EBay General

Let's talk about eBay. How much are you selling a month? Profit margins? Interesting/Good niches?

$212 this month - down 70%
50%
i sell books and make pennies per sale. books that are worth a lot help increase my margins

Where are you sourcing your books from?

700 - 1000 month
used software
75% profit margin

Im not telling what niche as people scavenge everything.

I work in IT and saw something that a) people need / want and b) I can obtain consistently and legally. Plus you need the patience of a saint to get software selling and things rolling on eBay where customers / ebay staff / faggot competitors don't stress you out and make you act impulsively.

It's kind of like starting a mini business, I guess. You need to play to your skills and find something nearby you you can sell and capitalize on.

If you have no skills or head for numbers and Veeky Forumsness then forget it. It's not for everyone and sometimes feels not worth it. I spend about 10 hours per week for 700-1000$ profit

Been doing this for less than 2 months, eBay is fucking expensive but has easy heavy traffic

Margins: Between 20% and 100%, usually 100%

Just over 2 weeks, but I haven't spent more than ~15 hours

I'll tell my niche if this guy tells his niche :^)

ill buy some books m8, link up

Bro you are in the wrong business

>sell watch that immediately craps out on customer, vintage watches are pain in the ass sometimes
>he complains about it, and rightfully so
>he's entitled to return and get refund
>apologize for the inconvenience and then offer a refund upon return
>again complains about the watch not working
>and then leaves positive feedback (+), but with a complaint "not as described, not working, very disappointed" --- still complaining!
>keep pressing for the return, I am outright asking him to file a claim against me so that he can initiate return process -- I even offered to pay for return shipping!
>haven't heard from this guy for a week now

Some customers are just weird.

you should have bullshitted him with generic apologetic messages and wait for him to initiate the return. he may never do so.

Give good respectful comments for it eBay staff is ever involved.

If he left a positive feedback fuck him people look at the totals and if you're still at 100% positive feedback then whatever. If he leaves negative call eBay support with why its false and have it removed. You may need to call them a few times but they can do it.

I have over 100 sales on 50$ + items and I've learned that you need to always look after just yourself. If it doesn't cost you money or effect your rating then fuck it. If he wants his return then let him open one.

If he opens one, use the comment option and offer a partial refund in writing first. the longer you draw it out the better the chance the'll get fed up and drop it.

I used to think up considerate and practical responses but now just copy-paste generic responses to complaints and wait for the return or not.

ebay buyers buy for one thing only: what they want at the lowest possible price. They dont give a shit about me and I now dont give a shit about them. If they buy from me twice its only because I had the lowest price.

$640 in 7 days but I spent like 25 hours listing shit about 80% profit.

Not all that hard beats waiting tables.

The caveat to this is that their hidden feedback does affect your search position over time.
If that's not an issue then this is all solid advice.

fuck search position

take good pictures and have the lowest price and you'll sell whatever you're listing. eBay has such a huge market that everything sells as long as its something people want and is the lowest price

Sales are down as i had to adjust prices because of Brexit.

Average sale price £15 and a bit hesitant to start selling more expensive items as I have had a lot of people trying to scam.

What are you selling, seriously?
>Im not telling what niche as people scavenge everything.
As if 300 NEETS scattered all over the globe would fuck up your earnings

>sell ex girlfriends anime DVD for $12
>person pays right away, i require immediate payment through paypal
>they get it
>they do a chargeback for "unauthorized payment"
>if i lose the case (if i choose to fight) i must pay paypal $35 for fees and $12.99 for the item
>I win

THATS WHAT YOU FUCKING GET YOU FUCKING SPIC WEABOO

>tfw have thousands of dollars worth of vidya merch
>afraid to sell now more than ever cuz chargeback

I hate to admit it but this guys right.

well, except for the "they can remove ur negative feedback" part. in my experience unless the buyer fucks up and leaves you one of a few loopholes it's not being pulled for ANYTHING. luckily some of those loopholes are easy as fuck to create

I've been ebaying for years but put it on the back burner up until about a month ago. For the past 3ish years I've just been casually selling stuff on it for some extra change. Things have really started picking up and are growing more and more every day. I'm anticipating getting up to 1-2k profits a month in the coming weeks and if everything goes as planned I'll get it up to "full time job pay" and use it as my main/only source of income while putting myself through school for computer engineering

explain how their hidden feedback effects ur search ranks?

u mean if they leave a positive feedback (+) but the actual statement is negative "slow shipping horrible seller never again!"?

Hows that effect your search position?

it only takes one asshole to take over your niche if your sale style is "be the cheapest option"

or even if its not, one asshole can temporarily decapitate the price by lowballing his selling price susbtantially, after a month or two no one will buy that item for a dime more than the new lowest price and that niche/item is now dead profit wise.

I've seen it happen and accidentally done it a time or two myself when I wind up with a large qty of the same item and sold it cheap to get rid of it fast

>if i lose the case (if i choose to fight) i must pay paypal $35 for fees and $12.99 for the ite

...what the shit? I get the 12.99 part cause youd have to refund the buyer and lose the item, but 35 for fees? since when? I've never, not once seen that sort of thing.

also if you have a good seller track record and an issue arises thats not youre fault (unauthorized purchase, item damaged/lost in mail, etc) ebay will step in and cover the cost of the item if its under something like 20 dollars, refunding the buyer out of their pocket and protecting you from neg feedback. They've done it for me 3-4 times now.

>afraid to sell now more than ever cuz chargeback
Take good pictures that show the condition of the disks so quality is of no question (more security for you if ebay has to step in than a selling point to buyers)

set buyer rules so shady accounts cant purchase from you if you're that worried. disable no-payers and low feedback accounts from purchasing and ull be pretty much safe. I used to do this but quit worrying some time ago, in my experience theres -very- few scammers that try me, not sure why when i hear about horror stories all the time

>explain how their hidden feedback effects ur search ranks?
No, nor can anyone accurately. Google will find you a more accurate calculation but basically the less feedback you get (both hidden and public) the less your SERPS.

>u mean if they leave a positive feedback (+) but the actual statement is negative "slow shipping horrible seller never again!"?
No, if they leave you positive feedback but mark you down for shipping and other hidden factors.

wtf is SERPS ?

Has anyone have been permanently restricted from selling on Ebay? If so, any info on how to continue selling via stealth accounts? I can provide different ip and PC, but if i make another paypal account i would have to verify it when i hit 2500$,and that would be not possible since they want pictures of ID etc.

that makes a LOT more sense then what i thought you were suggesting.

Okay, I agree with you cause thats an obvious factor. they didnt implement the star systems for nothing

search engine results page

It's a term more commonly used with SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and Internet Marketers (IM). I, and I assume the guy I was having discussion have a background in it, which isnt entirely unheard of from ebay sellers

I do NOT suggest doing any of this stuff for various reasons legal and otherwise, but to lightly answer your question:

-create multiple paypals and swap them out every 2500 dollars

-find friend/family member that trusts you enough to agree to let you open a paypal in their name with their info in return for a portion of proceeds (And to not be a dick, dont fuck this one up)

-pay for a fully verified paypal stealth account to use long-term (probably get scammed)

-edit pictures of credentials and try to weasel your way through

Dispite what the masses claim when discussing them publicly, ebay is surprisingly easy to manipulate into getting what you want as long as you have a little bit of common sense when associating with them. I cant help but think all the people that cry ebay sucks they fuck u at every turn etc are either out there trying to actively scam them with selling bootlegs from china/dodge bans with fake accounts/be autistic neckbeard faglords

I have literally made friends with ebay employees during calling in for an issue and wound up adding them to facebook etc after the call, or had them verbally express "i agree with you personally but i have to follow these rules", both of which normally result in success for whatever your goal for calling in is, since you've at that point turned them into allies.

Never tried with paypal though

Thanks for the reply.

The reason I got permanently restricted from selling on ebay is that in May i had 2,54% defect rate. As you know, on every 20th of the month, there is an evaluation, and for May and June there was a notification saying that "I'm at risk in the global selling zone'' , because of the >2% defect rate. However, in the begining of this month, my transactions grew and overall defect rate was under 1,5%, which is fine and in the desired interval. And this is when ebay closed all my listings and got banned. I tried to explain that to them, but they just kept saying the same all over again, how I was giving the customers bad experience. Well the defect rate was a result of canceled orders and I always contacted the customer before closing them. Do you think there is any hope for restoring my account?

What do you all use to track your inventory and sales? I'm working on getting set up, and setting up an access database to keep track of incoming and outgoing inventory, but I'm curious what other people do.

I have a program that handles this. How much would you be willing to pay monthly for something that handled all the data, is accessible by internet via smartphone, and even allowed you to run and manage your own site on the side?

Nope. eBay already burned you and they have another fool that they can scam.

Nothing, because setting things up myself is part of developing my skill set.

I don't physically handle the inventory but I use Excel to log all the sales, fees, % profit etc.

Yet you pay to use eBay.

I meant that i dont need to track incoming and outgoing inventory so Access might be better for that than Excel.

I look at it as the price you pay for Ebay's traffic. It's not like Ebay's platform is particularly good. It just generates sales. That's not something you can generate on your own with a little programming knowledge and time.

Eyeballs and eBay sales page. Unless you're doing 10+ different item sales per day you don't need anything more.

years ago I managed to hit the >2% rate as well, surprisingly this doesnt only apply to sellers but also buyers. I was buying various shit from china and having to open cases against shitty sellers that would never send the item, send the wrong item, broken item, fake tracking, no tracking, no response to msgs, etc. I had a weird string of HORRIBLE luck where every seller I bought from was a shitty scammer and in turn had to open complaints against them to get my money back. Eventually I passed the 2% rate and suddenly my account got flagged. I talked to ebay and they basically said they have automted systems in place that dont care about the details, just strictly the %, so it doesnt matter what the reason behind it is.

you say your >2% was caused by canceled orders, was it from buyer cancels or because you had suddenly lost it/broke it/ wahtever and had to force the cancel yourself?

if it was just from a string of badluck with customers canceling, i would suggest you keep calling ebay and try to get the sentence lifted, some tips for that:

(Cont.)

-first and foremost - try your DAMNDEST to get an american on the phone. Getting what you want is 100% harder when youre dealing with one of their non US reps in the Philippines or wherever. Half the time they can't even comprehend what you're saying and can barely hold a conversation in English, so they just stick to their scripts and don't deviate. If you call and its a foreigner make up a reason to get transfered to a different department, then when you get there ask what department it is and say thats not where you were supposed to be to be transfered back, hopefully this time it routes you to the US center. Or hang up and try again in a few hours to see if shift change helps.

It's so bad it's gotten to the point where if I hear a Non-US agent pickup sometimes I'll just hang up and try again later (if I know the situation requires more than the script reading to resolve how i want/need). The experience is SO much better dealing with US reps its not worth the hassle with the others.

-regardless of what the current rep says, if he doesn't give you what you want call back immediately or the next day to try again. ive gone through 5-10 reps telling me "no" before, all it takes is for that ONE to say yes and suddenly you're all fixed. once its put in the notes on your account it's law.

-be as friendly as you possibly can to the rep. you want them to like you. that does not mean smile and say thank you when they say they cant give you what you want, but do not make yourself their enemy. You are frustrated at ebay/the sellers/the system, NOT them. THEM, you like. doesnt hurt to try to build raport and create a personal relationship between you two if you get the opening (chit chat with them, ask how they like their job, where they live what the weathers like, do they ebay too, blah blah)

-make sure you spin the story so YOU are the good guy and ebay/the sellers are fucking you because of a flaw in the system, etc.

Ebay has too many fees for shops, look to Abe books.

I tend to use excel to create various spreadsheets for my needs. that's pretty much all I've ever needed.

If I were to get -big-, or if I ever started selling a standard type of products where I deal with large amounts of the same item over and over again, i might consider moving to a dedicated inventory software and using barcode systems etc, but my inventory is normally pretty random.

I were a seller on ebay, i got the >2% defect rate by cancelling orders with the option "cancel because i can't fulfill the order''. Later realized that made the defect rate go up and when i had to cancel an order i choose ''cancel the order because the client doesn't want it anymore'' and this didn't affect the defect rate.

The problem was that i was dropshipping items from china (electronic boards), and there was like 10-15 orders in the same day from countries that the chinese didn't have free shipping, so i contacted the clients and asked if they want to pay 2,5$ shipping for the order to be fulfilled, or we would cancel it. Some people respond with either of the options, some didn't and i canceled the order.

By the way, I'm from Bulgaria and i'm not sure whether i'll be able to contact an US customer support. Also it's really expensive to call an US citizen from here and that's a problem too. I might try using email communication again, but i'm not sure whether it will help, since the last email they sent me they said their decision is already made up.

Also, i'm not sure should i tell them that i'm dropshipping items. I think they are not a big fan of dropshipping.

By the way thank you for the information!

they allow dropshipping but are not fans of it, so no i wouldn't mention that.

you kind of fucked yourself. you should have had all the shipping rates figured out and intigrated into your listing so buyers would know what theyre getting into. you shot yourself in the foot doing it the way you did.

When dropshipping you always need to make sure to cross your T's and dot your i's so things like this dont happen. Not so sure you can get the sentence turns around with that type of fuckup

Yeah, seems like ive fucked myself up.

Maybe if i try to ''blame'' the shipping faults to someone else, like the post services here. Like they upped the prices or something like that and i had to cancel because of this?

hi

$2,000 USD from Used Auto parts Profit Margin around 70%

It'll go back down next month as I've sold most of my inventor and still haven't gone out to get more.

Is it viable to sell from Mexico?
How expensive it's shipping to another countries?
The dollar/peso exchange is fucking high and I think it would be pretty cool.

ive considered getting into auto parts a few times over the years. are you a "car guy" and buy cars to part out or have you found some kind of inventory supply that just happens to be car parts?

I never got into it cause the method i always come up with is "buy cars and part them out", and i learned years ago I -hate- working on cars.

i assume you live in mexico, why dont you just look up the rates from your post office? the hell kinda lazy question is this


I'm in texas, I would love to make friends/business partners in mexico because theres such a diverse amount of merchandise that you can get real cheap there

I tried sourcing stuff from Mexico once, if you are in the border is like practically you are doing business from the states, cross the border buy cheap stuff and ship from the U.S
I think there is a lot of potential from Mexico. If you arent in the border it gets a lot more complicated.
Now if you want to do formal business in the U.S. customs and the U.S certifications are really hard to deal with. I had to drop lot of deals because I could get in trouble with the FDA.

If you want to sell on a new eBay and PayPal account you need to create a ltd company and operate under this company, your company is not liable for you and is considered a different entity all together

I live in a Mexico's state close to the border. I just wanted to know a general idea if it's profitable to buy cheap stuff here and sell it on ebay US. Would I need global shipping to do that? Also do I need legal documents as you guys said? Thanks btw, I'm going to research.

If you consider the fact that eBay is chump change compared to Google search engine it doesn't look that way. Any competent programmer can get their site on the front page especially if your inventory is wide instead of deep. Don't undervalue the hustle of going out and doing your own advertising to bring people to your site.

If you list an item for 30 days on eBay sometimes you don't even get 20 views. 7 days or 5 day auctions rarely get over 15 unless it is a sought after item. The power of your own store is that you can do your own marketing and bring in your own traffic plus allow google search to bring you traffic.

>I just wanted to know a general idea if it's profitable to buy cheap stuff here and sell it on ebay US.
As profitable as selling to anywhere else. If you're selling internationally you might as well sell worldwide, just US would take a day or two less for shipping.

>Would I need global shipping to do that?
Obviously

>Also do I need legal documents as you guys said?
Just customs info on the label.

Not him but you're looking at it ass backwards. He's right, you're paying to use eBay because they offer traffic, no other reason to use them.

Using SERPs and your own hosted site is ridiculous unless you're already in a position to sell across the internet (not just eBay/Amazon) so that's a completely moot point.

The benefit of Google is again, purely traffic. But that's where you should be using AdWords to send people to your eBay shop AND, NOT OR website.

>If you list an item for 30 days on eBay sometimes you don't even get 20 views.
As explained, you're doing it wrong. You're paying for the traffic either way, with eBay it's just slightly easier for John Doe.

>The power of your own store is that you can do your own marketing and bring in your own traffic plus allow google search to bring you traffic.
Again, this is ass backwards. That's the weakness of self hosted when utilising eBay, not the benefit UNLESS your volume via organic search is already bigger than your AdWords and eBay and Amazon custom combined.

Have ran several eCommerce platforms and eBay (and briefly Amazon). You don't know what you're talking about and you're looking it in entirely the wrong light.

$64-200
profit margin around 74%
vidya

but just to add/counter what I said, you're right to correct the other guy that self hosted, self advertised & SERPS are all fairly easy for your average Veeky Forums user demographic, it just takes a lot of time and energy, and depending on what you're selling and how competitive your market is a lot of money too.

The correct answer is that eBay is often the best bet for someone with a low or no budget and self hosted with or without advertising is the additional route after you're established on amazon/ebay/wherever

>I just wanted to know a general idea if it's profitable to buy cheap stuff here and sell it on ebay US.

it depends on how you can buy. my mentor said the secret of selling is how good you are buying.

research a niche. find that product and take this in consideration.
ebay and paypal eat 30% of your margin.
shipping something over 16oz is around 6-12 dollars in the u.s
how much it cost you pass the border (fees, gas and time)

At first I was skeptical I can sell something on ebay but it is easy, profitable well... that depends on you. of course if you make your research is faster and easier. however one of the critical points is know how to buy dirt cheap thats one of the reasons I was sourcing in Mexico but I found lot of products had issues to pass customs in bulk. but someone like you who is going to pass some few items I think there is no problem. I met some mexicans doing that but for retail. they buy a few units cross the border put them in a warehouse, doing that all day fill a pallet and sell it. one of them was doing habaneros and the other "cueritos de harina" and the earnings are in dollars so 18 fucking pesos. the guy doing the "cueritos" he was doing a hell of a profit.

Thanks for the info guys, appreciate it.

Or, you could do both.

Ive always imagined building up a website that synchs inventory with ebay. If an item is sold on ebay its deducted/removed from the store, and vis versa

well I just had one of the most interesting irate customers i've dealt with to date in ebay. figured yall would like to witness it:

She bought an otterbox iphone 6 plus/6S plus case from me (authentic in retail packaging). Note the timestamps


Jul-21-16 12:31
This does NOT fit 6s!!!! I'm very disappointed!!!! What are you going to do to make this right!!!????? Your description says that it fits 6s!! It does NOT!

Jul-21-16 12:33
You changed you description!!! I have a screen shot of the original post!!!!!!

Jul-21-16 12:36
You cannot change your description after someone buys from you! That is false advertisement and strictly against the rules in here. As a long time seller on EBay, I would never do that to my customers!

Me:
odd...can you show me a photo by chance? I do not own an iphone myself so I was going by the packaging.

>i did not realize what was going on at this point. I thought this was a legitimate customer with a legitimate complaint

me: *having read her second and third messages now*
I'm sorry what? ebay keeps a running log of all changes to listings, I have not edited this listing in any way.

I'm sure we can figure this out but you need to calm down please. Can you show me a picture of your phone not fitting in the case? I need to see what the problem is.

Jul-21-16 12:39
I have sent the photo to eBay. I refuse to pay return shipping on this, that was very misleading to do to someone and then change your description. I want a full refund plus shipping, immediately!

>Now i realize whats going on. Her dumb ass bought an item for a 6 plus/6S plus but she doesn't HAVE the plus model, and shes trying to get out of the return shipping cost (or having to return the item at all)
>I like it when I get asshole/idiot ebayers attacking me inside ebays systems, especially when they fuck up, because it lets me take the gloves off and let out some frustration:

(cont)


Me:
Okay, I have just re-read all 5 (FIVE) of the messages you've sent in the last 10 minutes.

Firstly, if you want to resolve this issue in any way you need to calm down so we can work together.

Secondly, I have not changed anything about my listing since publishing it. I immediately called eBay upon reading your claims to verify this as sometimes I DO alter listings, and if this was indeed a mistake I would happily make it right for you. That is not the case here.

If you are an ebayer you should know (and if not, here is some new information for you) they keep a change log of every listing published. You can easily verify if a listing has received changes with a simple phone call to their customer support. The listing you purchased has received no, i repeat, NO revisions since being published, much less changing details like what phone they fit.

Furthermore, the picture CLEARLY shows the item in its retail packaging, which CLEARLY states what phone(s) it fits, which are the iPhone 6 plus/6s plus.
Now if you would like to continue shouting at me and lying to my face, on record through ebay messages, you are more than welcome to do so and we can let ebay step in to handle this as necessary.

If you would like to handle this like civilized adults, we can do that too.

I believe the issue here is the phone case you purchased did not fit your phone. From what I can understand through your messages is your phone is a iphone 6, NOT an iphone 6s / 6s PLUS, and though a simple mistake on your part you now have a phone case that does not fit your phone.

I will happily refund your money upon return of the item, but as this is not a problem with the item or error in the listing information, you will need to provide your own shipping method. I believe the shipping for this item is $2.60 for First Class mail and the item weighs roughly 5 oz. (rounding up).

(Cont)

Jul-21-16 12:41
Your listing said 6/6s before, now it has changed to 6 plus/6splus. Not the same thing. eBay has been contacted and you will need to resolve before they step in.

Jul-21-16 13:13
This was a gift, that I needed by Saturday! I have every reason to be upset. You were very dishonest. I would like a full refund for this and you to pay return shipping. It's pretty simple.

Jul-21-16 13:15
I have been a seller on here for the last 6 years and that isn't the way that it works. You will have to send prepaid return label to me.

Me:
I will say this as clearly as I can once more:

-ebay keeps change logs for every listing showing ALL alterations made.
-you are outright LYING about my listings being altered, inside ebays own messaging system no less.
-ebay can PROVE you are lying and this information has already been notated as I called them immediately upon receiving your lying, angry messages.

Now, do you want to continue with this or do you want to start over and handle things like adults?

Jul-21-16 13:23
I'll make this clear as I can as an adult. This message from you is very threatening to me as a female and I do want the full refund and return label as I was very much mislead. I am upset for good reason. This will be the last message to you before eBay takes over to handle the situation. You are making me feel very uncomfortable as a buyer. I would never do this to my customers. Have a nice day.

You can buy cars and part them out, you could make serious big bux doing it that way. But I honestly just go to junkyards, they usually have dirt cheap prices because they're used parts and they can't make any guarantees on them. I bought floor mats, power mirrors, and sun visors from a 2014 Nissan Versa that was smashed in for $40 total. I made $80 from one mirror and one sun visor already. I have floor mats which I plan to sell for $50 and then another power mirror and sun visor which would put me around $150 total. Spend $40 to make $150. Pretty good deal. No I'm not that big of a car guy to be fair, I don't know shit about cars but I know their values and what the parts cost, that's all I really need to know. I just steal the fittings and specs information from other people.

(Cont)

At this point she opened a return request and said the exact same bs over again. Honestly surprised she stuck to her guns with that after telling her theres evidence to prove her lie. ebay has stepped in. i told them im fine with taking the item back as long as its returned in proper condition, and im not paying for the return shipping. they opened and closed a case on the return in "buyers favor" (as I suggested since i dont mind taking the item back, just not paying the shipping on it). just waiting for negative feedback now so I can call them again to have it removed. Also reporting her, hopefully im not the first so she actually gets banned at some point.

Probably followup after i get the item back with a "i win you stupid bitch" message of some type

interesting idea. I never thought to just go grab the easy to get stuff like mirrors/carpets/matts/etc

I might look into that. I love going to junkyards and picking through things when I need a car part, I just hate having to put it on and the "critical" feeling of "this has to fix my car" that comes with it normally.

Kind of a fun idea. Thanks!

Please keep us updated on that situation. It's amazing how people will straight up lie to your face even after being proven wrong.

And then she tries to pull the fucking female card. What an absolute joke. If that was court, you'd lose because she has a vagina and your rights end where her feelings begin.

Stupid whore.

Veeky Forums, in the past I have regularly purchased things on ebay, then resold in New Zealand (everything costs a lot more here as its so far away from anything).

Anyone looking to establish an export biz? I'll happily purchase high quality goods that I can move here for decent margin.

lol, you massive faggot

you should have said that you never changed the description instead of writing such a long response

Okay, but when i hit 2500$ received payments in Paypal, they ask for verification and there will be still my ID,which is already used for my other personal account?

The moment i read the "im being threatened as a woman!" shit i nearly picked up the phone and called her. Opted not to so she has no ammo to try and get her way with. Maybe after its all said and done.

I'll keep yall updated but I don't think therell be much after this. ebay stepped in, agreed "side with the buyer" for a refund as i said ill happily take the item back, theyre making her pay for the shipping

after she gets her refund ill get neg feedback from her and call them to get it removed.

honestly im always surprised by how many horror stories i hear from threads like this with all the "ebay always sides with the buyers and fucks the sellers no matter what!" type things. I nearly always have great experiences with ebay reps.

The real secret is to get US reps on the line and avoid their indian ones at all costs. I assume it has to do with the language barrier but normally if ebay starts fucking me it's because hajeeb on the other end of the phone cant comprehend whats going on and just reads off his script. give up, hang up, call back and get a US rep and everything sorts itself out pretty easily.

That, and be a legitimate ebayer not trying to work the system in some sneaky underhanded way for a quick buck before you get banned

what can i say, I like to put a little flair in my work sometimes

im based in the US, i'll be more than glad to ship you shit as long as youre paying upfront. gime contact info

never been to a flea market before? kids can get ID's for like 20 bucks

javascript:quote('1396165') they will but you are still a different legal entity,
For example if your brother fuck up on eBay they cannot hold you liable for it. Companies work the same way, they might monitor you but they would breach the law if they apply the same mitigation mesure based on your previous activity as a sole trader

currently using ebay to sell custom built computers friend of mine owns a antique and collectibles business and ive been selling some of his stuff at 60/40 his way just scraping by by selling antiques every month to cover all the fees for ebay the computers are the hard part i order the parts get them shipped to me build it install all the shit on it and sell it usually takes around 2 months to get rid of one then im waiting on paypal then waiting on them again to transfer it to my bank account then i buy more parts eventually though ill have enough to do two computers at a time then three and four and just build from there

Life might work out better for you if don't use run-on sentences.

What I am saying is that I am capable of selling across the internet with my own site. (Like shopify but actually works)

Yes. It is worth it to sell on eBay. I am not disputing this. I'm not talking about the average Veeky Forums user. I am saying I have a program capable of selling across the internet via your own website and managing the data of multiple selling venues.

All I was wondering is what the average eBay user might be willing to pay for such a service.

Isn't it obvious? they would be willing to pay less than what Ebay charges them. assuming your service is just as good as Ebay.

>both of which normally result in success for whatever your goal for calling in is, since you've at that point turned them into allies.

That's so great. You have someone on the inside lol

anyone know how to get unbanned from ebay? they keep suspending my shit.. couple years ago when i was a dumb kid i sold product keys (like Microsoft office, shit like that) made a good thousand dollars before getting kicked off eBay for life.

I want to go legit again but every time I join they fucking ban me

Unfortunately it won't get any better in the future. Ebay is pretty much sticking with as much automated support/rules because it saves them money. You can call them but after awhile it becomes tedious to call just to not pay the return shipping of $5-$10 and get the ding off your account (which is stressful to have)

I already set all those restrictions on buyers, and take excellent photos of my items.

this merch i have is still sealed, and I've heard horror stories of buyers buying the item sealed, swapping it with a broken one, and saying it "arrived damaged" or is "not as described".

they keep the sealed item, send you a box of rocks, and keep the money.

The bans are based by IP address, use a different internet service provider and use someone else's personal info

im actually a computer tech, was my "real job" before i went full time ebaying

I considered this route before, and in honesty my very first ebay transaction was buying a pre built custom pc from some guy doing build-to-orders

so you build them picking out the parts on your own first, WITHOUT a buyer lined up, and are confident it will sell for enough to recoup costs and fees and make a bit of profit?

thats a ballsy move my friend. honestly a little surprised

legit windows too?

read the thread.

removing the ding is always worth the 30ish minutes on the phone for me. I typically just sit down to eat while having them on speakerphone or actively work on listings while dealing with them so its not really a problem. beyond that my ego makes any opportunity to win an argument worth it.

right, ive -heard- stories like that too, but ive never actually experienced them. the WORST case is I -think- a buyer swappped an AC adapter with a broken one he had on me. thats literally once in like 3000 transactions, not exactly a bad track record. i get the occasional asshole that i have to deal with *like my posts of todays retarded customer in this thread) but i rarely get -fucked over- through ebay.

so how much are you making monthly, reliably?

do you mean as a software bundle you license out to people who in turn learn how to use it, install it, and utilize it themselves?

if so, then lots, but your target audience is going to be small as hell. Not many are interested in learning how to host their own website or learn fancy, complicated software if they dont already, and the ones that do will not be interesting paying a large amount until it shows proven results to warrant its purchase or has a good reputation in the field already... and any decent online marketer is going to want to know what your software offers that they cant do themselves already
Or do you mean as a selling service where they list their item on your website (or you list it for them, whichever) and do the legwork yourself until its sold through your own network? Theres no way your search volume will match typical ebay volume for most niches and categories, so I would say the answer is "less than what ebay charges" more than likely. MANY websites have come and gone trying to fight ebay. They rise and fall on the daily.

ebay got in early and established itself as the driving force for used/cheap products purchased online. there's almost no way to get rid of or compete against it at this point, exactly like Walmarts in america. The only way we'll ever be rid of it is if it grows too big and devours itself.

It wasn't till I started selling that I realized that not being 100% isn't the end of the world.

If you have any poojets or chinks in your buyer base, you're pretty much guaranteed negative feedback, even if you do everything perfectly.

I'll be completely honest in answering your question:

I have been a "professional ebayer" for around 6 years aka quit my job and used that as primary income. during the first 2 years I was making anywhere between 2-3k a month with it. Had room to grow, started looking into warehousing options etc.

At that point my life decided to do what it always does and I was hit by a string of some of the worst luck possible all at once. I wont go into details but it pretty much destroyed my life and ruined me from being able to continue on. Physically, mentally, and emotionally.

From there everything stopped. I continued making a few shitty sales a month over the course of the next 2 1/2 years, scraping by making anywhere from 50-300 a month profit and doing a few odd jobs to keep minimal expenses handled.

Recently, around the beginning of this year, things started to finally look up a little and I was able to stand on two feet again. I've tried to take advantage of it and decided to start focusing on rebuilding my ebay empire. Around a month ago I found a new inventory supplier and have been establishing a relationship with them.

So far things are going great. Im reliably listing a minimum of 1000 dollars in merchendise a month and earning about 30% of that in gross profit. so monthly stats in english:

This month:
-Listed $3.5k in merchendise
-Earned $300 profit
-still another 1-2k to list for this week and sales to be made (honestly it's about 2k left to list)

Thats only for this new joint venture, does not account for my other ebaying stuff and the side gigs I have going elsewhere (monthly service for a few companies as their IT, etc)

I'm still a far ways off from my goals. I want this new joint venture I have going to grow to about 700-1k profits a week in pocket and to become my primary focus in ebay.

So far its looking VERY good. me and the new inventory supplier are growing trust and the volume we deal with is increasing weekly.

i've dealt with having negative feedback before. And though I agree its not the end of the world, I still try to maintain the 100% as much as possible. once i get that first strike I'll take it less serious until it gets past the 12 months and goes back to 100, but before that happens ill try my best to hold that 100. If for no other reason than because it helps your search rankings against competition

>minimum of 1000 dollars in merchendise a month

I meant to say a week*

When you say, $3.5k listed, does that mean you're gonna make that much? Or is that including the price of buying then selling?

thats the total revenue (aka total value)

My profit margin is just over 30% currently. Normally i'd focus on higher profits, but honestly the stuff I'm selling is super high demand merchandise that moves amazingly fast. In the past i've only sold products that I could double my investment on, but that rule has completely vanished with this new merch im working with I'm also facing no overhead cost on the inventory as I don't pay the supplier until it's sold.

most items are a minimum value of $50 and are hot selling items. 99% of it is brandname electronics like kindles, apple/sony/samsung/lg/etc. I've got 4 new kindles to list today and already sold around 5.

I think the highest value item I've gotten thus far is a 250 dollar graphics card (At least thats what i saw from a quick google of the model, i havent actually researched ebay value on it or listed it yet)

The cheapest is like a 10 dollar pair of skullcandy headphones without any packaging. That made me giggle when I saw it cause it was so out of place.

It's a good sign when youre sorting inventory and laugh at a shitty valueless item instead of getting mad about it, lol.

How did you get a good connection to buy electronics in bulk? Appreciate all the information, by the way.

Honestly? Luck.

Over the years I developed a habit of always keeping my ears and eyes open for an opportunity to earn a buck. It finally paid off 100 fold almost by accident. Happened across a fellow who plays a different game than me to make a living while being his own boss (nothing shady). We started talking and discovered we could benefit from working with each other.

So... kinda like me coming across you?

Ideally, I try to avoid certain parts, I avoid parts that are either too expensive for my profit margins or parts that I would have a hard time being able to sell off as being functional for more than a month. It's a really trial and error business at times. But generally the eBay motors buyers are very serious about getting their parts and I haven't come across a scammer ever. So if you get a return order once every 100 sales, its pretty good and that's basically what I averaged. Many times its just because I make shitty pictures that don't show the color well enough. (dark grey instead of grey)

sure, if you've gotten something positive out of this thread that helps you along then yeah, basically.

the best piece of advice i can give is to always be open to the idea of meeting and befriending fellow entrepreneurs. I have met many people in the last years that have provided benefit to me just by talking to them and meeting them. If by nothing else than because theyre "ahead of me" in their business and give good advise in their stories that helps me with future hurdles.

and if youre real lucky (like i somehow managed to be recently, which is ASS BACKWARDS for what my life normally is like.) you might find a golden goose eventually. This new joint venture is proving to be -exactly- what i needed and is going to cause me to even outgrow him to the point where hes not said golden goose anymore. I will continue working with him simply because the profits will be worth it and we work well together, but he wont be a necessity to my operation after about 6 months.

i was thinking things like rear view mirrors, floor matts, maybe the radios and steering wheels,etc.

I know a piece of trim on my old 91 legend was 50 bucks when I wanted to replace my cracked one. that was an upsetting price for a piece of plastic. Just curious what my cost would be for things like that at the junkyard

Always double check the payment has gone through on PayPal. Had a couple of bum runners from Albania make it so the payment was "pending" with no intention to pay. Hoping i would send the item without checking paypal.

The eBay icon said they had paid so i get charged a final value fee and can't open a no payment claim. 20 minutes on eBay customer service trying to cross the language barrier (it helps if you speak with an Indian accent) and they end up telling me to call PayPal. PayPal told me to call eBay.

Bitch of it is i can't even give him negative feedback to warn others.

How do you ship the floor mats and how much does it cost?

Possibly, what are some high margin items there? Drop some contact info.

advice/tips/thoughts:


-in 6 years and 2XXX transactions I've had to worry about this maybe three times. Though fine if you do this, its always been no issue for me and doesnt warrant the time and effort.

-when the status of a transaction is "Pending" it will stay in the "Awaiting payment" section until it clears. I am literally dealing with this right now (explained below). It also normally tells you an ETA for the payment to clear. If that is not how it worked for you then it's an error and you should contact ebay about it immidiately. You are specifically told by both ebay and paypal "If funds are pending, do not ship out the item until it is cleared".*

-this is a PP issue, NOT an ebay one, and since theyre no longer a single company ebay, can't interact with the paypal side of things. ebay will not be helpful with things like this.

-i agree that ebays indian/phillipines/whatever are the fucking -worst- thing to deal with. I believe it to be a language barrier issue as they dont speak full english they often times cannot understand what the problem is, and in return just follow their canned scripts which usually have shitty results. The solution is to either try with them and if it fails to yield the result you want, call again after a few hours. Eventually you will get with an American associate and that -always- ends sooner, better, and easier. You can also just make up what you want and ask to get transfered to a diff department, then tell them theres a mistake with ur transfer and get sent back, that often sends me to a US rep.

*recently paypal has had some big glitch that is fucking up random transactions. A payment went into pending with no eta displayed and i took about 4 hours to get it fixed. It's still not even fixed, has to run through 24 hours to end the process its stuck in.

Is the russiananon selling light bulbs still active?

There's a type of bulb that is no longer mass produced in my country so I either have to spend a lot for it, or spend even more to change the whole lamp

I usually end up making a box for it myself. I have a work station for it. Just stack them on top of each other. You could try rolling them if you don't give a shit. I don't want to do that just because a negative feedback isn't worth saving 3 or 4 dollars on shipping. It would cost around on average 12-20 dollars by USPS or FedEx.

go to walmart late at night (on whatever their inventory stocking night is at the one near you)

and you can get a shitton of boxes of various sizes. Just ask one of the guys if you can take the empty boxes they have tossed around. normally they say ask their supervisor and they always say sure take what you want, it just cant have the walmart name on it cause they reuse those.

personally id probably roll them up so i can make a thin narrow box vs a long and one sipmly becasue of the storage space itll save

Anyone have experience with other ebay like sites, tindie etc?

Trying to sell my old 7950 since someone gifted me this 970, but no one wants to fucking buy this shit.

Random tips/advice from my short but very profitable time on eBay:

>As with anything in finance, buying right is 80% of the struggle
>If you're shipping internationally, sell worldwide. It's a bigger market for essentially the same price
>Don't use GSP unless it makes a lot of sense for your market
>Don't pay for tracked shipping, domestic or otherwise. Even if you're selling valuable products it's not worth it. The loss of one $200 item is less than tracking for 30+ items. Unless you get ripped off and scammed every 30 sales, don't use tracked shipping unless the customer pays for it.
>You can compete and beat Chinese sellers with your turnaround, quality, volume and any number of other factors, even for cheap shitty items.
>Print thank you notes and watch your feedback and listings soar
>Keep your listings up to date, it improves your search
>Keep your description under 800 characters, it improves your viewing on mobile and probably your position too