Ebay competition

[OuiJoli]

eBay is Ok for most people who are willing to pay fees for not moving their products and or services. I have also had a store listed on eBay and it is true that the fees will often cost you more in a long run than the money you can make there. eBay has tools to help you to sale your merchandise (training is essential in any market) But most of all I think that unique items will move fast on eBay. I have viewed several categories to find that the exact same items are listed that you are selling.

SMC is a good source of products and services. What I find interesting about SMC is that they will provide you training to help you to be successful. And another great thing about SMC is that the membership fees are very low and you can mark up the product price to make a good profit on what you sell. Their catalog is filled with very nice merchandise that can be sold at flea markets, boutique shops, or auctions.

Last year I was introduced to Trade Key B2B Marketplace and Alibaba Global Marketing by one of my clients. The stores that are listed on both of these sites are exclusively for buyers, sellers and trade show merchandise. I posted my products for sale ... then I waited. A buyer in the US contacted me to buy in bulk and that buyer is client that was well worth the wait. So there are better ways to list your products in places other that eBay.

http://alibaba.com Global Marketing / Trade Shows (membership $589.00 12/months)
http://tradekey.com B2B Market Place (membership $369.00 12/months)

You can of course sign up for a free account. But if you want to secure buyers you should consider becoming a member of one or both marketing sources.

[Strikefoil]

I am not paying no $300 or $500 for a year membership to a website. That is crazy. Ebay is one of the best ones out there. Their employees must make a lot like the ceo because they have company cars and lear jets. Now you know where and what the fees are for.

[OuiJoli]

Everyone has their ways of marketing and generating new clients and customers. I like the fact that Trade Key had provided me with clients on the bulk sale level. I'd much rather have a buyer who is spending $10,000.00 or more for my products than to have a buyer who is sending $100.00 which is good too. I won't turn down any amount of money.

I suppose you have a point about eBay ... but my point is most people doing business via the internet are there to make a continuous profit on their products and services. I'm sure that your eBay store is doing well and I wish you much success in your on line ventures.

I once had an eBay Store which cost $30.00 a month if I decided to continue with it for one year my payout to eBay would have been $360.00 plus listing fees and etc.

[cascadeacres]

Both Alibaba and TradeKey are websites that have mostly manufacturers in China and India. I know I am a 'free" member of both of them. I get emails all the time from companies that want to sell me horse tack. Most of them are in India. It is mostly junk and I tell them that too. My clients want stuff made in Europe or the USA. I occasionaly get inquiries about my products and that is picking up now with the price of the dollar. Items made in the USA are now cheaper overseas.

[OuiJoli]

As a free member you can only communicate with free members. Try to select the free members and the geographical area of your choice. Perhaps once you have done this the junk e-mails will stop or become few. The spam mail is annoying to me ... this mail or inquiries are fake and are usually from some poor soul in Africa who has millions of dollars that they are holding in a trust in my name left by a recently deceased relative YEAH RIGHT. I have had success with Trade Key by contacting US buyers only. As for Alibaba a buyer for designer fragrances in China is interested in purchasing my products. I'm blessed to have a friend who is actively acting as my agent in China to handle this transaction and once the contracts are looked over and signed I will be very, very happy.

[Strikefoil]

If I payed $30 a month or $360 a year for a store I wouldn't even break even on my stuff that I am trying to sell. That is just nuts.

[poopsheet]

Well, it's only nuts if you can't make well over $360 in a year.

Actually, though, the base eBay store is more like $16 per month.

[heidisjewelry-gemsandtreasures]

I have an Ebay store and I do pretty good throughout the year there too. I keep my prices down low to help with sales, my shipping isn't what ebay would like it to be, but I do what works for me. My shipping fees ($4.50 and $1.65 required insurance charge) include fees, shipping and supplies necessary for shipping, but ebay wants me to generate all those fees towards the price of the item, only charging the exact shipping charge. I refuse and there's nothing ebay can do about it, my fees, supplies, etc are tax deductable, whereas items sold are not, they're taxable. I would have to charge way more for my items in order to cover the extra taxes and final sales fees. Ebay would benefit, with making more off the final sales fee, but the customer and I would loose out all the way around, that's why I refuse to accommodate ebay with that one, so what if they don't like my choice! They contacted me once in regards to all this, but I let them know I wasn't changing the way "I" choose to collect for my expenses, explaining that I wasn't raising my prices of the items sold to cover those expenses, just so they could make more off each item, while I pay more in taxes. I also told them, by law I didn't have too, as these expenses are tax deductable, not taxable. They have left me alone since. Try adjusting your prices and shipping to benef it yourself and the buyers, not ebay. Hope this helps.

As for Ecrater, I seriously think it would help extremely, if people were careful about their listings here and make sure their listings are in the proper categories. These categories are a mess and try to let people know takes time and some have a cow, just because you did, threats, names, etc., they act so childish about it. You tell them it makes Ecrater look unprofessional, etc., but some take it so personal and become horribly rude! It's hard to work with people and to make accomplishments for a common goal, when people act like that. I have to say though, most are thankful and nice about it, but even so, more attention should be made to this effect to begin with. We all have to make this work here and others don't have time for patrolling these sites.

I want to ask you though, I have the basic store setup on ebay, but isn't there one of the more expensive setups where the listings are free, only paying a % of the selling price? I thought I saw that there once and can't find it now. Thanks.

[Strikefoil]

I guess that is reasonable depends on what you are selling though.

[RichardsAndReneesGifts]

wow, thanks for the input. Did not mean to start a debate though . So far I have posted a few items in my store when time allows, mostly on my days off (when I am not sleeping, lol). As I posted earlier I am not dissing EBay, it is not EBay's fault that a lot of people are cutting the prices on popular products to make it harder for everyone else to make a buck, but I have to agree about the fees though. I decided to use EBay once selling some products to which did not sell and I still had to pay a fee ( I thought EBay's policy was that you only paid a fee when the product(s) sold, guess I was wrong). Yahoo use to have an Auction site but all I got were scammers trying to tell me how to run my business and how they were going to pay for the products (basically not even going through Pay-Pal) etc. After awhile of this I quit with Yahoo, glad they shut down their Auction site. Wish there was another popular Auction site that people can go to without having to pay out the wazoo....

For that one person who is getting their stuff from Drop shippers and about them asking you for a TIN (Taxpayer ID Number), the IRS will allow you to use your SSN as a TIN which is good if you are the Sole Proprietor of the Business. If you decide to incorporate the business though then you will need a TIN.

And everyone is correct when they say when you deal with most Drop Shippers then you are dealing with Middlemen, lol, I got signed up with one Dropshipper (because I was hopeing to sell high end electronics) to which they sent me a catalog of some of their products, lol. I am also signed up with a manufacturer of some products (who btw also allow dropshipping, which is rare but not unheard of) and the Dropshipper sells the same products as what I get from the manufacturer, here is the real funny part, the dropshipper told me that I can not use any of the pictures that they use because of the Copywrite Laws, what they don't know is that I already have permission, lmao....

[Strikefoil]

Ever since ebay started you have to pay a listing and final value fee.