Power Sellers Unite

psunite · Joined: 27 Jan 2005 Posts: 6213 Location: Columbus OH

"There are those who get rich on eBay, but there is also more smoke than fire," says Joe Kennedy, author of "The Small Business Owner's Manual." "There are a lot of people working really hard and not making much money. The kicker is that they don't really realize it."

In its nearly 11 years of existence, the auction site eBay has come a long way from its early days as a souped-up online flea market. Thanks to its anyone-can-sell business model, and a prevailing philosophy that there's a buyer out there for anything, eBay has become the granddaddy of all auction sites. Countless people have managed to sell an item or two at a profit.

Some people have even managed to make a tidy living by selling stuff on eBay, sacrificing nights and weekends to keep their inventories moving. And some of these so-called PowerSellers do well enough to ask themselves a potentially life-changing question: Is eBay a place where I can get rich?

Some PowerSellers claim that riches can be had, but that it takes an almost-obsessive focus on how the selling is done, what's being sold, and how inventory is managed. In other words, if someone selling $1 geegaws on eBay envisions buying a private island someday, he or she had better keep dreaming. If, however, those widgets are $50,000 each, some snorkeling gear might yet lie in the future.

The PowerSellers of eBay know that what seems to be a straightforward business venture -- you sell, someone buys -- is actually a complex maze of strategies, price controls, feedback, and site policies. Playing all of these elements to one's advantage can make the stock exchange seem like a snap. Whether the payoff from eBay can make a seller rich is another question entirely.
lots more.. link to news article

*southie* · Joined: 25 Aug 2005 Posts: 1728 Location: Sunny Florida

Me???? Get Rich on eBay????

:lol: :lol: :lol:

Not unless if I have something rare & unusual where the
Casino's gotta die to have it and keeps'on bidding where
I can laugh my way to the bank with zillions!

Reality speaking here .... I enjoy it, it gives me something
to do - and PLUS - get rid of all this stuff I had from the
Flea Market Days that's in storage and better yet - get more
"junk" out of my house that doesn't need to be there!

:D :D :D

CrystalStar · Joined: 06 Mar 2005 Posts: 3571

Hey Sharon...ain't we been saying this for a long long time......?? what took this genius so long to figure it out?? ;)

nopaypal · Joined: 23 Feb 2006 Posts: 2008

yes...people do get rich on ebay. their names are pierre omidyar, meg whitman, jeff skoll & peter thiel...

:butt:

elgato · Joined: 24 Feb 2005 Posts: 17241 Location: Texas

LOL @ NPP!! And so true!

The OP has a good point though. If selling hundreds of $1.00 items you don't succed due to the fees one must pay over there and like the article stated--You'd be married to your PC 24/7

I do believe folks can make a good living while selling at ebay but wonder if it's worth the hassle. It might be more economical than operating a local B&M store but you also have more scammers

HowardH · Joined: 26 Jan 2006 Posts: 159

Back when I was running a mail-order software business (mid-80's, long before ebay was even thought of), I did some back-of-the-envelope calculations that indicated that the cost of putting a parcel in the mail was around $10 -- counting materials, postage, packaging, gasoline, wear & tear on car, and every other expense that I could think of connected with sending a parcel out the door, and it didn't really matter much what was in the parcel! That was for one shipment per day, so the cost per parcel went down some if I ever got more than one order at a time (which I rarely did).

And that did not include any accounting for time. BTW, I shut down that mail-order software business after a rough accounting estimate that I was getting between 17 and 20 cents per hour for my time.

Ebay is sort of the same way. The minimum profitable sale is probably around $20, and that's only if some of your general expenses are absorbed elsewhere (for instance, I now drop off most of my shipments on the way to work, so there isn't a big additional auto expense). Again, that doesn't count anything at all for time.

To top that off, ebay doesn't scale at all. I have recently reduced the number of listings that I have been running from around 100/wk to 8-12, so my expenses went down by 90%, but my ebay income decreased by only 60%, so I experienced a net increase of actual profit! Plus, my level of effort went down by more than 90%. (My wife was a powerseller for a couple of years, working more than 40 hours a week, but bringing in a net that was substantially less than minimum wage)

I have recently been running an experiment with an ebay store, but it isn't doing much for me. I probably need to do some tweaking, but if I can't get some positive results in a couple more months, I will shut that part down.

I view ebay primarily as a advertising expense to increase the exposure of my overall web presence (the Introductory Service economic model). Ebay thinks of itself in terms of the Whorehouse economic model. Meg's greatest fear is that somehow, somebody will make some money off the internet without ebay getting a cut. (Go Google!!!!)

nopaypal · Joined: 23 Feb 2006 Posts: 2008

Quote: › docWrite("quote")working more than 40 hours a week, but bringing in a net that was substantially less than minimum wage
that's about the size of it. and i ASSume yer not counting inventory acquisition? which takes up a LOT of time fer most of us!

thanx fer that informative post, howard...many online sellers i chat with say their websites do better bidness than their auction listings!

:o