Ten Reasons Why You Should Not Be an EBay Seller
Number 10 reason to not be an EBay Seller: Fees
EBay sellers’ fees get higher every year. To make things worse, most of the fees are charged before anything is even sold. Therefore, if you list that $1000.00 dress for $100.00, you will be charged at least $5.00 to list it. For an item that valuable, you will not want to take the chance of listing it too low. If you do list it low and add a reserve price, to ensure a minimum sale, you will be charged extra for that.
Number 9 reason to not be an EBay Seller: Time
Finding, buying and listing items on EBay can be terribly time consuming. Often the profit made the item equates to slave labor if you calculate the time spent vs. the money made. Do the math.
Number 8 reason to not be an EBay Seller: Over saturation
Many former EBay sellers will tell you that there was just too much competition for the items they sell on EBay. Even when you do find an original item on EBay that sells very well, it will just be a matter of time before others jump on your bandwagon. For me, last year I was making a great deal of money selling plus sized women’s clothing, but before I knew it there were other people offer similar clothes for a lot less. If they have more money to invest and better resources for getting the items, they can quickly put you out of business.
Number 7 reason to not be an EBay Seller: EBay Surprises
Out of no-where, you may find that you successful EBay business has come to a grinding halt. This is because EBay may decide to change the way items are searched for, or give more support to another category, making yours harder to find. The artist category has suffered the most in the past years from such surprises.
Number 6 reason to not be an EBay Seller: Shipping
Shipping EBay items can be easy at times, but they can also be a pain. As postage, prices get higher and higher, the shipping rates can turn off prospective customers. To keep shipping prices reasonable, many sellers have stopped charged handling fees, and so end up eating the costs of shipping materials and time spent packing, and dropping off boxes. You must consider shipping costs and time spent when setting your prices. In additions if you ship out of the country, you HAVE to go to the post office and fill out customs forms. This will cost you more time, hence, more money.
Number 5 reason to not be an EBay Seller: Writing descriptions
EBay sellers these days are sophisticated. They expect full and detailed, and even entertaining descriptions. Things like poor spelling and bad grammar may make him or her move on to another person’s item. For some people, especially new seller learning to write a correct description takes time and possibly even money. Whatever you do, do not copy someone else’s description word for word. They can find out and will cause problems for you.
Number 4 reason to not be an EBay Seller: Being paid
Once you find or buy the item, list it, and sell it, you will still need to get your final payment. If you use pay pal to receive payments (the quickest and most efficient way), they will take another bite out of your profit. If you accept checks, they could bounce, causing you excess fees, and stress. If you demand money orders, you may end up waiting a long time for the money to arrive; this can make keeping your items to be shipped out organized and your process inefficient.
Number 3 reason to not be an EBay Seller: Returns
An average of five percent of EBay customers return the merchandise. It may not be what they expected. It may not fit. They may be fickle. They may even be trying to defraud you. Failure to accept a return can cause a negative hit on your feedback and even jeopardize your future sales.
Number 2 reason to not be an EBay Seller: Crazy People
It is difficult to control who bids on your items without seriously limiting potential sales. Every now and then, you will get a crazy, unreasonable bidder who will go out of their way to make your life a living hell.
…And the Number 1 reason to not be an EBay Seller: Scammers
There are people who purposely target EBay Sellers to defraud them. You must wary and aware of whom you are dealing with. This however takes time and experience to learn the difference between legitimate offers and fraudulent offers.
