So, are you an eBay seller? Where do you guys get your products and how do we buyers know who to buy from and who to stay away from? I’ve heard of Alibaba Express and DHGate and know about their knock off Microsoft products. But there are so many authentic products made in China, how do we know which ones are which? How do we find a good seller on eBay that we can trust?
I sell stuff periodically. I don't have a store or anything. I just sell things we don't need/ want anymore.
I sold my very first item on ebay the other day. It was a swimsuit I had ordered that came in the wrong size and it was from a no-returns store. I know people though who go to garage sales, get a whole box of say stuffed animals for .50, and sell each one for 1.00. Makes themselves $10 or so in the process.
I also know a lot of people who go to garage sales and thrift stores and sell clothing, books and toys for $5 a pop on ebay. I usually sell gift cards that I don't want and stuff like that on ebay. I haven't sold anything in a while. Now I trade things on Listia.
I've been an eBay seller since May and I'm on there everyday. I started out by selling clothes I wasn't interested in and it grew to buying things from wholesale websites and selling for a profit. I also sell expensive men's watches because my father and brother are avid watch collectors who have a lot they don't want. A lot of people question the authenticity of products on eBay and I always say, if you're not comfortable with the prospect of receiving a fake item, don't buy it. There is a small handfull of sellers who will try to rip the buyer off, but for the most part, sellers are pretty honest. eBay is on the buyer's side 99% of the time as well, so the buyer has a lot of protection, compared to the lack of protection the seller has.
DHGate and Alibaba are 99% Chinese sellers. That doesn't mean they all sell knockoffs, but you have to be really careful when buying there if you're looking for something that's original. I haven't used eBay as a seller and probably never will. Our post office's prices for international shipping are so expensive that I could never compete with other people's prices. I am a frequent buyer, though.
I agree with the two sites as knock-off sites, there are ebay policies in place that prevent you from selling these knock-off as it is now illegal in the US. You must be careful. I have been selling/buying on ebay since 2003 (jabenero2531 with 100% feedback), I started off by selling sports cards that I had obtained or didn't want and knew I could make money off of. A cool feature that ebay offers too is a place to see how much you've made since you've joined (if you are a seller). In my 10+ years, I have made only $5500 but still money in my pocket I didn't otherwise have. I would also assume that have either spent this much on ebay or surpassed it.
I have only purchased electronic replacement parts from ebay. I have thought about selling but like the starting post I am not sure where to get products to sale.
I've never bought or sold on eBay. My husband buys things from time to time. I usually buy things from the amazon marketplace. I end up with so many amazon gift cards. It's easy to use them there, and some of the sellers participate in the super saver shipping deal.
I used to sell on Ebay quite regularly. I don't any more, though. The fees are just too insane. Between Ebay upping their fees and PayPal increasing theirs, it's bad enough. But then postage costs went up, too. It's just not worth it any more.
When we were relocating to a smaller property in Spain, I sold a lot of stuff on Ebay, and made a lot of money. One mall steam engine my husband made went for over £400 - we were hoping for £100, but two or three buyers really wanted it, and it went from £200 to the final price in the last 20 minutes of the auction. I'd advise to check on the seller's feedback and reputation before buying anything, then buy something cheap, and see what the service is. I used to buy wholesale stuff to sell on car boot sales in the UK, and always had good experiences, but now I'm a full time freelance writer, so I don't have time for other stuff these days. I would go back to selling on Ebay like a shot if I needed to.
I haven't sold anything yet on Ebay, but I have bought items there many times already. I read that it's very unfavorable if you are a seller on Ebay, because just one dispute case from the buyer and you will lose what you earned from that item. So that's a warning already to those who intend to sell on Ebay. Anyway, a tip to see if the item is fake or not is to look at the packaging. I noticed that there are differences between the design of the original one and the fake one, especially when buying memory cards. With cellphones, it's tricky, because they don't post the picture of the box set with the contents. You'll only know if it's fake or not when you received the item already.
I've been an eBay seller on and off since 2001. When I sell on there, it's usually my own hand drawn art. I do like selling my art to people that appreciate it, but it's disappointing when the high bid is low on a piece that I put a lot of time and work into. Having a low starting bid is a gamble. Sometimes the bidding goes high and sometimes you're just stuck losing money on a piece you worked on for days. Oh well, that's eBay.
I have a friend who sells his own artwork on Etsy. He says he gets much more value for his pieces on Etsy than he ever did on eBay.
I do not regularly sell on Ebay, but I have sold a few individual items. I can't believe how well Lululemon clothes sell on there. I sold an on old sweater from this brand because I didn't like the pattern and still made an easy $36.00. I would use it again in the future if I had items that would actually sell. I've tried to sell some other clothing with no success. I would use the site far more if I felt like I had legitimate things to sell.
I don't regularly sell, either. The only times I do sell is when I buy these sets of figures from Japan, but the only ones I really want in the set are one or two characters. Usually their sets have 6-12 pieces. I then take my extras to eBay, and they do sell. I tend to make my prices cheaper than what the regulars at eBay sell, but still at a price where I earn a bit of profit.
I sell on Ebay. Not recently but have in the past. I don't sell to people outside the U.S. and mostly sell items like hard drives, gift cards, or old toys. I don't buy electronics from outside the U.S. sellers either. That's asking for trouble.
I was a seller and I got some good customers back when I just advertise using Facebook and through word of mouth. I had only a few things to sell and the one thing that I was good at was being a fast supper and just having good and reasonable prices. Therefore I had success for the amount of time that I have been doing it.
