Does anyone sell on Ebay?

United States
June 21, 2012 10:03pm CST
I've been trying to sell on ebay. It's not going so well. One of the items is sunglasses. They are brand new and I get them from a company who only sells to retail stores and people who have a tax permit. They have UV protection and will float in water which is a good feature when fishing, boating, etc. I even priced them $10 lower than the other listings of the same sunglasses. Another item that I listed is a hands free light from the same company. I don't know why they aren't selling. They are perfect for this time of year. Any suggestions or advice would be appreciated. Sunglasses - http://www.ebay.com/itm/110888407260?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1558.l2649#ht_500wt_913 Heads up hands free light - http://www.ebay.com/itm/110888424355?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1558.l2649#ht_500wt_913
1 person likes this
10 responses
• Liechtenstein
22 Jun 12
I don't know. Maybe it has something to do with Ebay policies scaring the buyers and sellers away. Someone in the Ebay forums said the traffic drop to 5o percent and that happens few years ago. Who knows they might even drop further. When I go to Ebay to browse the items, I saw most cheap items don't even have bids eventhough they listed 1 cent for the auctions and those auctions are going to end. Maybe the item you're selling doesn't interest the buyers. I'm might sell stuff in Ebay as well but seeing the traffic, I refrain from doing so.
1 person likes this
• United States
22 Jun 12
Really? Maybe I should read the Ebay policies. I read the instructions for listing items but I'm probably not selling the right items.
• Liechtenstein
23 Jun 12
No need to read it. I'll tell you about it The most hated thing for sellers is that Paypal has 21 days hold policy on your money when you sell in Ebay. So you have to ship the item and provide the tracking number to release the hold or the buyers have to leave a feedback for you to release it. The payment can reverse anytime if the buyer is not happy or they simply want to screw you. Ebay or Paypal isn't really helpful if you are screwed. You can't leave negative feedback for buyers but they can leave bad feedback for you. For the buyers, certain sellers are protected by Ebay for some unknown reasons and sometimes the Paypal buyer policies will not help the buyer. Did I mention Ebay owns Paypal?
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• Liechtenstein
23 Jun 12
I forgot to add the high fees as well that scares the sellers away and they took their buyers with them to another online store. Ebay even charged fees for shipping charges so you'll be force to give free shipping.This happens because some sellers sell their items extremely cheap but knowing buyers don't see the shipping charges they simply jacked up the prices. If the shipping is like $2 they seller charge $9. Most buyers left at Ebay were people who want good items for extremely low. I seen your item pricing. The buyers at Ebay probably bid at auction items priced at 99 cents. And they'll even bid the last minute as well so you won't get much.
1 person likes this
• United States
23 Jun 12
When I was selling on Ebay I had a hard time at first, since there were a lot of the same type of items. If you can afford too offer a reduced price on shipping or have a buy out option. I found that the ones that did not have the buy out option did not do that well. A lot of things have changed on Ebay in the last few years and people are not really buying on the site anymore. Also try to make sure that your description is as informative as possible and try to offer multiple pictures of each item. That's hat helped me in selling most of my items. I stopped though because I found other sites to sell on, but most of my items were home made and there are a lot of sites that are geared towards home made items.
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• United States
25 Jun 12
I don't know what the 'buy out' option is. I'll have to look that up. Are you selling on Etsy and Pinterest? They have lots of home made items.
• United States
25 Jun 12
A lot of times when you put something up for auction you can also make it to where they can also buy the item for a set amount. If you put something up for auction and you know you will take 20.00 for the option you can let them either auction the item in hopes of getting it for less than 20.00, but there are some who do not want to wait the set amount of days for the auction and want to pay the 20.00. I used to see on Etsy, because my mother-in-law sold stuff on there. I just did not get that much traffic for the items that I had. I have had more success on a site called storenvy.
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@owstalaga (4707)
• Philippines
17 Jul 12
Well for new sellers it is indeed kind of hard especially if we don't have a high feedback score yet as a seller. Sometimes established buyers don't purchase from new sellers because we don't know what we're doing yet. I've only sold a few items on there and i don't think i'd be a power seller soon. I guess if you have a lot of competition or if there aren't many people looking for the item you're selling of course you won't be able to sell much. Also if your title does not include any strong keywords buyers use it can lead to it not being searchable much. For the basics of selling in eBay it would be best to read articles on selling there first before listing any items just so we don't get frustrated when we find out about stuff after we sold an item. Here's an article i believe will help people who are planning to sell in eBay for the first time: http://computersight.com/software/basics-of-selling-in-ebay-com-for-new-sellers-read-this-to-avoid-potential-frustrations-from-not-knowing-what-you-are-getting-into/
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• United States
22 Jul 12
owstalaga - I downloaded the letter. thanks for the tip!
@mervyn07 (437)
• Singapore
22 Jun 12
i feel like selling on ebay is very slow. I will suggest for you to sell in forums, especially in focused forums. I have tested and result is very positive.
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• United States
23 Jun 12
Good advice! I will try that.
@mrfdg1972 (3237)
• Philippines
22 Jun 12
One time i tried to sell an Antique from our very house, i did get queries but those were just additional infos, the problem though is i was selling worlwide, then i prompted to local ebay and got the sale.
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• United States
23 Jun 12
Prompted to local ebay? I'll try to find that and use it. Thanks
• India
23 Jun 12
I have not yet sold anything in ebay . Actually how does it work? Do we need to make any invest for it? And also please explain me the requirements for it?
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• United States
25 Jun 12
You need a paypal account, and you probably already have one since your on mylot.com Here's the link to set up an Ebay account: http://pages.ebay.com/sellerinformation/index.html
@cher913 (25782)
• Canada
22 Jun 12
it is hard to say what sells and what doesn't. buyers are a very fickle bunch.
1 person likes this
7 Aug 12
You have zero feedback, which a lot of buyers find off-putting - it makes you look like a fly-by-night merchant with no history. You can fix this by making a few cheap purchases to get positive feedback - getting into double figures will do. Also I'd use a bigger font in the listing, and use positive words to emphasise the advantages of the glasses. Also, why do you only ship within the US? You're potentially losing a big market there.
• Canada
22 Jun 12
I used to sell stuff on ebay but I got out about 5 years ago. Sometimes selling on ebay is a good way to lose money. Buyers go to ebay to buy bargains. The reason your items are not selling is your zero feedback. Trust is hard to earn. You should build up your feedback first by selling lower priced items or buy a few things just to get more feedback.
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• United States
23 Jun 12
I wondered if they weren't selling because I'm just starting and have no feedback. I thought about selling lower priced items but didn't want the shipping to cost near the amount of the item. Thanks for your suggestions!
• United States
22 Jun 12
I have tried my hand at Ebay a little. I will look at garage sales and thrift shops for good items I can resell, usually collectibles and post them online. If it's something somewhat valuable or rare or collectible, the bidding can be decent. The Ebay fees have gotten low so that's not an issue, however the cost of shipping can be very high, and many customers don't want to pay it.
• United States
23 Jun 12
Buying items from garage sales and thrift stores to resell is a good idea!