Ebay business not doing well. Any advice?
468720
I took at look at your ebay store and here is my advice:\n\n1. Only list the "personal collage art greeting card" once.\nIt is a small item and takes up far too much scrolling down space.\n\n2. You have nice jewelry but jewelry is difficult to photograph.  Consider hiring a professional photographer.  I know you probably don't want the expense but it is difficult to see the size of your jewelry items and a professional will take better pictures.  \n\n3. Don't center all of your text and use lower case and capital letters.  By emphasizing every letter you are emphasizing nothing.\n\n4. If you want to do more business with the United States.  State that directly and more clearly in the text portion.\n\nGood luck and remember the summer is the slow season for all of retail.
1122432
Trying to get through all the information on eBay can be a challenge especially if you don't have that much extra time. \n\nFirst thing I would do is search for "like items" and see what other people have sold theirs for. If something you want to sell is only selling for $5.00 or so and you were expecting $10.00, now might be the right time to post your auction.\n\nBut there is a great alternative to YOU selling on ebay.  Using a drop-shop where they take your item and sell it for you!  They take the pictures--writing the description and shipping it out. They charge a commission of course, but sometimes it's worth it just to have a sale be hassle free!\n\nThe link below is to their main web site and you can click on whatever state you live in to see if there is a store near you.\n\nThere is also people on eBay (TRADING PARTNERS) who will sell for you too--you can find them by zip code.\n\nThere's also TURBO LISTER which is free software that you can download into your computer.  It's so you can get your auctions ready to post on eBay off line and then just upload them when you're ready to post. \n\nSomeone mentioned in an answer a few above me what happens if you don't sell something. It's true that you can list it again within a time frame (check with eBay for exact data) and if the item sells the 2nd time you don't have to pay for the ad again.\n\nWhat is correct is:\nIf you DON'T SELL the item the 2nd  time around, you pay for that ad too.
18745
The most profitable category in Ebay is always hard to say.  I have been an Ebay seller for over 10 years and  I have seen change as the economy changes.  Your best bet is to sell what you are most knowledgeable with.  If you want to sell collectibles and have no knowledge of them, you will have to spend the time to learn about them.  If you are going to sell antiques and have no knowledge of them, you will have to learn about them as well.  Go to the section called WHAT'S HOT on Ebay and get familiar with that.  Do your homework and don't rely on others.  Get a mobile device with internet that you can take with you wherever you go so when you are out doing your every day activities and see something you think might sell on Ebay, you can check prices right on the spot. Find your niche and stick with it.  Good Luck!
10192
There are many eBay sales you can conduct to turn huge margins. A buddy of mine who purchased two Xbox 360s by standing in the rain for eight hours sold them for $2000 each on eBay.\n\n"According to eBay president and CEO Meg Whitman, a staggering 40,000 Xbox 360 consoles have been sold on eBay," writes Michael Parekh's blog.\n\nYou can also sell things for your family and make a cut of the profit. Good things to sell include digital cameras or other electronics that they don't use.\n\nIf eBay is no good for you, as you'll need a bank account/paypal account, you may want to consider selling on craigslist.com where you will have to meet people face to face. This poses its own set of risks so BE WARY! of scammers, stalkers, slick con artists, etc.\n\nBut since you talk about making money online, I assume you already have the bank account, paypal, credit card thing figured out. If not, you should really partner with an adult you can trust who has those things.\n\nFinally, be wary of SENDING MONEY. Almost always avoid wiring money (MoneyGram, etc). Good luck!
178710
It is a scam. You never make enough money. It will be enticing, but you would do much better with a small business over ebay or a home business. Concentrate on higher return on your investment of a precious resource, your time.
713847
Your first stop should be eBay's Guide to Seller Services http://pages.ebay.com/help/sell/services.html\n\neBay's Seller Central has all the resources you need to learn about the basics of selling on eBay http://pages.ebay.com/sellercentral/index.html\n\nThe key to a successful eBay selling is simple -- Sell products that people actually want.\n\nSelling on eBay is not as easy as some portray. In fact, go to eBay and check out the number of auctions that end without a single bid. Competition is getting tough, as more sellers go to eBay; even the big boys are joining in the eBay marketplace. Add to that the increasing listing and final value fees.\n\neBay has several ways for you to determine exactly what the hot items to sell on their marketplace: \n\nItems In Demand = the most popular items currently within that particular category. To see the In Demand page, go to http://pages.ebay.com/sellercentral/sellbycategory.html  \n\nHot Items by Category Report = a monthly report that lists the fastest growing categories on eBay for the previous month. Go to http://pages.ebay.com/sellercentral/whatshot.html and select "Hot Items by Category" from the menu on the left. \n\neBay Pulse = "a daily snapshot of current trends, hot picks, and cool stuff on eBay". Go to http://pulse.ebay.com/ to see eBay Pulse in action. \n\nMerchandising Calendar = eBay promotes specific categories on its home page each month. Savvy eBayers know that this home page exposure results in more interest in such categories. Go to http://pages.ebay.com/sellercentral/calendar.html  to view the current Merchandising Calendar.
1008050
I would suggest buying a book on this, there is a book called Selling on Ebay for Dummies ( I don't mean you a Dummy) but it covers all of the basics for Ebay and will also tewach you how to list items with good descriptions and what options to use on certian itmes and so on. I really think the book would be the best\n\nGood Luck, I have a friend who does this and make s a really nice 2nd income!!
156509
I would have to say no.  There are numerous "businesses" on ebay and I almost gaurantee you that they are not all registered.  But maybe save money from your business and then get register wouldn't hurt it would only add to your credibility.
220344
Drop shippers dont work on Ebay.  But, if you want to know a true drop shipper, go for the ones that dont ask for money upfront.  They only ask for it when you make a sale.  Why ask for money up front and discourage you from ever trying to sell their product?  Each person they recruit could end up selling thousands for them.  It only takes one person.  Some drop shippers go and steal your customers by sending the product to your customers, but they dont put your name on the return label.  They put their name on there.  Drop shippers dont work unless you have a website or catalog.  But, I would suggest, after getting a steady order for your products, you should try to hold inventory to minimize these greedy dropshippers.  Just dont buy more then you can sell.  Some drop shippers help you create a website, and dont do much else.  They charge you for a website and then, dont help you at all.   They already got you.  And they might even try to get you to hold inventory even with no customer base.  Be careful.  If I were to try a drop shipper, I would spend the least as possible.  Like print out my own business card with a cheaply created website and see if people buy.  Then, I would slowly upgrade.  If it doesnt work, I throw away the free website and toss the cheap business cards and start all over.
61652
There are many different ways to make money on ebay.  A couple of which have already been mentioned.  If you have storage you could go to auctions or garage sales and find good buys, then relist them.  You could also find good buys on ebay and resell them at auctions.  It is a strange new world, and not all people are involved in the cyber world.  They atually look for people who want to resell their stuff, just so long as they get it out of the house.\n\nYou could also look into buying bulk and reselling individually.  Most people do not want 50 can openers, but one or two may be a good investment.  They know you only paid $2, and yes they only need one or two, so they are willing to pay $4-5 a piece.\n\ngood luck - hope this helps.
942248
there is no guarantee in business period.\n\nto be a power seller on ebay you must hold a certain sales amount for months on end to gain the title.  then to keep the title you must hold that sales rate or increase it, decrease and you start back at square one of gaining the title.\n\nebay is over done, over saturated and over populated.  its a joke anymore.  every scammer or thief is on there, most emails are scams and got so bad ebay had to create an internal email service.\n\nif you are looking for unique items or one of a kind, sure you can find them there.  but to get a deal on say a tv, ipod, etc.  nah...those days are long gone.  by the time you figure in all the expenses of either buying or selling on there....you really make no money.\n\nI use to be on there, was even gonna open up a ebay retail store till I really sat down and crunched the numbers.  When its all said and done, after all the work, shipping, costs, fee's, time spent, etc etc etc.....you will make more working at McD's flipping burgers.\n\nTo sell stuff elsewhere....well that takes a web site, web presence marketing scheme, web site, shopping cart, etc etc.\n\nIts back to there is no guarantee in business.  I have owned my own for the past 10 yrs.  But my first 4 tries...I fell flat on my face hard.  Most do....stats show that for every 100 new biz's that attempt to start...only 6 actually make it.  Why?  Cause most give up after falling on their face.  The few that continue on quit after the 2nd or 3rd falling.  Only the truely determined will continue on against all odds.\n\nBut that doesn't mean you are done once you get there....after 10 yrs I was just forced to radically alter my business in a huge way.  1000% away from what I was doing to what I am now doing.  Again that takes the same determination.\n\nDetermination, modivation, self drive are the 3 keys to being sucessful.  No matter how many put you down, no matter how many say no, no matter how many walls are put up....you continue on....if this is you.....then yes....it will pay off sooner or later.
396754
I have been selling home decor items online for about 6 months, with a friend's help (she does most of the work, I do the books & finances).  We have experienced several frustrating situations: many damage claims with UPS and FedEx, even though we have researched best way to pack our product; ebay has been making many changes to their site, which always affects the listed items in some way; and also the fees incurred to list items and to have a store is really ridiculously high. There is a fee for everything!\nOverall, we have enjoyed it-the shopping for inventory is the best! After 6 months, we are finally beginning to show a profit. We hope to expand to other auction sites soon.  Next will come a "brick & mortar store." My friend  just dreams of having a "real" store!
770812
Learn your keywords.  People search by keywords, learn as many keys that will pull up your items on search as you can find.\nFor me, things like L@@K! and other silly things don't work as well as a well worded title that catches a lot of lookers from the search.  And link your auctions together so that people who find one of your auctions can also look at everything else you may have offered.\nGood clear photos of the item from several views are a must.\nI've also found that by listing through channeladvisor rather than ebay, I can post many auctions to start on the same day - Sunday evening works best for me.   I have a much better sell through rate the more items I have up at one time. \nAlso, in the past, this time of year I would plan on having hundreds of items up at the same time, 40 or so ending each day.  That way I have new items popping up in the 'just listed' catagorie as well as in the 'ending soon' catagorie and once a week I pay the $19.95 fee to have one really good item listed as a 'Featured Item".  I find that this bring me hundreds of lookers to my other auctions and results in better sales.  I offer combined shipping with no extra packing fees, as close to actual shipping as possible and I do ship internationaly.  I offer good customer service and have good feedback, which I think helps with sales as well.  I start items at a low but fair price and I use the re-list feature for any that don't sell the first time.\n\nI have sold on ebay for over 8 years, mostly estate clearance and private collections, and one other thing I have found is that you have to research before you list or you will be wasting your time and money.  Some things just are not good sellers, no matter what you say or how much flash you put behind it.  If you are selling an item that you can already find listed many times in the completed items as a no sale, you need set that item aside for a while or offer it at a garage sale.  \nGood luck to you in your Ebay career, I hope you have a profitable holiday season!
996237
As both a buyer and a seller, I can tell you that it's still a great place to do business!  Check a seller's feedback before you bid.  If they've been treating folks right, it'll show up here.  When buying, I also try to stay away from the big business sellers and find individuals.  I've received more personalized and friendly service with the individual sellers.\n\nCheck out some nifty ideas, tips 'n tricks for buying & selling on eBay, and find links to helpful sites:\nhttp://www.themainsail.net/helppg.html.....
585795
Drop shipping looks like the answer to every ebayer's prayers.  And if you find a good drop shipper, more power to you.  Let me save you the headache and heartache; find out what sells best and buy a small inventory.  Keep it in your basement or garage and ship out yourself.  Or you can learn the hard way like everyone else...
1114936
Buying from garage sales and selling on eBay is fun, and good getting a few dollars here and there from ebay. Sometimes, you luck out on an item and hit big, but many times it will just be so-so (assuming you can even get the price you paid for it). In terms of fun factor, it is great. But from a business stand-point, it is not. Not sustainable.\n\nIf you want to earn serious money from eBay, you need to have a well-thought out business model. Selling on ebay is getting tougher -- just look at the number of auctions that closes without a bid. Go to the boards on ebay and you will hear even oldtimers complaining about how stiffer competition plus higher fees make it so much harder to sell on ebay.\n\nTo get products, I import them from other countries. A partner of mine sells high-end bike parts on eBay imported from Taiwan and other Asian countries -- and she does extremely well. I import pearls from the Philippines, where you can get freshwater pearls for only $0.20 wholesale price or even less. You can make HUGE markups through this approach (e.g. get a real freshwater pearl necklace for $0.20 and sell it for starting price of $36)
571121
Hello Becka,\n  Your infor a challenge, I Sell on Ebay but Finding products that I can order and just sell isn't an easy undertaking, The few I got into Others followed and cut below the prices I was getting them at. Tough market to stick with. If you want some basic info on shipping and such I'll do what I can to help you. If you find a good place to Buy Products Keep it to yourself, or others will under cut to make $$. Its a cut throat industry online. \n  Also Watch out for fake Emails that claim to come from Ebay or Paypal, I get 3 or 4 Everyday that are trying to get my logon info and or credit card #'s Be Carefull, Don't log onto any linked pages Go to the Home pages DIRECTLY ONLY!!!!!