Ebay - who makes money from this?

Moglex

Becky wrote:

I just wonder how there are stories of people making a fortune. Or are they 'selling' all the SKY channels you could ever want, or 1,000,000 PS2 games on 1 disk...!!!

I suspect that there are three types of people making useful money from ebay:

1) People with decent secondhand stuff to sell. Ebay seems to be able to set a 'market price' for commonly wanted goods.

2) People who are prepared to really work at it. Find the merchandise, note what sells and set up a lot of auctions.

3) People doing things that are illegal/immoral such as selling pirated goods, pictures of PS2's.

As always the press are full of people who have sold silly things for even sillier amounts of money (such as a half eaten sandwich for a fiver ), and people read this and put any old junk on, then get disappointed when they don't make their fortunes.

CharleneUK

I recently made over £100 and only paid a total of around £11 in fees.

Quite handy for this time of year.

postingalwaysposting

black-saturn wrote:

I got out of debt because of ebay. So I owe it everything really.

same with me black saturn, the first time i sold stuff it actually payed for my credit card to be payed off out right :j and ironically i sold some of the stuff that left the balance on the card lol

Soprano

CharleneUK wrote:

I recently made over £100 and only paid a total of around £11 in fees.

Quite handy for this time of year.

That fee seems quite high...


Cute pic :whistle:

Becky

Useless stuff sells well on EBAY.

A while back I auctioned some beach sand on the site for an animal charity and got around £25! :j I would be lucky to get that on some of my computer components!!! :rolleyes:

*Louise*

Well, today I am going to make my first attempt at selling on ebay, so I will see how it goes.... :rudolf:

rubix_76

Although I have bought items on Ebay, I have never sold anything on there. But .... I am informed by my Brother-in-law that the amount you pay for listing an item on Ebay is related to the STARTING price.

So even if two items were sold for £5 the one with the 1p starting price would make you more profit than if you started it at £2.50. Having a reserve also makes a difference I am told.

I haven't had time to check the Ts&Cs on EBAY to confirm this.

Hope this Helps


Rubix

CIS

It would, but remember thwre are also the fees on the final selling price, and if you list a 1p theres no gurantee that the price would reach £5, thats why a lot of people would list at the £2.50.

klondyke

Becky wrote:

I have lots of old books and items that I will never use again, which are cluttering up our rooms but I feel loathed to pay all the fees and make next-to-nothing on them.

How about giving them to a charity shop? Admittedly, many of the old books and other stuff don't even sell in Oxfam, as like ebay, they need to be in reasonable condition for anyone to want them. Not suggesting you give all your valuables to charities (though they would be appreciated!) but if you really think they will make next to nothing, than think how much even the tiny bit they might make would mean in disaster areas.

Just a thought ...

roswell

The secrets to ebay are firstly you need to have items other people will want, ask yourself if you were to buy it again what would it be worth, in the case of mobile phones / books probably not a lot. But remember that quantity also pays a part if you sell 100 items for 50p thats £50 , listing expensive items cheap eg Garmin I3 street pilot for 99p will generate interest as people will bid just out of chance. factor real postage costs and fees into your packaging costs, box`s can weigh more than an item so if its used send the item in brown paper and bubble wrap. By bubble wrap in bulk 10 meters is cheaper that 2 x 5 Meters and almost half the price of 4 x 2.5 meter rolls.

You need to have a head for retail really to get money out of ebay but it can be done, If you find a bargain in a shop buy it try it on ebay one mans junk another mans treasure. £1 shops can sell great small light items that go for £3 or £4 plus packaging 300 % profit isnt to be laughed at :-)