Making an ebay business full time.

Being an Ebay seller is a tough business to be in especially if you sell used items. Ebay is totally slanted to the buyer these days. Buyers will try every trick in the book to get their money back after buying an item and Ebay will give them the money back.

Used items need to have every flaw no matter how small described. Photographs of flaws are good too. Ebay has certain keywords that need to be in listings for used as-is items to make it more likely you will win if a seller wants their money back.

Are you ready to meet the nearly 24x7 demands of buyers and potential buyers? Buyers and potential buyers expect near instantaneous responses to Ebay messages and email messages. Do you have a thick skin for the person who emails at midnight and then sends a nasty email at 6 am because they didn't get a reply yet? A lot of Ebay sellers list business hours and explicitly state they only answer communications during those hours, but many buyers don't read and will be upset when they don't get an answer outside of those hours.

If you go out of town and post notice of such you'll still get idiots who will buy your stuff and expect same day shipping even though there is a banner stating you won't ship until some future date when you are back in town.

If you have another job are you going to end up getting in trouble because you are trying to run your side business during work hours?

Quote from reader2580 : Being an Ebay seller is a tough business to be in especially if you sell used items. Ebay is totally slanted to the buyer these days. Buyers will try every trick in the book to get their money back after buying an item and Ebay will give them the money back. Used items need to have every flaw no matter how small described. Photographs of flaws are good too. Ebay has certain keywords that need to be in listings for used as-is items to make it more likely you will win if a seller wants their money back. Are you ready to meet the nearly 24x7 demands of buyers and potential buyers? Buyers and potential buyers expect near instantaneous responses to Ebay messages and email messages. Do you have a thick skin for the person who emails at midnight and then sends a nasty email at 6 am because they didn't get a reply yet? A lot of Ebay sellers list business hours and explicitly state they only answer communications during those hours, but many buyers don't read and will be upset when they don't get an answer outside of those hours. If you go out of town and post notice of such you'll still get idiots who will buy your stuff and expect same day shipping even though there is a banner stating you won't ship until some future date when you are back in town. If you have another job are you going to end up getting in trouble because you are trying to run your side business during work hours?

How often does this happen though to folks? I would say 9 out of 10 buyers are good buyers. You will always have that one who has expectations that not even they could meet. Those are the buyers who get blocked and you never do business with them again. I will agree there A LOT of DUMB BUYERS on eBay who expect small time sellers to be like huge corporations, thinking everyone is sitting by eBay waiting for their message. But just keep it professional, learn from your experience and keep on pushing and it will have its reward.