posted on May 22, 2001 01:55:46 PM
...for folks to run what amounts to a continuous garage sale and expect to make a profit (much less a living) at it.
Ask yourself if you would have tried to make serious money by having a little second hand shop or a table at the local flea market before eBay existed. Not pin money. Not "I don't care what I get for it so long as I get rid of it" money. Serious money. A livelihood. Very few folks indeed would be able to answer yes to that question.
Now imagine eBay as the flea market to end all flea markets. Every seller can buy a table and put out their items whenever they choose. No packing up for bad weather. No long car rides to get to the big regional flea market held once or twice a year. eBay provides such ease of access to anyone who wants to do the flea market gig that literally everyone tries it.
The proliferation of small time sellers on eBay is very much akin to events like the California and Alaska Gold Rushes.
The sudden prospect of vast riches attracts folks who have little idea about what they are getting into. A very small number strike it rich while the vast majority end up with nothing and eventually settle down to livelihoods very similar to that which they abandoned in search of the elusive mother lode.
Eventually, most of the gold production is controlled by large concerns. With the inevitable gripes (often valid) by the individuals who had some success but were pushed aside because they weren't able to build up into a large concern of their own. And aren't satisfied with being on the periphery.
posted on May 22, 2001 02:06:54 PM
Here's a success story.
I started our ebay selling business with an idea and about $300.00. It's now 3+ years later and the business has grown to $250,000+ a year in high margin sales. We have a new Infiniti Q45 in our garage, half of which was paid in cash and have $20,000 in our bank account. We went on a family Walt Disney trip in February and also draw a nice monthly income from our steady eBay sales. Oh, and let me not forget that we work our *** off daily to insure we are successful.
The point of the note is not to brag, but to let folks know that there is a great deal of money that can be made on the web if you are willing to work for it!
Our first few years were tough and we reinvested ALL of the money back into the business. We were smart and practical and kept our focus.
If you are willing to make a sacrafice, there's riches in them their hills..
posted on May 22, 2001 02:28:20 PMThere is only so much room...
Says who?
A very small number strike it rich
Says who?
Perhaps my definition of a "rich life" is different than yours?
Perhaps some of us were never looking to "strike it rich", we just wanted to work
for ourselves, doing something we enjoy?
IMO the sellers that are going to be hurt the most in the future aren't the antique &
collectible sellers, but the smaller
[50-100K per year] retail type sellers. Those sellers will not be able to compete
with the BIG boys who will use eBay as a dumping ground for excess goods, and as a form of cheap advertisement.
Concentrate your efforts on designer products that have a high perceived value by consumers. They're often impulse purchases by wealthy individuals that have plenty of disposable income to spend.
Items such as jewelry, watches, sunglasses, purses, designer fashions and other luxury items are the perfect goods to sell. They're also small and are easy to store and ship. In addition, if you do your homework, you'll find that they are often offered in liquidation and overstock sales at pricing well below wholesale. This allows you to heavily discount and still maintain high sales margins.
Start by typing words like: "liquidation", "overstock", "closeouts" in a Yahoo! searches and explore the links that are provided. Comb the business to business and surplus websites and look for little treasures to purchase. Start out small and pay attention to what's out there. With a little work, you'll find a nitch to fill and can further educate yourself on those specific products. You'll find that after a few purchases, many of these liquidation and overstock sellers will come to you with offers, rather than you having to find them. It takes work, but is definately worth the effort.
Thank you for posting your success story here. It's refreshing to read something other then the constant complaining about how sales are down, & how eBay is doomed.
"IMO the sellers that are going to be hurt the most in the future aren't the antique &
collectible sellers, but the smaller
[50-100K per year] retail type sellers. Those sellers will not be able to compete with the BIG boys who will use eBay as a dumping ground for excess goods, and as a form of cheap advertisement."
Precisely.
Perhaps I evoked the wrong image by using garage sale. More like the local flea market where one must trudge past table after table of cheapo wrench and screwdriver sets, rolls of duct tape reaching to the sky, box upon box of cheap paperback romance novels, piles of beanie babies, McDonald's toy giveaways and other generally low quality or utterly worthless crap hoping to find the occasional antique or otherwise hard to find item.
eBay takes much of the trudging out of the "flea market" experience with word search.
I doubt much of benefit, to anyone at all, will be served by ranking on flea market dealers. They need to make a living, too. For shame. Poor taste, IMO.
I know. EBay is in the process of retraining, I think. If they make eBay into a store...and the sellers go elsewhere...I do think the buyers will follow. I go to buy where the goods are...don't you?
posted on May 22, 2001 04:15:28 PM
Hi Reddeer (waving at Tokie, too!) --
[i]but the smaller
[50-100K per year] retail type sellers. Those sellers will not be able to compete[/i]with the BIG boys who will use eBay as a dumping ground for excess goods, and as a form of cheap advertisement.
I think to a certain extent your statement is true. I fall into your "retail seller" category, offering, exclusively, high-end new goods which are somewhat trendy. There have been some big liquidators lately to compete with, and it's been rough, but I am still doing well as I think there are enough customers who want to deal on a personal level. They don't feel like swimming through a seller's list with 350 items, most of which are similar, with high starting bids, so they end up at my auctions. While I do think the big guys will put a small dent in my profits, which I am learning to make up by diversifying a bit, they certainly won't drive me away.
posted on May 22, 2001 04:17:04 PM
Toke ...... I honestly don't believe eBay is going to made into a mega mall. Meg knows there's still plenty of money to be made off of the auction format. I think she also knows the auction format is what keeps many of the buyers coming back. Bidding on an online auction is somewhat like gambling, it becomes addictive.
From what I can tell eBay is simply attempting to also get the types of retail buyers who would rather hit & run, no muss, no fuss, so to speak.
When BIN first started there were a lot of buyers screaming bloody murder about how it would destroy the auction format on eBay.
I haven't seen much of a change?
The reality is that various selling techniques will work for various goods. Most of my items aren't BIN items, but I have used the BIN option successfully on a number of auctions.
So far I haven't seen a reason for buyers to look elsewhere.
I haven't either. And thanks to Canadians (LOL) I've been fine. Still...as a paranoid...I see the possibilities...
I see the mass market approach they're obviously fostering, as bad for us. I hope you're right. And if you're not...we'll make out some other way. No doubt of that...
posted on May 22, 2001 06:15:40 PM
I am not sure everyone selling on ebay is a SELLER in the same sense as someone who assembles a collection of goods for a flea market stall...or who buys liquidation items to re-sell. The appeal of ebay is that anyone at all can put up an ad and sell something. Once in a while I do that, sell something of my own, outside of my business, like my kids' outgrown video tapes. Where else can I get someone to pay me a few bucks plus the money to ship it? At a yard sale? Maybe, maybe not.
On the flip side, where else can I go when my daughter wants a Pikachu backpack and I don't feel like trudging around to the malls to see if there are any for sale...or pay full price? I sit down, type it into ebay, bid and buy it. Or I buy someone's secondhand clothes for my kids.
I suppose all those tapes, kid's toys, and clothes amount to "flea market" or "yard sale" to some, but to the rest of us it amounts to a great deal!
posted on May 22, 2001 07:18:54 PM
Here is another success story:
In 1996 I started out on Ebay selling old red bricks for an average of $15.00 each. I did fib a little telling the USPS clerks they were just heavy books, but that enabled me to keep the postal expenses down for my customers. By the end of 1996, My net profit was roughly $3,500.
In 1997 I branched out into wall clocks which I sold for an average of $20.00. By the end of that year, between the bricks and the clocks, my net profit was roughly $16,000.
In 1998 I started selling long, handcrafted floorboards, which went for an average of $18.00 each. By the end of 1998, between the bricks, the clocks and the floorboards, I had a net profit of $38,000.
In 1999 I started selling Pokemon cards (a little predictable, but I was trying to cash in on the craze). By the end of 1999, between the bricks, the clocks, the floorboards and the Pokemon cards, I saw a net profit of $62,000.
Well, by a stroke of luck, in 2000 I was happily informed that 3 of the top 10 school districts in the state of California, due to such unbrideled growth, were planning on constructing 3 new schools apiece--and guess what they needed; clocks, floorboards(for the gym), a Pokemon concession for the cafeteria, and most of all BRICKS! Lots of bricks! Fortunately, based on my fair and efficient business practices, as exhibited on Ebay, they wanted ME to be the supplier! Best of all, they were willing to wait patiently and purchase ALL supplies one at a time through MY auctions!
So, by the end of 2000, between all the bricks, clocks, floorboards and Pokemon cards, I had a net profit in the neighborhood of $32.5 million!
2001 is looking even brighter, as I recenlty was contacted by 22 other school districts AND 4 state governments!
How I love Ebay (even though I didn't even use my giant powerseller logo).
posted on May 22, 2001 07:39:30 PM
JERRY12...That's some good stuff! I love it when someone can say "check your reality at the door" and make me laugh out loud. Kudos!
just think of what you might've made if you *had* used your giant powersellers logo!
keziac,
i've got to agree with you. part of ebay's appeal for me is the enormous diversity of stuff, and of types of sellers. i've yet to have bought anything new on ebay, but i might if it were difficult to find here and/or i could find it on ebay for a really good price. i like it that i can find darned near anything i can think of through a search, no matter how obscure the item may be.
I've been visiting the boards quite a bit the last few months and always notice the great insight and contribution you add to the site with your posts.
posted on May 23, 2001 02:07:16 AM
Codasaurus makes some very good points that ring true, and his post wasn't an attack on flea market dealers at all. His message is clear to me. The huge successes enjoyed by those first in the door at eBay are no more. Everybody and his brother are now pushing cheap goods at eBay, and it has driven the price down to the point where it's no longer worth it to sell.
I am sure there are many savvy sellers who are willing to work their a**es off to make good money. More power to them. I am not interested in spending 12 hours a day selling Gucci purses, but I congratulate those who enjoy it. They can succeed on eBay, or anywhere.
Today I was browsing the featured auctions in Software, the category where I sell. Ninety percent of the items are home-made CDs containing copyrighted software. The items are illegal, and also violate eBay's policy. (The other ten percent are auction management tools for sellers.)
eBay ignores those illegal auctions unless they are threatened legally by VeRO. A few auctions get ended, but just looking at one illegal auction after another tells the real story. Of all the featured auctions in Software: General, there wasn't a single commercial software package offered. No, not one. Not even closeout software. My point is that there is no competing in that category, unless you're willing to break the law.
If I wanted to put the effort required into eBay, I could probably make a fortune too. But after four years of full-time eBay sales, I'm not enjoying it much anymore. I feel like I'm feeding a corporate machine.
posted on May 23, 2001 08:13:00 AM
Hello Twinsoft,
Thank you.
I was trying to point out that folks who think they can be successful on eBay by simply being an additional middleman between supply and customer are not going to succeed on that premise alone.
As any marketplace becomes saturated with sellers for the same wares, the sellers must do something to differentiate themselves from their competition. There aren't many ways to do that when you are selling "retail". Price and service are the two primary means to differentiate yourself.
Price is extremely difficult when you have as competition large retail concerns who can acquire product much cheaper than you because of the quantities they purchase.
I've nothing against flea market sellers. Other than the bother of having to trudge past the endless tables of homogenous crap in the hopes of finding something of interest. I would rather buy duct tape at the local hardware store and help support a business that will be around to have other things I need when I need them.
