Selling clothing on eBay is ideal for grannies to remain active, selling on eBay cannot pay any bill

[ony_chine]

I wish eBay can rebrand their clothing category to granny category, the grannies can use such to stay active, it is my suggestion to eBay because that category cannot pay bills.  eBay requirement  on clothing category is quite high yet there is no form of compensation nor palliative for sellers in the category. Unlike eBay , other platforms give incentives to categories that are more difficult to list on.  Listing in clothing category takes much time, the platform can also  be quite slow to upload listings. eBay  does not consider lot of work clothing sellers put in, instead eBay is  always trying to scrape little gain made by the sellers.  So in other words, by the time eBay removes their sellers fees charged  on "sales+ shipping", collects money for shipping if the seller ships with eBay;  removes 7% to 13% advertising fees; very little or nothing is left for the seller in clothing category.  eBay will make sure that most of your sales are via promoted listing so that they scrape  off as much funds from sellers as much as possible.  If a seller in clothing set his/her  advert rate at 3%, he/her will not sell.  You will not sell anything if you are not advertising unless you are selling it for free.  At the end of the year eBay will come and announce that they made millions/billions USD, Wow! that is great, how about your sellers? Will your sellers announce a "wow! USD" based on the type of effort, time and money the sellers put in? In this category , who pays for the pictures? who pays for storing the items? who pays for the items? Who pays  for cleaning the items?  Who pays for shipping supplies? Who pays for measuring the items and who pays for the time spent on getting the information on the sizes/others? eBay handlers need to realize that this is social media age, eBay  cannot run this race alone in this age. The earlier the handlers of eBay realize that the dynamics of online commerce has changed, the better for eBay. eBay has been in the game for a long time so I expect her handlers to be proactive in terms of making sure there are benefits/incentives for her sellers.   Almost every  social media platforms sell so eBay should not be dwelling in her old glory.  eBay got the opportunity of taking advantage of her large subscribers and begin early enough to take care her sellers now, that opportunity will not be there for long. It better for eBay to put her eggs in a long term basket than putting her eggs in a short term porous basket.

[buyselljack2016]

Did not read past the first 2-3 sentences.

Seems that many sell clothing on here, and make a profit doing so.

Anyone that can not make money on eBay has a flawed "business model".

[ony_chine]

Show me one person making money if that person is not a retired granny, they are just in it to be active. Some people made money from it in the past, I don't know abt this present regime

[iart]

I agree. There are a lot of hobby sellers in here. People who make a buck a sale and brag about it to their friends.

The problem with them is that they depress prices for the professional sellers. How can you compete with someone who doesn't even make pizza money?

[ony_chine]

I concur

[simba6]

Clothing is way over saturated here.  Flea-markets were never the best get rich quick method. 

The rare painting you found for 5.00 could happen but it's unlikely. 

[theteamsetguy]

In order to be successful whether on EBay or another platform. Sellers need to be able to calculate their total costs to sell an item. It seems you have a good grasp of that. Next a sellers needs to figure out what something will realistically sell for. Subtract from the selling price the totals costs and minus what a seller thinks is reasonable profit and that will tell the seller what they can pay for the item. 

For example I shoot for a 45% to 50% net after all expenses which means I can’t pay more than about 25% of an items selling price to acquire the item. It is not easy to find inventory at those levels but it can be done if your resourceful. 

The problem with selling clothing is the level of competition whether on EBay or any other platform. The barriers to entry into selling clothing is almost nonexistent. Anyone can go to the many thrift stores and find new or gently used clothing to try and sell. Sellers of clothing also have to compete with people just looking to clear out their closets for new clothes and aren’t necessarily trying to make a profit.

I honestly think the fees to sell on eBay are reasonable unlike what many other here think. The issue is many sellers pay too much for inventory. 

[ony_chine]

Yes , but eBay can do better to sustain professional sellers

[tdumonde2014]

Are you suggesting that eBay identify all the "Grannies" and kick them off? What about the larger sellers (>1000) complaining about the smaller sellers (<500), should we kick them off as well?

[ony_chine]

Competition yes but  eBay has control over her platform. If eBay  cares about professional sellers on her platform, there are a lot of things they can do to create a balance in that category. 

[ony_chine]

Thats not my point, did you read through the post? I was specific about clothing category. My point is tthat  clothing category is quite demanding for professional sellers yet they don't  make a living from it. The category is ideal for retired person and dependents. It doesn't pay bills

[silverstatetreasureboxes]

@ony_chine 

What is your definition of this " granny" your talking about? Do you understand that a woman can become a grandmother at age 34+ if conditions are right?

[yuzuha]

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@iart wrote:

I agree. There are a lot of hobby sellers in here. People who make a buck a sale and brag about it to their friends.

The problem with them is that they depress prices for the professional sellers. How can you compete with someone who doesn't even make pizza money?

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Which is entirely within their rights. Or are you implying that people shouldn't be allowed to want to clear out their closets and make a few bucks in the process?

[theteamsetguy]

Have you thought of selling something else besides clothing? Something with less competition and better margins?

[ony_chine]

My definition of grannies is figurative. I meant retirees, dependents and people who sell as a hobby . A provider cannot depend on clothing sales in this present regime, unless that person is not in USA