The bay.

.one.

.one.

.one.

Soldato
Joined
1 Aug 2006
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Any one here make a living on ebay ? if so what do you do and top tips for starting such a project,or is it a white elephant compared to years back when it all started.

jay.
 
White elephant compared to years back when it all started. Honestly, you have to really look hard to find a bargain. It was taken over by bedroom traders long ago.
 
I considered doing this for a while but with all the "eBay problem, help!" threads on here I was put off!
 
.one. said:
Any one here make a living on ebay ? if so what do you do and top tips for starting such a project,or is it a white elephant compared to years back when it all started.

jay.
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eBay has genuinely changed a lot in the last 5 years. If you had a bit of spare cash, you could easily buy a bit of bulk stuff and make a bit of pocket money. Fee's too high, too much snide rubbish and way too many problems with PayPal.

If you want to make a living then start your own business as you retain a lot more control from start to finish
 
no problem doing this if you can source goods at a cheap enough price to still make a profit. I hate ebay and paypal, but there is no denying you will make sales a lot quicker on ebay than your own ecommerce site.

~15% goes to paypal and ebay, then you have PnP on top of that.
 
White elephant, I gave up on it years ago - was sick of being trying to be scammed all the time and ending up out of pocket because of Ebay/Paypal (the biggest scammers).
 
mm no success stories here so far then only need to make about £200 a week.

I used to buy and sell many years back before ebay appeared kinda fun back then thought i would return and have go again in the comfort of my armchair but does not sound to promising.

Thanks for the feed back guys.

jay.
 
My mate trades on ebay, he drop ships 95% of his goods. Turnover currently around £500,000 with 10-15% profit. You can still make money.
 
I import stuff from China. About 200 of a given product at a time. Can give me a couple of grand profit a month in a good month. I go to the post office every couple of days with about 2-8 parcels.

The key for me was getting top seller status so I could use featured first. Then the sales took off.
 
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Spit said:
I import stuff from China. About 200 of a given product at a time. Can give me a couple of grand profit a month in a good month. I go to the post office every couple of days with about 2-8 parcels.
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That sounds ok is it a side line for you or proper job if so how do go about paying your tax and all the other crap are you classed as self-employed, sorry if it sounds like a silly question but i have no idea.

jay.
 
There's not much in it for anyone now. It has become buyer orientated and this in itself has just forced sellers to put their prices up. Bargains are few and far between. One major gripe, other than the fee's is the capping on postage fee's. Whilst these serve to prevent the ridiculous occasions where something that costs 99p was being charged 10 quid for postage, it penalises the genuine seller selling a blu-ray boxset for peanuts and even having to make a loss on the postage as well. Apparently this was in order for ebay to compete for sales with the likes of Amazon and Play etc. To quote someone else on here, some people are "not a shop" and are just trying to pass on something they no longer want and get a reasonable return on their item. I personally would rather keep my cd's etc rather than have to pay out of my own pocket more than I would be taking in total for the transaction minus the fees.
 
ebay and paypal are the same company! there are still bargains to be had but only on some things its always best to shop around
 
Yes it is sideline. I am self employed in my main job so its easy for me. I would just employ a bookkeeper once you have got going. Dont forget that any money you earn now the tax will not be payable until January 2012.
 
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