Any expert on selling on eBay?

[Massive Lee]

I have a few products I wish to sell on eBay. Can anyone dare explain me what are the downsides, such as fees or limitations?

Do I need to pay a fixed fee per unit, or is it a percentage?

TIA

Lee

[td325ic]

I think reading up on the eBay Help section will give you the best answers to your questions.

But if you're curious about all the fees then here's a helpful EBay & Paypal Fee Calculator

The fees on eBay and Paypal are obviously the biggest downside, but with such a large audience sometimes you can sell shit that you would never have hope of selling otherwise.

[Money$hit]

I heard this kenika dude buys hopes and dreams.



But really, has the govt started taxing ebay sales yet, for sellers who sell $xxxxx?

[atomic]

Figure on about 8% total with ebay listing/selling/picture fees and paypal fees to be taken off the top at the end of the sale. Ebay will also strickly control your shipping cost as well. So be careful not to over inflate it trying to recoup your fees or price margins in that.

[nataku83]

It seems like items go for more on ebay than in the classifieds, but I'd say the real downside is the occasional nut buyer you get while selling. I'd try to be extremely clear in your description, take photos of everything and say that the only items included are what's in the photo, please ask all questions before bidding. Even then, you eventually get scammy assholes who will leave bad feedback for no reason (you cannot leave bad feedback for buyers any more), file claims through paypal, say items never arrived even though you have the tracking numbers showing that they did, etc... Paypal and eBay are often unresponsive when you try to fight back against this bs as well, but on the plus side, they at least do have limited ability to protect you from buyer or seller fraud, whereas a forum or craigslist doesn't.

[shiftbmw]

Yes, one major downside is you can't pre-screen your buyers very well.

[e34john]

They sometimes run specials so its fixed priced listings.

[HiTheNameIsBJ]

Downloading turbolister will be the best thing you do. If you have quite a few things I'm sure there's a few people on here that will list for you, for some swag. Hint Hint.


Really though turbolister is awesome especially for multiple quantity items, Ebay in general is probably the best outlet out there right now for selling anything.

[tim88325is]

Don't forget the percentage the Paypal takes off of payments.

I would take the time to get an accurate shipping weight and cost for any part of the world you plan to ship to. Boxes and packing materials are not inexpensive as well, factor their prices in. I have gotten bitten a few times by not doing enough research on USPS.com.

I do it professionally for a company and the amount of wack-o buyers is around 1 per 950 or so for low cost items.

Overall, I think ebay is great, maybe a bit different for sellers than what is was a few years ago. I haven't done much personal selling recently.