Is it possible to make atleast $700 a week selling on eBay?

[she_said_yes_jewellery]

Hi,

I have sold on eBay before as a hobby & just to get rid of a few things.

My question is, to all you professional sellers out there, is it really possible to make eBay your full-time job and earn at least $700 a week?

I'm willing to put the work in and go through all the right channels (registering as a business, paying tax on my income etc), and am thinking of either selling jewellery or clothes & shoes - maybe a bit of all three.

I work a 38 hour a week job and make $650 after tax. I'm just wondering if I couldn't put in the same hours and earn around the same amount WITHOUT my crappy boss & useless workmates.

I'm willing to invest around $3000 on stock.

Also, to make $700 a week, I will need to list A LOT of items in one week, right? I've had marginal success selling on eBay before, but never had enough items to make a decent profit. (I think my best week was $200 profit on around 25 items).

Last question, with eBay selling fees being so high (& will probably go higher), is it worth it?

Successful sellers, please be kind enough to share your thoughts.

[chixfashionz]

You need to sit down and do come calculations on your margins, how many products you have to list and also factor in 10-12% per month for FeeBay and PayPal fees.

If you need $700 per week, then once you factor in profit margins and fees you might find you need to sell $6,000, $8,000 or even $10,000 every month!!! It depends on your margins and what you can achieve. Every store is different.

What store sellers are fighting at the moment is Best Match. eBay keep changing the rules and it is exhausting trying to keep up a fair fight. I used to have 2,200 listings and turn over anywhere from $1,800 to $3,000 in gross sales per week. Now I'm lucky if I get a third of that and I'm down to about 500 items listed.

For a while I had an anchored store and did very well. Then eBay fuddled Best Match, sales disappeared and I was forced financially to go back to a Featured Store. You cannot rely on eBay. If you have a secure job - even part-time, KEEP IT!!!

[licoricebabyandfabmama]

Oh yes   Best Match   is screwing me royally right now.    Even though I would like to think my competion has earned the right to take up the first 3 pages of listings,   I think if the average buyer is doing a search and scrolling through the first few pages and only seeing one seller there they just assume thats the best deal and take it,   Its only a few who want to save a buck and do the lowest price search who find me at this rate.    Oh well.

Oh and not to mention when I am browsing for items to buy,  I have to scroll through the same seller selling the same thing over and over and sometimes I have to look really hard to find that different seller with what I want.      Yea new sellers would have much more faith in Ebay if their listings were given a chance,  they would be more inclined to open a store quicker and you would think that would make Ebay more money.    I wont be opening a store at this rates for what feels like many months to come.

[macdade]

You can but its very draining . keep your day job .the paypal boss is impossible to get hold of .let alone have a respectfull conversation with. its all animated.

[lyndal1838]

What has the boss of paypal got to do with how much you can earn on ebay?  And surely you do not expect to speak to the boss of a huge company like paypal?  That is like wanting to speak to the Prime Minister when you want to deal with a government department.

I presume you mean you get AUTOMATED replies, not animated.

[appletreeaaa]

It is very hard if you buy at normal wholesale prices and sell at normal retail prices unless the product is unique and the competition is low .

If you can buy at low prices and sell at low prices with a good profit margin there is a chance .

If you can find good quality saleable liquidation stock selling well under wholesale prices that can be sold around normal wholesale prices then there is a good chance  .

The biggest volume sellers on ebay are books with some sellers selling about 5,000 to nearly 10,000 books a month but to sell that amount you need about 500, 000 to nearly a million in the listings and you would need a team of workkers and they need to be sent from England because Australia Post is too expensive to be competitive

The other option is too find scarce collectables that are in demand , buying and selling rare items can be very profitable but it needs lots of knowledge or selling unusual home furniture or used shop fittings and equipment can be profitable because you wouldn't need too many sales a week to get to the $700 a week profit .

If you are operating from home  ,quality and not quantity is better because storage can be a problem and dead stock can be a problem if you buy the wrong items .

[austeam]

Hi,

I have sold on eBay before as a hobby & just to get rid of a few things.

My question is, to all you professional sellers out there, is it really possible to make eBay your full-time job and earn at least $700 a week?

I'm willing to put the work in and go through all the right channels (registering as a business, paying tax on my income etc), and am thinking of either selling jewellery or clothes & shoes - maybe a bit of all three.

I work a 38 hour a week job and make $650 after tax. I'm just wondering if I couldn't put in the same hours and earn around the same amount WITHOUT my crappy boss & useless workmates.

I'm willing to invest around $3000 on stock.

Also, to make $700 a week, I will need to list A LOT of items in one week, right? I've had marginal success selling on eBay before, but never had enough items to make a decent profit. (I think my best week was $200 profit on around 25 items).

Last question, with eBay selling fees being so high (& will probably go higher), is it worth it?

Successful sellers, please be kind enough to share your thoughts.

eBay sent me a survey last week that asked the question on a scale of 1 to 10 would I recommend selling on eBay to a friend and my answer was 5.

I was then asked to explain why.

eBay has made some very serious changes over the last 6yrs and they made no secret of were they are headed. The ideal situation is for the manufacturer to sell direct to the buyer, cutting out importers/ distributers and selling at heavily discounted prices with free shipping and a no questions asked returns policy.  I don't have many friends who are in a position to offer that kind of service.

I'm an eBay seller who switched to retail and found a service to offer that would encourage our customers to purchase their items from us (we sell and service commrcial coffee equipment).  We know exactly what it would take to go back to being a large seller on eBay, but no sooner would we become the top seller when someone will see what we are doing, copy it and undercut us on price until we give up.  We have no desire to waste our time playing those games. 

It doesn't matter whether you want to sell on eBay, or on your own website, or in a retail store, or a combination of all .... you need to have an attractive point of difference for the buyer to chose you.  You also need to have the finance to back you up when sales are slow, and you need to be prepared to roll with the punches and make changes to keep up with the ever changing market. 

[kustomizer99]

Sometimes I wonder what the point of eBay is at all.

By which I mean, what's stopping people from just going to their local Chinese Hot Dollar store and buying from them directly?

[aussieclassics]

For the first 5 years of selling on EBay,   making a $1000 a week was easy,   with very little effort.  Then Best Match literally destroyed my little business overnight.

After 2 years of  rebuilding and re-inventing my listings,  things now are a lot better.    EBay has made things near impossible with all their constant meddling,  You think you have it right and then they come along and stuff it up.

I now have more than 5 times the listings.  and would be lucky to average $700 a week over the year.

The good times have long since past.   But it is still possible.

I only wish I had my new listings 5-6 year ago.   I would have made a decent living.  

The best way to success is to find unique products,  I wouldn't like to compete with general items,  too much competition.

[davewil1964]

Very helpful.

A lot has changed in the last FIVE years, so bumping this zombie thread was inadvisable. Even if you had anything relevant to post. Or anything to post.