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Losing my butt with ebay-need advice

  • avatar

    by: Harveyr4
    New SaleHoo Member
    6 posts

    Losing my butt with ebay-need advice

    Posted 31 Jul 09 2:35 pm.

    Hi, I'm new with salehoo and selling on eBay. I have bought some wholesale products, to start selling on my own website. While I'm waiting on my website to be built, I thought I would sale some on eBay. The products are Gaming consoles, Apple ipods, etc... I'm losing a butt load of money this way on eBay, the products are not even making me back the money that I have in them. For example, If I bought an item for $230.00 (the retail price at Wal-Mart is $399.99) it is only selling on ebay for about $210.00, then subtract the eBay and paypal fees, Then I've made the sale for about $195.00 to $200.00. I've just lost $30.00 to $35.00. How do I stop this and start making money? I don't know what I'm doing wrong. Could someone please give me some advice on how to turn this around? Also are there any tricks on getting on the first page once you search for a product?

    Thanks
    Harvey

    P.S. You can also reach me at link hidden this will be the fastest way to contact me.
  • avatar

    by: dwmgoods35
    SaleHoo Master Member
    315 posts

    Re: Losing my butt with ebay-need advice

    Posted 31 Jul 09 2:48 pm.

    Hey Harvey,

    First I want to say that yes that can be very frustrating given the blindness that people would think, 'Hey I have top quality name brands and a popular item, I can make a bundle with this' WRONG, Harvey ebay is now going the liquidations route and you will hardly find anything even $100 bucks lower than retail price. If your going to even try and compete with these types of products on ebay your going to have to buy these at very low liquidated prices, or you should find a wholesaler that you can buy this in very large volume to even come close.

    These types of items are saturated on ebay right now and I certainly would not recommend using that EBAY Pulse page which can be very giving to sellers to get driven into and find out that its actually a way ebay goes about making more money off the seller. Wanting to sell items that are HOT on ebay right now is asking for failure.

    I would first see if there is a liquiator that is willing to sell these at really low prices, but Im not sure if there is. I heard in order to get exclusive pricing on these, Apple requires a ridiculous Sales requirement to even be considered.

    Im sure others can help you from here and sorry to break this bad news!
  • avatar

    by: Harveyr4
    New SaleHoo Member
    6 posts

    Re: Losing my butt with ebay-need advice

    Posted 1 Aug 09 1:52 am.

    Thanks dwmgood35,

    Yes Apple I think requires $100,000.00 in sales a year to get any real discount. I really want to make some extra money from online, or eBay sales. Do you sale on eBay? What type of items are good sellers, and that you make a good profit off of? Anyway, Thank you for info.

    Harvey
  • avatar

    by: planes
    Forum Moderator
    843 posts

    Re: Losing my butt with ebay-need advice

    Posted 1 Aug 09 2:20 am.

    Harvey!!

    Invest in a free trial with Terapeak!! The free trial runs 14 days and will save you a BOAT LOAD of time and money!

    At the very least use the completed items option in eBay to see what items are selling for in the last 7 days.

    These two options are paramount.
  • avatar

    by: dwmgoods35
    SaleHoo Master Member
    315 posts

    Re: Losing my butt with ebay-need advice

    Posted 1 Aug 09 3:31 am.

    I totally agree with Planes, I actually bought into the Terapeak and it's the best Research platform I've ever seen on the web. You can do so many different searches and break them down into more smaller searches.

    The completed items also comes in real handy to start off.
  • avatar

    by: Satya
    SaleHoo Master Member
    1778 posts

    Re: Losing my butt with ebay-need advice

    Posted 3 Aug 09 1:23 am.

    Thanks dwmgood35,

    Yes Apple I think requires $100,000.00 in sales a year to get any real discount. I really want to make some extra money from online, or eBay sales. Do you sale on eBay? What type of items are good sellers, and that you make a good profit off of? Anyway, Thank you for info.

    Harvey
    Hello Harvey,

    These are a couple of blog posts that you might find useful. If you haven't already, check out :

    http://www.salehoo.com/blog/what-to-sell-in-2009/
    http://www.salehoo.com/blog/3-hot-new-niches-to-get-excited-about/

    All the best!

    Satya
    Customer Support
    SaleHoo Group Limited
    Skyrocket your way to success with your own SaleHoo Store!

  • avatar

    by: planes
    Forum Moderator
    843 posts

    Re: Losing my butt with ebay-need advice

    Posted 3 Aug 09 2:41 am.

    I totally agree with Planes, I actually bought into the Terapeak and it's the best Research platform I've ever seen on the web. You can do so many different searches and break them down into more smaller searches.

    The completed items also comes in real handy to start off.
    Yes. And its great for copying selling strategies of successful sellers too.
  • avatar

    by: Harveyr4
    New SaleHoo Member
    6 posts

    Re: Losing my butt with ebay-need advice

    Posted 3 Aug 09 12:50 pm.

    Thank all of you for your reply's. The information is very helpful. I will look into Tarapeak, I did look at the completed items in ebay, when I looked, the items I was selling were selling for lot more than what I got for mine. Does it help to be one of the first listings to come up when ever someone searches for an item? If so how do you get there? I will also look at this blog listings, again I want to thank all of you for the information.

    Thanks
    Harvey
  • avatar

    by: nyc4life247
    New SaleHoo Member
    1 posts

    Re: Losing my butt with ebay-need advice

    Posted 4 Aug 09 5:08 am.

    does anyone know of wholesale sites for laptop computers if so please post thanks
  • avatar

    by: userexists
    SaleHoo Master Member
    227 posts

    Re: Losing my butt with ebay-need advice

    Posted 4 Aug 09 9:04 am.

    I really really wish new sellers would think outside the square when looking for product to sell on eBay. Every week some poor soul is here lamenting the fact that they can't find x-boxes, ipods, psps, blackberries, iphones and other hot items at a low enough price to turn for a profit. The newbie mentality seems to be - find the hot products at very cheap prices and the world is your oyster. (Don't we all just wish?) The short answer is - if you don 't have the capital to purchase these products in huge volume, you can't turn a consistent profit with this type of product on eBay. These types of products are also fraught with danger for the new seller because of customer complaints and returns when there is some problem or fault with electronic items. Basically, it's a very good way to lose your shirt! Another member recently posted a very good site which helps you find what are the hot selling items on eBay week by week. I've used it myself and it's great for finding little niche products . Here again is the link. link hidden

    Difficult I can do right away. Impossible takes a little longer

  • avatar

    by: dwmgoods35
    SaleHoo Master Member
    315 posts

    Re: Losing my butt with ebay-need advice

    Posted 4 Aug 09 3:02 pm.

    I agree with userexists,

    As of today ebay is not a place to do wholesaling with electronics, ebay is going the liquidations route and is giving a real push to its sellers to do just that. Ebay's CEO said he wants ebay to be much like a Wal-Mart discount store where you will find items well below retail pricing. Folks trust me when I say this, if you guys really want to sell iphones, ipods, Laptops, you either have to buy in major large loads, or getting them for like 50% below wholesale pricing, It's just not going to work for you. I am a struggling seller too believe me, the last thing I want to do is discourage others from making a living online. Just take more time and do research! research! research!
  • avatar

    by: richellemonfort
    SaleHoo Staff
    3746 posts

    Re: Losing my butt with ebay-need advice

    Posted 5 Aug 09 12:06 am.

    That's quite true about eBay! I'm not sure if you guys have read this discussion on another forum about eBay being an auction site or a discount store, well if you haven't here's the link to the article and discussion:

    link hidden

    And also, although electronic products are quite a popular commodity these days, it doesn't mean that they are also the best products to sell. Yes, there is a high demand yet the competition to make a sale is even HIGHER. That's why a lot are either losing money here or going out of their minds in search for the best/cheapest supplier just to make a sale. userexists is right, sellers should think outside the box and remember that no one got rich over night doing e-commerce.

    Just a thought.. cheers to you all! :)

    Richelle

    Customer Support
    SaleHoo Group Limited
    Sell more with your own professionally designed and search optimized e-commerce website. Check out SaleHoo Stores now!

  • avatar

    by: fudjj
    SaleHoo Staff
    2969 posts

    Re: Losing my butt with ebay-need advice

    Posted 5 Aug 09 12:43 am.

    The advice I always give, if it's a top ten seller on ebay, forget about trying to sell it.

    The problem is people associate the most popular selling products with profits, but that is so rare as to almost not exist at all. There are some seriously big players on ebay, I'm talking about companies with plenty of resources behind them.

    Company structures like these are able to choose a model that is big on investment to gain maximum buying power, giving them the best possible price. Their model then allows for them to list at very small margin, but make fast cash by sheer turn over.

    You can bet that any top ten selling products on ebay has companies with models like this well and truly in the game.

    A lot still see ebay has a place for the little seller, and while that reality changes every day, those opportunities still exist for sure. You just wont find them anywhere near where these big dollar companies are competing.

    It's a big heard on ebay, and if your are just intent on following what others are already doing, the chances are you will be right at the back of that pack.

    Takes a lot more than just a supplier to make money online, takes some smarts to make the most of those suppliers!

    Marc Ransom

    Community Manager
    SaleHoo.com

    About the Community Manager

  • avatar

    by: userexists
    SaleHoo Master Member
    227 posts

    Re: Losing my butt with ebay-need advice

    Posted 6 Aug 09 7:19 am.

    Would you believe the sell through rate for twin prams or baby buggies on eBay is almost as high as the sell through rate for ipods? Look around your local area newspapers for 'Bugaboo' or 'Bill and Ted' brand baby carriages. They sell like hotcakes - even second hand ones retain their value. I scored two in my local paper and made over $200 on each after eBay fees. I wish I could find at least one of these a week at a good price to sell.
    link hidden

    Difficult I can do right away. Impossible takes a little longer