Ebay selling

[Hedgehog Toys]

Hi all,
Anybody here use Ebay to sell their stuff as well as through normal means?

I have sold my own personal items on Ebay in the past but just wondered if there as a market for Ebay selling aswell?

[autolycus]

I guess it depends on what you are selling.....

I've certainly bought several things from businesses via eBay in the past, and know of at least one person who makes about half his sales via eBay and the other half via his own website.

[Joyous]

As David says it depends what you're selling.

For music and DVD's my first choice is ebay closely followed by amazon. I've also used it to source books and jigsaws. My husband has also used ebay in the past to source computer peripherals such as flash drives, mains adaptors etc. In all cases the expectation is that eBay will be cheaper than anywhere else.

Regards

Joy

[autolycus]

My husband has also used ebay in the past to source computer peripherals such as flash drives, mains adaptors etc. In all cases the expectation is that eBay will be cheaper than anywhere else.


Yes, that's what you'd expect. Having said that, I've often found with computer bits and pieces that the price on eBay ends up being higher than some of the online stores such as Scan, Dabs, etc.

But, then again, you probably get a better level of customer service from the average eBay seller than you do from some of the big names in IT peripherals. :wink:

[ne-fishing]

I used to sell stuff on Ebay but due to a very small profit margin on my items I needed to sell a lot of stuff in order to make decent money. Getting hold of items to sell was not a problem however; keeping track of sales, returns, postage ref etc got on top of me so for this reason I gave up for now.

I personally think Ebay has great potential as long as you stay well organised and deal with enquires quickly and effectively. It’s also a good way to build you customer base…

[easyasit]

To be honest, i think there are too many things on ebay to have your items noticed.
The place is a houseehold name right enough but as i said in another thread somewhere that i think and feel ebay is a victim of its own success.

It has well over 9 million users. Must be ten times that many products being sold. Personally i think the concept though good is now over used by Ebay, that is it is far too crowded now.

Not only this, but with the exception of a few mugs, there does not appear to be too many ppl on ebay who want to spend any money.

I have listed time and time again on there, tried launching my product on there as well, to no avail. Even with buy it now option.
Personally i use ebay for bargains but nothing else. My opinion of the company is not great, in fact some competiton would not do them any harm

Al

[clairemackaness]

I shop on ebay all the time and really enjoy finding a bargin. I buy most of my art supplies adn crafty bits as well as day to day things.

I used to sell my clarice cliff paintings there and did a roaring trade as this is where you find the clarice cliff dealers and collectors, but recently it's gone downhill.

I will be launching a product range in the next week or so and am going to be listing it on ebay so we'll see how it goes.

[F5 Webdesign]

Hi,

I recently set up an eBay shop for a client, and he's been doing a roaring trade. He sells skis and ski-ing equipment, so obviously this time of year will be his busiest, but it's a very good way to get a lot of people looking at your products.

If you wanted a chat about eBay shops, feel free to email me

Cheers

[weddingcrafter]

I started out with ebay as it can be a great way to build a customer base and get exposure quickly.

I don't use auctions much except to shift end of lines and other bits and pieces, and for my fixed price listings charge the same prices as I do on the website.

eBay is still around 20-25% of turnover.

Downside is the time it needs to manage the listings and the customers!

A lot of my target market (brides-to-be on a budget) go to ebay as a place to look for bargains so it works for me.

[confused]

To be honest, i think there are too many things on ebay to have your items noticed
I disagree with that - it has a search and an advanced search function, I usually find what I'm looking for. I use it for bits and bobs, usually small value items but they can often be had for a fraction of the retail price including post. It is annoying however when you find listing after listing from the same person for the same item.
I think if you have a product to sell, then stick it on ebay, I would.

[Toon]

I never used to bother with Ebay as I found it was so expensive and never made as much profit as I thought I deserved. Everytime they had a 5p listing day I would list a few items and one time I done really well so added a few items then a few more and now I'm a Powerseller!

[Bizgifts]

I starting selling t-shirts on Ebay in January of last year. It was a little slow to start with and didn't really pick up until summer. By the end of the year sales were in excess of £10,000 so I cant complain, after all I was just utilising some spare capacity of my equipment.

Mark