posted on July 10, 2002 01:58:39 PM
How can you say you can't make a profit on eBay??? Can you make more of a profit running a store??? employing people, insurance, utilities, etc? eBay is the cheapest way to sell your items.
Prices go up to do business, they always have and they always will. I have been selling for 3 years (2 full-time) and am making more money than I ever did in corporate America.
Maybe you aren't selling the right kind of things? Are you selling new items or antiques. I have found Antiques are the way to go.
But to say that eBay's fees are keeping you from powerseller status is bull.
posted on July 10, 2002 02:08:53 PM
Depending on your location and industry, a retail store can make more profit.
I have both retail and online operations. The retail operation makes a larger margin by far, simply because there is less competition.
Let's face it electronics, computers and any other popular items are oversold on eBay. Unless you are selling a niche product, you will be competing against hundreds of used and closeout items.
eBay is a very specialized market. Big profits are very possible. But breaking even is more likely.
posted on July 10, 2002 02:20:26 PM
I used to be a power seller I had a wonderful niche market item that sold over and over again and most of the time way beyond my wildest expectations. That was three years ago, ever since then my sales have steadily decreased. Eventually I lost the coveted title e of power seller and now when I list like twenty of these items I am lucky if I have three that get bids. Why, who knows who cares but eBay definitely is not the place it used to be.
Luckily for me I saw this trend coming like and developed my own web site. Thank goodness through my site sales are extremely brisk and I am making more money now than I ever dreamed of from eBay.
posted on July 10, 2002 09:10:57 PM
With ebay making it harder for the smaller guy to sell and promoting higher rates on those sales, in turn those fees are passed along to the buyers. What is happening is the once great buys you could find on ebay are slowly but surely being phased out. They have even admitted to wanting to chase out the small guy. And with most powersellers, there is no real contact with the buyers. Usually everything is done with automated confusing e-mails. This is a big downer with the buyers and many simply are having such bad experiences with powersellers, that they give up on ebay for their purchases.
posted on July 10, 2002 09:22:14 PM
I lost my powerseller status because I had to focus on my RL business during the summer months each year. No big deal.
Don't blame ebay. I know lots of sellers making good money on ebay daily. ebay makes lots of policies we are unable to change and they keep getting bigger. Adapt. Survive.
There are good and bad powersellers, just like everyone else.
posted on July 10, 2002 11:11:29 PM
It happened to me. Though I wish it hadn't. Oh, the shame. The hushed whispers among townsfolk. I sold my home, but everywhere I went, people already knew. eBay was everywhere, laughing. I tried other icons, but nothing worked.
I used to bid at Sotheby's. Now I "bid" for scraps behind the local Round Table. I wish to God I'd never heard of eBay.
posted on July 11, 2002 12:37:25 AM
Not to worry, you can regain your "power seller" status. Every now and then we drop below Power Seller - only once we lost our status, but when we built sales back up, we got the status back....I won't be surprised if we lose it again this summer, as I don't intend to fight a slow market in the summer - the summer is when we re-group; gear up, go to wholesale conventions, and get ready for fall, Christmas, winter, etc. I don’t stick that huge ole “eBay Power Seller” emblem on my auctions anyway, so there is nothing to remove if we lose it in the summer.
I agree with the poster who said they saw the problems coming and opened a web site – we have 4 web sites, and have them firmly established. One of them does more than we could possibly do on eBay – 2 of our other markets are fairly strong also. ON THE OTHER HAND – a web site is NOT like the “field of dreams,” that is one can’t just build one and the customers will come! Web sites have to be promoted, and advertised, and promoted, we run promotion programs, etc. on our various sites all the time, and one site is almost 5 years old. A producing web site is work – but worth it, but it doesn’t happen over night, if it did, everyone would have a successful web site.
We also have a 6,000 Sq. Ft. shop, but our internet sales well exceed our shop now. But I would imagine that would depend on where one lives.
Personally, we have gone from selling antiques on eBay to new items, which can be restocked, and redundant – it means much less ad writing, and ease of ads and products. We have found more of a market for new items than antiques.
But all of that is relative – hope everyone has a good summer – and is getting ready for a GOOOOOD fall and Christmas
[ edited by JWPC on Jul 11, 2002 12:44 AM ]
posted on July 11, 2002 10:15:20 AM
REAMOND, that's the whole point. You get notification from ebay but after you lose it everything stays the same, nothing changes and the beat goes on.......
But when I check some of my family's and friend's auctions they are merrily waving their little power seller flags after their names.
Na, na, na, we still have ours!
Hahaha, almost like they have to remind me what an ebay failure I really was.
posted on July 11, 2002 10:44:02 AM
kiara- I was being ironic. Like when it was announced that President Calvin Coolidge had died, it was asked, " How could they tell he was dead?".
posted on July 11, 2002 09:40:34 PM
I am also finding that non-powersellers tend to have better feedback ratios. And almost never see the "did not respond to e-mails" in their feedback like powersellers usually do.
posted on July 12, 2002 05:40:16 AM
THERE ARE GOOD POWERSELLERS OUT THERE. ONES THAT DO WRITE TO THEIR CUSTOMERS. UNFORTUANATELY THERE ARE BAD ONES. JUST LIKE THERE ARE BAD CUSTOMERS. ONE WHO BID ,WIN , AND NEVER CONTACT THE SELLER. DOES THIS MEAN THAT I SHOULD TREAT ALL CUSTOMERS AS IF THEY ARE NO GOOD.??.
98% OF MY CUSTOMERS ARE A GREAT LOT OF PEOPLE. I INTEND TO LOOK AFTER THE 98% OF GOOD ONES. AND LOCK OUT THE 2% OF BAD ONES.
YOU DO THE SAME WITH SELLERS, POWERSELLERS. IF YOUR NOT HAPPY WITH THEM DONT DEAL WITH THEM. BUT DONT BRAND ALL POWERSELLERS THE SAME.
I HAVE STRUCK POWERSELLERS THAT ARE TOO IGNORANT TO MAKE PERSONAL CONTACT WITH THEIR CUSTOMERS.
GOOD LUCK TO YOU ALL REGARDS agate18. A POWERSELLER WHO CARES ABOUT HIS CUSTOMERS. (PERSONALLY)
