Technically I’ve been “invoiced” for the thing. But the listing fees have the appropriate credit next to the fee. The final selling fees, though, have not been credited on the invoice and my bill is huge. I’m sure it will be taken care of, but I can’t use their steps because the item # no longer exists. And to email them I have to go through that whole category thing befor I ever type my comment to them. And I can never find my problem on their list. It would be great if they just had a flashing easy button that said “Email eBay Staff”, but they dont .
Though simple, that’s pretty much the right answer.
I’m kinda spoiled because the last online selling I used to do was on a gun selling site. And I had so much rare HK stuff that I could charge anything I wanted and people would pay it without thinking twice. I used to get a kick out of seeing how much people would be willing to pay for shit. And if it says “HK” on it, the answer is A LOT!
But I dont seem to have anything that people want to buy now. Hell, if the stuff was worth having I wouldn’t be selling it. I was grabbing some shit around the house that I never use. But I guess I think it should be worth more than people are willing to pay because no one was biting.
That’s pretty much the just of it, I’d say.
Has anyone actually been able to make a living off of selling on ebay? I’ve known at least half a dozen people since ebay became popular give the whole “I am so going to get rich off of selling stuff on ebay, I’m going to make it my full time job!” All of them are still working their day jobs and haven’t made one peep about ebay.
My fiancee’s psycho ex who can’t hold down a job for more than 3 months has now announced she’s going to be selling things on ebay to make a living. Big suprise, she and her daughter will be moving at the end of this month because they can no longer afford their hole in the wall apartment.
There was even a store downtown where I live that was a “we’ll sell your stuff on ebay” kind of racket. Big suprise again, it went out of business a couple months later.
So, out of genuine curiosity, any dopers here actually been successful enough at selling on ebay to make a living off of it? Or is it more akin to trying to make a living off of having garage sales every weekend? I’m not saying this was what the OP was trying to do, the thread topic just got me thinking.
Is that safe? That site seems like an easy way for a person to collect a shit load of eBay user names and passwords.
Just chiming in to say that if eBay had developed a way to make fraud dispute a pleasant experience, they would already have a business unit selling that solution to the world. They haven’t, so they aren’t, and no one else has either.
Bear_Nenno have you found a link to “Live Chat” on eBay? It might get you farther faster than just email.
My account was hacked last week. The hack-er did a bad job of whatever he was trying to do - listed 35 DVD boxed sets under my account which produced 35 “listing confirmation” emails to me which then let me easily take care of it with eBay. I don’t know what dude was trying to accomplish since he didn’t change my email or password, and if the sales would have gone through he wouldn’t have gotten any money.
Anyway, the fake listings started at 7:45 PM, I contacted them via live chat (you DO have to hunt for it) and the $105 in fees I’d had were gone by 11 PM.
Seems like live chat gets things done. You just have to be patient and wait in the queue (took 30 mins for me to get myself a rep to chat with).
The biggest problem I have seen is people thing its a turn key business. Sure its fairly simple to set up the accounts the problem is they don’t know what they are selling. Picking a niche market and playing with what you know is generally the way to go. In addition, its work. Many people think they can just sell 3-5 $500 items a day and pocket $200 a day without worrying about cash flow and having $5000 in product floating in auctions or items not selling.
I have met 2 people who make a living on ebay, one sells pirated CD’s and DVD’s, the other buys stuff from computer wholesalers and runs an ebay store and making about $3-5 per transaction. Neither on of them makes much money at it but enough to keep them going. Over time almost any business can make money, its just a matter of scale.
People don’t realize the overhead involved in any business and the time it takes to make it happen.
Yes, there is that risk - you are trusting a third party with your eBay password. You need to make sure the company is legitimate and reliable.
I don’t know anything about cniper, but I’ve been using bidnapper.com for a while and it’s worked well for me.
In my area, craigslist is a boon for buyers and a massive pain in the ass for sellers.
I have been able to get great deals on stuff listed weeks or even months earlier, because the ads seem mostly to attract scammers and “no shows.” I check on a listing and the seller is more than happy to get a real buyer, and often willing to cut a deal.
I’d have to work a hell of a lot harder at it to make a living. Doing it part time, selling collectibles and odds and ends I find at rummage sales etc. I make a few grand a year. I would hate to have to rely on it to pay the bills, but it does supply me with “fun money” and enough for a decent vacation once a year.
Add me to the list of people who had their account hacked, too. It happened to me in November 2006 - even with eBay’s help, it took me a couple months to recover, and I ended up with a negative from some moron who bid on one of the items and refused to believe that I wasn’t really the guy selling it.
My best friend makes makes a living selling on eBay. She has specialized software and generally has a thousand auction up and any given time. It is a lot of work. Right now she has 1 full time person and 3 part time people working for her.She buys mostly at conventions and sells on eBay. The profit margins on the product she deals in is very good.
So, yes it is possible to make a living selling things on ebay. It isn’t any easier then getting a regular job though.
Making money on E-bay is soooooooooo simple. Here’s all you have to do:
- Steal underwear
- ???
- Profit!
:D:D:D
Sniping is a good idea, but it doesn’t prevent shill bidding. If there are multiple bidders, the shill may have already artificially driven up the price before you even place yours. Or, if they’re doing the second-chance offer scam, the shill will bid way over what the item is worth in order to discover your maximum bid. The shill wins the auction, then the seller emails you, claiming that the winner (who’s actually the shill) “backed out”, and gives you a second-chance offer to buy the item, now at your maximum bid price.
So let’s say the item was at $50 and you put in a $100 maximum bid. The shill bids it up past $100, then “backs out” after the auction ends, and you get a second-chance offer for $100. But without the shill, you would have won it for $51!
Here’s a randomly selected auction - look at the bidding history:
http://offer.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewBids&item=230108357198
No user i.d.'s - they are assigned anonymous numbers. No way to contact the bidders. No way to search the bidders histories. They do offer a “summary” of the bidders history, but it’s rather limited.
I think this only occurs over a certain price, so if you only deal in low-priced items, you may never have come across this.
Maybe that’s only on higher priced items? Here’s an example of one and another, also picked at random. If so, that’s why I wouldn’t know or have seen it as a practice… I stick to the cheap stuff. 
That’s why I said: “I think this only occurs over a certain price”.
The seller always has the ability to view the identity of the bidders.
I have sold quite a few items on ebay. I check the feedback on my bidders to see if anything odd pops up. For instance, if all they ever previously bought on ebay were scrapbooking supplies under $10 or whatnot and now they are bidding like crazy on electronics, that sends up a red flag.
Same thing when I buy. If all someone ever sold was trinkets, and now they have 5 souped-up laptop auctions with generic or manufacturer photos, I’m not touching it.
lezlers, I have two friends who makes their living entirely off of their ebay sales. For one, it is a full-time job to scout for items, list, ship and everything in between. He got into it slowly, with a lot of hits and misses. It takes a while to get a feel for what sells well, and it’s not like you are the only person trying to spot a trend. He ended up with loads of stuff that didn’t move. The other has her own unique product line that could best be described as pin-up goth girl kitsch. She makes most of the items herself and has a steady returning client base. Both put a lot of time and effort into what they do, and neither were instant successes.
Oh, sorry. My brain completely burped over that. :smack:
Yes, but buyers used to have that ability as well. Now they don’t.
I don’t know if I’m not explaining this well or what. There are two problems with the new system:
-
Let’s say I want to bid on an item. I see that “bidder3” has bid several times. I want to check out bidder3 to see if he’s a shill - Can’t do it because he’s anymous. I can see how many times he bid on the sellers’ items in the last 30 days, which is helpful, but sellers who use shills are usually a little more savvy than to make it that obvious. Used to be you could look up the bidders whole history and feedback record. Now you just get a little pop-up anonymous summary.
-
Let’s say someone’s selling an item and I happen to have information that the seller is misrepresenting something. Used to be I could email other bidders and warn them before they paid for the item. Now I can’t do that, and they can’t do it for me.
There used to be more transparency about the process. I don’t like this idea of bidding against other anonymous bidders. Makes it too easy for sellers to get away with cheating.
It’s been around for at least a few years. So they are either gathering up a massive list with a view to a gigantic sting, or they’re legit.
eBay has worked pretty well for me - just pocket money, mind - I’d hate to have to try using it to make a living.
Some things that worked for me:
-Find something you can make or collect for next to nothing and sell for more or less pure profit. OK, sounds obvious, but there are still ways to do this that are underexploited.
-When you sell an item that you have more of (or can make or collect more of), include a little slip of paper in the parcel, thanking the buyer for their custom and advertising your own website, where they can buy more items without going through eBay - this isn’t (AFAIK) against the ebay rules, but you need to be subtle in case some ass accuses you of fee circumvention or some such.
-Find a category of items where sniping isn’t the only thing that happens to conventional auction listings - there are still categories where bidding wars are the norm (and as a seller, there’s nothing more heartwarming to watch)