ALT-1 The Downside of Selling on Ebay
Ebay is probably one of the best places on the planet to purchase used and new merchandise on the internet today. Especially, if you are buying from a merchant that has top feedback ratings, with a "legitimate" guarantee of their product. After all, you can purchase these "used" or new products from the convenience of your home, 24 hours a day, in your pajamas!"
Over the years, my wife and I have purchased some "fantastic" used and new products from these ebay merchants. Anywhere, from auto parts, computer parts, authentic dolls, ebooks, camping supplies, etc. "You name it and you can buy it on eBay! " Their slogan. We always buy from the top feedback merchants. They are normally the best.
Their photographs are always perfect and their description is just about as exact as you can possibly get. "How these top merchants always come up with the best prices is a mystery?" It's like buying from the "Sears" catalog years ago!" These top merchants know exactly what they are doing and are normally very professional with their replies and buyer feedbacks.
Unfortunately, selling on eBay is just not so great? Here are number of the reasons why: Learning how to "simply" sell on eBay without problems takes time to learn and expensive, the competition is fierce, the shipping cost will kill you, the constant complaints from buyers, ebays rules and regulations, knowing exactly "when" to place you listing for an auction, listing fee's are sometimes outrageous if you are not careful, descriptions must be an "exact" match of the product, word for word, photograph's must be of the utmost modern quality because of competition, leaving constant "excellent " feedback for buyers is time consuming, replying to constant questions from potential buyers is also time consuming,
PayPal expenses go up every year, dealing with "fraudulent buyers" that claim they sent the check in the mail and leave you bad feedback, buyers that file claims against you for "stupid" reasons and naturally you have to follow-up or ebay will suspend your account, ebay sending you constant reminders about your listing fees account. Ebay's threats to suspend your account because the item was placed in the wrong category.
You can't list your personal website in your listings or have any outside links, buyers that take forever to pay, filing claims against normally "new" buyers that refuse to pay and you have to follow-up, which is also time consuming, the constant "games" that competitors love to play on new sellers is a huge problem, mis-spelled words in the listing can cause your buyer to return the product. ("Who pays for the shipping cost?") etc. The list of problems goes on forever, which this infomercial guy will never tell you on television.
My advice, if your planning on selling something on the internet, stay away from eBay. Yahoo! auctions had a great thing going while they were charging listing fees and then they decided to make it "free" Then everyone all around the world started listing these "bogus" items in the same category over and over and over again, thus in return eventually had to shut-down their auction section, which I miss.
After my wife and I closed our account with ebay, we have searched the internet for a reasonable and "legitimate" company to sell products, but so far, we have just not been successful.
