OT: Is there any ebay powersellers here?

slick69 · Jun 27, 2007

I figured there would be, since a lot of people here aren't too keen on punching a clock and like to make money in more unconventional ways.

I think I'm going to give it a whirl. I was thinking of buying a box of shirts, probably about 75 for about $750 and try to sell them on ebay. They seem to go for $40 and higher on ebay. The shirts are Ralph Lauren polo's.

Has anyone had success with this? Is the ebay market saturated? Is it more of a pain in the nuts than it's worth? Any opinions from someone who does this would be appreciated, because I can't find anything of any use at any work at home, entrpreneur, or ebay forums.

Rolltideroll · Jun 27, 2007

I am a powerseller.As long as there are not 100 sellers selling exactly what you have,then you are ok.If they are getting over $40 most of the time like you say,you will do well.
Start the bidding as low as you can and still be satisfied with($19.99-$24.99??).Once you get the first bid then people are more interested.(If somebody else wants it then it looks more desirable)
Also some people will not bid on a item at $40 but if they start bidding and watching a item at lower amount and they watch the price go higher then they will end up paying $40 or more because they already feel involved in the item.
Try to make the auction end at a time when the most people can view it.I have always found Sunday evening to be the best.Most people are home and are just trying to kill 2-3 hours before the new week starts.

Biggamer3 · Jun 27, 2007

Its a no lose, do completed listings on your item, if the return is more than 20 dollars on average, you have to get the shirts at 10 bucks a piece

anxietyattack · Jun 27, 2007

Does anyone know any good items to sell on Ebay besides old stuff you find at garage sales? i really cannot think of anything else right now except for obscure VHS's that i occasionally get. Back in Fall of 2005 was the best. Wendy's restaurants were giving away free airline tickets thru airtran airlines. The catch was that you needed 64 UPC's off of the cups. My buddies and i would go out each night and get as many cups as possible at like 8 different Wendy's. It was a heck of a lot of fun and they sold like cake on ebay even though the ebay bastards kept kicking us off.

shdw01 · Jun 27, 2007

how are you getting 75 $40 shirts for $750?

D2bets · Jun 27, 2007

shdw01 said:
how are you getting 75 $40 shirts for $750?

Maybe he has contacts in China or Thailand.

slick69 · Jun 27, 2007

shdw01 said:
how are you getting 75 $40 shirts for $750?

You buy them bulk at wholesale prices. They are all over the internet. Liquidation dot com is one place. There are many more. I have absolutely know idea who the more reliable wholesalers are. You could end up with fake knockoffs, I suppose.

WVU · Jun 28, 2007

before you waste your time and money on trying to be a powerseller let me give you some hints.

If you can guy a box of shirts for $750 then so can everyone else and believe me everyone else will. Power sellers do not buy shirts for $10 and sell them for $40. More likely they buy shirts for $10 and sell them for $10 plus $4 shipping and handling. Most powersellers make their money on volume. They are happy to make 10% on their products as they intend to sell 1000's of them.

Anyone trying to get into ebay powerselling at this time will have a very difficult time making any money. The competition is fierce. You are better off buying junk at yardsales and taking pics of them and selling the $.25 pieces of crap for $2.

I used to buy and sell laptops on ebay. I never touched the product and had them shipped directly to the buyers from the factory. Many others did the same thing. I quit once I realized that people had no problem selling a $600 latop for $15 profit.

doda · Jun 28, 2007

slick69 said:
I figured there would be, since a lot of people here aren't too keen on punching a clock and like to make money in more unconventional ways.

I think I'm going to give it a whirl. I was thinking of buying a box of shirts, probably about 75 for about $750 and try to sell them on ebay. They seem to go for $40 and higher on ebay. The shirts are Ralph Lauren polo's.

Has anyone had success with this? Is the ebay market saturated? Is it more of a pain in the nuts than it's worth? Any opinions from someone who does this would be appreciated, because I can't find anything of any use at any work at home, entrpreneur, or ebay forums.

did you learn about selling tshirts from a recent 2+2 thread from the B&I forum?

Rolltideroll · Jun 28, 2007

the term "powerseller" does not mean that much anyway.Its just a logo that pople see.Everything else is the same(fees etc.).I think you have to sell $1000 a month before ebay recognizes you anyway.But other than having a logo next to your name.it does not mean much.

All you need to worry about is selling and making money and if you sell a lot then you will get the powerseller status (for whatever it is worth).
What WVU says makes sense that if somebody is selling shirts for $10 each to you then they would do the same for many other sellers.(or why dont the vendors that sell to you,open a ebay store and have a greater profit margin?An ebay store is pretty easy to do)

All this does contradict the fact that the shirts are going for $40 on ebay right now and that you can get them for $10 each.If it is the exact same product then it seems you should make money.

BillyWaltersJr+ · Jun 28, 2007

slick69 said:
You buy them bulk at wholesale prices. They are all over the internet. Liquidation dot com is one place. There are many more. I have absolutely know idea who the more reliable wholesalers are. You could end up with fake knockoffs, I suppose.

The best wholesalers require you to have a wholesaler's license (name may be different from state to state), and are fairly public. Most do not even have a web site, just their contact information that you may be able to find online or on wholesaler publications. You would then need to write/call the wholesale company and they will ask you what your plans are (what volume yo will be buying) as well as asking you for your Tax ID number and wholesaler's license and some other stuff as well.

Complicated but you get better quality items at better prices if you buy from REAL wholesalers and not from some "liquidation" or big online "wholesalers", because chances are with those the quality of the items is poor and/or the items are more expensive than a "real" wholesaler would generally charge.

BillyWaltersJr+ · Jun 28, 2007

A good business to get into on eBay would be FTA receivers (you can by these wholesale, search under Viewsat, Pansat, Coolsat, etc), old Dish Network receivers and cards (generally ROM102) that you can find at garage sales, etc.

The market for that type of stuff should only continue to expand over the next few years. A few years ago it was barely a dot on eBay but not it hs really expanded and there are quite a few people, many not even on eBay (starting your own e commerce web site is not a bad idea, also) that make their livings selling FTA receivers and other satellite accessories.

Rolltideroll · Jun 28, 2007

Anyone trying to get into ebay powerselling at this time will have a very difficult time making any money. The competition is fierce. You are better off buying junk at yardsales and taking pics of them and selling the $.25 pieces of crap for $2.

Sometimes you can hit gold at garage sales.I found 6 old Mountain Dew bottles at a garage sale.I had seen these bottles around before.They were called mountain Dew hillbilly bottles (I think).I put them on ebay and got $800!!

:money8:

slick69 · Jun 28, 2007

Intrinzik, Rollitderoll, WVU- thanks for the valuable responses. You probably saved me some time and money.

CookieNBabe · Jun 28, 2007

WVU said:
before you waste your time and money on trying to be a powerseller let me give you some hints.

If you can guy a box of shirts for $750 then so can everyone else and believe me everyone else will. Power sellers do not buy shirts for $10 and sell them for $40. More likely they buy shirts for $10 and sell them for $10 plus $4 shipping and handling. Most powersellers make their money on volume. They are happy to make 10% on their products as they intend to sell 1000's of them.

Anyone trying to get into ebay powerselling at this time will have a very difficult time making any money. The competition is fierce. You are better off buying junk at yardsales and taking pics of them and selling the $.25 pieces of crap for $2.

I used to buy and sell laptops on ebay. I never touched the product and had them shipped directly to the buyers from the factory. Many others did the same thing. I quit once I realized that people had no problem selling a $600 latop for $15 profit.

This is the truth as I know it re: Powerselling. You can make money, but you will be doing it with this kind of margin. Be prepared.

VinnytheWorm · Jun 28, 2007

used to re-sell tickets on ebay. Would get presale passwords from different forums and pull great seats. With competition later on it was becoming much more difficult to find good seats. With most events only the really good seats would make any money.

rouxdogg · Jun 28, 2007

MoneyShot said:
used to re-sell tickets on ebay. Would get presale passwords from different forums and pull great seats. With competition later on it was becoming much more difficult to find good seats. With most events only the really good seats would make any money.

yep, also used to do a lot of ticket sales on ebay. nfl playoff tickets can be gold for the right games and cities. Also, be careful of buying and selling fake merchandise on eBay. Plenty of that going around. GL.