Is eBay the Promised Land? 106
johnny.shz asks: "Even the politicians were claiming: millions of people are making a living off eBay. eBay does have millions of people selling at any given time, but how many are actually making a living? I've sold many things on eBay, mostly junk. My feeling is that I'm making eBay richer (all fees plus PayPal account about 10%), but certainly not myself. Despite all the hoopla of the new promised land, I don't see the promise on eBay. How many of you are making a living off eBay? How many of you actually know someone who does?"
Yes, but usually not the individual. (Score:5, Insightful)
The people making a living off eBay are the small business owners that may (or may not) have a storefront in some town with limited exposure. They setup an eBay store, or list a most of their items on eBay for sale and make additional sales from stock they already had. They adjust their prices to compensate for the fees of doing business (which may very well be cheaper). They're generally able to avoid dealing with taxes (unless you're in their state), they don't have to deal with the overhead of store rent, electricity, etc that a physical store incurs.
If I were so inclined, I'm sure I could setup a business in my house that sells purely online/through eBay and be able to make a better profit than a standard storefront, simply due to the considerable difference in overhead. However, I'm not interested in owning that kind of business.
Re:Yes, but usually not the individual. (Score:2)
According to him, he works about 10 hours a day, seven days a week. That amount of time pays for his house, feeds everyone in it (wife and two kids, none of whom work) and drives three Hummer H2s all different colors.
Its possible if you know how to do it.
Re:Yes, but usually not the individual. (Score:1)
Re:Yes, but usually not the individual. (Score:2)
Re:Yes, but usually not the individual. (Score:1)
Maybe that asshat should have stopped at one H2, and then he wouldn't have to work 70 hours a week and could spend some time with his family.
Of course, the H2 is a girlie truck anyway. I swear I only ever see fat middle-aged broads driving those things.
It's not even a real Hummer. It's a pickup in quasi-military drag.
Re:Yes, but usually not the individual. (Score:1)
Actually, it is a Suburban. They share the same chassis.
http://www.intellichoice.com/reports/vehicleRepor
I second the store front statement (Score:3, Interesting)
I know business must be good, he's paying my sister to handle the ebay business... a job she took over taking a job as a teacher, s
Definitely individuals! (Score:2)
A couple of hours a day of doing what she likes (well, probably a bit more now as she's painting two pictures a day) leaves her enough time for her family and brings enough money for their needs.
It is actually quite simple.
All you need is talent, energy, determination and an acute business sense.
Way to go, Osnat!
Re:Yes, but usually not the individual. (Score:1)
Dunno about millions, but Cheney, in a campaign appearance, definitely implied that lots of people were making loads of money on EBay.
The context was talking about "new jobs" that replace the ones that have gone away forever.
He might well have said millions.
Re:Yes, but usually not the individual. (Score:2)
Didn't stop to think about the realities of running a business, did you? If it were like you describe, wouldn't everybody be running a business online instead of "deal[ing] with the overhead of running a store"? Consider t
Re:Yes, but usually not the individual. (Score:3, Interesting)
Actually, I did.
1) If you're REALLY running your whole business out of your house, there's a limit on the size of your business. If you're in a shipped-goods industry (like these Ebay merchants), how much inventory can you actually fit in your house? Even
Re:Yes, but usually not the individual. (Score:3, Informative)
Personally, I think a storefront is a terrible idea for a business, unless you're selling something that people really want to get locally for some reason (like groceries). First, the rent is horribly expensive, if you're located someplace where there's customers (obviously not Wyoming). Second, you have to pay for employees, unless you really want to man the store 12 or more h
Depends how you do it. (Score:5, Interesting)
How he does it.
Deal sites.
Rebate whore
Price match.
invest all your free time on ebay sales.
prompt shipping.
Grump
Re:Depends how you do it. (Score:4, Interesting)
And is "rebate whore" the reason why it's common to find hard drives for sale on EBay in the original box, but missing the UPC code?
Re:Depends how you do it. (Score:3, Informative)
and yea, rebate whore as in do the rebate, sell the box, sans upc.
I do the upc rebate game, but i make a little cash on the side by doing cable/dsl home installs for people I know (like my manager at work, family friends, etc). I tend to ask for a price of 75-100 dollars, including hardware. works out for me, and they're happy because going to worst buy and buying the router would have cost them 30-50 and nobody to setup for them.
Grump
Check out this guy (Score:1, Funny)
"eBay consignment shop" (Score:5, Interesting)
A local businessman has set up an 'eBay Consignment' shop, you drop off an item, and he sells it on eBay for a fee. He takes pictures, does the description, lists the item...
21st century pawn shop
Re:"eBay consignment shop" (Score:2)
Re:"eBay consignment shop" (Score:2)
Funny you should mention that. While driving around in Dallas, we passed by a pawn shop that had a help wanted sign for an "eBay Consultant", or some such. Looks like they're still online: Home > eBay Stores > Uncle Dan's Pawn Shop [ebay.com], but they don't have much listed. I suspect they wanted someone to work for little of nothing, in return for 'net access or something like that.
Re:"eBay consignment shop" (Score:2)
eBay does a good job of convincing people that they can do it themselves. The consignment shop idea is a bad one.
Re:"eBay consignment shop" (Score:2)
The problem, however, is that people are cheap. If your shop is going to charge some huge percentage to sell the item, it probably isn't worth it. And any shop that's operat
i thought ebay was for... (Score:2)
*shrug*
Good 'ole tiny NZ (Score:2, Informative)
If Ebay is the Promised Land (Score:3, Funny)
Re:If Ebay is the Promised Land (Score:2)
Re:If Ebay is the Promised Land (Score:1)
Monopoly (Score:4, Interesting)
The problem I have with Ebay and Paypal, is the monopoly aspect. They start to morally judge what you can and cant sell, who you can/cant take money from with paypal. This is suppose to be a free market, but if you sell something some corporation doesnt want you to sell, they just have to write a letter to ebay to end your auction. Paypal doesnt have the same regulations as a bank, they dont want you transfering money across borders. (Try to donate money overseas with paypal, little problems, but it can be done.)
Too bad everyone is cornering themselves into 1 company for most products, your choice is disappearing. Finally you end up with a company that can do what it wants, and you have no options to go else where.
While the fees and prices go up...
Re:Monopoly (Score:2)
It's a combination of them covering their asses (for all sorts of reasons, e.g. liability), protecting their consumers, and making sure they aren't being abused to do black market transactions.
Here you're making the leap from aucti
You mean a government-granted monopoly (Score:1)
you end with the imagined possibility that if ebay/paypal get bad enough, no one will come up with a competing service.
Has eBay been up for 20 years? If not, there may still be patents on aspects of eBay's business model.
Re:Monopoly (Score:2)
The problem with that is that eBay still has the near-monopoly on customers (who generally won't even be aware of what eBay isn't letting sellers list, so they don't have the motivation to look elsewhere). The net is littered with the corpses of "eBay competitors" that never stood a chance because they didn't have the eyeballs needed to make them viable. If you want to run a business doing online auctions, you pretty mu
Nobody (Score:2)
Easy (Score:4, Funny)
"How many of you are making a living off eBay?"
Once I learned how to burn grilled cheese sandwiches a certian way, it was a snap.
Re:Easy (Score:1)
Craigslist (Score:5, Insightful)
If you live in a city with lots of rich people, they just throw good stuff away. I've got a washer/dryer, clothes, guitar, rugs, furniture, most free, some low-cost. A penny saved is a penny earned.
Re:Craigslist (Score:2)
Re:Craigslist (Score:2)
Re:Craigslist (Score:1)
Anything special you are gonna do with it btw?
Re:Craigslist (Score:2)
Re:Craigslist (Score:1)
15 years from creation time, war has turned to ' ' (Score:3, Interesting)
It gets worse though: there's no other place to sell your stuff. You're lucky to get 1/10th @ amazon what you get @ eBay.
Re:15 years from creation time, war has turned to (Score:1)
I have to pay the listing fee ... a percentage of the final sale ... a percentage of the money that was transfered to me by paypal ... a box ... [and] the shipping fee.
Don't you factor these things into the cost of your auction?
If you charge somebody $2 for a CD, and it costs $3 to mail it, and $1 in administration fees, don't be surprised when you end up $2 out of pocket. If you want a higher profit, set the opening bid to something more reasonable, like $3, and specify that the buyer will pay the act
Re:15 years from creation time, war has turned to (Score:1)
Re:15 years from creation time, war has turned to (Score:2)
UPS used to be competitive, but then they went public and the prices went through the roof.
For lightweight packages (under 2 lbs or so), USPS is by far the cheapest way to go.
Re:15 years from creation time, war has turned to (Score:1)
Re:15 years from creation time, war has turned to (Score:2)
For expensive items, the story is different, but for those I probably wouldn't use USPS anyway.
What kind of area do you live in that has no Fedex or (even worse) Kinko's?
Re:15 years from creation time, war has turned to (Score:1)
Re:15 years from creation time, war has turned to (Score:1)
Re:15 years from creation time, war has turned to (Score:1)
Re:15 years from creation time, war has turned to (Score:2)
You do realize that you can go to usps.gov and find out what it will cost to mail it before writing up the eBay listing, don't you?
And if you're going to do this a lot, boxes are cheap (if you buy in bulk), or free if you ask the local grocery (or just about any) store.
Re:15 years from creation time, war has turned to (Score:1)
The flat rate boxes for priority mail are free (if it fits in the box, it is one rate). Easy not to mess up the shipping charge on those...
In olden times, using internet chronology (Score:3, Insightful)
Eventually, the masses figured out they could do the same thing and supplement their income. All of a sudden, things were a lot scarcer at the junk sales. There were all kinds of articles about the lot of the poor ebay entrepeneur.
I'm sure there are still a few people making a living off of ebay, but I seriously doubt it's 'millions'.
Re:In olden times, using internet chronology (Score:1)
In my neighborhood, if we don't want to bother hawking something in the classifieds or on eBay (because of that little bugbear called "personal time,") we just put the old crap out in front of the house/apartment. And by God, it
Got one (Score:2)
I couldn't say how well a living she makes, but she hasn't worked a regular job for a while now and has a relatively comfortable lifestyle.
I suspect that, like just about everything else, making a good living solely via eBay requires a lot of time and hard work, so that even if there were millions doing this it would still hardly be revolutionary.
How about THIS GUY.... (Score:2)
He appears to be collecting video tapes of rock videos, performances and interviews. And by video tapes, I do mean low quality VHS. Then he'd just sequentually burn them to DVD-Rs and sell them for full retail price.
He's got to have the fat wallet from this operation. And, of course, if you buy one thing, he'll offer you several other items after the purchase.
I see that other people's negative feedbacks don't do any good, so I'll report him to eBay for violating the CR-R/DVD-R policy, and
Possible - yes ; Easy - no (Score:3, Interesting)
1. Find a reliable supplier where you can get items at wholesale
1a. Find about 20 items that sell well from that supplier and list them over and over again! Nothing sucks more than having to write new listings every week.
2. Spend a lot of time initititally working out your shipping system to minimize cost and time effort.
3. Profit!
Not a living, but making Earth more livable (Score:5, Insightful)
I'm certainly not making any real money on eBay, but I can't tell you how much better it feels to ship some piece of junk to somebody who want it, rather than dumping it in the trash can.
eBay may not be the "promised land", but it certainly is improving the land by being the best recycling tool ever invented.
Re:Not a living, but making Earth more livable (Score:2)
Re:Not a living, but making Earth more livable (Score:1)
I suspect it is possible to make some money through ebay, but your chances of making money would be improved by shippin
My father (Score:1)
Lots of people losing though. .. (Score:2, Informative)
I've got a lot of friends who seem to be losing money on Ebay, regularly.
I honestly don't understand it, the first place they visit is Ebay no matter what kind of purchase they're interested in.
To start with it might seem like a good deal, but I've seen lots of them pay way over retail prices in the "heat" of the auction because they don't know how to stop.
I've used ebay a few times, (only a few - my positive feedback has me listed at 4), but I've always known what my limit was.
I don't understand how so
Re:Lots of people losing though. .. (Score:2)
Before bidding, I ask myself:
I think a lot of it boils down to "collectors" having an echo chamber effect on the price. If it's bid high, it must be valuable, and therefore I should pay a high price. It really sucks if you're looking to use something that the "collectors" are fixated on. Right now I'm looking for a TLR camera, but they keep getting bid up t
Re:Lots of people losing though. .. (Score:2)
Re:Lots of people losing though. .. (Score:2)
The masses will flock to ebay to find merchandise at a discount. (Joe Random wants an Xbox for $99)
The sellers will flock to ebay to attempt to make more on their sales than they are worth. (eBayStud013413 has an xbox, new in box, listed with a reserve price of $239)
Re:Lots of people losing though. .. (Score:1)
Re:Lots of people losing though. .. (Score:2)
I was shocked.
Be very careful on eBay due to shill bidding (Score:1)
Re:Be very careful on eBay due to shill bidding (Score:3, Insightful)
I've been selling casually on eBay since '98 and have never engaged in shill bidding. Only once have I been disappointed with the final selling price of a "big-ticket" item.
Re:Be very careful on eBay due to shill bidding (Score:2)
I've also never had a bad experience with eBay (bum sellers, nonpaying bidders...). I also don't get caught up in the head of the moment with auctions ending though, and I know legitimate bargains when I se
UPS, FEDEX, and USPS are the only winners, (Score:2)
The key to Ebay's success is not the pricing or the auction model, but the advertising. All the goods of a particular sort that you might be looking for, readily available in one spot, and deliverable regardless of where you are located.
Ebay cuts down the work you would normally have to do to find items to purchase on the net, and provides a "standard framework" for same.
The "standard framework" could, of course, exist without Ebay...
I know somebody (Score:3, Interesting)
I know of a guy that... (Score:2, Interesting)
Keep Our Treasures Priceless (Score:1)
Re:Keep Our Treasures Priceless (Score:2)
So now if I'm at someones house and they have spyware slowing them down, I tell 'em "something is eating your bandwitch". It gets a chuckle.
Re:Keep Our Treasures Priceless (Score:1)
Well, it depends. (Score:2)
Things I've picked up for free but didn't need, I can generally resell quite easily. Cases in point: an industrial label printer, SS7 motherboards (sold these for $50 each, got em for $1 each) and a plethora of other random things.
Things I've paid money for, generally didn't sell quite as well.
Then there was the esoteric, when I tried to sell a matched pair of StorageTek 3060 Fibre Channel array cabinets. You know, the kind that sell for $25,000+, weigh the better pa
Millions, eh? (Score:2)
How would politicians have figures like this? Most eBay transactions are not taxed and you can believe the people runnng eBay businesses are not giving acurate figures, if any, for how much they supplement their income with eBay to the IRS.
I reckon the politicians claiming figures like these are the same ones trying to institute sales tax on all internet transactions. Why? With state budgets shrinking and more demand bein
Re:Millions, eh? (Score:1)
No, it was Cheney responding to questions about job losses in the US, suggesting EBay sales as a rising new industry that would replace lost manufacturing jobs or some such bullshit.
From September '04:
"Indicators measure the nation's unemployment rate, consumer spending and other economic milestones, but Vice President Dick Cheney says they miss the hundreds of thousands wh
Re:Millions, eh? (Score:1)
Thanx for the source, though. I'd mod you as informative, but you're replying to me so I'm kinda powerless.
Is eBay the Promised Land? (Score:1)
Re:Is eBay the Promised Land? (Score:2)
Making a living is a transient phenomenon (Score:2)
Yes, eBay IS the Promised Land (Score:3)
The media has criticized me for running what they call "no-bid" auctions, but it's sure been profitable on my end, so what's their problem?
Regards,
R. Cheney
HalliBay, Inc.
Promised Land (Score:3, Insightful)
50% of my ebay transactions have resulted in the loss of my time and money. I don't use ebay any more.
Sure.. heaps (Score:1)
They make the buyers pay for the tax as it enters their country, which helps them sell at a greatly reduced price. Plus, they don't maintain a storefront and thus can reduce their prices even more because their costs are less.
Personally, when shopping
I have a friend who... (Score:2)
I guess I should define "pretty good living." To him it means not ever having to go to work. I'm guessing he's able to pay his rent, car insurance, buy food, etc, but that's about it.
FreeCycle (Score:3, Informative)
Index of 4000+ local yahoo freecycle groups. All groups are ways of getting stuff for free, and getting rid of your own stuff easily. I got a 27" TV for my bedroom and a free router.
eBay fee increases (Score:2)
The Final Value Fee for these sale amounts would increase as shown:
High Bid - Old Fee - New Fee - Increase
$10.00 - $0.53 - $0.80 - 51%
$20.00 - $1.05 - $1.60 - 52%
$25.00 - $1.31 - $2.00 - 53%
Timely... (Score:2)