Looking for a trading assistant in Melbourne Victoria for assorted women’s and children’s products

[buyersbug56]

Looking for someone who is interested in selling many women clothing all in perfect or with tags condiction. I have two e AU stores and would like to downsize to one. Thanks 

[kopenhagen5]

eBay no longer promote trading assistants.

This is the new alternative - https://pages.ebay.com.au/ebay-valet/

[*tippy*toes*]

List them yourself. It's not hard. But, you need to know that clothing is a SATURATED category. Like, seriously saturated. Even more so than books (no offence to book sellers. I have bought quite a number of books off eBay).

[eol-products]

But on the plus side everyone needs clothing, well most of the time.

[chameleon54]

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@*tippy*toes* wrote:

List them yourself. It's not hard. But, you need to know that clothing is a SATURATED category. Like, seriously saturated. Even more so than books (no offence to book sellers. I have bought quite a number of books off eBay).

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There's books and then there's books. The secret with selling books ( as with everything else on ebay ) is to list the rare ones, vintage or limited print run and ones on unusual subjects. I,ve sold over $300 worth of books in the last 24 hours with two selling for over $100 each.

In fact books are some of the easiest money on ebay. Easy to source, easy to list, easy to store and easy to pack. Just stay away from the common stuff that everyone has, like fifty shades of whatever it is this week and Masterchef cookbooks. Like everything, do your homework, learn what buyers want and what they are willing to pay and find out where to source the rare stuff. 

The secret with selling books on ebay......Stear clear of the common stuff that fills the shelves in your local Vinnies or Salvo's store. Everyone has got it for sale and its just a race to the bottom on price and profit margins.

[davewil1964]

I don't necessarily agree with that.

Common mass market paperbacks can still realise a profit, albeit small, and they keep the volumes ticking along. Which can help visibility.

[love_of_cars]

At chameleon54, how do you go with shipping costs?  Are people happy to pay for shipment larger and heavy books if it's rare?  Or do you get requests for alternative, cheaper shipping?

[chameleon54]

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@davewil1964 wrote:

I don't necessarily agree with that.

Common mass market paperbacks can still realise a profit, albeit small, and they keep the volumes ticking along. Which can help visibility.

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Fair enough. I sell cheaper books as well as the more expensive ones and call them cannon fodder. ( still obscure stuff though ) I buy them in bulk, dont waste much time on listing them and just push them through as quickly as possible. As you note though, the profit margins are much smaller which has a huge impact on one of the most important metrics in ebay selling. Dollars per hour.

Once I add up all of the time I spend sourcing stock, listing, answering questions, meeting changes in ebay policy,  packing and mailing I earn an average of $35 per hour. ( for EVERY hour I spend on ebay ) I need to earn this much to make ebay competitive with other ways I could be spending my time. If I cant make $35 an hour on ebay, there are plenty of other ways I can do it. I couldn't possibly make $35 per hour only selling cheaper books. I need the regular hits of $100 plus items to boost the bottom line. 

Everyone to their own......If people don't value their time and are only selling on ebay to make a few extra dollars and have a bit of fun, ( and there's nothing wrong with that )  the cheap books are a very good way to achieve reliable small profits on minimal outlay.

[chameleon54]

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@love_of_cars wrote:

At chameleon54, how do you go with shipping costs?  Are people happy to pay for shipment larger and heavy books if it's rare?  Or do you get requests for alternative, cheaper shipping?

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Generally it doesnt cost any more to ship an expensive book, rather than a cheap one. It isnt size that makes a book rare. It is the content, print run, collectability and condition. The only exception really is when they sell internationally and need to be sent with tracking. If its rare, the buyer will pay whatever it costs. They dont seem to care.

Basically I dont get any complaints about shipping costs, but my stars for shipping hover between 4.5 and 5. ( more often at 4.5 than 5 )

The other really interesting thing is that when I was selling near identical items, with identical postage costs on a private non store account and a larger 1500 + listing, 6000 + feedback store at the same time, the private account would regularly have 5 full stars for shipping costs, while the larger, more established store would be at 4.5 more of the time. Buyers seem to expect cheaper shipping from larger stores.