or for them to make and brand for you.

Toys and games have margins. You can make some okay money, but you will be hustling by hitting up yard sales, goodwills, maybe craigslist.

If that was directed at me, I meant new toys and games. Obviously there's money to be made farming yard sales for pennies on the dollar.

A guy sends me a lowball offer 1/3 my price. This guy is a completely new account made yesterday with just 1 upvote. Should I just ignore or decline this offer?

What are you selling?

>reading comprehension

2 months as a SELLER, my account is 9 years old and I have purchased many things over the years and the occasional selling, but its just been 2 months were I became a full time seller.

Yes. I used to have an eBay store selling a whole variety of $1 - $3 cordes. My store was located in China. People would buy my cordes and I'd tell them they had been shipped. They'd message me saying they hadn't got it (I never sent it) I'd tell them I sent it again. Usually they stop replying after that.

It's likely that the cords get lost on the way so I think that's what they think and they just stop asking and they go "oh well it was only $2"

I earned about 3k before I got too many negative reviews and people stopped buying from me.

Ignore it and wait the price you want

Ah, if you're wanting to do new games, then you hit up clearances and learn how places like Target do incremental reductions in prices. Buy gift cards, etc. I wasn't getting rich when I'd flip new items but I could still pull a few hundred a week.

Where do you buy your stuff?

>Buyer claims item not received ($49)
>Item not moving
>USPS can't/won't do shit
>Buyer keeps trying to make me refund before eBay steps in
>Ask eBay to extend case 5 days
>Item still not delivered
>Buyer wins case
>Buyer keeps money and product
>1 day later item starts moving

>When people message you with a best offer but you didn't put a best offer option in the listing.

Why.

Should I peel the original price sticker off the cardboard box of my item?

I would.

There was an update where eBay did allow people to send a best offer to items without Best Offer enabled.

And, yeah, it's stupid...but so is eBay.

On the one hand, they're manipulating the fuck out of search results. Unseen items don't generate advertising revenue and unsold items don't generate fees. If what they're showing isn't moving either, that can't be good for revenue.

On the other hand, they're flinging untold amounts of shit at the wall in desperate attempts to bump up revenues. They pester people to sell their iPads and iPhones. They keep rearranging pages to hide details or force bigger pictures or show lists differently. They jacked up store subscription prices because people were cancelling because their listings were hidden. They run reduced fee promotions but because listings are down but won't reduce listing fees even though the reason listings are down is because nobody wants to pay for listings that eBay is just going to hide.

You know too much

Between scammers and ebay/paypal fees you'll more likely be in the red than make extra cash

eBay/Paypal fees do pile up but you won't be in the red.

You will if your margins are small enough and you factor in losses from scammers.

Well I've had no scammers so I've never been in the red.

I want to do this where I buy cheap common goods off Alibaba and resell them marked waaaay the fuck up.

I've been thinking about this but I've been fucked by eBay too many times. I think Amazon is more appropriate.

Thoughts?

Fees are a lot higher on amazon.
Also

If you can source really cheap goods, then you might actually be able to make it on Amazon.

HOWEVER.

If your goods are low value/price, you had better be getting them practically for free. Here's why. The commission is 15%...but there's ALSO a 99 cent fixed fee plus a 45 cent fee on shipping (nevermind that the voucher never covers shipping even before the fee). So, hypothetically, somebody selling a $1 item owes Amazon money (1.00 - 0.99 - 0.015 - 0.45 = -0.47). Now, as you scale up, that fixed portion matters less and less (thanks math!), but your margins can't drop below 25% until you cross the $20 mark.

And even then it's a situation where Amazon is taking 25% and you get 1%, despite the fact that Amazon took no risk, stored no inventory, handled no orders, dealt with no customers, etc. You want to talk about wageslaves being cucked? Amazon is the biggest cucker(?) of them all.

Just go into this with your eyes wide open so you don't have to learn as many lessons the hard way.

you have his address. you know what to do.

...

tfw when i buy e3 items for cheap and watch them rise in price got a pack of elder scrolls legends cards that were and will only be printed for this e3 for $2

What is the best thing to buy a low price and resell ? Oh and I don't use ebay so 1 have zero fee on what I sell

What did you buy?

Top rekt m8

What were you selling?

Chinks are stupid then, i have refunded a lot of them threatening negative feedback

>sell $12 anime DVD
>buyer does a chargeback for "unauthorized charge" even though I require immediate payment
>I fight back
>I win the case

Holy shit what a faggot.

anyone have experience selling yugioh cards?

I have A SHIT TON of them, I know some are valuable ($40-$100) but I don't know if it's worth it to list the common cards. People are listing x3 of them for $1. Seems like a lot of trouble just for $1, then there is shipping fee of 0.47 , and ebay/paypal fees...

try listing them together as a bundle deal instead of individually.

I dont know how many of you are into your Veeky Forums stuff as well but...

I've bought Supreme stuff on release before and listed it on eBay as it arrived, I made around £10 profit on a not so popular items.

The Chinese can't get some of it so they order it off of ebay etc.

There are other brands like this where they are fast to sell out, you just have to know what times the web stores open and but everything, there are bots out there to do this, you can do this for similar skate brands

Supreme
Palace
Anti Social Social Club
Y-3
Yeezy
Versace
Commes Des Garcons

The list is endless

>Amazon is taking 25% and you get 1%
How do I only get 1%?

OK, let's do the math here.

You have a Marvel Legend action figure that costs you, say, $16 shipped at wholesale.

You put it on Amazon for $20. That's what Hasbro says they cost, that's what they sell for at other stores.

It sells for $20 plus $4.49 shipping (a $24.49 sale).

Amazon takes the flat fee. $0.99.
Amazon takes 15% of $20. $3.00
Amazon takes the shipping fee. $0.45
Amazon's total take is $4.44.

$4.44 is 18% of the total sale. Alternatively, $3.99 is 20% of item price (because, ideally, shipping is a pass-through cost rather than a profit center).

Unfortunately for you, shipping on a product that size has a floor of about $6.45 (God help you if there's any real distance between you and the buyer).

$24.49 - $6.45 - $4.44 - $16.00 = -$2.40

So, Amazon took 18% and you took NEGATIVE 9%.

Now put that buyer in California.

$24.49 - $12.40 - $4.44 - $16.00 = -$8.35

Amazon still takes 18% but you take NEGATIVE 34%

In order for you to make a single cent of profit under the best conditions on a $20 item, your buy price has to be $13.59. This is the scenario where Amazon takes 18% and you take 1%.

In order for you to take 18%, just like Amazon does, your buy price has to be $9.16. Under the best case. In order to make it under the California scenario, subtract another $6.

To sell a $20 product cross country (because you have ZERO control on Amazon), you have to get it for $3.

Who the hell has an 85% margin?

Alternatively, instead of relying on a wider margin, you raise the price but that $20 product may end up priced at $40 before you and Amazon take home an equal share. Go on over to /toy/ or Fwoosh and see all the squealing about what a rapejob base retail is and think about how hard selling at double that would be.

This is for a $20 product too. At lower prices, that 99 cent and 45 cent flat fees actually take a bigger percentage of the sale. A cell phone cover that sells for $10 had better only cost you like a dime. A book that sells for $1 incurs a huge loss if ordered separately.

That's why I'm saying the fees, combined with not being able to use calculated shipping, on Amazon are killer.

And I haven't even factored in expenses like boxes or insurance or fraud/loss or trucking inventory around.

Why would you even try to sell something you bought for 16 dollars for 20 hoping to make a profit? Not even worth the effort to begin with.

There's money to be made in eBay, it may not of been that same gold mine that it was in the 2000s since Amazon entered the online market but you can still make good money from it. eBay can be really dependent on what category you sell on. It's harder to make profit from going to thrift stores and buying and selling simply like before since everybody is doing it, but you can still make a good profit depending on what your profit margin is. Generally when I get anything that is games/electronic/computer related I try to avoid selling them on eBay because that's where all the scammers are at, especially on phones/ipods. I ended up buying a car or two for dirt cheap and parting it out to make the good money off eBay, on top of the other stuff I get in my everyday life. But generally if I smell scammers I stay away from the category and try to sell elsewhere. If not, then there's always Amazon if you have a UPC code.

same

>see someone opens up unauthorized charge for an
>just sold a bunch of >1k items, almost shit pants until I realize the chargeback was just for an old video game that I listed
>said game sold and shipped 340 days ago
>for $20

won the case, but seriously? This shits from almost a year ago, quit wasting my time

did that in 2015, made about 4k off of not too much work. Only went for hyped items, and made about $50 average profit per item.

2016 has been weak for resale though and I stopped doing it.

I'v been selling stuff on ebay for about a year now and I made 25k over that time, stores are better in the long run because the fee reductions.

yeah Supremes SS16 collection was when everyone picked up on the resellers, especially in the Supreme community.
Facebook groups like The Basement as well as Supreme Talk made jokes of it all and it really killed the resell game for a lot of people, its slowly picking back up now. I would leave Supreme until 2017 now unless there are some really hyped items. I shall try and learn how i can make a bot to buy shit in the mean time and try and queue up for some yeezys as well haha

Well, absent Amazon, you're being advertised a 25% margin which sounds pretty good if you don't know better. Second, you may be familiar with eBay's fee structure which is not only lower access the board but also doesn't punish low dollar items. If you read through to the end, that cell phone cover is exactly the kind of cheap junk half of Veeky Forums thinks it can get rich drop shipping from Alibaba.

Me, personally, I haven't sold seriously in Amazon for years. No name brand product sold through a distributor has the margin to be priced competitively on Amazon and not be taken to the cleaners on fees. And, like I said, cheap shit from Alibaba has to be really really really cheap because of how the fee structure discriminates against cheap shit.

Amazon fucks you hard, the fees are retarded, and I don't know how anybody seriously sells with the Amazon FBA either. Besides the fact they are super nazi about what can sell on Amazon, a lot of stuff I sell doesn't have a UPC code anyways. But like I said, there's money to be made on eBay still, but you aren't going to be making big profits drop shipping or buying from Alibaba, you'll be making profit going to garage sales, thrift stores, and charity sales getting items dirt cheap that they are retardedly selling for. So unless if that phone cover is a buck, you'll be wasting your time as a lot of them are run at $9 to start give or take.

I guess no one buying on 4th of July, feels bad.

Amazon serves only amazon itself now. Sellers are fucked in the ass with fees and so are the buyers. You gotta go crazy volumes to break even.

Make sure to report them to the FBI (ic3.gov) and to USPIS, if it was shipped USPS, as mail fraud is a felony.

ehome.uspis.gov/fcsexternal/default.aspx
>mfw reporting buyers who scam/try to scam me.
>mfw federal law enforcement shows up at their door.
also.
>Sell one of my most expensive items.
>Buyer pays with eCheck

REEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEeeeeeee

>eCheck
The fuck is that? It makes no sense, I looked it up and says available if the instant transfer option is not available but why wouldn't it be?

untrue. ive been an ebay seller for +/- 5 years now, in all my time ive only been scammed 1 time, and its -possible- that he was legit

(claimed item was broken, sent picture, was broken in a really odd way and was an odd item to even be able to break via shipping, then he goofed even more adn told me he buys these types of things all the time to sell locally, so my theory is he had a broken one and did the ol switcharoo)

as long as you play by the rules (mostly) then not only is it easy to avoid trouble, but ebay actually treats you really good when there -is- an issue.

curious how you get vidya products to sell if youd be willing to share the idea (doesnt have to explain your method, just a hint at the underlying concept)

ive looked but just cant find anything like that

Flea markets/swap meets/garage sales/goodwill.

weird, all the fleamarkets i ever go to have shitty expensive prices for all their games, and i havent seen a game in goodwill for at least 10 years now

A lot of them have resellers, you gotta go as early as possible because the resellers go around and buy up any they see when they open.

curious, are you talking about "regular" goodwills or goodwill outlet stores? i used to go to an outlet store in the city i used to live in and there were -tons- of resellers, mostly wetback mexicans, but i rarely see that @ regular goodwills

I guess "regular" goodwills, I only have one near where I live and it's like a normal store. Didn't even know they had an outlet type of set up going on. I've found like two games worth reselling and they didn't sell for much but I've heard others say it's a great place so I just recommend it as well.

Have you tried swap meets? That's where I find my best stuff although if wetback Mexicans bother you you'll find an even more abundant population at those.

ive considered swap meets but have never actually gone to one or figured out where theyre at even.

and no wetback mex's dont bother me, was just something i noted

A quick google search might show some locations near you, I've known the ones around my area since I was a kid but have found others like that. Not sure if it's common but they double as drive in theaters sometimes too.

stick with regular account bro if you don't want to ship large volumes
youtu.be/iCtDiLiaayk

any time ive looked up swap meets its always just lead to some bullshit online platform, same for auctions

and i havent seen a drive-in theater since i was like 5, lol

thanks for the info tho, will take another look into it