on 01-11-2019 12:45 AM
I'm new to eBay and plan to open an eBay store. First I'm starting as a Basic Store.
When linking the eBay account, should I create a Paypal Business account or can I use my existing Paypal personal account to receive payments for my sales from eBay?
Does eBay transfer the money to Personal Paypal accounts if seller is a business account?
(I'm in Australia)
Solved! Go to Solution.
on 08-11-2019 12:09 PM
@prime.gadgets wrote:Hi. Many thanks for your reply. As you guys suggested, I'm currently living on hell as an eBay seller.
I have followed all the advises here and now no more going to open a business account for eBay.
1) I have list two items for lower prices just to sell a few items and see how things go. Just to try the selling and shipping procedure. I know I'm gonna make some loss. But I thought it is worth getting the experience.
2) I thought selling a few items for lower costs might get me some feedback. Can you suggest any other way to receive some feedback? As a buyer I was always checking the seller feedback level, so no one would buy from me unless I have some.
3) Is there any eBay policy about listing items below the cost?
4) Can someone suggest me how to use photos? Is it ok to use the Alibaba seller supplied photos if they do not have watermarks?
I don’t like repeatedly posting what might be seen as bad news, but I need to be honest.
Phone cases/covers are a saturated market on eBay. When I looked the other day there were 35 million listings in search results worldwide, and over 7 million in an ‘Australia only’ search.
The advice that has been given a number of times is to sell things from around your house. I suggested children’s toys. Do you have any LEGO in your house? There have been other suggestions and I don’t feel like rehashing them again (not even sure why I am replying now!!!)
Your strategy of listing knowing you will make a loss might work against you. Some buyers, like many on these boards, will quickly recognise that you will be losing money on those listings. Some might not be comfortable buying from you knowing that you will make a loss while others might think it is a small-time scam.
Selling on eBay can be hard work, and I am not just talking about the physical side of selling.
on 08-11-2019 01:13 PM
You have a feedback score of 92. Majority of buyers will see that and that is good enough for them, especially if it says 100% positive. Most will only go looking if you are less than 100%.
Put your prices up and don't go into debt for no reason. If you want to offer free postage, that's fine, but you need to incorporate that cost into the purchase price. Someone has to pay for it, and that someone is you. You also have to consider packaging costs too, whether it be boxes or padded bags.
Unfortunately, you probably won't do well with phone cases, for the reasons already mentioned. You also have to consider that phones are being updated all the time, so if you've bought 10,000 phone cases for the latest iPhone, they are going to be worthless in 2 years and you could be stuck with all this product you can't sell.
Unless you have outlaid a bucket load of money already, ditch the idea of phone cases. It is even more saturated than pre loved women's clothing, and believe me, that's saturated. If you sell in a saturated market, you are going to be very disappointed.
And get rid of the stolen photos. You're just telling potential buyers where they can go to get the items for the same cost as you. Take your own photos so buyers know what they are getting.
01-11-2019 12:54 AM - edited 01-11-2019 12:58 AM
if you are new to eBay then you should not be thinking about opening a store as you will have selling limits as a new seller. These limits will prevent you from taking full advantage of the benefits afforded store holders.
My advice, for what it is worth, is start selling now! Don’t try to start big, start small.
Do as you have been advised on your other thread and sell a few things from around your house. It might be old kids toys or some collectables you have saved . . . but get your selling credentials up to scratch before opening a store. Go to the Post Office and get hold of some of the Aussie Coin Hunt $1 coins for $1 each and sell them on eBay for $2 with free postage. You could quickly get 20 feedback doing that.
A few questions for you:
- are you aware of what the selling limits are for new sellers?
- do you know about the 21 day hold on funds?
- do you know how long buyers have to make a PayPal Claim?
- do you know the $ value monthly limit for new sellers?
- have you read books by Matt and Amanda?
- do the letters MBG mean anything to you?
While you might think I am being negative about you setting up to sell on eBay I AM NOT. My posts are designed to get you shop ready. If you can’t correctly answer ALL the questions I have asked then you are not shop ready.
01-11-2019 12:56 AM - edited 01-11-2019 12:57 AM
Firstly forget about opening a store until you are able to list well over 100 items with a good sell-through rate. You are limited as a new seller on the amount of listings you can have and a price amount. Read up in the link below on starting selling on eBay.
https://www.ebay.com.au/help/selling/selling/start-selling-ebay?id=4081
Edit. Beat me to it SLR.............
on 01-11-2019 07:22 AM
@nirman84, in addition to the excellent advice given in this thread, I should add that you do not want your PayPal account to be a business account... Your best option is probably to open a personal account, and upgrade to premier. This will allow you to accept payments as a seller.
on 01-11-2019 09:07 AM
on 01-11-2019 11:02 AM
@prime.gadgets wrote:
I'm new to eBay and plan to open an eBay store. First I'm starting as a Basic Store.
just thought I would ask another question . . . one I am sure others will want an answer to as well. Here goes:
Q) What items are you looking to sell in a store?
Your answer will determine how useful the replies you receive here are.
If you are wanting to keep this information secret then maybe you could send me a Personal Message with the answer. I promise I won’t tell others if you are wanting to keep that information to yourself. Let me know if you don’t know how to send a Personal Message.
on 01-11-2019 12:11 PM
Who are Matt and Amanda?
(The rest of your questions are spot on).
01-11-2019 12:33 PM - edited 01-11-2019 12:37 PM
they are a couple who made big on eBay in the early days. They moved into promoting their “system” and selling seats at seminars. Their system relied on dropshipping. They spruiked that you could wake up and spend 30 minutes processing overnight orders and rake in the money while doing nothing for the rest of the day.
Big on promises, big on promoting the “dream”, big on gathering unhappy (seminar) customers!
Every now and then a poster will come to the boards ‘dreaming’ of making it big. Maybe they read up on eBay from a ‘spruiker’ but don’t realise that selling on eBay can be hard work for someone who is just starting out.
My guess is that many of these members find a product that they like and think that because they like it others will too. Someone might buy a phone cover for cheap from China and then think they can buy 1000 of them from Alibaba and sell them for twice what they paid.
Instead of crafting out a niche market that is sustainable they fall for the trap of overstocking on items that people lose interest in . . . like fidget spinners . . . and end up with container fulls of stock that simply won’t move. They can’t compete with Chinese sellers of the same or similar products (mainly through being uncompetitive dispute to shipping costs).
01-11-2019 12:40 PM - edited 01-11-2019 12:41 PM
(ran out of time to edit)
mainly through being uncompetitive dispute to shipping costs
should have been
mainly through being uncompetitive due to shipping costs
on 06-11-2019 03:44 PM
Hi. Thanks for the reply. I plan to sell small items like phone cases and accessories. I feel selling as a mature personal seller might not attract the customers. So thought of paying for a store even though I have to pay the monthly fee by my hand for a few months.
Since I do not have a selling history, I thought opening a store might give a competitive advantage.
If I sell a few items personal and get good feedbacks and upgrade to a business store later, will ebay update those reviews in my new store account?