Ebay

In my "spare time" I've been selling quite a bit of stuff on EBay. I've been trying to figure out what sells and what doesn't. Here are my observations so far.

There are a lot of women's clothes and accessories on EBay. I believe I am seeing some designer leather purses ($300 range) still available from several years ago (same pictures and seller). Leading me to wonder just what is the actual sales rate. How many pieces remain on offer forever? I wonder if even half the stuff on EBay ever sells?

Women's clothing is a heck of a way to make money. Seems the sweet spot for most used clothing is about $20. This is typically more than the original dept store price, even if the item was on sale. I think there's two reasons for this. One, $20 may be the most you want to spend to find out it's mislabelled (a M labelled an L), smoky or smelly, wierd or cheap fabric or color, damaged, maybe not damaged but poor design or manufacturing error (sleeves too short, length too long), obnoxious prints that are inexplicably photogenic. Two, Ross (and Marshall's?) sell most items for $20. In fact, EBay is like a huge online Ross store filled with the most amazing junk with maybe 1 or 2 "needles in a haystack."

Many sellers of women's clothing seem to be buying sale items and then reselling them on EBay. I buy a lot of Calvin Klein T's from one seller but with the Best Offer prices she accepts, and what I know these tops go for, I dont think she's making more than a few dollars a piece, if that.

I love Best Offer but the general public doesn't seem to. Auctions are what people want, to preserve the illusion that they'll be able to get the item for a "good" price. This is a trap for the seller, for if your item is not in very high demand, it may just sell for a penny. Sharper than a serpent's tooth is trekking down to the post office with a $80 item that just sold for $0.01 and a shipping fee that doesn't cover the actual shipping cost. Now I start my auctions at the absolute minimum I will accept for the piece, even tho it costs me 50 cents. Reserve pricing doesn't work, a determined seller will use their throwaway EBay account to bid up the price to find your limit. And don't even start with me about seller's "friendly bidders" that come out of nowhere once you've made a bid, to drive your price up.

Best Offer was supposed to be the "out" for Fixed price auctions. I always put a Best Offer option on my fixed price auctions, but have not gotten much response on this even with items that have a lot of watchers. The watchers will stand by and let the auction close without even trying to low ball. Many items have to be repeatedly relisted in order to sell.

There are two types of buyers on EBay, the snipers and the out-sniped. Luckily for seasoned buyers, even after all this time, there seems to be a steady stream of newbies to EBay that don't know that the only way to avoid bidding wars is to bid in the last 10 seconds. It's still fairly easy to be the single sniper on an auction. And if not, you learn quickly how to determine your walkaway price. The price above which you won't be sorry to see that item sell to another bidder.

eBay has sellers over a barrel. It's a safe way to buy and sell in that a private seller doesn't have to have complete strangers come over to her house, like Craigslist does. For this privilege EBay takes 10% of the purchase price plus an extra dollar as some kind of "shipping fee" fee. I don't understand the dollar fee, EBay claims to provide reduced shipping cost and free delivery confirmation, but the dollar surcharge erases that benefit. I've sold $475 worth of stuff but now owe EBay $65. Just not sure Ebay really contributed that much value to the transaction. Combine that with the drastic markdowns required in order to sell things, can the vast majority of sellers really be making money on Ebay?