How does eBay work

larsony

OK. I tried to sell a DVD last year on ebay but the winning bidder turned out to be dodgy. No harm done apart from the fact that I lost my ebay fee - I didn't send the DVD off because no money arrived in the paypal account.

My question is this ... is the idea of making serious cash on ebay a myth?You hear these stories about people raking in some serious lucre - I've spoken to someone who reckons she makes a load selling leather jackets.

But I simply don't know how this can be possible. I'm guessing there are people who flood the site with knick-knacks etc. but if you don't manage to sell you'd be losing money in fees to ebay hand over fist. Or am I being stupid? Probably the latter.

Anyone else think it's a myth?

frivolous_fay

The secret is to buy low, and sell high on ebay when that item is selling at a premium. It's all about savvy, timing and patience.

Me, I'm an amateur. I sell off stuff I don't need any more. It's money I wouldn't have if I'd kept the item, so the bank account moves in the right direction.

C_Ronaldo

ive sold things on ebay but ive not made serious money, you need the right stuff to sell

Murtle

In future if a auction sells and they don't pay go through the Non-paying bidder process to reclaim your fees.

RAMBLER

Sorry to be synical, byt ebay works best for ebay. If the normal man can make a business out of it as well, then good look. Basically the advice above covers it.

Good luck

foxybabe

I have just started selling stuff on ebay as i got fed up of just giving stuff away. I have been pleasantly surprised at what i have got for my stuff. But I don't think you could make a fortune. Its money I wouldn't normally have had, so bertie bonus for me.

neil_woods

I have started selling item on ebay, mainly new items but some items that i have liying around.

I but items at 99p and sell at 1.99 or 2.49 so basically whatever i but i double the price and add about 10%, then place the listing fees and and ebay fee and paypal fee withing my postage price. When you see on ebay that some of the sellers claiming not to include the listing fee or paypal fees, you can guarantee they are liying, the will have placed ther costs in there price somewhere.

Only been doing this 6 weeks now, but have spent about £145 on buying and postage costs, and made £376 so £231 profit to date, more than doubled my money. So yes it can be done.

Trick is to find what people want on a regular basis, i started of on back to school to items, flew out the door they did. A lot of people use ebay as they dont allways have the time to look around for bargains and such.

A big seller on ebay is sim cards, i sell a lot of them, some i have bought myself but most i get free, i keep checking all the 02, orange, vodafone and so on web sites, and you can bet 1 of them will allways some offer free sims, recently i got 64 sims from 02 and 18 from vodafone for nothing, i sell them at 99p with free 2nd postage so i end up about 50p clear profit from each.

frivolous_fay

neil_woods wrote:

When you see on ebay that some of the sellers claiming not to include the listing fee or paypal fees, you can guarantee they are liying, the will have placed ther costs in there price somewhere.

I don't want to get in a fight about this, but that doesn't make them liars.

How do you pay your ebay and paypal fees? With your profits. Where do your profits come from? Your customers.

Ergo, your customers pay your fees, hidden or not.

cafenervosa_2

frivolous_fay wrote:

The secret is to buy low, and sell high on ebay when that item is selling at a premium. It's all about savvy, timing and patience.

I second that. You just need to have some money sense and business sense. Not a lot of people are cut out to handle their own finances never mind a business.

cafenervosa_2

When I started selling just over 18 months ago my dream was to make £800 a month profit on what I sell. This was more than I was ever making doing my normal job. Less than 2 years on I am making over £1,000 profit a month and growing, it can be done, its all about selling quality items that people want, also as fay said, buy low sell high, thats the secret

larsony

So is it the case that if you put something up for sale and it doesn't sell you can claim the ebay fee back?

Or do you only get to do that if someone bids and then doesn't pay?