Ebay no longer worth the time it takes

MerlinMags

I recall the happy days of ebaying my junk in 2005, making a decent amount on every item, always being surprised by the final bid. It was fantastic then.

In the last 3 years I've come to view ebay as a time-suck. I don't seem to be making enough profit to justify how long it takes to photograph everything, write descriptions, calculate postage, wrap it up (the worst bit).

I guess it is mainly due to final bids being lower, and so many of the same items being offered. If I count up the hours it takes to perform all the steps, I am not 'earning' the minimum wage.

Much as it pains me, I will just take my unwanted stuff to the charity shop in future. Whilst I may think "but these are worth a fiver surely!" I must recall that each fiver is depleted by fees, and it all takes me hours to earn.

campdave

Good to know.

Road_Hog

MerlinMags wrote: »

Much as it pains me, I will just take my unwanted stuff to the charity shop in future. Whilst I may think "but these are worth a fiver surely!" I must recall that each fiver is depleted by fees, and it all takes me hours to earn.

Yep, the charity shop is going to benefit from a few of my items. I have the same feeling, surely that must be worth a fiver, but it goes for 99p (new and boxed) and then the buyer starts quibbling that I won't combine postage on the two 99p items he's bought, even though to be covered I need separate tracking numbers.

It feels far better to give to charity than pay ebay fees, sell an item for next to nothing and have a buyer threatening bad feedback because he ordered on Sunday and it wasn't in Monday morning's post.

Any before anyone starts, no, no one forced me to use ebay, it's 5 years since I've sold anything, I thought I'd give it a try and see if it had improved. But no, still the same old rubbish and yes, it'll carry on fine without me.

morganedge

I gave up about 6 months ago. Despite getting brand new, current season clothes from shops like topshop etc for VERY cheap (as in, often free!!) It was still hard to make much money.

People want Ebay items for next to nothing.
I still have some ASOS leather jackets that are still in the ASOS store for £100 and I'd be lucky to get £10 for it on Ebay, lol. It's mad.

I have much more joy through old fashioned word of mouth selling!
I had an auction recently where I was selling a DKNY handbag. Cost at this second online is still £180.
The winning bid was £38! I obviously didn't send it, and managed to sell it to my sisters friend for £150. Much more like it.

Not to mention the crazy fees that just go up and up.
Finally, things get lost a lot, and teh royal mail hate to cough up the compensation, so you lose out there aswell.

Stick to facebook selling and teh like. You'll do much better!

Ebay is old news

campdave

morganedge wrote: »

The winning bid was £38! I obviously didn't send it,

Hope you got negative feedback.

morganedge

campdave wrote: »

Hope you got negative feedback.

I didn't i'm afraid.
I just said it got lost in the post. As far as a buyer is concerned, it's then the delivery companies fault and not the sender; hence no neg feedback

Not that neg feedback would matter anyway. (especially since I don't use it anymore to sell)

earthstorm

morganedge wrote: »

I didn't i'm afraid.
I just said it got lost in the post. As far as a buyer is concerned, it's then the delivery companies fault and not the sender; hence no neg feedback

Not that neg feedback would matter anyway. (especially since I don't use it anymore to sell)

so you committed fraud, by telling the seller it got lost in the post when you could not be bothered to post it in the first place.

It is sellers like you that give ebay a bad name

alykatz

earthstorm wrote: »

so you committed fraud, by telling the seller it got lost in the post when you could not be bothered to post it in the first place.

It is sellers like you that give ebay a bad name

This is one of the main reasons why myself and most of my family and friends no longer use ebay to buy unless they have to.
Some sellers are very quick to gripe about npb`s and buyer expectations but when they themselves find themselves in a position of not getting enough for their item feel its ok to just cry oh dear lost in post no harm done.

eaglesrjh

an auction is always a gamble, thats the reason I do my research and list nearly everything as a BIN, yes it costs more in listing fees but at least I dont sell things for silly amounts. If they dont sell it's only cost me the listing fee, if they do then i've factored all fees into the sell price and make a decent return on my time investment and I sell enough to more than cover the listing fees for the ones that dont sell.

Free listing weekends are hugely responsible for the decline in values for a lot of auction items in my opinion, it encourages anybody to list anything and too many dont look into the full extent of fees and possible pitfalls.

As more items are available then on common items the supply has increased and therefore demand goes down per item and therefore final prices are lower.

Sellers are then disappointed with the final cash amount after fees and postage as they did not do their research and complain that ebay is not fair or working anymore.

My belief is that to an extent it's cyclical, if more people like the OP stop selling their "junk" quote from OP, then eventually supply will decrease and prices will rise a bit again, then we will see an influx of sellers again and prices will fall.

There are also other market factors on several items, clothes for sure. If I want a couple of basic T-Shirts I will go to primark or asda etc and get them pretty cheap, probably cheaper than bidding on ebay and paying postage, therefore the "value" of ebay is decreased.

It is basically up to the sellers to value their items and only use free listings for things they are happy to get a minimal amount for, if you want a higher amount then stomach the listing fees either for a BIN or for an auction starting at a higher value.

martindow

morganedge wrote: »

I gave up about 6 months ago. Despite getting brand new, current season clothes from shops like topshop etc for VERY cheap (as in, often free!!) It was still hard to make much money.

How do you do this? Does your business depend on shoplifting?

Road_Hog

martindow wrote: »

How do you do this? Does your business depend on shoplifting?

You have to think, it is a novel business plan. I'd love to go to the bank manager, I need a start up loan, I've come up with a business proposition, where the profit margin will be 100%.

What's not to like about it?