ebay stupid postage rule

Smart_But_Casual

TurkishDelight wrote: »

You just have to be smart with your listings, and find something you know.

Which is what I said.

Know your market and stick to what you know.

Research, knowledge, bottle.

Too many people expect it all handed to them when it's research and knowledge of your marketplace which brings in the repeat business and the profit.

TurkishDelight

Smart_But_Casual wrote: »

Too many people expect it all handed to them when it's research and knowledge of your marketplace which brings in the repeat business and the profit.

Probably the only sure-fire way of making money is writing one of these e-books on how to make money that are spammed all over the place.

bundly

Dry my eyes? You think I am cryin? I am laughing at your pomposity.

As I said, these forums are for helping, not crowing.

I happen to be an expert on a certain subject and I am a member of several forums in which I spend hours helping other people, so know that I "give" plenty to people, so I have no shame in asking for help with something else in another forum.

I do make money from time to time running a seminar on this subject upon which I am an expert. I make about £600 for a day's work. The reason I don't do it more often is that I can only repeat these seminars a limited number of times in my town and as I cannot drive I'm limited by lack of mobility.

But that does not stop me from giving freely of my expertise, which it has taken me many years to accummulate. Probably because protecting my fragile ego doesn't rule my life --- as yours evidently does.

Yeah e-books LOL.

Smart_But_Casual

bundly wrote: »

Dry my eyes? You think I am cryin? I am laughing at your pomposity.

As I said, these forums are for helping, not crowing.

I happen to be an expert on a certain subject and I am a member of several forums in which I spend hours helping other people, so know that I "give" plenty to people, so I have no shame in asking for help with something else in another forum.

I do make money from time to time running a seminar on this subject upon which I am an expert. I make about £600 for a day's work. The reason I don't do it more often is that I can only repeat these seminars a limited number of times in my town and as I cannot drive I'm limited by lack of mobility.

But that does not stop me from giving freely of my expertise, which it has taken me many years to accummulate. Probably because protecting my fragile ego doesn't rule my life --- as yours evidently does.

Yeah e-books LOL.

Yeah, go you, with your great life.

You're an expert so sell into that speciality. Hardly rocket science.

Research, knowledge, bottle.

StaffsSW

bundly wrote: »

Probably because protecting my fragile ego doesn't rule my life --- as yours evidently does.

It's not about protecting egos, it's about protecting our income and revenue.

I have a number of good suppliers and business methods. I could tell you about them, but then you'd be a competitor and reduce my income. Besides, it took me a good while to learn and work these out for myself, and I do not see why I, or anyone else, should just hand out critical information to complete strangers. I'll happily share experiences, opinions, facts I've learnt etc, but not trade secrets.

I may be generous, but I'm not daft.

cyril82

bundly wrote: »

Cyril: HOW can you make a good living on there? What is the secret? I've tried for nearly ten years now to get decent sales on ebay, and all I've done is make ebay richer.

Bundly i see you have met some of the regulars who have already offered you their own brand of "help".

"Smart but casual is giving sound but rather cliched advice with his Know your market and stick to what you know"

no one can say that’s wrong, but i disagree, only because the items i sold on ebay that made me a lot of money i had no prior working knowledge of, i sold electrical items, mp3 players gps navigation devices computer components and memory card products. Í learned as i went and make a killing as i did it.

i got started by accident, I saw a guy selling a lot of a certain item, decided to try and source it, managed to do it by buying from china and at a price that was competitive, I placed an order, when it arrived i listed the order sold it in about 2 hours I made a couple of hundred quid and i was hooked.

i cant tell you what to sell, if you were to ask me what sells on ebay my answer would be, pretty much everything it more a case of can get you it at a price cheap enough to give you a return.

if your interested in following my route which was to import from the far east, start here;

www.alibaba.com
www.globalsources.com

best of luck, ignore the fools.

TurkishDelight

The people who "ignore the fools" as you put it often end up selling cheap rubbish, or rather buying cheap rubbish, and then being stuck with it. How do you expect people to buy things that will make a profit if they don't know their market? :rotfl: For instance memory cards, a basic search brings up 28,365 results. A seller, starting from scratch, will have to work pretty hard to get a best match to compete with that, plus if they get a dodgy supplier who sells them the old "smaller than advertised" trick cards, then they are screwed before they start. Okay, practical advice- if you can't find something you know, then go for something fool and fake proof. Suppliers I can't help you with- we buy off ebay (a very risky strategy and not at all recommended unless you are totally sure what you are doing.)

soolin

Sharpe wrote: »

The only way around it i've heard (not tried myself) is to offer free p&p for collections THEN charge for 1st class royal mail etc as an additional service. Another method is to post it in the wrong section and avoid the p&p limitations but you'll have less chance of people finding it and ebay might find out.

I strongly suggest you read up on the rules and how the search works. This is a recipe for disaster and will cost you more in the long run.

ethansmum

I bought a cd rom from a virgin newbie with zero feedback. The poor chap listed at 99p with free postage. I got it for the asking price, knowing how much it would cost to post I didn't expect to recieve it, but it came today in the post, promptly and well packed. The poor seller paid 76p for postage on top of ebay and paypal fees so lost on the sale.

I'm feeling so guilty i might just paypal them the extra £4

cyril82

TurkishDelight wrote: »

The people who "ignore the fools" as you put it often end up selling cheap rubbish, or rather buying cheap rubbish, and then being stuck with it. How do you expect people to buy things that will make a profit if they don't know their market? :rotfl: For instance memory cards, a basic search brings up 28,365 results. A seller, starting from scratch, will have to work pretty hard to get a best match to compete with that, plus if they get a dodgy supplier who sells them the old "smaller than advertised" trick cards, then they are screwed before they start. Okay, practical advice- if you can't find something you know, then go for something fool and fake proof. Suppliers I can't help you with- we buy off ebay (a very risky strategy and not at all recommended unless you are totally sure what you are doing.)

on balance turkish what you have just said there is that instead trying to find a legitimate supplier abroad, because that’s risky, they should try buying of ebay then relisting at a higher price, not at all risky ..:rolleyes:

i can only speak on what worked for me and i made my money on ebay by importing direct from the manufacturer. there are steps you take to minimise your risk when buying from the far east, for example globalsources.com have a verification system, if a seller is fully verified on global sources that means they have been credit checked, checks have been made that the business is legit and properly registered and this is the jewel in the crown for this site, global sources visit the premises of the manufacturer/supplier to check their facilities to ensure that they do have the products they say they do and that they are not selling fakes and they can match the demands they claim to be able to meet.
There are also companies you can pay to independently visit any potential supplier and make these checks for you, so if you know what you are doing it's not that risky, i have never been ripped off.

With regards knowing your market, as i said, it's sound advice but can sometimes be restrictive if you stick to that rule too firmly and the mark of a true entrepreneur is someone who is at times prepared to break those rules and take a slight risk, if risk taking isn't your thing then get a nine to five because business is all about risk taking albeit calculated risks.