posted on April 24, 2001 08:00:10 AM
With 3 computers you might be set. Using one for email, another for listing, and the third for checking on auctions you can be doing two things at one time. Plus if one dies you still have others to take over. The bad part is that in a few years you now have 3 computers to replace...
"We're flooding people with
information. We need to feed it
through a processor. A human must turn information into
intelligence or knowledge. We've tended
to forget that no computer will ever ask a new question." - Grace Hopper
posted on April 24, 2001 08:17:08 AM
Take it from a Power Seller -- keep your day job. I have been doing Ebay for 4 years on a full time basis. As the economy started to turn in March of 2000 - sales overall -- on ebay began to drop - not necassary in volume but the amount someone would bid. As prices drop you have to sell more... You need to have a lot of auctions to cover Health insurance at $500 a month, Self Employment tax, Ebays raising pricings, etc, etc, etc.
posted on April 24, 2001 08:37:15 AM
Basic advise – keep you day job.
Our background is 15+ years of self employment – 5 years on eBay – 3 years with web sites.
Reasons to keep your day job:
1. If you don’t truly enjoy working on line ALL of the time – don’t quit your day job.
2. If you don’t have health insurance coverage through your mate, then don’t quit your day job check around and see what independent health insurance will cost.
3. If you don’t have an endless source of product or know where to acquire such, don’t quit your day job
4. If you aren’t prepared to work twice as long and twice as hard, don’t quit your day job
5. If you aren’t extremely self disciplined, don’t quit your day job
We are full time on line sales, eBay, and other small auctions, plus 2 large web sites. We also have a large antique shop. We have to have private health insurance to the tune of about $300 a month. Check on health insurance coverage before you quit your day job. Unless you have another source of “old age” income outside of Social Security, calculate if you can fund such via a full time on line sales job BEFORE you quit your day job.
If eBay is your only outlet for sales, basically I’d say stay with your day job. I personally feel one needs a broader base than just eBay – never want to put all of your eggs in the same basket.
posted on April 24, 2001 12:38:22 PM
I'd say keep the day job, but I have a feeling your mind is already made up and that you're here seeking "permission" or support to make the break from the factory.
Maybe you should get out and try selling on eBay full time, so that you can discover it was just a pipedream after all.
I sell on eBay full time. And that's all I do. There is nothing else left in my life. I used to write, get my work published. I used to do artwork and had several stores selling it. I used to enjoy going out with my metal detector and finding stuff in the ground, or just spending an evening in a bookstore browsing without a single thought of resale.
It's all gone. I have no time anymore. I work from the time I get up till the time I go to bed -- acquiring stock, writing descriptions, scanning pictures, posting auctions, answering e-mails, sending out end of auction notices, packaging stuff for shipping, trips to the post office, etc. Posting here at AW is my one guilty pleasure.
The money is never enough. I think if I probably did the numbers, I would be making less than minimum wage for all the work I do -- even though I get decent prices for my stuff. There's no security. No saving for the future. No predicting how the bidding's going to go next week -- although it's an absolute certainty that the bills will come next week.
As for the health benefits ... you never realize just what a big deal they are as part of your salary package until you find yourself not getting any. Especially if you or someone who depends on you gets sick or injured.
The only benefits are that you don't have to kiss ass to some boss and you can wear sweats and t-shirts to work. I think about the life I had, the things I used to enjoy, and I'm not sure the trade-off is worth it.
So yeah, quit your day job. Take the plunge. Hope you can tread water. It's what most of us seem to be doing, at least well enough to keep from going under.
posted on April 24, 2001 12:45:18 PM
Assuming
1)You have no children to support.
2)You are in reasonably good health.
I say go for it!
Your may never again have this opportunity. You obviously understand Eaby, and the inticicies of selling. Putting yourself in the positiion where you are requitred to make a living on ebay will motivate you immensely. Be prepared to work long hours, and pay for your mistakes. Factory jobs are really detrimental to your mental health. Look around you, could your co-workers who are in thier 40's do the same thing. No! they are slaves to the factory owner. Be independant, have the confidence. I suspect your partents, relatives, and co-workers will tell you that you are crazy for quitting that job. But how secure is it really? Ask around about what happened 10 years ago, when everyone was getting laid off from those factory jobs. You'll hear stories. Once you work at one of those jobs for 20 years your mind turns to mush, and if you get laid off there nothing you can do but cry in your bear.
You are young. Health insurance is really necessary, but at your age you can buy it cheap. And your employeer will be required to allow you to buy in to your exisitng plan for the next 18 months. 401(k) is nice, but a Keough based on your ebay income is way better.
I did it, and I quit an engineering job paying 3x what your making.
posted on April 24, 2001 12:55:37 PM
Take the good advise provided on this board and keep your day job. eBay is a great way to supplement your income, but it's a tough way to exclusively make a living.
I'm self employed and have been for many years. I own several small, but successful businesses. Our ebay business did over $250,000 last year in sales at nice margin. It would not be enough to run our household alone. If you take out the cost of maintaining inventory, paying taxes (there are several that must be paid), accountant and legal fees and other miscellaneous business related expenses, you'd be surprised how much money you are able to take out of the business for yourself. You get paid last, only after everthing else is covered. It can be disapointing at times.
The health insurance alone is all the reason to keep your job. I paid over $10,000.00 out of pocket last year to insure my wife and I and our 2 children. This number will continue to rise.
There are also many great benefits to working for yourself. I don't want this to be overshadowed by the economic realities above. The business is yours and there is great pride and satisfaction in growing a company and making it successful. You set your hours and your goals and maker your own decisions on what to do and when to do it. The freedom is wonderful. Just be prepared to work harder, smarter than you would if you worked for someone else.
I recommend that you hold both jobs for a while and see how your online selling effort goes. Who knows? You might just hit a home run! But it's nice to know you have a backup if things do end up going the way you planned.
posted on April 24, 2001 01:27:04 PM
Here's a simple thought, but I think a huge factor.....Considering your local job market, your age, your job skills and experience.....if you quit your job how quickly and easily can you go back to work at a good enough wage?
I used to live in a city and I was at an age that I could jump right back into a job at a good enough wage. But now, in the town I live in if I leave my job, I'll have a hard time finding suitable work and wage.
I have friends and family in other states that think nothing of quitting decent jobs because there are many others available.
I know, it's a simple thought, but I really think it's a huge part of the decision.
BTW, I can't give advice on ebay as I'm new at it, but I used to have a BM store so I know the highs and lows of being self-employed.
posted on April 24, 2001 01:47:24 PM
I think much of the steam that made eBay so attractive has largely dissipated. It is harder to earn a living doing anything right now, but eBay makes it harder for the little guy to succeed. If you want to go full-time into any biz:
1. You need to have about 6 mos to 1 year back up savings.
2. Sufficient biz to make about 25% more than you do on your current job. On eBay that's sufficient attractive inventory purchased inexpensively enough to turn a profit with little effort. You might need to build other auction or web site sales to cover what may or may not happen to eBay and/or you in the future.
3. Backbone and endurance to tough out what makes most people head back for that weekly paycheck fix.
I do not sell fulltime because I like my fix. However, I believe that you can make it if you want to. My suggestion is that you build up to fulltime biz and if you still like it enough to ditch your day job do it. Don't let ANYONE talk you out of it if it works for you.
posted on April 24, 2001 01:59:40 PM
JWBiz-- your health insurance is cheap at $300/mth. We pay almost $500. Depresses me just thinking about it.
To go full time or not go full time... that is the question? Is there any way you can reduce your work hours at the factory job?
You got some great advice here. Without my husbands salary I couldn't be on ebay. For me it is mostly full time and I can still be home with my kids every minute (sometimes there are a lot of minutes in a day though-- haha). The benefits are enormous! Sometimes ebay is even fun. Other times sales drop and you wonder why you are doing it.
I don't think anyone else can answer your question. What do you WANT to do?
Go for it if it is what you want.
posted on April 24, 2001 02:24:30 PM
Hello. We do Ebay full time plus some other auction sites. We had a full time retail sports collectibles business but the internet killed it. We closed it down last month after 12 years. So Ebay is it right now. Also I might add, there is two of us in our business. We have to expand into other things to try new ideas to sell. We dived more into the auction thing when out of the blue, we got layed off our full time job in December. It was great. Full time job, full time business plus internet. (NOt much sleep!) But when that layoff came, full time net for us!!
posted on April 24, 2001 03:41:00 PM
You guys are absolutely wonderful. I'm thinking about everything that you said. The only thing I would like to add is that I did have a cleaning business for about a year and a half but got sunk in workers comp, lack of available help, ect. I guess I have this thing inside me that can't stand working for someone else. My wife doesn't really understand but is as supportive as she can be.
Whether I decide to go for it or not, can anyone recommend a simple accounting program that works well with ebay. You know, entering in item numbers, costs, listing fees, postage, ect. ?
posted on April 24, 2001 04:39:49 PM
Hi-I have been doing ebay a couple years now full time since I closed my antique store. I love it! I dont have the rent and other overhead of the store to contend with and I can spend all my time running around to dig up merchandise for ebay. But i must admit, I have been seeing a steady decline in the prices we used to get on EBAY as more and more people are doing it. But you know, if you have really good merchandise you can always sell it with or with out ebay
posted on April 24, 2001 05:57:21 PM
We are both full-time sellers. We left careers 3 years ago. First I will say it's a LOT more difficult now than it was then. Then anything sold well and for a good price. Not only is there a LOT more stuff listed and prices are the pits but since EVERYONE is doing ebay it's much more difficult to find stuff locally at reasonable prices.
The first thing we realized in thinking financially was that we would save $800 a month right off the top for child care/education. (We wanted to do ebay TO homeschool and not the reverse. I do NOT suggest anyone hs to save money.) It was 60+ miles round trip to work so we save GA$.
I think it's about priorities. We work harder and longer than we ever even thought of at work...especially add educating two kids. We are together now, ALL of us 24 X 365. It's about priorities. We have less money. We don't need 2 good cars or nice clothes. We don't have insurance (kids do). That's the big drawback so thank goodness we have been healthy so far.
It isn't something to do if you want to live according to the "standard" the Jones' set. It isn't something you want to do if you are not self motivated. It isn't something you want to do if you want a savings account and a retirement fund. If you are ok waking up and thinking, "OK, mortage-got to sell a BUNCH of things quick to get the mortage that's due in 8 days." and if you are ok being with your loved ones ALL the time and never seeing another human being except the postal guy and the UPS man, then it MIGHT be for you.
posted on April 24, 2001 06:28:21 PM
I don't think the timing right now is good. I'd wait several more months, see if we are in Recession or what. I quit my FT job in February and now work 15 hours a week, plus ebay. The rate of change has my head spinning. Today for example I realized that one of the photo hosting sites I use will charge a [modest] fee. It's been one nickel and dime fee after another this year. Who knows where it will end?
Oh, and try $600/month for health insurance, and that's at a group rate through my employer [no contribution anymore, since I'm part time].
posted on April 24, 2001 07:27:30 PM
You guys that are paying those high health insurance premiums should check out www.ehealthinsurance.com just enter your zip code. Pretty good prices.
posted on April 24, 2001 09:14:31 PM
I think from reading your initial post that the big question is what experience do you have in buying and selling prior to ebay? Did you ever deal in collectibles? Do you have good sources and contacts to buy more inventory at a price you can make a profit at? Did you ever sell at flea markets, rent space in an antique mall, do shows? From my own experience I firmly believe that you can always sell the stuff, its buying it thats the hard part. By that I mean, buying the merchandise at a reasonable price in order to make a profit. If you don't have sources for future inventory then I think you had better hold on to that day job until you can build up a nice supply of interesting items that will bring in some decent returns.
posted on April 26, 2001 09:35:53 PM
My husband and I do eBay as a full-time business. Money is tight at times, but we get by.
I started slowly while working at a "real job." Once it got to the point where I was making more money selling books on eBay than I did harrassing people... er, I mean doing telephone surveys I quit the job (which I hated anyway) and did eBay full-time. I've never looked back.
My husband started working with me shortly after we got married. He was a computer tech making $20/hour. It was also driving him insane.
As others have said, it's a difficult line of work. Things change, and you have to keep up with the changes if you want to stay in business. But it can also be a nicely profitable business.
Just for the record, we deal mainly in books, and most of our auctions close between $10.00 and $30.00. It IS possible to make a living selling low-ticket items.
I see that you have the ambition, but not necessarily the direction.
All the computers and accounting software isn't going to make you squat, and you'll be looking to get your job back faster then the day you thought about leaving.
Please don't take offence, but bookkeeping/auction software makes about as much sense as going to Office Depot to find that perfect chair to sit in and do descriptions - All of that stuff doesn't make us money. The reason I'm telling you this is because I (as well as many people here) did the same thing.
Buying a LP for $1.00 and selling for $10.00 doesn't make any of us a genius. But, doing it hundreds of time a month will separate you from 99% of those who attempt to make eBay (or selling online) their full time gig. You have got to focus all of your attention and time on PRODUCT. This is why most everyone here says don't go full time. Descriptions/Photos/Packaging are low priority. Do them at night or better yet, pay someone to do them. You may lose money in the beginning, but to have any long term success you must get product, and since that is your highest priority it's your main concern.
In my community, everyone knows what I buy. I don't do garage sales, stores, etc. This is a waste of time. You need to be much more aggressive buying, then selling. Onezy/Twozy shopping for records isn't going to make up for the income you're going to lose quitting your job. So you will need to be prepared to buy 500 LP's at one time - scrap 200 of them and sell the remainder. I don't sell records, but if I did thats how I'd do it.
The reason people complain their sales are down is because they dabble in a bunch of little stuff.
Sure, there are lean times and slow periods (for us it's March - August) but lean does not mean broke. Prices aren't as good now as the Fall & Winter months, but we survive quite well. Nothing has changed that much since I started almost 6 years ago. Yes, eBay has gotten bigger...and so did my business.
If the right opportunity comes along are you prepared to spend $5000 at one time to resell for 10k-15k? If not, keep your job. I have (and will) continue to make a good living selling online, but if you play this game on a small scale you will be among the vast amount of folks that are complaining.
If your goal is to successful you can do it, but don't ask questions that nobody here is going to give you the answer to. Spend a few days finding everyone on eBay with feedback well in excess of 1000. See what they sell and how they sell it. Many of the answers are right there.
I'm just curious as to what you sell on Ebay. I would like to see some of your auctions - what is your Ebay name??? I just do Ebay part-time and intend to keep it part-time, I'm just a small seller. I really do enjoy it and am always interested in what other people are selling. Anybody else care to share their Ebay name???
posted on April 27, 2001 06:19:02 PM
clean1,
My wife and I have be full time on ebay and a web site for two years now and while it can be tough at times, we love it. We produce our own items (don't buy and sell) as well as sell some items for a friend on a 50/50 consignment basis. The only extra income we have is from a house rental.
We use ebay to drive customers to our web site for custom orders. Each ebay buyers goes on our mailing list and often becomes a repeat customer.
While we don't make as much we could at regular jobs, we live simple healthy lives. I might mention that we are 57 years old and our chilren are grown. Prior to ebay, I was traveling to craft and antique shows, which is even harder than internet work. Now we don't have the travel time, the inventory roller coaster, or expensive truck.
I have been on my own for thirty years and could never find a better boss. Tomorrow we are taking a day off and hitting a few yard sales and picking up some items from our friend to sell for him.
One way or another we will survive. Always have.
posted on April 27, 2001 10:38:25 PM
How can you do it full time? Something is always not working at ebay. Site can be down, searches not working, listing software not working, etc...
Don't kid yourself, it is all monkey business... and we are the monkeys...
posted on April 27, 2001 11:06:00 PM
I'll jump in to add some positive thoughts.
We started on eBay 3 years ago.
Started with nothing.
Built it up for the first year and saw some extra cash.
Second year we saved our eBay money for a house.
Begining of third year built a house.
2 weeks after we closed we lost our "full-time" income.
Sat down, thought about it, grabbed each others hand and jumped in!
We've been selling full time on eBay now for almost a year. We started working SMARTER, not harder. We now make more each month than the job and eBay combined ever made. We work about 10 hours a week.
Is it for everyone? No.
But it IS possible for anyone.
posted on April 28, 2001 12:03:44 AM
Morgantown,
That comment does sound like one!
The difference is, it took 3 long and hard years to get here. It was NO "get-rich-quick" scam.
Face it folks, there's still HUGE opportunity on eBay for those willing to work smart.
There's the ones who MAKE it happen,
and then there's the ones who whine that SOMEONE ELSE owes them their success.
posted on April 29, 2001 01:31:51 PM
I have a full time professional job. The only reason I still do Ebay on the side is the occasional "surprise" high bid. Plus I've always enjoyed the mail order business, collectibles--and now--communicating with THE WORLD via email! You have to do what you enjoy! If not, drop it.
I quit the job (which I hated anyway) and did eBay full-time. I've never looked back.