eBay to be Crushed By Competitors

[friendly_lamar]

eBay fees keep going up more and more, while sites like Amazon keep lowering their prices more and more. I used to be able to sell items with free shipping and still make a worthwhile profit. Now, I barely pull in 50% of my final sale value. The rest all goes to shipping and fees. Even on cheap to ship items, in order to compete with Amazon, etc. prices, I have to undercut myself more and more. I've been selling on eBay for 13 years now, but after my last few sales for the first time in awhile this month, I'm wondering if it is even worth it.

So what happens to eBay then, when the only people who can turn a decent profit here are vendors selling cheap **bleep** and knock off products from China? For me, I'm raising the prices on all my items, to try and turn a profit. If people won't buy them at that price, then oh well. I'll try selling on other sites like Craigslist and Amazon instead, and if I can't sell there, just donate the stuff to charity. eBay is such a scam for sellers. It's very sad how crooked this company has become and I think sooner rather than later it will cause a lot of problems for this site, as less and less users shop here.

[luckythewinner]

You started off strong with "eBay to be Crushed By Competitors". 

But then you limped home with "as less and less users shop here". 

You'e got to dress this one up a bit!

[siayan]

If you need 50% profit to survive and your competition can survive on 10% you are out. Time to regroup.

[m60driver]

Ebay has a less efficient business model than does Amazon, with the efficiency of centralized shipping being a major part of that advantage. In capitalism the most efficient wins and the less efficient disappear.  If and when tax payer subsidy of e-packets mailed from China cease Ebay will collapse.  But not today.  I can only hope that perhaps Amazon, or someone else, will purchase Ebay's auction platform and its business platform that allows individuals to sell vintage, used, and one of a kind items to other individuals.

[vintagecraze50]

One word--VOLUME! 10 % of 20,000 items is aok.

[kim_y_buran]

I am sure eBay will head the way of mp3 any day now.

[dhbookds]

May be something is wrong with the prices at which you purchase?

[secretsquirrelisnowhere]

eBay Inc, a global commerce leader, delivered revenue for the quarter ended December 31, 2017 of $2.6 billion, increasing 9% on an as-reported basis and 7% on a foreign exchange neutral basis, primarily driven by gross merchandise volume of $24.4 billion, up 10% on an as-reported basis and 7% on an FX-Neutral basis.

[yuzuha]

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@dhbookds wrote:

May be something is wrong with the prices at which you purchase?

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Bingo.  If you can't keep your prices competitive and still profit, you're paying too much to acquire your merchandise in the first place.

[annadryl]

With respect, you're calling ebay a scam(a generic gripe word anymore) but it sounds like your real problem is with the shippers' rates. Ebay doesn't control that, and the shippers themselves really can't either. Just wait. Being inflation, it only goes up with time.

Also, you're aware that buyers have to buy a membership to really benefit from Amazon's perks right?

[la.bella.boutique]

I’m fed up with the eBay fees and that fact that they always protect the buyer over the sellers. The sellers are the ones paying them. I was okay with paying 10% when they were consistently making me money.... but these last couple of months I’m paying them for all these listings and barely making sales. These last 3 months i have paid them 30% of what I made and that wasn’t all profit. I’m not a large company. I’m a full time college student who sells from home. I used to be able to pay my mortgage and household bills with what I made on here. Now I have no idea what I’m even paying eBay for. There should be a limit to what they can charge in fees based on what they actually sold on their site.

[membersinceaug2001]

Be careful selling on Amazon.  Just a couple of undeserved negatives will get you booted.  No one leaves positive feedback anymore.

They are too automated, thinking the world and people work like a computer.  Gotta wonder what their employees even do all day!

[kim_y_buran]

You've never sold on Amazon?  Oh, you have so much to discover!  

[lewisburggold]

Maybe we should all move to china.  Best regards

[clu3]

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@friendly_lamar wrote:

eBay fees keep going up more and more, while sites like Amazon keep lowering their prices more and more. I used to be able to sell items with free shipping and still make a worthwhile profit. Now, I barely pull in 50% of my final sale value. The rest all goes to shipping and fees. Even on cheap to ship items, in order to compete with Amazon, etc. prices, I have to undercut myself more and more. I've been selling on eBay for 13 years now, but after my last few sales for the first time in awhile this month, I'm wondering if it is even worth it.

So what happens to eBay then, when the only people who can turn a decent profit here are vendors selling cheap **bleep** and knock off products from China? For me, I'm raising the prices on all my items, to try and turn a profit. If people won't buy them at that price, then oh well. I'll try selling on other sites like Craigslist and Amazon instead, and if I can't sell there, just donate the stuff to charity. eBay is such a scam for sellers. It's very sad how crooked this company has become and I think sooner rather than later it will cause a lot of problems for this site, as less and less users shop here.

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I disagree that Ebay is a scam.  Once upon a time, you literally could sell anything for decent prices, but today there are other big online sellers (from Amazon to Target) with BRAND NEW stuff at extremely low prices.  Goodwill and the endless list of online auctioneers make competition tough as well.   Gab, LL Bean, Eddie Bauer have 20 to 40% off pretty much 24/7.  It's not really Ebay's fault, it's the nature of the WWW beast.  It's fast, easy and competitive.

On a $13 pair of jeans, 10% to ebay, 3% to paypal (plus the .30 cent fee = 2.3%), shipping at the minimum rate of first class (but I wonder if it didn't need be priority by weight) 20 to 46%.  No wonder you're lucky to come away with about $5, less your cost it's not pretty.  The only way to make that work, would be selling very large volume.

First, do away with free shipping and (at minimum) charge a flat rate to offset at least part of the expense.  Raise the price to 19.99 with best offer and automatically decline anything less than 30% off.  Customer is still getting the item at nearly 75% off retail, including the shipping expense.

I sell on Ebay as well as a local multi-vendor shop.  My fees on Ebay are sort of a bargain compared to the physical location rent (but Ebay is more labor intensive).  I'm of the opinion that USPS is causing the most havoc. 

P.S.  I can't believe LL Bean smartwool socks sell for that much used.  I'm pretty sure I tossed some in the garbage not long ago. Ugh! 

Also,  I've been reading that men are less price concious than women when shopping online.