Thread: questions about Ebay

I'm hoping fellow Ebayers can help me out...

I used to sell on Ebay consistently, but haven't done it in the past 3 years or so. I know a lot of things changed, and now when I searched for items, the look is completely different.

Do you think it's feesable to sell on Ebay? It used to be ok, but then they started to raise the commissions and that's when I left. I have no idea how the prices are right now.
When I used to sell, it was always a big dilemma in which category to post: women's clothing, or accessories, etc. Now I see they have even more categories, costuming, ethnic, etc. Does it make a difference? Do you have a preference? Is one better than the other?

I have a lot of things to sell, and I really, really need money, but if I posted all those items here, I know I would get in trouble. I could pay for a retail listing on Bhuz, but honestly I don't think they get that much exposure, so if I am paying, then might as well have a wide range of viewers.

any advice? I heard of Etsy, but I really don't know how it compares to Ebay. I don't like Amazon - I like to sell books there, but I think they charge way too much for commission on more expensive items.

thank you for any advice...

One big problem with Ebay these days is the sheer number of items posted. There is so much cheap stuff listed esp. by sellers in Asia that it is almost prohibitively time-consuming to sift through pages and pages of crappy hip scarf spam to find the few hidden treasures.

For buyers, Etsy can be a pain because their search function is badly designed and anything but user friendly.

it sounds like neither places are that great. What are my options then? should I try Amazon? I don't know which gets more exposure.
When I used to search for costumes on Ebay I would set it that it shows the highest first - this way I would see the costumes mostly, and some expensive / whole sale items here and there... but I don't know if others do the same thing...

If you do decide to sell on eBay, always ship with insurance. I sold a bunch of stuff this summer, and one buyer lied about not receiving the shipment and I got completely screwed over because the buyer is always right.

insurance is a good idea. I used to always ship like that, I didn't want to take chances with a hundreds of dollars worth of costume either getting lost, damaged or lied about.

I will go with Etsy but i might still sell some things on Ebay. I've spent most of the afternoon reading about Etsy and actually setting up a shop there. I like the look and the fact that the products are limited. I think it makes it unique. I will sell my hair flower things there, I just made a lot of unique ones, but i don't think I will stand a chance with people of Ebay selling things for $.99. At least on Etsy it seems like everything is quality product for appropriate prices.

But i think my costumes will go on Ebay.

Originally Posted by Marianna

But i think my costumes will go on Ebay.

You can still post a link to your costumes on eBay on bhuz so there will be more exposure and more bids from bhuzzers.

I'm another "used to sell a lot on eBay but haven't recently" guy...

I've heard that they now require sellers to accept PayPal?

Not here...

I actually liked Paypal, never had problems with it.
But if I remember correctly another issue with Ebay was the way feedback was given. I don't remember the details, but it was not favorable to sellers.
Like I said I will post costumes, and will still post them here, because I'm not a retailer - those are my costumes, that I made, used, and now they have to go. Ebay will give me more exposure.
But for my hair accessories, I feel that Etsy is the best thing. I think it's almost not worth to post items in the $20-50 range on Ebay, because someone will post similar items for $2. It's not fair. Etsy, on the other hand has great products without "undercutting".I linked my Etsy shop with Facebook, which made me create a separate page. It's a lot of work! There is so much to learn, but it will be worth it on the long run, I can also post everything I have for sale on that page.

Originally Posted by Marianna

I actually liked Paypal, never had problems with it.

I use PayPal to pay with CC. I'm a geek who WILL. NOT. have anything to do with online banking. I know too much. What does that have to do with PayPal? They insist on connecting with your bank account if you're going to accept payments - and try real hard to do so even to make payments - but it isn't a requirement - yet...

If I were a business, it would be little problem opening a bank account that was used only for PayPal - but as I'm not, I don't want the hassle. But I may eventually anyway if a viable alternative to PayPal doesn't come along - a dedicated account is the ONLY way I'd consider it.

But if I remember correctly another issue with Ebay was the way feedback was given. I don't remember the details, but it was not favorable to sellers.

I remember this - sellers cannot give negative feedback! I understand why eBay did this - but it was a WAAAAAY broken solution to a WAAAAY broken problem. Sellers used to hold buyers hostage - if a buyer gave negative feedback, the seller would retaliate with same. My perfect 100% positive score was ruined by an asshat like this who didn't deliver the goods despite multiple emails - blah blah - and gave me retaliatory feedback. This was just before the change.

The "real" way to do it is for both buyer and seller feedback to be "double blind". Neither can see the other's feedback until BOTH have posted same.