Do you miss the way ebay was in the beginning?

I couldn't agree with Neil more. Thats a perfect explantion of what is happening. It never occured to me that my dropshipper was competing against me. I was just wondering where the other people were finding the product cheaper. DUH!!! I bought wholesale for awhile (in person) and ended up stuck with a lot of stuff that didn't sell so I gave up.

No, not offended at all. I appreciate it. Thanks to both of you. The advice is appreciated and makes sense. A new way of thinking is always good, especially when the old one is not.

I hope that you don't take offence at this but I am getting Neil to write this for me. But here is what he said. There are 4 different parts of a business: finance, operations, management & marketing. Marketing is about the 4Ps: promotion, place, price & product. Price and product seemed to be the frustration for you - where did the other people find the product cheaper? That is a big question and you will need to find the answer, it may be they are selling at a loss or they are genuinely finding cheaper products. We mainly sell printing supplies inkjet and toner cartridges that are nearly the cheapest on the market these aren't the most high-class items but they pay the bills. How do we promote these we cold-call on businesses in our area and offer them the chance to compare prices, if they buy great if they don't no problems. We are not looking to capture 100% of the market, just .5 - 1% which is about $22 million in sales a year which will give us a fair income per year. People deal with people they don't buy solely on price, so you need to build relationships with people who are your customers whether they are on the internet or your next door neighbour. Melissa here again denise36, I hope I haven't offended you by getting Neil to answer your question, but I know Neil was in the same position and he spent a long time becoming frustrated and cranky. He said it was when he decided to focus on one part the whole thing became easier for us.

For craft items you can try etsy.com or zazzle.com I'm an amaeteur artist myself and am just starting to look into these. Good luck.

I am still pleased with ebay as a buyer because of the reasons I said above. Just selling that lost it's fun. I also find that a lot of items on there are stolen. Employees are using it like a store...listing itmes from where they work and then stealing the item from where they work. I had a case like this a few days ago with a guy doing that on craigslist too.