Is it worth trying to compete with established ebay sellers?

I was on eBay the other day and I stumbled across a seller who had only been selling for a year but was already selling between 6 and 7 thousand items a month, he sells electronic accessories like fm transmitters, ipod accessories, mobile phone accessories etc. Most of which are probably imported from china.

As he is obviously making allot of money I thought wow I should really be doing that and as I already have the contacts to import products like his I thought yea why not, if he can do then so can I. But then I started to question if it would be possible to compete with him or if I could just sell the same stuff he was at the same price and there would be enough demand for both of us to make similar profits.

As I am still undecided on what to do I figured I would share my thoughts with you guys and see if anyone had any words of wisdom to help me figure out what to do.

Thanks in advance for all your help :D

If you have the capital to buy the items in bulk so that you can afford to sell them cheap enough to be competive, then I would say go ahead..

Most shoppers are looking for a deal, they don't care if you are david or if you are golieth. they just want the item at the cheapest cost..

Most of the sellers you see selling these types of things are buying in huge quanities so that they are getting a very low 'cost per unit' price. This might mean buying litterally thousands of units at one time. then they only mark up the units a few bucks per unit to keep the selling price as low as possible. They make their money just as you said by selling 6 and 7 thousand units per month, but only making a couple of dollars profit per unit. Selling 6 thousand fm transmitters per month and only making one dollar profit per item is a very low profit margin, but at the end of the month is still $6000.00 in profit at a $1.00 mark up.....That's how these guys work. They don't make much per unit,,,it's the amount of items that they sell....

The avreage seller on ebay can't afford to buy ten thousand units at a time, therefore they cannot get the low 'cost per unit' that the big seller is getting by buying in large quantities.

I agree with gulfy, but you can buy them in smaller quantities and sell them on Craigslist.

More traffic, electronics are good sellers, and no listing fees when they sell!

You dont really have to worry much about being a competitor if your running general auctions and doing the best you can to bring traffic to your store. There are many big sellers in specific fields but that does not mean you cannot make a ton of money selling the same stuff.

He most probably import from China,where teem with electronic products.Maybe you could find a good supplier providing you a more competitive price! Then you will get another advantage!

Lots and lots of big sellers disapear off Ebay daily for numourous reasons, if you have teh sources and can offer a competitive price then take teh plunge and see what happens..

If you have an idea, go for it...you never know, it could work out.

I am a novice in selling merchandize online. I have been doing research for several months now in trying to find products to sell online at profitable margins. I hate to say this but the hardest thing has been finding items at low enough prices. Most of the wholesalers, liquidators, dropshippers don't provide low enough enough prices to compete or take away customers from well established sellers from ebay. I finally found a supplier with what I like and is in the process of setting up online business. However, I would advise that you really take out your microscope and do your market research for weeks and months and compare prices given by your suppliers versus ebay or other auctio sites. This is the only way to ensure that you are not foolishly buying bunch of stuff to sell. Goodluck.

maqsmart,

unfortuantely thats the real truth, you see the wholesalers, liquidators etc all sell on ebay to get rid of their stock, more than likely end of line.

So in effect, you are competing against your supplier...and its a NO BRAINER.

Thats very true what grahamg said. Most of the wholesalers are selling on ebay too and sell to you at the same time...That being said, I still advise new sellers to not try and go for all the 'HOT' items that you see on ebay. Everyday items can and do sell just as well as the big ticket items and in most cases can bring in the same amount of profit per item as the hot items do.

Most people think that you have to be selling iphones, playstation 3, and wii's to make money on ebay and that is probably one of the biggest myths about ebay..In actuality these are the things that you should be avoiding...

Everyday household items will make you much more in actual profits than electronic or designer goods will...Keep in mind that not everyone lives close to a decent mall or has access to good shopping areas...so they turn to online shopping to get their items,,plus with the cost of gas and the saving of time,,shopping online is much more attractive these days than driving downtown to hunt for what you need..

To prove my point, I was selling Merle Norman makeup and buying it at retail prices from the local store and selling it on ebay and couldn't keep enough on hand to keep up with the demand. Most all of my customers told me that the reason they bought from me was that they liked the makeup, but did not live close to a store, so they shopped on line..One of my daughter actually sells coffee mugs and kitchen decor which she get at local thrift and dollar stores and she makes about 2-3 grand a month on ebay. Who would think that you could make money selling coffee mugs??

So my advice on trying to find good products at good prices is to look for things that everybody else are not trying to sell..More than likely you can still find them at decent prices...and sell them for decent profits...

Thats very true what grahamg said. Most of the wholesalers are selling on ebay too and sell to you at the same time...That being said, I still advise new sellers to not try and go for all the 'HOT' items that you see on ebay. Everyday items can and do sell just as well as the big ticket items and in most cases can bring in the same amount of profit per item as the hot items do.

Most people think that you have to be selling iphones, playstation 3, and wii's to make money on ebay and that is probably one of the biggest myths about ebay..In actuality these are the things that you should be avoiding...

Everyday household items will make you much more in actual profits than electronic or designer goods will...Keep in mind that not everyone lives close to a decent mall or has access to good shopping areas...so they turn to online shopping to get their items,,plus with the cost of gas and the saving of time,,shopping online is much more attractive these days than driving downtown to hunt for what you need..

To prove my point, I was selling Merle Norman makeup and buying it at retail prices from the local store and selling it on ebay and couldn't keep enough on hand to keep up with the demand. Most all of my customers told me that the reason they bought from me was that they liked the makeup, but did not live close to a store, so they shopped on line..One of my daughter actually sells coffee mugs and kitchen decor which she get at local thrift and dollar stores and she makes about 2-3 grand a month on ebay. Who would think that you could make money selling coffee mugs??

So my advice on trying to find good products at good prices is to look for things that everybody else are not trying to sell..More than likely you can still find them at decent prices...and sell them for decent profits...

Fantastic Stuff!!! :mrgreen: