WHY SELL?! IS IT WORTH IT?

[oo8sunding]

eBay enables buyers to ripoff sellers with impunity! 

The only entity making money here is eBay! (What a business, pure profit!!! I wish I thought of it.)

The worst is, more than financial loss is AGGRAVATION!!!

I'm constantly debating with my self;

Where is the breaking point? 

[angelscorner17]

About a month ago I got ripped of by 2 buyers then after 3 years of selling and a 100% feed back Ebay says I was drop shipping but I always have my inventory on hand. I been selling on Amazon with good results so see you later Ebay just know that Amazon is about to destroy Ebay!

[dhbookds]

In my experience, the number of problems on ebay is very small over 14 or so years.......so is it worth it? certainly is......for me.....

Your experience may vary ........for any number of factors.....

[mtgraves7984]

If I was "constantly debating with myself"........ I'd get out.

Ups and downs and lessons learned are doable. Incessant aggravation is insanity. Good luck!

[divwido]

Is your question why sell period or why sell on eBay?

[coolections]

Looking at your feedback you have only had 2 problems out of 176. Only you can decide if that is worth it. The amount of problems compared to transactions you have looks fairly reasonable to me.

[divwido]

Keep this account open and go explore.    You will likely find that this isn't nearly as bad as you thought.  And I've sold everywhere.

[reallynicestamps]

The usual number for retail problems is one percent.
If one percent or fewer of your transactions pose a problem, you are within retail norms.

That can be in terms of number of transactions or value of transactions. It's one of those bits of information that gets tossed around without a lot of questioning.

Most long term (over five years) sellers find their problems are much lower than retail averages. We don't have to deal with employee theft or fire and flood usually. And our costs are much much lower than a Main Street (or suburban mall) shop.

When you are feeling hard done by, do take a break, have a walk in the sunshine, and keep records .

Your records will tell you whether or not this is a Bad Day or normal for July or Weird Customer of the Decade.

And you need them for your taxes.

There's a rule of thumb, for you. If you are making enough to pay taxes, you are successful.

[fashunu4eeuh]

If you are unhappy selling here, and the whole experience of it is causing you constant stress, then it might not be worth it to continue selling on eBay. 

Everyone’s breaking point will be different. For my situation, selling here brings me a good deal of satisfaction. I’ve sincerely enjoyed it. But i haven't been scammed successfully over the 10 years i’ve been an active seller. But I’m small fry, selling part-time, and don’t have to rely on this for a primary income. That undoubtably  makes a difference in terms of how much i can tolerate. 

For now, it works for me. If that stops, i’d likely look more closely at online venues such as Facebook Marketplace or something like Next Door’s app.

Whatever you decide, wish you much smoother sailing in your near future. Good luck.

[scooterpartshop]

It was a pretty good place to do business, but the seller protection policy seems purposely designed to allow buyers to scam sellers and it's made it easier for thieves to steal from sellers. So Ebay has decided it is in their long term interest to promote and facilitate friendly fraud. We've lost more to theft and fraud from Ebay buyers in the last two months than in the previous three years.  I think a pricing approach that takes into account all the thievery Ebay now facilitates, along with your own website with better pricing to drive traffic to, as well as a strict policy to report all bad buyers to sites that have bad and buyer in their title, and let the thieves know that's what you are going to do, will work around some of it.  I am waiting to see how many more problems managed payments causes, in terms of chargebacks. If Ebay handles chargebacks on your behalf like they handle not as described liars and thieves who return damaged items, your odds of winning a chargeback aren't high. Unfortunately, by allowing the bad apples to fester, you end up with good buyers going somewhere else, because prices have to go up to cover the scammers, and sellers will follow. Raise your Ebay prices, and let the customer know who and where you are. 

[powell-memorabilia]

Problem is that eBay MUST provide a buyer-friendly experience.  Yes, there will be a small percentage of buyers that abuse the system, but that is true for any retailer.  You don't think that Wal-Mart and Amazon and Etsy and etc., etc., etc. are faced with unscrupulous buyers?

[bigdeals.etc]

Because it sure beats picking my nose all day.

[monster-deals]

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@oo8sunding wrote:

Where is the breaking point? 

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Everyone's is going to be different. New sellers get taken advantage of and tend not to come back after ebay lets a buyer get away with stealing.

So far the money isn't upside down so we continue to profit...how long that stays that way we can only guess.

[luckythewinner]

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The only entity making money here is eBay!

This is simply not accurate. I put 70% of my selling price in my pocket as profit last year, and this year is shaping up the same.

What a business, pure profit!!! I wish I thought of it.

Pure profit? eBay's 13,000+ employees do not work for free.

[southern*sweet*tea]

Of course Ebay is making money - that's why they're here, to make money for their company. 

Sellers have to make their own money. Source properly, price properly and self-insure. Do  those three things and you will not lose money, you will always profit.