Why You Should Never Start an Ebay Store

200 thoughts on “Why You Should Never Start an Ebay Store”

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   1. Everyone – this article is wrong. I am selling full-time on ebay with a store and doing fine. My previous career is 10 years in web development. Ebay does a hell of a job with all the features of the site not to mention all the security.

      In my small former web development business, I charged at least $2000.00 for a small e-commerce. That is just bottom pricing. I was up all the time managing the sites, working with clients, and dealing with security issues.

      Plus all the plug ins and widgets you need to show the same information query stuff the ebay store has.

      What’s the bottom line for clients? Making money and making sure the site is up.

      So, ebay’s store option is a bargain! Each web developer makes at least $60000/yr and don’t forget all the SSL, dedicated IP and web hosting monthly fees. Also, I fail to mention the SEO you need to promote the site and the hours of social media you need to just get the brand recognition out there.

      You are getting a STEAL with all the talent YOU will be working with. So, with all the penny pinching involved, ebay stores are well worth every penny!

      So, do what you want, but my ebay store sales far exceed my former salary as a web developer.

      1. I completely agree. Ive made a living on eBay and its really not hard IF you have the right inventory source that also drop ships. I found an amazing blog on how to make money one ebay. It gives you a free step by step guide. Since i started using these steps ive been making a little over $2000 a month.
         Heres the link if youre interested (:
         http://howtomakequickmoneyblog.wordpress.com/

      2. I agree….. I have had my own website online since 1996..!! Yet eBay is where the sales are still coming from… even though I constantly plug my own website where ever possible people just wont shop there…

         The main reason I still have my own website up and running is that is where I use the page source code to drop into my eBay listings and host my images from…

         With the recent change to eBay policy stating that I needed to offer larger gallery images at first I declined but then so did my overall sales… So I finally decided to go back and rebuild the entire list of over 2000 items and so far am only up to 185 listings but the sales are better than ever.. I guess they were right the larger gallery image does show the buyer of our photographs – how clear our photos actually are…

         Trying to source regular buyers/sales from our own website is just too much work.. when I would just prefer to be filling orders…!!!

      3. Ebay Generates their profits all the money they claim I made it’s bull.
         They fight giving back final fee and not only charge a store subscription Cost
         THEY CHARGE PECENTAGE SOLD !
         Then your store makes them money and they get a good chunk of the sellers. Now they want to charge me more to go back to basic on top of their calculated percent of what I may sell.

      4. Bull shit! The industry is a China-mart and you do have to compete.The stores are a rip off and eBay is a rip off as I work full time on it too. Ebay and Paypal are crooks!

      5. Lol
         eBay it’s a mob That cares only about buyers (because even when they’re loosing sellers by thousands there’s more avid incoming naive new sellers)

      6. Ebay has it’s place. One thing I think the author failed to mention, is that it also provides the option to showcase your items in search engines, that your own website may not quite be doing so well with your own SEO. If you provide clear information about your own website in the ebay listing, you can then drive traffic back to your website too. But for me, paying for the business shop feature, it is not necessary. I use the basic functions from time to time for exposure

   2. Absolutely right, you lose all power. Ebay and Paypal are a law unto themselves. They are above the law. Frightening really that an organization should become so powerful and our governments do nothing about it.

      1. Wow. Talk a botu an Ebay rep to come on over here and try to “fix” this article with more Ebay crap shoved down out throats. Sorry, but Ebay DOES take way too much money from the sellers and guarantees buyers just about anything. Using Ebay is like using Craigslist but Craigslist doesnt take your profit away from you. Ebay is a rip off. no one from Ebay can come over here and try to smooth the waters. Won’t work.

      2. They’re a mob not the law onto themselves
         There,FTFY!

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3. Thanks for the heads up. I am planning on selling some items on ebay for the first time and eventually I would like to open up my own online shopping store. Hopefully, I can get some pointers from this site (https://mywifequitherjob.com) on how to start.

   Thanks

   P.S. I am loving this site. I usually do not engage online, but I may just have to start:)

   1. You don’t sell nothing on eBay there rip offs and never go in to community chat they also work for eBay I went in there and told them I am going to open my own online Auction that will take eBay down they threatened to delete my account

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5. I agree with what you’ve mentioned but selling on ebay also has advantages. Ebay attracts a lot of buyers therefore it saves you money on getting traffic to your products. Having your own domain will require a lot of promotion which is very time consuming and costly too.

   1. Agreed they bring in a lot of business but their fees are so exorbitant that it defeats the advantage of their promotional ability. I have gone from ebay to independent, I would never go back.

6. The only advantage (which is a huge one) to selling on
   Ebay is the traffic. Furthermore, I don’t even think it’s an advantage, considering the fees and the low end buyers.
   For those who sell on Ebay and do not have an Ebay Store, Ebay has now taken their greed even further by charging 11% of the shipping cost.

   1. 15,000 sellers were purged from ebay two weeks ago. The weapon of choice used was the Guardrail or Quick Decline mechanism at ebay put in place to target small sellers who are “trending” downwards in their DSRs. The elimination of good decent honest sellers continues unabated at ebay.

      1. God, I love this site
         eBay sucks and they wield way too much power !

         I f’ing hate eBay !!!
         They shut me down !
         Someone should start a class action suit against them, maybe using their security breach as a point among others
         People would come out of the woodwork !
         Talk about disgruntled !

         Love the article
         The guy who was for eBay is probably a shill for that stupid company in my opinion
         Can’t call it slander if it’s my opinion !

      2. I’m a small time seller. I will be leaving eBay after 10 years of buying/selling.
         The fees paid do not bother me so much.(eBay is not my sole source of income) What bothers me more are the Newb/crooks that know how to take advantage of eBays buyer protection. It’s disgusting. It’s not the good old “eBay community” it was. It’s more like the eBay ghettos.

   2. They have to charge fees on shipping due to sellers cheating the system and charging .01 for the item cost and then putting the cost of the item for shipping…you’d do it too if you were the ceo of eBay.

7. Capitalism, get use to it or move to North Korea.

   1. Grow up… They had to design the website, get investors and drive tons of traffic to the site and get it as popular as it is today. If it’s so easy to do that, why don’t you do it?

      They did all this to make money. And one quick question, why are you selling anything?? Oh ya, to make money, so are you not “greedy”?

      If it’s so easy to do what Ebay did, then why don’t you do it?

      You are all complete idiots. You know what’s way more greedy than wanting 11%? Wanting to have all the benefits that Ebay spends millions on (IE traffic) without paying for it. That’s greed.

      1. I totally agree with what you have said! Ebay spends millions for people to have a place to come and make a business? I understand that it cuts into your margins but think of it this way, you are paying to use the site..yes it sucks, but the amount of traffic that comes to eBay is enormous compared to what any normal website could offer. This means more sales, more money, and inevitably more fees to be paid, however you are doing business.

      2. best comment I have seen in a while! well said

      3. I agree!!!

      4. I totally agree with you. If you think its easy to design or make a website with a free shopping cart, set up your own shipping & payment system, than get tones of free traffic, Do SEO and than make money, Your are lost in space!!! I use to spend over $1000 a month on Adwords, Do tones of social networking, promote locally & after all of that I barley made a profit on my website, after 6 years of doing this I started using ebay & my sales went up %200 in weeks & save $700 a month on my overhead.

         Also a lot of ebayer shop for fun, if they like something they see they’ll bid on it. I’ve sold everything cars to kids shoes.

         Don’t make the mistake that you can do better without ebay for less money.

      5. Spot on…!!

         I still get 99.9999% of my sales from eBay…

         Which far outweighs the fees they charge me… without them I have nothing.. and “have had nothing” …. this is coming from someone who was shut down by them… and I tried to convince them otherwise.. 2 years later I decided to open another account and now 3 years along I am doing better than ever.. BUT still my own website fails to find buyers like eBay can…

      6. The reason your website doesn’t make money is because it needs work. Ebay is great for people who don’t want to spend time creating a high converting website. It’s up to you..

      7. Annual Financials for eBay Inc.

         View Ratios

         Sales/Revenue 2010 – 9.15B 2011- 11.68B 2012- 14.03B 2013 16.05B 2014 17.9B
         That B is billions
         Oh but wait ! They spend MILLIONS on us. Spit in the bucket.

      8. Uhhhh…. I thought that the article was suggesting exactly that. Do it yourself because eBay’s interest lies with their shareholders and they will do anything to show growth. Was the OP not suggesting that you in fact “Do it yourself” by setting up your own website?

         To me, eBay is like any other venue, it’s good now because it makes money, but when that stops, I won’t even bother to log into the site anymore. Just like my barnes and noble account, I didn’t even bother to shut the seller account down, I logged in after a hole year and there was nothing new.

      9. Yeah 11% on every sale they are billionaires while we scrap up a bit of pocket money for doing all the work, we just use there program. Maybe we should pay photoshop 11% everytime we make our image with text and Cannon 11% everytime we take a photo on there camers and every other thing we use to make an add your a moron they WAY to greedy for what they actually do.

   2. I’ve never heard that North Koreans are good at Capitalization. ( Wait…..should Capitalization be capitalized? Guess I’ll have to see how they manage to do it in between their nuclearctest.)

      Maybe ‘commas’ will come next for them, and who knows how good those ‘commies’ can be at ‘commas’… …seems natural, don’t you think?

      I have a funny feeling you think it’s Obama fault, eh? Thanks for adding so much to the discussion.

8. I appreciate this post and am taking it to heart. I am looking to help my parents set up an ebay store so they can move a lot of the stock from their antique store that amongst other factors was killed by Ebay (ironic).
   I am wondering if there are factors to an ebay store that would give added value that you would not get on your own?
   1. Ease of use
   2. Name recognition, credibility
   3. Sense of protection
   4. Ease of payment options
   5. Is there an added exposure to marketing or do you still have to do all the marketing that you would have to do as a new website owner?

   With these answered it may be that the costs are acceptable in some cases. I am not pro Ebay, they terminated me as an affiliate without paying me due commissions. They are a giant that doesn’t give a sh#& about you or me but it may be an option that is best in some cases?

   What do you think?

   1. Hi Bill,
      The advantage of having an Ebay store is that you can get exposure through Ebay’s audience whereas you have to do all of the marketing yourself with a new website. That being said, Ebay customers tend to be cheap and it’s very difficult to differentiate yourself from all of the other stores due to the limited user interface. Throw in the exorbitant fees and Ebay becomes an unattractive option in the long run.

      1. Thanks Steve, that sounds just about right.
         Ebay is one of the giants that has very little respect for the “little” guy.

         Happy New Year!

   2. Well ebay fees are going up to 14% very shortly and they are linked with the taxation department as soon as you join your name is on the taxation data base and the taxation are watching power sellers like a hawk

9. I have to agree with this article, setting up your own website is the way to go. Running an ebay store can be done in parallel with owning your own website but one should never rely solely on eBay. It’s too risky.

   1. Your Crazy, You know how hard it is to get unique hits, and than turn that into sales, for less cost than ebay? And thats the easy part. You still need a Rich content website with Awesome SEO. Using these free website makers wouldn’t even come close to what you need. You might have a chance with a program like WordPress after you figure out all the plug-ins, custom design everything which might take you a few weeks. Or use Storesonline.com which cost about $3000 a website and $25 a month hosting fee.

      Good luck on that!

      1. You’re the idiot, have you ever heard of learning how to design a website or hire someone? It’s not that hard and you don’t need to pay exorbitant fees to a 3rd party.

10. I am an eBay powerseller and have to stick up for it a bit.

    eBay brings you millions of visitors every week. People who are looking for and buying your products. That kind of traffic and exposure is very hard to come by on the search engines!

    The fees reflect the benfits. It’s also a good place to start in determining if there is a demand for your products and at what price.

    I’d always look for ways to cut costs so expanding to a website and using your eBay store to drive traffic there is a definite.

    eBay isn’t all bad.

    1. eBay brings you millions of visitors every week.

       No they don’t. If I’m wrong, show us your visitor counters proving they send you millions of visitors each week.

    2. Ebay are bad

11. yes its true ebay does take a lot of your profit, but for me ebay works the best. I tried making my own online shop it turned out horribly i lost some +$100 maybe not a lot, but to me its quite a bit. I made the website everything was seemed good, I also got google adwords for it. (I have no idea, but they blacklisted me saying I was not allowed to use them anymore no explanation. I think if you have the money and the right item you could make a great website.But getting your customers is very difficult Good things about ebay,ebay is pretty trustworthy company, you get lots of potential customers, most times its safe and secure. Also its not always true the buyer is going for the cheapest item they will also go by the sellers feedback (as for me I always go 4 the cheapest ;p) I have sold items a little higher than what other sellers are selling it for (not much maybe a few dollars more). I think its a good way for people to try out the field. I am a top rated seller, but I still don’t make a lot (haha maybe because i just spent it all on ebay items) as the person above me said its not so bad. All my items have free shipping and if a customer complaints I never argue I just give them a refund. I would rather lose a few dollars than getting a neg and losing potential customers. actually having an ebay store(I have the middle I pay $50 a month) is cheaper than not having one (4 me it is) listing items is just $.05 for 30 days. Its cheaper than listing a item for $.99 for 7 days (I have around 400 items)

    at least its better than Amazon in my opinion (I can make more profit off of ebay and Amazon customers never leave you feedback :'(

    1. free shipping? give me a break. your shipping is built into your price. I contacted ebay a few weeks ago and the rep told me that I should start offering free shipping because I would immediately get 5 stars. I told her I couldn’t afford to do that and what did she tell me? She told me to add it into the price of my item and then tell customers there was FREE shipping. what a crock. I told her I would consider it, but to me, that is cheating the customer. – and I would believe that most people are not that stupid.

       I am up front about the costs and I give significant shipping discounts. (you can cram a lot into a flat rate box). If the cost on regular shipping is less than I state, I actually refund the money if it is more than one dollar. strange but true.

       1. Um, free shipping does work. How do you think Amazon capitalizes on “free shipping?” Do you really think that, UPS, USPS, FedEx, ship items on Amazon for free…..oh, maybe you do.

       2. We all know that shipping isn’t really free— there isn’t a shipping company yet that ships packages for nothing. Its about the perception of your prices and the value your customers think and feel that they’re getting makes free shipping a powerful marketing tactic. I believe most reasonable people know this. However they don’t want to do the math an figure out the postage. They see the final price they are going to pay ( including shipping) it makes it more convenient and helps them decide to buy or not to buy based on the final price you post.

12. I hope to start selling online soon.
    This website makes a point but downplays the traffic which is one of the valuable aspects of ebay. There is also a bias here as they are trying to make their online money from you purchasing their “how to build your own online store” kit. Everyone has their own motives.

    1. Hi David,
       Having owned an Ebay store myself in the past, the traffic is indeed very alluring. However the point of the article is to emphasize that the best way to proceed is to build and own your own shop so you are not at Ebay’s mercy. Considering that most businesses yield a profit of 20ish percent, getting 12-15% taken right off the bat will greatly limit your profitability potential.

13. Thanks for the article. I’ve been trying to rationalize my decision to start selling pre-owned branded apparel via my own store interface rather than through Ebay. I know traffic acquisition is going to be a huge hurdle, but I think the ability to control your own branding is just as important.

14. I have to disagree with your suggestion of not to open an e-bay store. We have had an e-bay store for many years and we are definately profitable. To generate traffic to an off e-bay site is very costly and will be an ongoing expense which far exceeds E-bays fees. Better to build a mailing list via e-bay (your customers) and then open an off e-bay site. Generating traffic to an brand new online store is expensive and not always productive.

15. These fees are a fraction of what Amazon marketplace’s are, and as stated before Amazon customers do not leave feedback. I am opening my eBay store today for my new business. Best of luck to all in the pursuit of happiness!

16. Have to say that I agree to cut in between, i mean that its the way to go to have your eBay store and own website the same time. I’ve been working on my new online store for 3 months now just to do all the SEO work to get my site PR on google and no single keyword got on the first page yet. When you consider to run ecommerce as a serious business, you will need some way to generate basic income first to cover your expense and EBay is the best option before your website can bring in enough traffic, which, in most case, need 6 to 12 months, at least.

    1. You are %100 Right. When people say “I’m going to start my own website & become successful” don’t know what it really takes. Sometimes it might take up to 1 year to get listed or ranked. Also Google always chances there SEO system which makes non-stop hell ride. ebay would be the place to start.

17. I have an e-bay store, I only recommend it for one thing get your traffic for free. I only use it to get rid of stuff that I don’t use or refuse to dust and polish anymore -vintage, antiques and so forth and raise the capital for your eCommerce site that’s it if you keep it then use it for liquidations of inventory nothing more stuff that you would sell at a loss. (don’t expect huge profits but residual income for stuff to keep your website clean and not wanting to make it look like a flea market).

    Let’s face facts from time to time a any business will in fact purchase an item that does not sell.

    With e-bay’s traffic it’s only good for liquidations only as these people want dirt cheap well it’s all about reducing your losses. So be practical, a store with say 25-50 items is not a big deal either so once you’ve established yourself become an ebay seller for others – everyone has a friend that needs to get rid of stuff but don’t know where to start there you go diversification.

18. Nice Article, But Ebay is good for early business persons. I would recommend people to get customer base from ebay and online user response from ebay. Then you can open your online store and sell online.

19. Way to discourage people. Well done

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21. I had an ebay business which I closed in 2010 after 5 years of trading. Starting from next to nothing, selling just a few second hand items, the business expanded continuously at a rapid rate and in the end with all the ebay fee hikes and changes of rules which cost us more and more we were forced to close. I worked full time, my wife part time, nobody else employed. We turned over £150,000 in our best year, before the recession hit, and ended up paying ebay £22,000 in fees.
    The governments of the world do not seem to be able to control this blatant abuse of companies who destroy the chances of many budding businesses. We were lucky because we were able to establish from scratch what has now become a successful business costing only a fraction of the massive amount of fees paid to ebay over the years.
    These companies do not care if you leave them because they know that you will be replaced by the droves of new businesses joining up. This is because they make it so easy to start a business with them. At no initial cost you can be trading within an hour of inception.

    1. I don’t think you could of made $150,000 without ebay. When business changes so should you, like Why didn’t you take your net income to pay the fees? Its not ebays fault the recession happen. Just like you, ebay too has to pay for over head, like employees, commercial property etc…..

       Sorry you lost your business

       1. I don’t think you could of made $150,000 without ebay.

          Most people making that much and more are doing it without eBay. But your point isn’t relevant anyway, because he couldn’t make $150,000 WITH ebay either in the end. That’s why he had to leave.

22. What i think is that we all should join and create our own website, since you and anyone else can do this, start learning programming, get some money to start your own servers ,pay some websites for advertising your own website , earn only from advertisement while selling and offering open shops for everyone that wants. The problem is who is that guy that wants to give a investment in this idea!?

23. I’m a ebay top rated seller for five years. I don’t make much money each month, I enjoyed the selling, it is more like a fun thing for me to do. Not all ebay buyers are cheap, some of my buyers would pay top bucks for items that they really liked. The key is that you have to monitor your competitors and watch out their selling price, but you decide what to sell, you need to do homework, i.e. what is the recent selling price, how fast the other sellers sell them, the trend. Of course, you have items that not sell, so you have to sell it at a deep discount to keep the cash flow. At the end of the day, I make very little profit but I’m profitable and I’m enjoying the process. If you are serious about making money, it is very hard, you need to find killer products with good sourcing, cut the middle man, but if you just want to use it as semi hobby, make little profit for fun, then it is not bad at all. My two cents.

24. Another thing you have to consider is that most of my ebay buyers are savvy buyers, yes, they are relatively cheap in term of finding a bargain, however, they are also willing to bid on your item without worrying about *what if he/she disappears after I paid for it”, ebay provide some sort of insurance for buyers. Would you honestly go to a unknown website ( not Macy’s, Wal-Mart, Costco, etc ), a new mom and pop website and pay for a item? I will not, even if I can save some money. Even it is not a scam, mom and pom stores close every day, what if this store close out right after I paid for the item, what do I do? At least for ebay, Amazon, Macy’s you can call them and/or find them. It is almost impossible for a mom and pop to open a e-commerce store and being success without large cash infusion from institution, like a few million dollars to build up your inventory and marketing.

    1. Would you honestly go to a unknown website ( not Macy’s, Wal-Mart, Costco, etc ), a new mom and pop website and pay for a item? I will not, even if I can save some money.

       If most people felt that way, there would be no ebay or amazon, lol. Both of those sites used to be unknown websites when they started out.

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    1. Thanks Tom. Really appreciate it!

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27. Very informative blog and discussions!

28. There is a loss of control over your business when you decide to go with ebay but the one factor about ebay that really swayed my decision was how closely paypal is tied into ebay. For those who don’t know, Paypal is like a bank without rules. It says that for no reason, (read it in the terms & conditions) Paypal can freeze and shut down your account. If you’re running a full-time business on ebay, that means all your funds are tied up in Paypal. They can freeze thousands of your funds and give you no reason for it. All they have to say is that your account seemed suspicious.

    Now I know you’re all thinking, What? That’s crazy talk. That doesn’t happen. But take the time to look up the number of cases of people who got frozen accounts and how long it took them to fight with Paypal to get it back. In a lot of cases, they never get the money back. And in the cases of the people who did get it back, it took them years. I think the longest time I heard of was 3 years.

    So I have a lot of respect for ebay and Paypal but I know I don’t want to spend my time and effort on a business that can be taken away from me for no reason while sharing at least 14% of my profits. Peace out. -Bly

29. ebay is greedy with their fucking auctions with fucking rare items
    and I Always have fucking problems with PayPal and I hate fucking ebay and PayPal with their fucking feedback pls do not remove this post I had fucking much problems trough ebay and PayPal with paying the bills that were really needed so once I have my collection complete I never come back to ebay again
    thats why I swear because ebay IS greedy!!!and everyone needs to know the truth

    1. All for profit corporations are always greedy. Survival for a corporation is making lots of money. Sellers on eBay are also greedy. They feed off each other. eBay provides the customers, sellers provide the product. This is a perfectly greedy relationship. So all this talk about greed is ridiculous. The cost of starting and building your own web store is expensive and time consuming. If you have the funds and time, by all means, I wish you well with your venture. But for the majority of people who want to start making money right away, you need to use an established store front that already has the traffic. Yes eBay has fees up the yazoo, But a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.

30. I have to say I have a love hate relationship with Ebay .
    I have been selling on Ebay for over 10 years and agree that they do not care about me or any of their sellers , it is about their profit.
    I can’t stand that they get away with charging fees for shipping .
    That being said, what are my choices ? Amazon , Etsy or Artfire or my own website ?
    Amazon is more greedy than Ebay, Etsy and Artfire are great if you make your own product , but if you don’t , you can’t sell on their sites .
    I keep praying someone will come up with a site like Ebay without all their high fees.
    I do not see the advantage of having your own Ebay store and paying $15.95 a month versus just selling on Ebay without a store .

    1. The main advantage of the store is a bit more credibility and you can list an item until it is sold for a lower cost. If you are selling few items, then a store is not such a good idea because of the monthly fees.

31. I came to this site because I have been researching whether to get a store. Based on this site and a couple others I have decided not to do it at this time.

    Since I have been selling, and far longer than I would like to admit, my goal is to give the best customer service possible. in addition to be straight out honest in the description of my merchandise. I used to sell old glassware and pottery (until shipping got too high) and if there were 3 strawmarks, I would put it down. Can you make every customer happy? no. I recently got a good feedback but the customer stated the item (it was material) was too dark. The title of the auction was DARK and in the body of the description it said DARK and yet she complained it was dark. go figure. So regardless what you do, how much you bend over backwards and give time to your customers (and it is probably more time than you can ever make up), there are just some people that are unhappy. However I digressed.

    One day when I retire, I might consider a store, but right now I don’t think it is cost effective – and I did like a comment that stated a store is not to save money but to make money and that is absolutely true. Sometimes you have to spend money to make money.

32. I’m a full-time web developer, and I also sell on ebay. Why do I sell on ebay when I can create my own website, shopping cart, etc.? It’s the same reason some merchants choose to set up shop in a mall instead of on a remote street corner: the traffic is there. I save a lot of my time by listing with them, and don’t have just “cheap” people buying from me. While that may have been true early on in ebay’s history, it isn’t true today. When people are looking for something unique, unusual, specialized, or hard to find, ebay is where they go.

    The fees listed in the chart are not indicative of the fees ebay charges today. Not only are current fees lower, but Top Rated Sellers can get a discount on their fees, bringing them even lower. The incentive to become a Top Rated Seller insures that ebay keeps high standards, which brings customers back, time and again.

    Yes, ebay is a publicly traded company that’s looking out for its own bottom line. They keep a healthy bottom line by making shopping there easy, safe and secure. This insures the reputable sellers at any level who give great customer service that they can be successful, because without them ebay would not exist.

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34. A number of things are happening. Congressmen from Texas, Illinois, Connecticut and Florida have begin investigations into eBay’s mishandling of the recent hacking event. Social media groups on Facebook such as Former Ebay Sellers and Former Ebay Sellers 2 Open Forum are growing enormously as sellers leave or get suspended by ebay. The new Defect Rate policy at eBay is predicted to create another purge of an estimated 90,000 sellers. Those banned sellers will have to go somewhere, so many other online selling platforms (e.g. Bonanza, Webstore, Unisquare) will experience a sudden influx of new sellers and buyers. Also as a result of eBay’s mishandling of the recent hacking event, eBay took a tremendous hit in terms of public perception. Ebay’s stock has dropped and an avalanche of adverse publicity plagues eBay all over the internet in blogs, forums, comments after articles, etc., etc.

35. Both worlds can be good if you know what you are doing, and have the right products.

    I see a lot of people complaining about Ebay fees.
    I you think about it, it is not that bad, where in this world can you keep the over head to about 14 cents on the dollar?? Because that’s what I have now with ebay. If you include paypal, then I am looking at mayby 17-18 cents on the dollar in fees (overhead).

    I run a business out of my home and have very little overhead beside my selling fees.
    I sell used and new items, it depends on what I find at storage auction during the week/month/year.

    So to me Ebay is a great place to sell online, as I combine ebay with flea markets on the weekends. I also use social media like facebook to sell and promote my items.

    If you had a store front, it would cost you thousands each month in rent, insurance, utility and other misc. costs.

    Operating your own web store with you own URL is not cheap/free or even affordable. When it comes down to it, you have to pay a lot of money for your own website and your own URL. I have done it and it was about $5000 just to get it up and running, and then monthly fees around $25-$40 minimum in subscription costs.

    On top of this you have to spend huge amounts on promoting your website, and even pay fees for payment solutions. I don’t care what solutions you use, there is a cost related to it.

    So to me Ebay is the best option and solution.

    1. You do make good points. You have to take credit cards if you sell on the web, and you cannot avoid those fees. Add that to the overhead of doing it yourself and your chances of success are slim to none.

36. Ebay continues to collect monthly payments from small sellers for their stores EVEN AFTER EBAY SUSPENDS THEM AND NO LONGER ALLOWS THEM TO SELL ITEMS ON EBAY.

37. You don’t have to open up an ebay store you can just sell your items through your account at no additional expense. Ebay has bent over backwards in order to placate buyers at the expense of sellers. Their policies have given rise to scam buyers who substitute parts, damage goods, make bogus claims about the item not matching the description and then expect the seller to reimburse them. Unfortunately Ebay is right there cheering them on as there is no longer any way to leave negative feedback for buyers. Ebay used to be a good place to sell but now they attempt to micro-manage each seller with their ridiculous selling limits and other methods of reward and punishment if you don’t meet their self imposed standards. It’s not surprising that their stock has been dropping like a rock lately since their business policies are causing them to lose revenue. When it comes to Ebay let the seller beware.

38. For a short term quick buck, yes it’s great, but on the long run it’s better to have your own store. Their interface is horrendous, their selling tools absolutely user unfriendly and on top of that you are at the mercy of their security detection algorithms. I have been shut down the same day I opened a seller account for no apparent reason. I am never using Ebay again ever. The email I received said the following (notice the “however unintentionally” part… unbelievable!):

    “Your eBay account was suspended because recent account activity has raised serious security concerns. We’ve taken this precaution to protect our members while we make sure that the activity doesn’t cause harm — however unintentionally — to the eBay Community.

    You won’t be able to use eBay in any way. This includes using another existing account or registering a new account.

    Any outstanding selling fees are due immediately, and any amounts that you haven’t previously disputed will be charged to the billing method currently on file.

    Thanks,

    eBay”

    Go figure!

39. As a seller I wouldn’t be too displeased with a 15% fee plus store fees it’s high but the real problem with ebay is how they can and will manipulate the search results, throttling your listings visibility, basically you think your item should be selling but in all actualality it’s not even visible to potential customers. This in my opinion is dirty business ethics. Not only hurting the seller and the market it causes ebay to be making less money. I’m not sure the exact system but it’s tailored to companies that can sell huge amounts of items with piss poor to no customer service for example , I have listed roughly 150 items and maintain great customer service my product is top quality only my prices are a little higher , in best match search of my items I’m at the very bottom , who’s at the top? A seller of the same items poor condition with bad pictures and 300+ negative feedback a in the last 30 days ! So what happens here is new to ebay customer comes along buys the poor product is not happy , customer service is crap , customer more than likely never shops on ebay again. This equals low numbers for ebay , if the customer would have seen my listing at all and seen at a fair but reasonable higher price and seen the quality was much better just from the first picture they would have paid more been very happy and they would have came back to buy through ebay again . This would equal big numbers for ebay and customers would love to shop their . Ebays systems keep the little stores little and the big stores big. I don’t get it ! ebay must not want to be a successful company anymore. Ebay stock holders must not like to make the big profits . Usually when you lose a customer they will never come back never …. Keep this up ebay and all you will see is a decaying profit year after year. I’m Not sure how the guys on top sleep at night. My grandma would say shame on you ! Ebay Your grandma would say they same thing. I’m taking my top notch product and customer service else wear I had just invested and had projected 100k in sales in 6 months but not now that my items are only seen by a small handful of people and not world wide like you would think. Just means less profit for ebay once again …. No good paying customers and no good sellers is how ebay wants it. DO NOT SELL ON EBAY with a flick of the switch your “well built ebay business” is a ghost town. And honestly shoppers don’t buy their either …don’t do business with a unethical company. Most likely You probably will not enjoy the experience anyways.

    Sincerely
    Ebay Seller with 100% feedback and no sales this week

40. i am agree with you!You Should Never Start an Ebay Store..thanks for the explaination..it makes me more understand..keep up your great worked!

    1. As a newcomer wanting to start selling online, amongst all of the problems stated here about Ebay, it is the potential to get my Pay Pal account frozen that has frightened me off of selling on Ebay, because regardless of selling fees etc, having your money kept from you would make everything else redundant. It would not only be profit lost from Pay Pal being frozen, but also loss of money invested in stock that was sold but money not received from it. I don’t think I’d want to take that risk. But does anyone know if Ebay has anything to do with that? I believe that Ebay and Pay Pal are separate entities, so it would not be EBay’s fault. If going with your own website or another host what secure payment system would you use to avoid Pay Pal?

    2. I really like selling on Amazon and eBay, but you definitely have to be careful. Having your own online store is so important, too, as you don’t want to put all of your eggs in the eBay basket so-to-speak! http://www.alyssas-garden.com

41. Ebay years ago was a excellent selling platform, example the more you listed the more you would sell. Not any more, Ebay ration you on what sales you are going to have (if any) this week. When ebay started to ration people with selling limits that when things started to go down hill. If you are a mum & dad & lets sell some stuff on ebay, 10 items or £650, so if you happen to sell 10 CDs at £1 thats it until next month. Thats a crazy policy, people used to sell on ebay, getting a rid of any unwanted items & then maybe use the money to buy sometime else on Ebay. Ebay want to become like Amazon, but never will. Ebay suspends sellers due to the stupid policies, & then says to the sellers ” you are banned from selling but you can still buy” just to keep the user numbers up. If you get banned do you really think you will be buying, i dont think so.
    3 years ago Ebay ever 3 months sent out the seller details in the post, showing how much & where you have sold your items. When you compare the data then & now it shows you have no international sales.
    My Advice, dont rely on Ebay, use multi channel sales, Amazon & your own website, fair sales etc. Your own website will take time, but just think of the savings & you ARE IN TOTAL CONTROL, not some little shit in some back office who doesnt give a shit about you.
    Will soon be another purge of good sellers, waking up in the morning & switch on your computer, to have nice little email from Ebay, your selling account is closed, goodbye.
    Be warned. Act now.
    You have a lot of replies here, alot must come from Ebay HQ, saying how wonderful the company is. One of the worst companies i have ever dealt with.

42. Ha give me a break! Here is a little preview of what it would be like to open your own website store… ( crickets chirping…. tumbleweeds rolling by… twittling your thumbs ). Please, there IS NO OTHER PLACE ON EARTH that you will get as much traffic than on eBay. Just another post by someone who failed as an eBay seller because of many factors, including but not limited to: selling the wrong products, buying your crap for to much and asking crazy prices, don’t know how to use the system, staying under feebay’s radar. Don’t let them scare you, I make more money at this than my old job and I make my own hours.

43. Yeah, considering advertisement costs, Ebay is just fine. Use them, but you should have other methods of sales, especially your own website. Amazon can come in handy also.

    You have to consider the cost of advertisement and consider Ebay as an advertiser.
    !0% (for a store subscriber plus an additional 20% knocked off their fees if you are a top seller is not so bad. It costs close to the same when using Google ads for each sale.

    The thing is, you have to view Ebay as a tool, and not your bread and butter….

44. Yeah… well based on what I have seen here last month I thought I would investigate Amazon… Bad idea… I signed up to see how they setup the page layout… didnt like that it didnt have any of the flexibility that eBay offers (namely html window to add what you wish)… so I dropped the idea … two weeks later I got an email from Amazon : We have charged your credit card (Visa) for the balance due on your account: -$39.99

    Ouch..!! Didn’t even list a thing with them… only wanted to know if I could duplicate my website and eBay items there… and it wasn’t anywhere near as well set out….

    So I wrote to Amazon telling them of my disappointment…

    They replied …!!

    With :

    Hello,

    I am sorry for the inconvenience you experienced in this case. I completely understand your disappointment. That’s definitely not what we want our customers to experience, I’m glad you contacted us.

    BUT :

    After looking into your inquiry, I feel we could best resolve this concern for you over the phone. This way, you can speak to our live customer support team who can ensure we resolve this concern to your satisfaction.

    THEN :

    I realize that, at this point, asking you to contact us again would be disappointing; however, we really feel that the best way to assist you with this concern is over the phone.

    Your patience and understanding are greatly appreciated.

    Please request a call from our Customer Service department. Here’s how:

    1. Visit http://www.amazon.com/help
    2. Click the orange “Contact Us” button on the main Amazon Help page.
    3. Click the “Skip sign in” button.
    4. Click the “Call us” button and enter your phone number in the window.
    5. Choose a time frame (“Right Now” or “In 5 minutes”) and click “Submit.” We’ll call you right back!

    UNTIL :

    You try to follow their directions… (DON’T BOTHER..!!)

    1. Visit http://www.amazon.com/help YES!

    2. Click the orange “Contact Us” button on the main Amazon Help page. NO..!!! There is NO orange “Contact Us” button on the Amazon Help page

    3. Click the “Skip sign in” button. Through numerous attempts I finally found the “Skip sign in” button

    4. Click the “Call us” button and enter your phone number in the window.

    EXCEPT :

    Once I got to the page it told me you wont call my country..!!!??!!!! On top of that the page gave a number for me to call Amazon… which of course does not work at all..!!!

    You would think that if someone at Amazon was going to write up a reply page… that (ONE) they would get their facts right and (TWO) that they would at least check that the phone number given would even work…!!

    ———-
    So the moral of the story is AVOID AMAZON… unless you want to pay for the privilege of listing nothing, and doing nothing… but look at them..

    FAT CHANCE

    That I will ever see that money again… After all AMAZON must be poor and need the money more than me..!!

    They claim to offer a refund bit of course after much frustration there is no way to even contact them by phone.. the number they offer is not even accessible from this side of the globe..

    AMAZON SUX…!!! eBay Rulz..!!

45. PROTEST MARCHES AGAINST EBAY PLANNED: Have you, a friend, or a family member been unfairly suspended from selling on eBay after years of hard work? eBay as a corporation has thrown tens of thousands of small mom and pop sellers under the bus, many who were dependent in part or whole for the income off their ebay sales for their very livelihood…Come join our protest movement and become a voice of change…we will also be organizing protest marches at various eBay locations (San Jose, Ca, Salt Lake City, Utah, etc.) in the near future. Come join Former Ebay Sellers 2 Open Forum: https://www.facebook.com/groups/formerebaysellers2openforum/

    1. After reading all these posts I come to realize that eBay is just an entity with a set of rules they set forth to be able to use their services. It is up to the sellers to know these rules and if they cannot live with that, then go elsewhere. There is no motivation or judgment on eBay when they suspend a seller. They are just a profit machine. Most of these seller probably did break a rule even unknowingly. I say read the rules carefully, understand them and if you can’t or won’t, don’t use them. I also know that eBay changes rules, but always sends out some acceptance of the new rules and if you do not agree or respond, they will shut you down, but then you made that decision and it was made for you. So, give me some more whine with that cheese.

46. All I got to say is this I had 2 website for 8yrs, paying SEO of fees $3500.00 a month just for one website. And never got a sale.

47. Ebay under Donahoe the past few years has engaged in the orchestrated elimination of small sellers, the limiting and throttling of the views which their items receive- sometimes not giving an item any visibility (or very little)- and the ebay discussion boards as well as the comments on Ina Steiner’s EcommerceBytes blog are filled with hundreds of accounts from small sellers of these issues. Donahoe has favored the Chinese sellers and big box retailers by deliberate design.

48. my only problem with ebay are the 10% they take on the shipping
    i ship all my items from Lebanon it means 30% of the what buyer pays go for shipping and some times it is more than 30%
    i think this is a stupid thing and specially for international sellers

49. “God, I love this site
    eBay sucks and they wield way too much power !

    I f’ing hate eBay !!!
    They shut me down !
    Someone should start a class action suit against them, maybe using their security breach as a point among others
    People would come out of the woodwork !
    Talk about disgruntled !

    Love the article
    The guy who was for eBay is probably a shill for that stupid company in my opinion
    Can’t call it slander if it’s my opinion !”

50. s a seller I wouldn’t be too displeased with a 15% fee plus store fees it’s high but the real problem with ebay is how they can and will manipulate the search results, throttling your listings visibility, basically you think your item should be selling but in all actualality it’s not even visible to potential customers. This in my opinion is dirty business ethics. Not only hurting the seller and the market it causes ebay to be making less money. I’m not sure the exact system but it’s tailored to companies that can sell huge amounts of items with piss poor to no customer service for example , I have listed roughly 150 items and maintain great customer service my product is top quality only my prices are a little higher , in best match search of my items I’m at the very bottom , who’s at the top? A seller of the same items poor condition with bad pictures and 300+ negative feedback a in the last 30 days ! So what happens here is new to ebay customer comes along buys the poor product is not happy , customer service is crap , customer more than likely never shops on ebay again. This equals low numbers for ebay , if the customer would have seen my listing at all and seen at a fair but reasonable higher price and seen the quality was much better just from the first picture they would have paid more been very happy and they would have came back to buy through ebay again . This would equal big numbers for ebay and customers would love to shop their . Ebays systems keep the little stores little and the big stores big. I don’t get it ! ebay must not want to be a successful company anymore. Ebay stock holders must not like to make the big profits . Usually when you lose a customer they will never come back never …. Keep this up ebay and all you will see is a decaying profit year after year. I’m Not sure how the guys on top sleep at night. My grandma would say shame on you ! Ebay Your grandma would say they same thing. I’m taking my top notch product and customer service else wear I had just invested and had projected 100k in sales in 6 months but not now that my items are only seen by a small handful of people and not world wide like you would think. Just means less profit for ebay once again …. No good paying customers and no good sellers is how ebay wants it. DO NOT SELL ON EBAY with a flick of the switch your “well built ebay business” is a ghost town. And honestly shoppers don’t buy their either …don’t do business with a unethical company. Most likely You probably will not enjoy the experience anyways.

51. Got to love an article that bashes ebay and then says “here, look at this free ebook and buy our online course…..”

    LOL

    1. I totally agree this moron is writing an article about how crappy eBay is but yet he’s telling us to do free websites which is all good and dandy but I guarantee you you can’t get traffic like eBay. Who cares if you make charges A fee it’s called you gotta spend money to make money doing your own website is a pain in the ass. The simple fact is the traffic is so hard to get and the way Google keeps changing their algorithms will never be able to be good at getting traffic unless you have a lot of money to spend a lot of time to be able to work on your website. Yes eBay is not the best but it is much better than doing your own website unless you’re very experienced you know how to get traffic he know what needs to be done and you can spend a lot of time on your business. Also what this guy is telling you about Mom and Pop stores and people that work at home he is 100% wrong. I’ve seen many stores sell high-quality equipment so unless he’s living in 1980 before the internet very popular he is wrong. I mean I understand why he doesn’t like eBay a lot of stuff on there makes it seem not worth doing but when you think about how much it cost to do traffic yourself you’re going to realize eBay Amazon third-party apps are the way to go

       1. Totally agree with tony, Russell and the others who point out that this is a one sided article. A shopify store isn’t free, or cheap, as you have to pay hundreds of dollars a month in SEO and advertising to even have a small potential customer base. And Google is just as likely to changes the rules as eBay.
          Everything costs. They’re just different.

    2. I think it’s absolutely ridiculous to sit here and say not to utilize Ebay. Granted, Ebay is FAR from perfect, but it accounts for close to 70% of my sales. I guess we shouldn’t use Etsy either right? Give me a break. My website accounts for less than 5% of my sales, it is what it is. Unless you have extensive amounts of time to work on SEO or blogging, the Ebay or Etsy fees are not that bad. Just my two cents.

    3. I would take this article with a grain of salt since the success of an E-Bay seller really depends on several different factors. Location, sourcing of items at the right price and quality of listings I think are the three most important factors that will be determine the outcome of your success for most individuals. Now, fees are part of any business – whether you pay E-Bay or a hosting company on your own website – fees are a harsh reality of creating your own business. Many people like myself would much rather focus on sourcing and taking care of the actual sales process than spending time, money and effort trying to drive customers to your site. For a one person operation (like me) it makes perfect sense to pay 10%-15% in fees as long as I can have a decent profit margin it is well worth having an E-Bay store for the present and for the future.

    4. eBay will steal you blind I know first hand they took nineteen dollar out of my bank account without my OK to pay for a return when they told me I did not have to pay for my return they are a bunch of crooked pigs.

       1. 19 whole dollars. Oh the calamity.

    5. lol. 12 – 15% to sell on eBay is not a big deal. If I opened my own online store I would have to promote it and spend thousands to get it noticed and pay for a website. ( maybe get noticed) eBay is a juggernaut. I don’t need to make people find me. That alone is worth 12% I make sure to mark my stuff up 15% anyway so it really doesn’t matter. I sell my own art, so who am I competing with on price? No one. They either want it or they dont.

    6. So many things I disagree with this in this article. I belong to some online sellers groups where people love to bash eBay and the thing is, it’s rental property. You are renting space from them for the traffic and exposure. I do agree that putting all of your eggs in one basket is a big mistake too since eBay can change their policies whenever they want just like Amazon and Facebook etc but not utilizing the site for the reasons cited in this article doesn’t make sense.

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53. I am looking forward to reading your free course.
    I am needing to find a second job.
    I have a job I love (courthouse court room clerk) but I just want to be able to get extras for my family (a lil fishing boat) or take a vacation (gasp!) And save for retirement.
    Thanks!

54. I was seller on ebay for as long as 5 years with more then 11000+ feedback even after this I have no Guarantee when one morning i will wake up to see eBay has suspend my account because they have so many buyer centric policies that its almost impossible to survive for long time on eBay, most important thing is from last one year due to there New policy of buyer can open dispute whenever they wish and seller get defect on his/her account after that once issue is resolve you all time run behind eBay and they will remove this dispute if they feel or if they are in mood to remove it( its not a Joke, its reality), I sell Handmade Slippers, Shoes and Wallets all made in Poland unique items and I feel that on ebay its very difficult to create a brand name for myself, I feel like I am there employee who is working under under ebay and to work for them i am also paying them monthly fees, enough is enough. 5 months ago i made a bold decision of my life to get out of this Sink hole call eBay and create my Own Identity and make website for myself call http://www.reindeerleather.com and my business is ok hope it will improve soon as i am positive about it.

55. Sorry, but I disagree strongly with your logic (and no, I’m not a current Ebay store owner). You say that Ebay/Paypal are “ripping you off” by taking 11-15% of your revenue, but in fact in any business, especially the very crowded ecommerce space, as much as 20% cost-of-sales is very reasonable. Remember, Ebay gives you access to a huge potential customer pool and although most of them are looking for a bargain, if you have the right mixture of goods at reasonable prices (which you should have in ANY business), the financial logistics are actually very good. The option that’s offered in this advertorial (for that’s what it is) doesn’t account for the high cost and lengthy time cycle of driving traffic to your own ecommerce website.
    Is the author really saying that the thousands of people who currently operate Ebay stores are misguided and could do better on their own?
    Proof please?
    And I don’t mean one or two anecdotal instances where “my sister’s brother-in-law made a million dollars last year” but actual evidence from a reputable source that promotes the business case that you’re suggesting.
    I think a moch more solid strategy would be to open your own ecommerce store in tandem with an Ebay store so that as you begin to grow your customer base, you can educate them about your alternate sales channels.

    1. Total crap. You can have 2,000,000. items and make good money and have all positive feedback. Then one day you wake up and boom., without advanced notice, your sore is shut down and you are stuck with 2,000,000 items.
       OK, what do you do next with 30,000 dollar merchandise ?

       1. That’s not true. The only way and I repeat, the only way that eBay would shut you down the way that you are describing is if you were actually ripping people off.

    2. Ebay has a reputation of shutting down businesses whenever they want, I have heard PayPal will hold your pay as well. People are just trying to warn others about Ebay.

       1. I don’t know who told you about Paypal, it doesn’t hold my money. The funds are available in a day or two.

       2. A.H. is exactly correct. Have noticed the comments are filled with pro-eBay shills who like to bash anyone who points out the misdeeds of eBay. One finds the same strategy being employed in the eBay chat forums as well (and this has been going on for years).

       3. @Jain Hazen: the comments are filled with opinions on both sides of the equation. No reason to bash either side. We all are adults here, aren’t we. For the record, I don’t work for eBay

56. I agree that eBay and Amazon are best market place to start your your business and to get to know which product you can sell and how buyer reacts to your your product, this are best platform to gain experince and knowledge to start your own business, however you cant make it as a long term business option, I was selling on eBay and I know how difficult it become after certain period of time, for example say you sell 600 items in a month with profit margin of around 10% after deducting 15 to 20% of eBay and paypal Final value fees( please note I have not added insertion fees in it) ok so I sell 600 items in a month out of which I got 10 item not received disputes, 10 Item not as discribe disputes, 2 negative feedback 2 Neutral feeback, on every INR, negative, neutral and god know what more things (item not received dispute) ebay give you defect and in paticular month your defects should not exceed more then 5% I can go indepth of it however it will take my whole day and night to explain in detail, My point is ,Yes sells volumn is very high however my profit after all this is only 5% ( I didnt include my work force and other things in it), Ok some sellers can bare with this too as sell volumn is very high on market place, however what is guarantee that I will be not out of business next morning i wake up, beleive me while selling on eBay i had sleepless nights all time near PC waiting to check and praying please no buyer open dispute today or leave me bad feedback because today there mood is bad.
    I left my job and started selling on ebay thinking I will be my own boss, however one morning I find that still I am employee of ebay difference is I am paying them for working under them as well as I dont know when they will kick me out and I will be without business.I didnt have my own identity on eBay what so ever.
    Now I have my own website and I have peace of mind,my buyers recognize me as Owner of http://www.Reindeerleather.com and I can explore my creativity which I was not able to do on eBay or on amazon, now i can give that 15% ebay and paypal fees to buyers in terms of discount, why everyone of us have to be in that virtual black hole when we can easily get out of it, we need to work hard and be little creative to make our own identity which will help in long run, eBay and Amazon will lead us nowhere, you never know what policy of there you will voilate and one good morning you wake up to see that you are back to square one again and everything is gone,I am sorry however I really dont support selling on market place if you are serious about your business make your own website its difficult but not impossible, if you are selling as part time eBay is best place to sell your Stuff.

    1. Im always amazed how people like to explain how this is bad or that, didnt you do any research have any business experience , you think ebay is bad , have a idiot post a false comment on a google review or yelp etc on a standing store , it can be devistating, . Its all the same you cant get away from it reviews and reviews its the future. And to the guy above with his 5 percent profit margin , try having a store , insurance business lic , etc plus pay employees , workmans. Comp , power should i go on , ebay dosent sound that bad now . Ebay is a good start and the big successful people on there have a web sight , and a store . Sorry life isnt easy so study your market , your customers /demographics and keep positive people around you , if it was easy everyone would do it . Go for it , for every person having a issue ,theres 100s that do well that goes for any business . Start small stay focused and grow as you get sales , but always have a growth plan , it isnt dreaming its called being positive and diaciplined. But hey thats jus my opinion lol

       1. Do you sell forex?

    2. You can barely express yourself – it’s not surprising you had trouble on the e-commerce sites.

    3. I am curious about your numbers. eBay final value fee is 10% and Paypal is roughly 3%. Then again, you are silent about your site upkeep costs that I am certain are more than eBay and Paypal together, and then some.

57. Not dating articles is dirty and scummy as hell.

    1. Very true. It would be nice to know when this was written because the eBay fees mentioned here are no longer accurate and are, in fact, substantially less in June 2016 than the figures quoted.

58. There’s been a recent flood of small former ebay sellers over to two new sites, Toucandeal and Vangoe.com…Vangoe offers stores, both sites are free to list and are growing rapidly.

    1. These sites have no where near the ebay traffic. I also had my own site for awhile, it didnt get near the traffic ebay did. So the 15% is worth it. I dont like the 5% of sales though, ppl that sell higher dollar items, but less volume, one complaint can kill them…This needs to be changed. Also when someone has been a seller for over 13 years, and ebay auto holds $ when a brand new buyer files a claim, thats just crazy.

       1. I have tried both eBay and Amazon. Steve is absolutely right when he says eBay Shoppers are Inherently Cheap. By the time I lowered prices to where the items would sell and then paid the final value fees, monthly store fees, and various other fees.. it just wasn’t worth my time.
          Amazon is somewhat better.. but their business model of allowing everyone else to pile onto your listing is a horrible idea. Everyone spends all day hanging in their Amazon account.. lowering prices a penny or two on each item so they can get the Buy Box. It’s ridiculous.. who has that kind of time?
          For the price of all the fees.. you can buy some Google advertising.. run your own websites and keep ALL of the profit for yourself.

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60. Great article but there is a slight problem. It takes a lot of SEO and time to get traffic to your website. Ebay has millions and millions of people, which is instant traffic, so in reality, that is what you are paying for, is that instant traffic to your auction, and SEO Does take a lot of work and knowledge to implement it. It does take some time to get ahead in google for your key words.

    1. I agree with Russell Williams everything he said is the same thing I’ve been saying to everyone that down to eBay yes eBay has a lot of problems and yes eBay is not the best way to do business but it is one of the most successful way to do it nobody can compare to eBay or Amazon traffic they bring you in for the trouble that you have to go through to get your own traffic it’s nearly impossible unless you have a lot of money and a lot of time to spend so one that has done websites that have been decently successful I know what works and what doesn’t eBay does work but just like other people have said have a website have many other options besides eBay or Amazon because at any given time they can suspend you for reasons unknown or for reasons that are not or do not seem fair at all.

       1. Can I sell you some punctuation?

61. Like I was saying, SEO. If you notice how Agnieszka Bane, left a link of his website on his reply ? You will find yourself doing alot of that which is all part of generating the traffic to your site. Please don’t get me wrong. I think its great to have your own website. Just learn good SEO practices. I

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63. LATEST REVELATIONS FROM FORMER EBAY INSIDER: When eBay randomly lowers the search standings of sellers items, or hides them completely, they do this due to supply and demand. With the World economy in the state it has been in since the financial decline of 2007, there are too many sellers and not enough buyers. So the corrupt Ivy League brains at eBay came up with a strategy. Encourage sellers to post, while secretly lowering their search standings and hiding their listings. Just enough to bring in a montly amount of sales to make it appear worth while. Countless sellers have stated on various message boards that they noticed a “cap” in their monthly sales. That no matter how much effort and time they put into their postings, they could not surpass a certain amount of sales per month. This was and is eBay lowering search standings and/or hiding sellers listings at random, so new sellers can sell their goods. And/or so large sellers (including those from China) can sell theirs. This is also known as “Throttling” which is against FTC (Federal Trade Commission) Laws. ATT was just fined 100 million dollars last year for illegal throttling it’s customers. -It’s been proven and documented. As they say “Numbers don’t lie.” We documented our monthly sales via eBay’s Sellers Dashboard and then proceeded to ramp up our monthly postings into the thousands. It made no difference. eBay customer service whined on the phone and admitted our search standings were lowered or hidden (although we still had to pay fees), that “other sellers had to have a chance to sell their items too.” Our main issue is we were presented with a fraudulent Selling Limit of 30K per month. We were capped at 3K to 4K each month. No matter what we did. How much we invested. Evidently ( by countless accounts, including internally at eBay), the eBay “Bots” the automated, metric-centric virus eBay created and introduced into their system(s) randomly targets small to mid-size sellers. This is so the executives can deny culpability. January 16 at 1:17pm They can deny it because the “Bots” are doing the damage, not management. Lol. They point the fingers at what they unleashed. Blatant fraud as all of this was reported to eBay and they did nothing. I think it is very difficult for Sellers to wrap their minds around all of this. And they tend to project their morals and ethics on to strangers. They can’t imagine executives actually being engaged in this kind of criminal activity. This is also why the Banks and Wall St. were bailed out by the American people, and why they continue to asset strip the U.S. on Wall St. and in Washington D.C. This IS an all-out war on the middle and lower classes.” (FORMER EBAY INSIDER, confidential informant)

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65. I am on eBay and have my own website. Ebay costs but it is virtually a no hassle with high fees.
    The easiest part of a website is building it. the hardest part is getting people to find your website. Search engine optimization (SEO) is the mothod of doing that. You really dan’t do it your self. It could cost up to $5000,00 to have your site show up on google and other sites. And it takes a long time especially if you are in a highly competative business. Type in some key words that describes what you do such as “garden tools” in a search engine and see how many business you have to climb over to get close to the top.

    Good luck

66. When is this article from?

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68. I know several people who tried this shopify lunacy and got screwed royally. The charges to reach others thru more search contacts, constant fees, constant promises that are not kept, made them all close and regret ever trying. They are more expensive thru search engine charges, than all of Ebays fees and Paypals, COMBINED!!!!

69. Yes, eBay takes their fees, but what’s on offer? Exposure to millions of potential buyers. The biggest problem for smaller online sellers is getting traffic to their sites. For a monthly cost that’s small compared to Adwords or Facebook ads, eBay solves that. Dismissing a valuable sales channel indicates you don’t know much about eCommerce or business in general.

70. We also had an ebay shop for over two years, at the beginning business was good and we had a steady increase in sales , then wham all of a sudden our sales dropped by over 30% in one month !!! now we agree that ebay fee’s are a tad high but we’re sure we were capped and we asked ebay if they did this, but they denied it.
    We no longer have an ebay shop as it’s just not cost worthy but we do still use them for special offers we have from time to time.
    Luckily our website http://www.info8.co.uk does ok and were not reliant on sales from ebay but we know many are and it’s always the little guy who gets f****d up by them.
    Shame really as ebay started out as a great selling platform , now its all about how much they can make from us sellers.
    Ok rant over 🙂

71. How do you get $6 out of 8% of $100? Last time I looked, it was $6. And, $36 being 4% of $1000? I thought it was $40. Your claim regarding fees on PayPal is as truthful as Donald Trump. We just sold an item for which we received $143.98. Our fee was 3.1%. It has NEVER even been more than 5%, if it was more than the 3.1%. Maybe it’s your bad math that caused your problems more than ebay’s fees. Yes, it costs to use ebay. It costs to host a website, too. But, I don’t want to be bothered with the set up or the calculations. I can also ship internationally through ebay without having to actually do the shipping myself. Ebay takes care of that through their global shipping service at no cost to me. I just make sure the item is received by them to forward to the international customer. Your claims about ebay’s fees are not just misleading – they are fabricated!!

    1. Wendy – What planet are you on – 3.1 %. I’ve been on Ebay since 2001 never seen anything like that %. Ebay has gone down hill drastically in the last ten years. They are dishonest & conniving. I have recently taken 2 of my 3 stores down. I still have one but would love to get away from them. They are just another BIG Corporate Machine. For years I had the biggest Ebay store for the resale of Antique & Collectable Copper Cookware. I still have more listing than anyone else but will shortly downsize again after another screwing they gave me where they took down 256 items and then relisted them @ .35 each without my permission. They do this type of stuff just to raise their profits. I had a sudden death in the family and I was no around when this happened. Copperhound55

72. It’s not that simple to get business through your own domain. I had an eBay store and my own website. I hardly got any traffic through my own site because there are millions of sites are there. I lost of lot of money paying for Google and Facebook fee per click ads. A site like eBay is well known and more trusted than http://www.whoisthis.com. Of course the goal of any business to pay the least amount of fees as possible, but you’ll either pay through Google or Yahoo ads or pay a site like eBay or Amazon.

73. I must disagree. I started my business on Ebay, then slowly build my online store.
    This gave me a chance to understand which products are more popular, which ones aren’t.
    I have an Excel table to calculate my prices and the prices on Ebay are higher than the prices on my online store, to make up for the percentage they take. Here in Australia, if you have a store ($45/month), their percentage is 7% on top of the final value (postage included), then the Paypal fee, which I also pay on most items sold at my own store.
    So 7% per sale + the $45/month store fee. It is not cheap, but in my view it is worth it.
    Ebay does A LOT of advertising. My products often get seen o Google searches because of Ebay. There is sooo much traffic, you will never get so many people to see your logo, even if you spend thousands on Google ads or any other ads.
    You just have to be clever on Ebay.
    The pictures I have on my Ebay listings are all from my website (links to my website from a very reputable site with a lot of views means my website gets higher on searches too). And my logo. Often people find us on Ebay, go searching on Google, find my website, notice that the products are cheaper and buy direct from us.
    I sell a lot of cheap, small items on Ebay such as travelling locks, breathalyzers, earplugs, hi-vis vests, etc.
    With each item, I normally send a flyer with my online store details, sometimes a $10 voucher, so this way I am promoting the store. And with each sale, you get another client for your mailing list, because you get the person’s email.
    Yes, I know, we shouldn’t spam, but you can send a nice message asking if they are happy with their purchase or thanking for a positive feedback, add a $10 voucher to your store and inform that once a month (never more often) you will send a newsletter. Make it interesting and very easy to opt out and you won’t have an issue.

74. This is at best an attention-grabbing piece to generate readership, and at worst a reckless scare-tactic post based on little substance.

    Here’s the thing. You’re probably right about ebay not being a good platform for certain types of sellers, but how could you reasonably assume that an eBay store would be a bad for ALL sellers and ALL businesses? That’s utter rubbish. There are many situations where an eBay store would not only be beneficial for sellers, but borderline necessary in order to succeed. Your argument holds no water.

    If there’s one thing you should have learned by now it’s that business is never black and white, but various shades of gray which are highly dependent on the an individual’s specific circumstances. Perhaps you are the one who needs to take a course on this particular lesson instead of spewing misinformation for your own gain.

75. YEAH This is a GREAT idea if you want to slash your sales by 70%… What a poorly researched pile of steaming shit.

76. I sell $14k-$18k a month on eBay. My profit margin after Fees, shipping, COGS and taxes, is somewhere north of 30%. I sell toys/action figures out of my house. No overhead, pick my hours, have a ton repeat customers, I straight list in a t-shirt and slippers. Sometimes i’ll even rip a joint before listing. Point is, if you use common sense and sell stuff that people use or collect, you can kill it on eBay and be YOUR OWN BOSS.

    As far as Shopify ect…. don’t have experience on those but I would take a guess and say unless your Instagram is on point and Facebooking to death, you just can’t touch eBays traffic.

77. Time to update your post about eBay fees. They’ve been 10% for quite awhile now. If you can’t keep your page updated, the public would be better served if you’d just delete it. I had an eBay store for a few months last year and I think they charged 9% FVF (but of course just having the store cost almost $25 per month!).

    1. Your info about eBay fees is outdated and simply incorrect. With basic subscription, you can list up to 250 fixed price listings and up to 250 auctions per month with NO insertion fees. Furthermore, final value fee with a basic store is 9% max (and 10% without the store subscription). The basic store monthly fee is roughly $20 or even less when they run promotions of $5 a month for 3 months like they do now.

       You are being silent about certain store features that boost sales, such as Markdown Manager. When you drop your item price, it’s being displayed with an old price crossed over, so that buyers think they get a bargain. And I am sure a few more features.

       Not everything is so bad about an eBay store. IMO

78. There is some truth to the fact that eBay has a lot of flaws. However, eBay also does a lot of advertising. How much do you need to spend on advertising in order to get the same sales volume on your site as you get on eBay? I can compare because I have both.

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80. Ebay is flawed, ruthless and unethical. From a seller viewpoint, they know the marketplace lacks competition, so they do whatever they want. Raise fees, lower profit for sellers and side with buyers and ridiculous claims.

    Almost every comment here that sides with ebay says the truth – ebay provides a name and traffic to sell your goods. They know this and like I said, they know there is no competing website, so they take advantage of every seller on the site.

    My main gripe is the poor handling of customer issues. Thankfully I have had minimal customers complain – but holy smokes when they do, even if the customer lies, ebay will side with them.

    At the end of the day, you have to look at your costs. Can you start your own site and do it cost effectively, or do you need to use ebay? Once you figure out the answer, go get some lube and let ebay bend you over.

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82. eBay can just shut your account down out of a whim and there is nothing you can do. I thought it wouldn’t happen to me but it did. eBay did nothing to help remedy the situation. Just banned out of the blue.

    Has anyone been successful on getting back on ? I came across this guide: https://www.slideshare.net/AuctionEssistance/ebay-incognitostealth but it seems like a lot of work involved just to get back on.

83. If you have the eBay store, you work for eBay. If you use the Free listings, eBay works for you. As Mark Cuban once said; eBay giveth, eBay can take it away. One policy change & you’ll be the one left holding the bag. If you want it done right, do it yourself. eBay is a selfish trickster with no morals. eBay will have you banging you head against the wall. For a company that holds No Inventory, they sure will be generous with yours. Leave the Negativity at Bay, eBay that is. Talk to Father Google not mother eBay if you want success with out the headache.

84. Do you really think you just put a website out without spending money to get traffic… its not that easy. Ebay goves u immediate traffic and its 10% fees are very fair considering the sales and traffic you will get from ebay.

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101. Wow you must be very uneducated in business. We will gross around 750k this year from eBay with net being about 52% we have grown by 400% in 4 years. eBay bring you a large amount of customers for a small fee, but with a website you will never generate the traffic eBay does. It’s also smart to put an affiliate link on your website to draw customers to your eBay store for extra sales. Re evaluate your inventory cost before bashing eBay

     1. eBay employee

102. This is bad advice.
     While the goal is to be able to sell on your own website- getting the exposure and customers and trying to make it on search engines etc with all the completion. Then there is the factor of people not being sure if it safe to buy off you- you can’t get on Google Trusted stores unless you get 250 orders a month and someone starting out… the fees aren’t bad. Ebay advertises for you.
     Horrible advice.

103. Ebay is no longer seller friendly and their policies promote buyer fraud at the seller’s expense. They always side with fraudulent buyers over top rated sellers. Ebay has become a nightmare for sellers! Some of the comments on here are most likely from people affiliated somehow with eBay. Having your own website pays in the long run. Ebay has no regards for their sellers. That is why their stock is going nowhere. Never bite the hand that feeds you!

     1. Im an Ebay seller or was one until recently and the profit margins are gone. I used to developed websites and driving traffic to your own website is like winning the lottery nowadays. Good luck with that. You are screwed either way IMHO. Its back to a sh#tty job for me.

     2. Ebay must be an absolute beast to sell on. Must be why their stock has grown by roughly 66% in the last years. This site is just bashing Ebay to sell their own product. Ebay has its flaws, but it has its positives that are still worthwhile. Don’t fall for the propaganda and do your own research.

     3. VERY TRUE!

104. PURE AND SIMPLE, FEEBAY TAKES TOO MUCH AND THEY HAVE TOO MUCH CONTROL OVER YOUR STORE. USE THEM FOR BIN’S AND ASK FOR TOP DOLLAR THEN WHEN YOU GET A SALE, IT WON’T SMART SO MUCH.

105. This is very biased I sell on eBay with good profit margins. Your have to find the right products that sell and make sure you are taking a good percentage for yourself after fees and postage. It’s all about strategy. eBay has good rankings in search engines so this can do wonders for your brand. Just provide a good service and get good feedback under your business name. You can also have your own website too so you can direct traffic to both. It’s not a one size fits all and if you do your research eBay can make some good money so don’t knock it till you’ve tried it yourselves folks!

     1. Some people can do well just like some people can become rich rock stars. Fot the regular joe not so much…

     2. Amen!! Best comment I have read on this article.

106. My website is on my invoice, on the return label on the package, and on my business card inside. You mean to say that my eBay buyer can’t read any of those and buy from me directly if they choose to?

107. Ebay is pricing themselves out of a great deal of business – funny they don’t see it. Such as all the new sites popping up like Etsy, Bonanza and there is Amazon of course too. Hey EBAY – lower your fees. You are charging too much and this is going to cost you big time in the long run.

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109. eBay has become a flea-market for CHINESE peddlers of all kinds of merchandise. It may seem “beneficial” to have these Chinese sellers make the marketplace more “competitive” in USA. That is until you realize that:

     These Chinese will set up warehouse HERE in USA and getting more of their relatives to come over and multiply…forcing MANY US sellers completely out.
     Many (most in fact) goods offered by the chinese sellers are *cheapest* because they’re a LOWER GRADE of similar merchandise other more reputable sellers may not offer.
     The Chinese DO NOT offer ANY type of after-sale support of the goods they sell. So the “low price” is a just a selling gimmick to attract the dummies searching the ebay “search engine” looking for the ever-elusive lowest price.
     You CANNOT operate a decent business selling on ebay – unless you want to end up living in Shanghai.
     SCREW EBAY!!!

     1. The above is certainly true. I have tried to work with several Chinese manufacturers through Alibaba. And what I find is when I get the best price for an item that I can and then include shipping cost from China, I cannot compete with exactly the same products listed on eBay from a Chinese seller.

     2. Moron

110. I noticed there is nowhere that you mention the end cost of using your product? (beyond the free tuition).
     Please do not reply to this email if i do not have the option of unsubscribing.
     Im sensitive about the barrage of useless emails we receive these days. particularly the one which take an hour to find where/how to unsubscribe.
     I’m sure if your product is worth its salt you will see past my intolerance.
     Regards
     Jeff

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113. Sounds like a lot of stupid people without common sense and don’t take responsibility for their own stupidity. Any intelligent person can manage and make a killing on eBay (or any site really). You got burned over your own stupidity and now you feel entitled to take it out on something you don’t have the capacity to manage anymore. I bet eBay was the best thing to ever happen to you at the beginning and now you messed up and it’s someone els’s fault. Be smarter next time.

114. “As a result, it’s extremely difficult to attract repeat business. After all, you can not collect emails and you are not allowed to contact customers after a sale has been made.”
     NOT TRUE
     Im an Ebay seller of 20 years and the above statement is FALSE.
     Buyers e-mail addresses are available for 45 days after the sale but ebay did make it more difficult.
     First they deleted the share contact info link.
     Then they made it so you can’t see the email address above the buyers ID. To get the buyers email now you have copy to clipboard which is tedious. The work-around is to archive the sold item, and there you’ll find the email address you can copy and paste to your email.
     I get repeat business all the time

115. Awesome how you list not being able to sell “drugs and drug paraphernalia” on ebay as a negative mark. What is wrong with you?

116. Sounds like the person who wrote this didn’t get on well themselves with ebay. I know of a few people that make 6 figure sums a year from selling a select few products, these people i speak of did try opening their own web shop, but it failed due to very little traffic. Opening an ebay store was the best thing they ever done. It’s just knowing what product is going to sell, and how to sell it to get people to buy! You don’t have to start with a store anyway, you can start with a personal account, and still make good sales and have repeat custom. Don’t let negative articles like this put you off!!

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