Dear eBay

[lulicool]

Read on boys and girls...I have a secret to share 😉

2 years ago my little ole eBay store was averaging sales of $1000 PLUS per WEEK!!!! Yes, that's right!!! PER WEEK!!!!  Seems people really like the kooky kitschy stuff I sell!  Now I'm lucky to scrape together  50 - 100 bucks.

I started up a fan page on Facebook and have slowly built that up to around 12000 fans 

Anyway, the point of sharing this with you all is to let you know that for now at least (until FB find a way to jump on the bandwagon of fleecing it's members and getting a piece of the pie) THIS is how I have gradually clawed my way back from the brink of disaster lol.

For example, I held a handbag clearance sale on there the other week - sold over $1000 of product in a couple of hours...NO FEES other than Paypal (if my customer's chose to pay that way)

I'll be holding a 99c auction there next week - pop by and check it out to see how well it goes 🙂

Interacting with your customers on FB is a great way to build up rapport and customer loyalty and keep 'em coming back for more as they can actually become FRIENDS in many cases.

I have only kept my eBay store going as a means of getting new customers and then redirecting them to my Facebook page which seems to be working but I'm thinking of shutting up shop here as it's just becoming too darn expensive.

Anyhoo, just thought I'd share my story in case it may help 1 or 2 of you here - PEACE LOVE AND MUNG BEANS PEOPLE  

PS : I'm taking bets on how long before eBay take this down...what do you reckon???

[craycrayshoelady]

Just wondering how you grew a fan base on FB? I haven't had a FB account for some time due to privacy concerns but would love to hear how you made it work for you 🙂

[lulicool]

Hey there lady with the pretty hair 🙂

There are networking groups on FB where you join up and everyone shares and likes each others pages. I also hold referral comps on my page where I invite people to refer their  friends to our page. I also email my buyers on eBay telling them about my FB page offering them free postage and such on their first purchase at one of our FB sales or auctions. There are many ways to build up your your customer base, but these have been the most popular for me 🙂

[revampz]

I know a girl who use to sell vintage stuff on here, she started a page on facebook, and then got into the vintage network pages and got tons of likes through there and of course likes from friends and friends of friends....I am in north queensland............her and her husband now do it as a permanent business, they have two vans with their business name on the side of the van, and they continually travel up and down north queensland "picking" and  then on selling it on to facebook and through email outs to their loyal customers......the business side, ie paying etc is done through their facebook page.

Selling on facebook is massive here in Townsville, we have about 50 local selling pages, my husband and I have had to stop ourselves buying stuff from there as we really were out of control with what we were buying...he has bought for instance 5 guitars in two months!!!  no joke, he just says they were too good a deal not to buy....

I think facebook will jump on the bandwagon there as well eventually.   Saying that it does have its problems as well, such as no shows, and I have seen some shocking fighting on there over items.........a few things need to be ironed out, but it really is a force to be reckoned with at the moment, and not only for ebay but we have noticed garage sales have rapidly decreased in number as more people are holding online garage sales......and I am wondering how actual retail shops are doing as well as so many people are asking for what they want straight out on facebook, and if someone has it, they buy it straight from them, no middle man involved.

[lulicool]

YES! There are FB business / selling / garage sale / community buy swap and sell pages popping up eveywhere! 

I know that a lot of the charity / op shops are feeling it as people are no longer donating when it is so much easier to sell on FB - no need to post items as people come and collect themselves and obviously the big winner is it doesn't cost a cent!!

eBay need to be careful with this incessant hiking up of fees - pretty soon there won't be all that many people left on here to charge!

And as for good ole Oz Post and their prices...Don't get me started!!!!

[ytwo000]

LOLOLOL....most likely to take it down alright as one of ebays employees has posted stating they read all the posts people wrote in regarding fvf on postage....and they say ebay dont read discussion boards lolol.

[5kazam]

Always knew the mods did read the posts.  Otherwise there wouldn't be X amount of posts removed for a variety of reasons.  

What a boring job, just sitting there and reading posts by eBay members....!!!   If I said to anyone I was doing that for a living, I'm sure I would be quickly told to 'go get a life'.

[davewil1964]

The issue for me with FB is postage. Or lack thereof.

I sell used books. I am in Canberra. There are a lot of bookshops. Very few of my eBay sales are to Canberra, even though I allow pickup.

[springyzone]

I would love to know what has been moderated out of the post, but even with what has been left, I can get the idea and it is very interesting.

I have been toying with the idea of selling a little bit on ebay, but because it was about a decade or so ago when I last did, things on ebay have changed and I have been trying to get a feel for how things operate now for a small casual seller.

All the extra fees now for ebay and paypal, plus the need to send everything with more expensive tracking means it is now worthwhile looking at alternative selling sites. I have done a cut and paste of your ideas. Thanks.

[lulicool]

Dave have a look around FB for some local ACT Buy Swap Sell pages. That way it's really only locals selling and buying.
I recently happened across an Op Shop in Sydney selling book 3 for $1 and kids books 6 for $1!!! Man I wish I'd had a trailer with me! I bought a heap then came home, took pics and popped them on my local BSS page for $4 - $5 ea and CLEANED UP!!!!

Until FB decide to scrap these type of Garage Sale pages that'sthe way to go.