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@clubesquire wrote:

I'm sure you are absolutely right. Some of us though still have mega thousands of existing stock to move, which once was not part of a saturated market, or otherwise items sold by shonky sellers. I wish we were out of pipes altogether. Whilst we enjoy it, it's a hard gig these days. The main enjoyment comes from the artistic creational side of things, but appreciation for that aspect is slowly waning in an ever more so throwaway society, I think. True collectors are becoming rarer and it's hard to convince uninformed buyers of the value at times in some of our upper echelon items. In fact we list few of them in eBay for this reason and have slowly developed another pathway for these. But, it's still hard and timing has had a lot to do with it. Even 5 years ago we would have travelled so much easier.

 

Aside from all that, and I don't have much experience in what I'm about to say, it honestly appears to me that the direction taken by eBay has made it all that much more difficult. This is just my perception.

 

I see sourcing as a bit of a barrier. Not entirely, but certainly for newer players. I'm always looking, but I don't find it easy. I guess I've a lot to learn and that's happening, but slowly. However, if  you know your way about, I'm sure you're in a better position to capitalise on some of your good ideas. Good on you!

 

I wish you really well with your new shop. It sounds terrific and I love nice story's where someone is beating the odds. Even though you make it sound pretty easy, I know it's not. It's hard work and luck plays only a small part in everything. You're onto something and I hope it's good for you.

 

I'll  just keep listening to the advice in here. It's been invaluable to us. I'm the first to admit, I'm a bit of a dozey dizzy, and I hate feeling alone and exposed. I don't feel like that anymore.

 

Good Lucy and thanks for sharing your good story. We all need good news sometimes.

 

Melina.

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I have to admit it has all been a lot easier than I expected. I think the secret is product selection. If you sell generic items that are mass produced and available anywhere, the only way you can differentiate your item from everyone else is price. This means a race to the bottom as each seller shaves margins to go one step lower than the next seller. The result is no margin at all and high stock holding costs as many sellers also try to offer a large product range to try to entice buyers.

If you sell into the saturated, used catagories such as womans clothing, there can be literally millions of listings. How do you entice buyers to find your one special item amongst millions ?

The products I have listed are all unusual or rare. They are often the only ones listed on ebay wordwide. Hence the high numbers of international sales. Because there is no other sellers I can price the items much higher.

The profit all comes from the top of the selling price, not the bottom. Every item has a fixed cost in original stock purchase costs, holding costs, original search fees etc. If you double the original stock purchase cost, you make 100% profit. If you triple the original stock purchase cost instead of doubling, the item price rises by 1/3, but your profit actually doubles.

Since my post yesterday I have made several more sales including a bland looking little item. I researched it and found out it is over 150 years old. I priced it absolutely through the roof at 20 times what I paid for it. My wife had a bet with me that it would not sell at that price as it was nearly double the price of the next dearest one I had ever seen sold. Some-one in the U.K purchased and paid for it last night. Listing time 8 days.

In closing I have always believed the secret to selling on ebay is to find unique items that BUYERS ACTUALLY WANT TO BUY. If you can find them, half the work is done and they basically sell themselves.