/biz/ - Business & Finance

Bump for interest. Ebay selling sounds like a pain in the ass from all the stories on here

>>881522

Kek

Enjoy your 15% snip off the top

Or the enforced automated return where the buyer can return 100+ days after.

Amazon loves their buyers 99.8% more than sellers while eBay is only at 99%.

They don't even have a dedicated phone number for sellers to call for complaints.

Oh and if you don't own an old Amazon acc, expect to be getting paid once or twice every month.

P.s., they do have a defect system. And it's not like eBay's where they just push your item down, they'll just suspend you until you can prove you've gotten better in a professional essay form. Or they'll just suspend you if you're selling at a lower price than the FBA price since they don't like your competition. Then they''ll ask you where you get your items from so they can steal your supplier.


>http://www.aspkin.com/forums/amazon/66998-amazon-asking-supplier-info.html

>>881575
>believing anything you read on aspkin
>absolutely max kek

Isn't the eBay final value fee 10%? Mix that in with the 2.9% from PayPal and miscellaneous insertion/listing fees and it's more or less similar. Besides, Amazon isn't even 15% for all categories.

>>881575
Mad that your amazon account got banned?

I sell on Amazon and eBay. My ebay account yields higher profit per item. Amazon yields much higher volume, thus more profit overall.

>>881582
Of course I'm mad, lol that FBA is looking nice right about now. I'd flood the gates with tons of bs if I still had my acc. I can still come back, I'd rather focus on my personal site.


>>881581
It's everywhere, even on the Amazon forums.

>>881589
Why not just use your sister's account like you did with ebay?

>>881601

Doesn't work the same way, you sell on Amazon you should know.

What's it called...the payment system whatever is the only problem.
Could reserve an IP just for Amazon, use another of my bank acc for transfer, laptop laying around for different computer.

Even my landlord can sell for me with his acc, but Taxes...etc.

Only problem is the SSN/EIN, after I sell like 1k they'll start asking for it like they did my old acc.

Don't want to waste time for only 1k before I have to make a new acc.


lol I can still hop back on my old eBay acc, ...personal site seems more legit now.

>>881602
I run two different Amazon accounts. Not at all complex. Two separate corporations. Just make sure you clear it with Amazon first.

>>881607

> Just make sure you clear it with Amazon first.

Yea...and once they pull up my unique name

>Oh anon, it seems you already own an acc
>What's this...it's suspended?
>Oh no nonononoo, we can't help you there, also we are closing your new acc

Now of course if I owned a corp, they'd let me back in...like they did those Shark Tank winners.
They actually called them up like they do big companies/start ups, asking them to sell on Amazon.

OP here. Been selling with Amazon for a couple months now. No real problems. Only 1 refund so far. The 15% + Fulfillment + FBA fees really don't matter much because my profit margins are so huge. I buy my product for $15 and sell it for $90. My target audience is also people in the upper class. I felt like more upper class people browse Amazon as it's kind of like a cleaner Ebay.

>>881645
It is. ebay is people hunting for "great deals". I started with ebay because the barriers are much lower. My main product sells for about $5 more on amazon which makes up for most of the fee difference.
The volume difference too. Didn't account for it when I started. Sent something in as mixed merch, one month's ebay supply. It was gone in a week.

>>881645

> cleaner Ebay.

I see they pay you well as well

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9G4yiO1Cmv4

(3:20)

>>881654

Btw, any news on Etsy 2.o?

>>881656
They're accepting submissions. Still category limited so far. I sell merch for a friend who is a local artist. His category isn't open yet.

Fees make it a pain since Etsy has such low fees (I see them rising in the near future too though). It won't kill Etsy though like some say. Etsy will have the rabid cult following of "We're supporting local artists" whereas Amazon having the exact same products will just be viewed as "a big corp trying to destroy small businesses".

>>881674

Kinda reminds me of the whole Tidal music bs going on, soon people will realize Etsy is the same as eBay. I'd say 50%+ shit on there isn't even made by hand, the ones that are real are just gags.

www.etsy.com/shop/TerribleOrigami

>>881677
>www.etsy.com/shop/TerribleOrigami

I've actually met Nate before. He does that as a joke and it kind of exploded. He's active in the comedy scene; does a lot of improv.

There is a large amount of fake shit on Etsy. I know enough artists locally that live solely off Etsy and art sales though.

My friend runs a jewelry business and makes enough off etsy, private site, and events to employ 4 full time employees plus herself. She's not hurting for cash either.

>>881694

>makes enough off etsy, private site, and events to employ 4 full time employees plus herself

Ayy, lol that's what I'm looking into. Amazon can't offer this since they already have the FBA program. So you're saying you do the same as her?

>>881700
I don't sell really anything that can be called "art" online. I sell through Amazon and ebay. I have three distinct "brands". One is white label goods. One is wholesale goods. The third is basically flipping shit.

Flipping stuff is only on ebay because there isn't the volume for amazon.

I use FBA for most of my amazon stuff because it drives your sales like crazy.

I have one PT employee who does my packing and shipping. She is a Somalian teenager who lives in my building. She usually puts in 1-3 hours a day. I pay her $10/hr cash. She's freakishly honest too, which is nice.

I could do the packing and shipping myself, but then my shipping would be pushed back a day and I'd lose my free time.

I have a regular 40hr/wk day job that I don't plan on quitting. I have no desire to "hustle" for a living. I keep all my online money in a separate account. The plans are for it to be a retirement account.

>>881716

Sounds like you're probably twice my age or anyone else on here.

Yea hustling isn't really my goal as well, Landlord is selling ice cream/etc from the front of the house. Some customer with sticky fingers might as well take the biggest package I have laying out for pickup.

I have other plans as well, going to revive something pretty soon. Should probably get me to the millions before it drys up or someone else copies it. Just waiting for the right time.

>>881722
Nah, I'm only 27. To be fair the "employee" was just a random event that happened. I have a cat, I needed someone to take care of it, asked the guy across the hall, he said his daughter would do it. The father and daughter both seemed shocked when I gave her $20 for feeding my cat for two days. She kept hinting at wanting to make more money when I saw her so I started paying her to put product in boxes when it came in.

My goal for now is basically 100% profit reinvesting. I make enough to comfortably live right now with my job, so why even add the money to my main bank account? It all goes into buying more product.

The job really does prevent me from exploring a lot of new product in depth.

>>881793

How old is this...daughter by any chance?

and lol damn alright well at least you're not one of those MLM guys.

>>881716
>>881607

What sort of things do you guys sell? What is your supply line like?

>>881798
Haha, she is in high school 16 I think. Honestly the only reason I think they dad is okay with it is because I live with my girlfriend and she is doing most of this when I'm not there. She has keys to my apartment and to my storage locker. Plus her mom doesn't work and buzzes the UPS and FedEx guys in for me.

>>881828
I'm not giving you my items, nor is anyone else. I started with storage auctions in high school. I had to have my dad with because you had to be 18 to purchase the units. After the show Storage Wars aired, this was entirely ruined, but at this point I was in college. In college I did the book thing. Paid people cash for their textbooks at the end of the semester, sold them online and directly back to students on facebook. After I graduated I got into auctions. I still do them on the weekends sometimes. Mainly stick to business auctions. Government auctions are a waste of time, so are a lot of estate auctions.

You can make good money on auctions, my advice is to locate in person auctions as online ones tend to get more bidders.

I've also bought liquidation lots. These can net you MAJOR cash. I went in with two buddies on a truckload of shelf pulls from Target. We split it 40/30/30% with me pulling in the 40% because I took care of all the listing.

The downside of this is that you need to be able to store a truckload of merch. They sell by the pallet too, but you get a way better deal on truckloads because of the size.

I was only able to do this because I know a guy who owns a foundation company who doesn't get much work in the winter, so he let me rent out a big chunk of his warehouse for the cold months for dirt cheap.

You can do this with returns too. When major retailers get returns, they just sell them to liquidation companies to in turn sell them in lots. These can be a hassle though and I have gotten burned on them before (all products damaged).

Bout time we had another Amazon thread.

I'm just getting started with setting up a website and doing FBA (multi-channel).
I'm actually planning on selling my products at a premium instead of a discount. Im selling professional quality products to homeowners, and including good, clear, complete instructions with the purchase (and only after purchase).

These products are available online to the public, but people dont know how to use them properly. Currently, no one seems to be doing what Im doing.

I own another business so Im not a complete noob, but am new to ecommerce. Ive also built a semi-succesful website before so I can handle that part too.
Im a little worried about finding suppliers, dealing with Amazon, and potential liability from mis-use.

Any advice?

Anybody here doing FBA in Europe?

I know they have warehouses in Spain, France and the UK, to name a few countries. Spain hardly seems worthwhile cause online business IMHO is a bit retarded on the Iberian peninsula.

UK should rock, since they pay a lot for stuff.

Germany should rock as well, if one considers how insanely big Ebay.de is.

Not really a question here, just want to know if
anybody here is doing well on the European market.

Is there anyway to process bulk shipments on amazon? It's an absolute pain doing them one by one.

>>881943

Subscribe to a program like ShipStation/Stamps.com/etc

You must not sell alot if you don't know this already.

>>881508
The difference between eBay and amazon is that eBay makes you think you have a small chance when it comes to disputes whereas amazon gives zero fucks about sellers - you follow our rules or we make you gtfo. The shit I see returned from our fba listings are horrendous. Lol used up trash half the time, but it was returned so full credit back. There's a little leeway with fbm stuff but you're always treading on thin ice if you don't bend over and take it 99% of the time.

>>881989

>eBay makes you think you have a small chance when it comes to disputes whereas amazon gives zero fucks

I thought I was the only one, lol people literally rent on Amazon.

One sec lemme look for the link...some guy talked about how he usually buys clothes just to try them on. LIKE YOU'RE A FUCKING SHOP AT THE MALL! Then returns the ones he doesn't like. Sometimes even taking off the tags because "it gets in the way of the mirror".

Can't find article, somewhere in a disquis comment.

Eh, be glad you guys don't have to deal with

http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/ebay-disclosed-sellers-personal-information-bidders-change-practice/story?id=33524937

>>881996
My favorite is when they're trying to get away with it as if amazon employees actually took the time to investigate (ie taking one almost worthless item out of a bulk case of 75). At least we get 74 back I guess

>>882005

Everything is mostly automated nowadays, if you can't call in to solve it before the buyer escalates...you're fucked.

>>882003
I love the sensational news spin they put on it.

Oh, no they can find out your name and number! Because your name and address don't appear on the package you send anyway...

It works both ways too. I've gotten buyer's phone numbers to contact them about issues.

>>882046

True, but sellers should have the option to opt out of information imo.

and lol c'mon, some people ship from ware-houses. They don't care if you know where they ship from, but when a company won't let you put your company name as your contact info when a buyer wants to swap info...something is wrong.

>>882054
They shouldn't release it to someone who hasn't paid for the product. I see no issue with releasing the info to a buyer who has paid. Keeps people honest.

My ebay account is registered under my business name.

>>882058


I agree, but you know most buyers have bogus names/numbers. And your name/number/email/etc is shown last I heard.

I'd put a Pinger # (app) but I don't want to have to verify it every time I call from my real number..lol confusing as hell. Wonder why Amazon doesn't offer this bs.

I have been selling on Amazon for about three years. I am grossing about 500K a year now, and my margins are about 25%. I work from home doing this, and I am 100% FBA.

The key is finding your source. And having a steady supply. I have lost many of my suppliers when they discovered I was selling on Amazon. (Vitamins and Supplements).

The holy grail for Amazon is to find a small company with great products. Establish a deal with them that you will be their sole supplier on Amazon, and in return they know who you are, and that you will sell at the MAP. It's win-win for everyone.

Does anyone know what the fuck FBA actually means/does? I'm an Amazon seller and have no fucking clue.

>>882722
Fulfillment by amazon. You send your merchandise down to their warehouses per their requirements at a reduced shipping cost. They fill orders for said product listing / can ship 2day air etc just like if amazon was the seller and not a 3rd party.

>>881677

Hell Ebay has chinese suppliers with fake shit on top of a lot of listings. They don't care because they get their cut of the large pie.

>>882409
But how do you find these suppliers? I mean, do you email them? Also, how much cash did you start with?

I want to come in one day and see my employees doing this

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=60f_1441386493

You don't get this in FBA :^ )

>mfw I'd probably join them

>>881996

I had a guy admit to me he's had 3 packages "lost" before because of the "stupid" USPS man and Amazon still refunded him even though it said delivered and he's had this shit happen before. He could easily be lying too.

>>883011

Exactly, and just like eBay, the buyer could make a new buying acc and no one would bat an eye.

>Oh we just noticed the IP address was the same


Good thing eBay lets sellers win if it says "delivered", at least we have that.