Any ebay sellers here?

[disneysteve]

I was just wondering how many fellow ebayers are here. I've been selling on ebay since 1997. As I ease into retirement, my plan is to increase my ebay activity which was relatively dormant when I was working FT. I dropped to PT 2 months ago and currently have 50 items listed.


I've been selling collectibles since 1986, first with a mail order catalog that grew to 40+ pages, then moving online in 1994, had my own website for a while, advertised in various collector publications, and sold in person at antique/collectibles shows from NY to VA.


I really enjoy selling stuff. It has never felt like work to me and it's something I'll keep doing as long as I can do it. We have plenty of stock in the basement and garage so I'm not actively buying items for resale at this point, but if I ever get through what we already have, I'm not opposed to restocking.


I started selling strictly Disney memorabilia but gradually expanded to nearly anything I could get cheap and sell for a profit. I'm currently selling a lot of stuff from my late cousin's house. He was an antique car enthusiast so he had numerous car models and hundreds of magazines. I've already sold nearly 600 magazines since July and have a few more cartons in the garage.

 

[38Chevy454]

I sell on ebay for my home-based business. Also have a business website where customers can purchase directly. Mine is related to my old car hobby and agree that it doesn't really seem like work. I've had the business now for 14 years. Mainly a tax write-off with all the allowed expenses after all is done for the year. Which was more valuable when working, but is still beneficial in retirement. Anything that reduces taxes I have to pay is a good thing.
I also sell occasional other items on ebay, just one-time sales of non-business items. Ebay fees are what they are, it is what you pay for the exposure and service they provide. Biggest issue lately is that shipping is getting quite expensive for the little guy that doesn't have the big discounted shipping contracts. Even though buyer pays, it makes the total cost higher.

 

[OldShooter]

I've been on eBay since 1998, current feedback score 873, but I have used it solely to buy and sell items that I need or no longer need. A number of years ago, though, I substantially reduced my selling activity and have moved it to places like CraigsList and special interest forums. The main reason for this is eBay's high fees and incredible arrogance wrt sellers. I recall one time where I sold a 2-disk set from the Teaching Company and eBay would not permit me to charge adequate shipping. Their (until recently) requirement that I offer PayPal and eat the fees was another factor. A couple of years ago I stupidly accepted a bid from Mexico, sent the goods, and they disappeared. No problem for eBay; they just charged me back for what I was paid. Never mind that the law is that ownership passes to the recipient when an item is shipped via a common carrier.

The places I sell now cost nothing or nearly nothing for sellers and none tells me how to do business in any way.

I get it that for specialty items where there is a national market it's necessary for sellers to suffer whatever eBay chooses to dish out to them, but it's rare for me and I try very hard to not get trapped into doing it.

@38Chevy454 mentions shipping. OT for this thread but I recently discovered https://www.pirateship.com/ and have made a few discounted shipment that went well.

 

[captain3d]

Got annoyed with EBay recently when listing a $500 item. My first sell in a year or so. I was told that I could not list it as my history was not good enough and my account was limited.

My account is close to 20 years old 700 ratings at 100%

I have to phone them to get my limit raised.

 

[disneysteve]

Ebay fees are what they are, it is what you pay for the exposure and service they provide. Biggest issue lately is that shipping is getting quite expensive for the little guy that doesn't have the big discounted shipping contracts. Even though buyer pays, it makes the total cost higher.

Agree on both points.


Fees have steadily climbed over the years, but it is still so much easier than packing up our van at dawn to drive to a show where we spend 3 hours setting up, 6 hours selling, and 3 hours repacking, and then the drive home. Now I just snap a pic on my phone and have an item listed in minutes.


Shipping is a big deterrent for me because I sell a lot of small lower priced items. At a show, it was easy to sell a $5 mug or even a $1 Happy Meal toy but that's impossible online. To move the cheap items now I need to create lots of related items which is sometimes hard. The good thing, though, is that I still have a lot of stock from 20+ years ago when we did the shows and things that were $5 or $10 items then are now $25+ items today making the shipping cost less of an issue.

 

[OldShooter]

G ... I was told that I could not list it as my history was not good enough and my account was limited. My account is close to 20 years old 700 ratings at 100% ....

Typical eBay arrogance. Sellers pay the bills but get treated like dirt.

 

[disneysteve]

ebay has definitely changed over time in ways that favor large sellers over little guys like me, even though that's how the service started. The founder wanted a place to sell PEZ dispensers.


Still, many of the changes have been good ones. Integrating the payment system was a huge one. Early on, I'd sell an item, wait for the buyer to mail me a check, have to wait for the check to clear or ship the item and take the risk of the check bouncing. Then PayPal came along and payment became instant. And now it's all handled directly through ebay and is even simpler.


If you want to sell internationally, they now have the Global Shipping program. You just list your item normally with US postage. If a foreign buyer buys it, you ship it to a US address and ebay handles it from there. They charge the buyer the added cost and they handle customs forms and such. It's totally seamless for the seller.


So not all changes have been bad ones.

 

[RetiredAndLovingIt]

Been an EBAY seller for over 15 years now but these days sell practically nothing. I will always try to sell or give away item locally first then resort to EBAY if I can't.
I did notice recently that EBAY has a new limited shipping service right now for items under 3 oz but it's for trading cards and coins, 53 cents to ship 1 oz to but is not allowing it on other categories at this time. It seems to me that trading card and coins might have a value of more than the $50 that it insures so not sure why they started with these.

https://pages.ebay.com/seller-center/shipping/ebay-standard-envelope.html

 

[Midpack]

Over the past 20 years or so I've had 108 sales on eBay for almost $11K gross, but I'm not very active anymore. It was very handy during my decluttering phase long ago. It used to be a great place to sell when auctions were the norm, but it's overrun with pros now and eBay's take is much too high now IMO at 12.55%+. And PayPal screwed me over once on an eBay sale, which further soured me - though I know they booted PayPal (to increase their take). eBay is my last resort, and with the new 1099 reporting in 2022 I probably won't bother with eBay. You can't beat the audience size if you have something unusual to sell, but otherwise it's no longer worth the nonsense IME.

 

[iloveyoga]

I have sold stuff on ebay since I retired eight years ago. I also enjoy selling. I mostly have done clothes and household items from our house, our parents and a few friends. It is some nice pin money and I like getting rid of stuff. Also, we do a lot of jigsaw puzzles and I sell those when we are done so they don't accumulate.

That is one of my goals, to keep the stuff cleaned out of our house so it easier to downsize later.

 

[disneysteve]

I did notice recently that EBAY has a new limited shipping service right now for items under 3 oz but it's for trading cards and coins, 53 cents to ship 1 oz to but is not allowing it on other categories at this time. It seems to me that trading card and coins might have a value of more than the $50 that it insures so not sure why they started with these.

That is a little odd.


Another problem I've run into is that I sometimes sell books or journals in a category where they fit best, but I want to ship Media Mail. However, items in those categories don't offer Media Mail as an option. I figured out a way around that by using the shipping service through Paypal so I can still print my postage at home. It's just an extra step, but still way easier than having to take everything to the post office to buy postage.

 

[disneysteve]

with the new 1099 reporting in 2022 I probably won't bother with eBay.

I've always reported my ebay income so the new rule doesn't bother me at all. And obviously it's designed to catch all of the people who haven't been properly reporting their income, so I'm okay with that.


Off topic but where the new rule will be a pain is with non-business transactions. For example, I do my mother's grocery shopping. She pays me by sending money via Zelle. It was over 3K last year which will now trigger that reporting rule. But if you're selling stuff online, you should be reporting that income anyway so the new rule doesn't really affect you.

 

[Souschef]

I have not sold anything on eBay for while, but buy a bunch of things.
When my late wife passed away, I sold her collection of Swarovski animals and other collectibles to simplify my life.


I was working at the time, and had access to our shipping department. I used their cartons and bubble wrap for all my sales.


Side story: while volunteering as a car attendant on a County Fair train, I ran into a lady who bought one of the animals.

 

[disneysteve]

Side story: while volunteering as a car attendant on a County Fair train, I ran into a lady who bought one of the animals.

I've actually met a few of my customers. I have sold a lot of Disney collectibles and we are well-traveled in the Disney fan community so sometimes those two facts cross paths.


Just a couple of weeks ago, I sold something. When the payment came in, I recognized the buyer's name. I've never met him personally but we are both active in the same Disney fan Facebook group so I included a little note with the package.

 

[obsessed]

I did notice recently that EBAY has a new limited shipping service right now for items under 3 oz but it's for trading cards and coins, 53 cents to ship 1 oz to but is not allowing it on other categories at this time. It seems to me that trading card and coins might have a value of more than the $50 that it insures so not sure why they started with these.

https://pages.ebay.com/seller-center/shipping/ebay-standard-envelope.html

It might not be clear but this program is using a standard letter size envelope so probably doesn't cover a lot of other items unless they are thin and small and it is limited to items $20 or less (or $50 for multiple listed items). I sell some trading cards with it and it works well. The tracking isn't the same as the tracking you get with a package but is rather the tracking that is used to show you what you are receiving using Informed Delivery.

 

[disneysteve]

It might not be clear but this program is using a standard letter size envelope so probably doesn't cover a lot of other items unless they are thin and small and it is limited to items $20 or less

Coincidentally, I'm currently selling a large (250 item) collection of car show dash plaques. They are 3x4" thin flat metal or plastic plaques easily shippable in a standard envelope so this could be perfect for those if they expand eligibility.

 

[travelover]

I mostly buy cheap electronic components from China, but recent international postal hikes have driven me to Amazon, though I end up buying a half dozen components when I only really need one item.


Sold a lot of stuff before we moved, but rarely sell now.

 

[COcheesehead]

eBay seller for over 20 years. We enjoy it. We specialize in photography, outdoor and bicycling stuff. We’ve sold almost $100,000 worth of goods in that time frame. Early on it was easy to do eBay arbitrage, find something cheap and flip it, but that’s harder to do these days. Folks know how to figure out the value on things easier. Today we are slowly selling off the stuff we’ve accumulated over the years. If we buy something new, the old one goes on eBay. We average about $3000 - $5000 a year and treat the proceeds as “fun” money.

 

[disneysteve]

Early on it was easy to do eBay arbitrage, find something cheap and flip it, but that’s harder to do these days. Folks know how to figure out the value on things easier.

Yep. In the early days, I was routinely (literally every weekend) buying things at yard sales for a dollar or less and selling them on ebay for 10, 20, 50 times that much. It was a goldmine. My best sale was a $1 item I sold for over $200.


The problem now is that because of ebay, almost nothing is rare anymore. Even if something was produced in a very limited quantity, like 1,000 pieces, there's a good chance that at least 100 of them are on ebay at any given time.


The other problem is that even folks who don't sell on ebay use it to look up values. So that item that used to be $1 at a yard sale is now marked $10. People cleaning out their garages don't understand that you can't get the same price at your sale that attracts 50 people that you can on an international marketplace where it's seen by millions. Thrift shops have done the same thing. I walk into Goodwill and they're charging ebay prices for things.

 

[COcheesehead]

Yep. In the early days, I was routinely (literally every weekend) buying things at yard sales for a dollar or less and selling them on ebay for 10, 20, 50 times that much. It was a goldmine. My best sale was a $1 item I sold for over $200.


The problem now is that because of ebay, almost nothing is rare anymore. Even if something was produced in a very limited quantity, like 1,000 pieces, there's a good chance that at least 100 of them are on ebay at any given time.


The other problem is that even folks who don't sell on ebay use it to look up values. So that item that used to be $1 at a yard sale is now marked $10. People cleaning out their garages don't understand that you can't get the same price at your sale that attracts 50 people that you can on an international marketplace where it's seen by millions. Thrift shops have done the same thing. I walk into Goodwill and they're charging ebay prices for things.

Completely agree.

There used to be huge velo swap meet near us once a year. I used to clean up there buying old cycling gear and flipping it on eBay. Those were the days. We still on rare occasions will find name brand outdoor gear (North face, Patagonia) at second hand stores and will flip those, but that’s just a handful of times a year.

 

[ShokWaveRider]

I sell a bit on eBay. I repair refurbish and sell URC remotes as a hobby. Mainly MX-880s (My favorite) and MX-890s. I have wound it down a bit ever since they went to their Payments system. I preferred PayPal, also by the time they are finished they take ~15% which is high. I also sell the same items on my website with is better from a fees perspective. Not so fond of them anymore.

 

[COcheesehead]

I like the new payment system. Fees and shipping are taken out of the same money pool rather than some from eBay monthly and then some from PayPal at the time of the transaction and they send my net amount within a couple days. I think it’s cleaner and less expensive. I know it depends on the price point, but I have found our total costs to sell around 9-10% which for what you get is reasonable.

 

[disneysteve]

I like the new payment system.

Absolutely.


Paypal was a huge improvement over dealing with personal checks and money orders but the new system is 100 times better. It's all seamlessly integrated. I don't need to log in to two different websites to see my fees. I don't need to manually transfer money to my account.



I was getting annoyed by ebay sending me money every time I made a sale but I realized you can change the payout frequency. Currently I do it weekly, which is still a bit much, but getting 4 payments a month is better than getting 15 or 20.

 

[Paulz]

and with the new 1099 reporting in 2022 I probably won't bother with eBay. .

This is the same decision point I arrived at last year. I'm decluttering so selling things for a loss just to get rid of them....and then get hit with a tax document. I wouldn't have minded but I literally didn't make anything. I was able to address that, but now am mindful to sell as little as possible.

 

[COcheesehead]

Letting that tax tail wag the income dog.