Do you make decent money on ebay?

nat_85

Ebay for us has been profitable, however we are doing things on the large scale and are constantly changing our stock

I sell Lingerie primarily which is very competitive but I buy Large volumes at the right time and am happy to sit on the stock a bit longer than most! For example i have around 30,000 pieces at the moment

We have been lucky however it is hard work

alx2013

nat_85 wrote: »

Ebay for us has been profitable, however we are doing things on the large scale and are constantly changing our stock

I sell Lingerie primarily which is very competitive but I buy Large volumes at the right time and am happy to sit on the stock a bit longer than most! For example i have around 30,000 pieces at the moment

We have been lucky however it is hard work

Wow that's alot of stock!
One of my biggest problems is storage at the moment!

tattycath

soolin wrote: »

What is ' a lot' to one person may seem like peanuts to another, just go and look at some of the various threads about 'up your income' where people are genuinely thrilled to receive a £10 Amazon voucher after doing 2 surveys a week for a month.

I am a tiny seller, as I have a life outside of ebay and do not want to be tied down, it does however pay for a number of good holidays each year.

I give enough clues to what I sell, but my motto is if I see something selling well and i can source it, then I will. When market starts to fall I get out and try something different. I do have some regular 'bread and butter' lines that I can source easily and cheaply and can slam out quickly with no real effort- I would be foolish to even hint at what category they are in.

Totally agree with the bit In red,
We sell on various platforms ebay being one of them and it's a business-all above board, pay tax etc.
We would also be foolish to divulge the categories they are in.
We sell odds and sods on a private account-but they are all stuff we have bought for ourselves and no longer need or want.

soolin

tattycath wrote: »

Totally agree with the bit In red,
We sell on various platforms ebay being one of them and it's a business-all above board, pay tax etc.
We would also be foolish to divulge the categories they are in.
We sell odds and sods on a private account-but they are all stuff we have bought for ourselves and no longer need or want.

tattycath, that's a good point. As well as my business accounts (one of which is currently TRS- but not for much longer) I do have a private account. This morning I took 2 sack loads of parcels to MyHermes and it wasn't the money that made me happy, it was the fact that was nearly a full shelf of old tat that had previously been cluttering up the spare room.

Obviously the money was nice as well especially considering the fact that if ebay did not exist I probably would have just given the lot to a charity shop. Instead I cleared nearly £100 after fees....

justapoorboy

TrickyWicky wrote: »

Hi all
do any of you actually make any real money / profit on ebay or do you just tickover? Maybe some of you take a loss just to get rid of stuff?

How much is "real money" ?
100's ? 1,000s ? 10s of thousands ? A living ? Wealth ?
Profits
Depends what you account for.
Cost of computer ? camera ? petrol ? your time ?

I'm not being arsy but trying to understand you question. I think you need to define it better to get answers revelvant to your particular situation.
Are you wondering if you can make a living off Ebay ?
Or beccome wealthy ?

You already seem to know that many just do it for a bit of extra or to clear out unwanted stuff so, I gather you are looking at it from a serious "money making" aspect ?

If so I think that may be the wrong way to look at it. You either aim to treat it as a propper business to make a steady, and hopefully increasing, income or not. It's not a get rich quick kind of thing unless maybe you're doing something risky, unethical or illegal. Like most things it's hard work, even if you enjoy it.

Ebay is enormous. Every type of seller that you can imagine (and many you can't) exist. That must definitely include people who have become millionaires. At the other end of the scale are millions who make less than minimum wage.

Your ability to be successful depends on many things but one of those is definitely a capacity & willingness to work long hours and long days and week-ends, with high levels of concentration and organisation, even if you have be best possible sales proposition.

I don't think there's any such thing as a magic formula. If there is then I would say it is "be different". Each seller is unique in some way or another. Copying someone else just makes you just another competitor. Your USP should be as different as possible from anyone and everyone else.

Goldiegirl

I've been on a major de-cluttering drive and have been basically selling off stuff from the house that's no longer required, in all sorts of categories.

It's something I enjoy doing, I'm making my living space more comfortable, and a by product of all this is that I'm raising some extra funds. It would never be enough to live on, but I've got extra money for treats and clothes for when I go on cruises.

I'm very happy with the money I make.

baffcat

I'm probably one of the few people on here making my living exclusively on ebay. Most others have other outlets for their stock.

I'd always recommend people to use more than one selling platform, but the stuff I buy and sell, and particularly how & when I buy it, lends itself to selling on ebay. I'd have to work much harder if I was selling elsewhere.

I'm careful to keep below the VAT limit. My business model gives me enough to live on quite comfortably selling so little. My greatest expenses, by far, are post/delivery and ebay/paypal fees. My stock cost is miniscule in comparison.

It'll be interesting to see how much effect the new RM prices will have.

southerndave

I have to be honest and in terms of money, I make a loss at eBay and have recently decided to quit it. I sell my own 'clutter' and as I sell this for less than I bought it in the first place, the mediocre amount 'made' after the ever growing fees and postal costs, mean it isn't for me, worth it anymore and is always at a 'loss'.

We are simplifying our lives and rather than sell old stuff, we are just not going to buy it in the first place, save money at the beginning! I also cannot be bothered with the faff of eBaying, the time online, the pictures, the e-mails to frankly moronic buyers, the trips to see the miserbale !!!!!!!s at the Post Office then the worry about feedback, stars, rule, regulations. It's been a blast but now eBay's the past!