How do you make money on ebay?

[meme09]

I have seen some ads about making money on ebay using other companies merchandise. Can anyone tell me how i can learn to do this and if it's worth it

[bjl584]

You are about 7 years too late. You used to be able to make substantial money on Ebay, but it's not like it used to be. It's hard to do now.

[Jimhassel]

You have to have a product or products to sell on eBay. This means you need a source. Some people buy products wholesale and re-sell with a profit. You can also sell things from around your house that you no longer want.

[97guns]

best thing to sell on ebay is something that didn't cost you money to make, my mom sells plants from her backyard. they regrow themselves, her only expense is time and water, its pure profit

[disneysteve]

You are about 7 years too late.

best thing to sell on ebay is something that didn't cost you money

I think both comments are true. There was a long time - from 1995 until about 2005 - when ebay was a goldmine for sellers. You got cheap access to buyers around the world and could earn top dollar selling just about anything. I was an ebay seller during most of that period and I routinely resold items for 10-30 times what I had paid for them. My best sales went for 100 to as much as over 200 times what I paid.

Then the market died. Ebay raised their fees. Paypal became the preferred (and now essentially only) accepted form of payment and added another layer of fees (especially after ebay bought them). Postage rates gradually increased. The market got flooded because the system made it too easy for everybody to become a dealer (I was a dealer long before ebay came along). A limited edition item would come out with an edition size of 250 and the next day 245 of them would be on ebay. Nothing was rare any more. Nothing was hard to find any more. Between that, fees, and postage, it got harder and harder to sell anything at a profit - except stuff that cost you nothing in the first place. Even then, your profit got smaller than it used to be but if you are happy with what you're making, go for it.

As for buying stuff and reselling it, those days are pretty much over unless you've got a dirt cheap source of in-demand merchandise.

[disneysteve]

Ebay charges a minimal fee to place your ad on their site.

Actually, listing is now free for the first 50 items per month I think. Where ebay gets you is on the final value fee when your item sells. That's what they've steadily raised over the years.

[DinoSaur]

eBay changed their system to become a flea-market online. They want loads of products that aren't worth much that people can go back to time and again and routinely order.

If you were going to make money you need a large amount of investment capital, find a supplier who can scale with you and has a products that routinely sells, then set up a system to auto-post items when old ones are sold. Your business then pretty much becomes automated and you focus on the distribution.

[disneysteve]

eBay changed their system to become a flea-market online.

Yep. Ebay started out as an online flea market/garage sale. That's when it was great. When they moved away from that model is when things went downhill. They really changed to focus on professional retailers, not individuals.

[pennywise28]

Ya i noticed that. Ebay used to remind me of a garage sale online but now its more of an ecommerce site

[elfen lied]

I would check out the book Ebay Selling for Dummies. It's the most comprehensive guide I have seen. The power sellers get products wholesale from wholesale providers. I've never done anything on ebay other than sell old stuff but it can be done.

[disneysteve]

I would check out the book Ebay Selling for Dummies. It's the most comprehensive guide I have seen. The power sellers get products wholesale from wholesale providers. I've never done anything on ebay other than sell old stuff but it can be done.

This is true. The problem is that lots of other people are doing the exact same thing. I looked into this years ago. Every time I found a wholesaler with product that I thought looked promising, I did a quick ebay search and found dozens of others already selling identical items. It is exceedingly difficult to find a product line that the site isn't already flooded with that you can also get cheap enough to make a good profit and be worth your time.

[Copper]

There is way to share experiences and idea while the transaction. This is somehow advising people as I know.