I'm working on a story about people whose primary employment is selling stuff on Yahoo Auctions or other online auction sites. I'm especially interested in folks who might have closed up an offline store to sell online.
I'd love to talk with you about your experiences: how your business has fared, what's most frustrating and rewarding about being a full-time auction seller and whether you plan to continue in the future.
You can post messages here, but I'd love to chat with you over the phone or via instant messanger.
posted on June 22, 2000 11:20:18 PM new
There's no way to make Yahoo auctions your primary employment. We sell on Ebay and Yahoo. Our Ebay sales are 70%-75% first run. Our sales percentage on yahoo is around 1%-2%. Lately we have started using Yahoo as a receptical for the stuff that doesn't sell on Ebay.
posted on June 25, 2000 03:13:48 AM new
Hi there Troy,
May I suggest talking to eBay power sellers. I have spoken to quite a few of these people before, although I have found that they do not always have the time to answer questions in depth as they have thousands of auctions to package and send etc. at any given time! In my experience it is that some of the eBay power sellers are just "mom and pop" making that extra $2000 a month (the minimum profit per month required before you are applicable to be a Power Seller). Still, Yahoo! also has some full time sellers that I have come across. There is without a doubt more people in the eBay community thus your auctions get more exposure on eBay which would explain the increase in sales compared to Yahoo!. But I am selling just fine on Yahoo for a small time seller (so I guess you don't need to be talking to me LOL) good luck! I hope anything what I've posted here made sense!
posted on June 25, 2000 03:16:02 AM new
Oh one more thing...
Troy, since power sellers don't always have that extra bit of time on their hands, they might not read your post. I would suggest contacting them directly.
You don't have to make $2000/month minimum PROFIT to be an ebay Power Seller, you have to have $2000/month minimum TOTAL GROSS SALES (bid prices before shipping) through ebay auction to be a Power Seller. BIG difference---I looked up the past 30 days' ebay auctions of one of the Power Sellers featured in ebay magazine, and he had sold $100 bills for $100-$107.50 each. By the time he pays ebay fees, he LOST MONEY on some of them. I'm supposed to be impressed with THAT??? Some of them are just blowing hot air.
posted on June 28, 2000 12:12:56 PM new
Be careful what you say about Yahoo Auctions if you sell on Yahoo. Do we really want Yahoo Auctions to come out as being a bad site. Remember the painting incident in eBay, well because of 1 bad apple the media is reporting & giving the impression that eBay is a site full of scammers.
That's not true & they know it. They are more successful transactions daily froma penny auction to an auction worth thousands than a bad transaction. In eveything in this world, you can never get 100% success rate. So we get a few bad apple who makes us look bad. So here we are stating that Yahoo is poor because bla bla bla & yet we use it.
I am not saying that Yahoo Auctions is the best site on planet Earth. Its easy to use, has great functions & its free. Flaws, we all know what it is. Weed out the bad bidders, make it tougher for someone to open an account with Yahoo. Only Yahoo and Amazon has the resources to match eBay with ad campaigns & that's what it will take to get your auctions more visibility & more sales.
Remember its always easier to report a disaster, fraud & the dramatic than the truth because sometimes its so darn boring.
What is more interesting 'Yahoo Auctions A Place for Scammers to Meet' or 'A decent place to Shop, that's Yahoo Auctions for you'.
posted on June 28, 2000 02:10:17 PM new
We have sold on Yahoo for almost a year now. At first we carried almost as many bids on Yahoo as Ebay but not any more. We still get a few people bidding the buy price but few if any early bidders. We have and continue to list more than twice as many items on Yahoo as Ebay (even though at times I have thought about dropping Yahoo altogether) and hear is the bottom line.
In May:
Sales on Ebay: about $4000 - profit 75%
Sales on Yahoo: about $200 - profit 80%-85%
If there are any full time sellers on Yahoo, and I am sure there are, I would like to hear from them. Maybe we could do something to increase our sales. I would love to be able to make FULL TIME money on Yahoo and save the $300 or so a month we are paying to Ebay.
hawkwand - Online Auctioneers CAN quit their day jobs. My wife worked for Microsoft, now she and I both work from home and we are making more money. She does have another part-time from home job that does provide some supplemental income, but the majority of our income comes from the auctions.
posted on June 29, 2000 12:33:26 AM new
Feistyone,
You are very fortunate to have such a CHEAP source for clothing to sell, if the prices you're getting on your ebay listings bring you 75% profit after ebay fees, because most of your items sell in the $4-$15 range. That would put your cost for most items at 85 cents to $4 each. The only designer label used clothing available for THAT price where I live is either badly damaged or completely worn out (and that includes thrift stores, flea markets, and garage sales).
Why do you list twice as many items on Yahoo as on ebay when you "at times have thought about dropping Yahoo altogether"??? It's a whole lot of trouble to make all those Yahoo listings, even fee-free, if nothing's selling for you. You're better off paying more ebay fees and listing EVERYTHING there, with those sales figures.
Since you're not feistyone on Yahoo, we can't look at your auctions to offer suggestions about what you can do to increase your sales. Aside from the buy price (which you're already using), Free Shipping, and 1st Bid Wins, just about EVERYTHING ELSE you can do on Yahoo to help your sales will cost you money---bold, featuring, opening a Yahoo shop.
You just need to know where and when to shop. We almost never pay full price for an item and usually buy in bulk. We get many super nice (often new with tags attatched)items for a dollar. If you looked back in our history a bit you will notice that some items are bid up to $40 - $80. In May we had a few items sell for between $100 - $200 (between 15 and 33 bids per item). Enough said.
There are several clothing sellers on Ebay (who's auctions I have bookmarked) that are doing better than we are. At least in sales percentage.
If you have visited our Ebay auctions you should be able to figure out our Yahoo user ID. Very large! Can't miss it.
posted on June 29, 2000 07:04:58 AM new
Till January of this year we were full time on eBay, then I got sick and tired of all the problems on eBay, the unstable system, the constant changes, the endless price increases - etc. etc.
I determined to try Yahoo and stick with it till we got the hang of it. It took a little while to learn how to sell profitably on Yahoo, it is definitely a different market than eBay.
But our May figures say a lot to us,
Ebay $3,800
Yahoo, $4,900
We still put our high end pieces on eBay, but unless it is a high end item, I don't use eBay anymore, and yes I am one of the infamous eBay Power Sellers.....but this is business to us, we aren't playing and we aren't losing money. We are generating enough income to supply me with a full time assistant, and perhaps one more in the near future.
We are always testing other new auction sites and have found a few others that produce enough for us to use them with limited items on a consistant basis.
BUT BEFORE YOU NEWBIES get all excited - I put in 14 to 18 hours each and every day on this - it is not a "play at, part time" endeavor...it is just fortunate I love working on the computer..
P.S. Regarding percentages - our percentage of profit per item is considerably higher on Yahoo than eBay although we sell higher priced items on eBay.
posted on June 29, 2000 06:27:20 PM new
jwpc: great post! I wish you'd cut & paste it and start a new messagethread, you could call it something like, oH, "Words of Wisdom from an Old-Pro, to alla the cute liddle clueless newbies!"
LOL!
Seriously, I am very pleased to learn that there is a venue, comparable to the eBay, where a LIVING can be made. YippeE@Yahoo!
I know you are no newbie either - and Yes, you can make a good living, BUT it is FAR from being a part time job....and it isn't just learn a basic system and go with it. It is a constant learning experience, finding better items, presenting them in a more attractive way, offering more customer service, staying in touch with former customers, and on and on.
It is a "job" of self discipline and certainly not for everyone. There is no boss to make you get up; to tell you to write ads, to inspire you to better photographs; you have to be a self starter, and basically enjoy working alone.
I really never worry about the field becoming over crowded, because I use to write a monthly column on similar businesses for a major trade magazine, and I quickly found 99% of people listened to what you had to say and when off and "did it their way, when they were in the mood."
Hypothetically, they couldn't post today because they need to get ready for their friend's birthday party, and the next day they simply can't take the packages to the Post Office because they have other plans, etc., etc. Then their auctions don't do well for a few weeks, and they become discouraged, and go back to the safe, secure corporate world.
posted on June 30, 2000 02:08:00 PM new
jwpc: i have never, not even once, been able to get off the ground, as either an offline emergency requires my full attention, or my health dumPs, or more typically, the venue goes ZIP! right before my eyes.
However, for an old biddy, I am not only becoming accustomed to change on the Net, but I expect it -- and this is accompanied by a "I believe NUTHIN' on this here monitor!"
LOL!
Whenever I get up to around to running between 50-80 auctions a week, and have over 100 prepared off-venue, in email --- something goes kapuT!!! A new Law in my dotage, lol!
However, see, I wish I had MY time to myself that I could focus entirely on e-Biz, but that simply ain't the situation, so truly, I am thinking of making myself become a "Hobby Seller", ya know, like a Sunday Painter, lol!
posted on June 30, 2000 05:26:43 PM new
Go ahead and call Troy. He's just as nice as he can be. He's not skeery like most reporters. I've talked to him and he's got a dreamy voice.
posted on June 30, 2000 05:51:12 PM new
He writes very well, too!
[[[[Maybe someday he'll post over here a messagethread asking for suggestions for the topics we'd luv to see him cover.......oH b0y! thattid be a lonnnnnnnng messagethread, lol ---- he'd have dozens of potential investigative subjects to pursue,lol!]]]]]
Besides feistyone's question (what types of items do you sell?), I have a couple.
You said, "We are always testing other new auction sites and have found a few others that produce enough for us to use them with limited items on a consistant basis."
Do you mind saying which ones you've have SOME success with besides ebay and Yahoo?
Then, "Regarding percentages - our percentage of profit per item is considerably higher on Yahoo than eBay although we sell higher priced items on eBay."
Is your profit percentage higher on Yahoo ONLY because you don't pay any auction fees, or is it because you have to PAY more when you buy higher-priced items IN RELATION to the price you can SELL it for?
posted on July 5, 2000 10:44:16 AM new
I haven't been on Yahoo before to verify its potential, but it seems that you need enough volume to make any site viable for full-time employment. I do this part-time on eBay and now Yahoo and it definitely makes money. Like any other business, you need enough money to live six months or longer with no money until you are really able to sustain yourself. It's real easy to spend hundreds a month in site fees, shipping supplies, and internet/phone fees. On a part-time basis, you can get some spending money. Full-time takes a lot of faith--the market is crowded.
