How To Do Business In Thailand On Ebay?

[ConfusedFarang]

The title pretty much says it all. Im 25 year old American who has been to Thailand before and would like to stay in Thailand (even if just for 3 months at a time) and sell things out of Thailand on ebay.com so that I can remain in Thailand (or nearby) and make a living still. How can I do this? I assume I need a business visa but is that even possible for this kind of business??? If I have to live in Malaysia to do this and bring the goods from Thailand to Malaysia each week or month, Im willing to do that as well. If I were to have my girlfriend in Thailand do all the work and then transfer half of the money from her bank account to mine for instructing her, is that something they will come down on me for??? Can anybody give some suggestions or advice please? Greatly appreciated.

[sriracha john]

1. Non-Immigrant B visa

http://www.thaivisa.com/visa/non-immigrant-visa.html

2. Work Permit

http://www.thaivisa.com/work-permit/how-to...ork-permit.html

[danone]

got a friend here who exports garments since many years, with no company.

he just orders and ships the stuff, lets the freight questions be handled by a freight company, and seems to do pretty well.

doesnt have a work permit.

meaning: if you only try your biz first for a few months, i'd give it a try with a tourist visa.

shouldnt be a problem. just be on the watchout, in case you're successful.

good things get easily copied here and successful people harrassed.

[LPCustom69]

There have been many topics on this, check the old topics. There are probably hundreds of members here who do this, so don't know if you can really expect to make enough to cover all your expenses. I would have a backup plan. Try and specialise in something unique so that you are not like everyone else. Also, have a backup plan.

The title pretty much says it all. Im 25 year old American who has been to Thailand before and would like to stay in Thailand (even if just for 3 months at a time) and sell things out of Thailand on ebay.com so that I can remain in Thailand (or nearby) and make a living still. How can I do this? I assume I need a business visa but is that even possible for this kind of business??? If I have to live in Malaysia to do this and bring the goods from Thailand to Malaysia each week or month, Im willing to do that as well. If I were to have my girlfriend in Thailand do all the work and then transfer half of the money from her bank account to mine for instructing her, is that something they will come down on me for??? Can anybody give some suggestions or advice please? Greatly appreciated.

[samtam]

The biggest problem with ebay here is shipping. Where is your market? Is delivery reliable without using courier services, and if your item is weighty, this effectively kills the potential sale.....unless I'm missing something.

[bolognamare]

The title pretty much says it all. Im 25 year old American who has been to Thailand before and would like to stay in Thailand (even if just for 3 months at a time) and sell things out of Thailand on ebay.com so that I can remain in Thailand (or nearby) and make a living still. How can I do this? I assume I need a business visa but is that even possible for this kind of business??? If I have to live in Malaysia to do this and bring the goods from Thailand to Malaysia each week or month, Im willing to do that as well. If I were to have my girlfriend in Thailand do all the work and then transfer half of the money from her bank account to mine for instructing her, is that something they will come down on me for??? Can anybody give some suggestions or advice please? Greatly appreciated.

an e-bay business is a good choice to have a second income (or if you have enough saving to survive without it), my suggestion is to find a niche undeveloped in your living country (for ex. memory cards); an idea that surely works is to live near the Pantip in Bangkok and go every day to find little items (memory cards, usb pen, stuff under 50 USD) and sell them in your living country (USA) (first check prices of course). Registered mail takes time but if you find the right thai post office everything will work well.

Forget to obtain a business visa for that (if u have to pay taxes for this kind of business too you can forget any income, ebay fees are enough).

If tourism visa is not available for more than 2-3 months you can look for a big store in Kuala Lumpur too, so you could change your working/living place easily.

I think it can works, but better to manage it alone (don't forget that ebay is feedback sensitive) and if your thai partner isn't enough professional (and it happens often, specially when feelings & money are involved) you risk to loose your first goals.

Why don't i do it? because i have a mortgage to pay and a decent job in my living country (it's my escape plan if things go bad).

Another suggestion don't share your business with other people (manage it privately).

good luck!

Edited August 9, 2007 by bolognamare

[satyrion]

I got banned from e bay, and I think it would be better if you just looking for another site to sell ur things. try this site www.ioffer.com. And if you want to do ur business on e bay, u need to have PayPal account (not recommanded) my girl she has her small business about online shopping and she just got a big problem with e bay and PayPal last week.

[stevemiddie]

You don,t need Paypal account to be with Ebay.

Paypal exchange rates from US dollars or UK pounds effectively add another 10% on top of the normal paypal commission. I,m assuming of course you have a Thai Bank account. Paypal will not allow purchases to be made using Thai baht. They will convert however once the sale has been completed ( in dollars etc )

Last time i used Paypal ................the bank exchange rate was 34 baht to 1 dollar. Paypal converted at 31.00

Almost a 10% mark up.

I now use Siampay ( and Moneybookers on Ebay. )

Don,t bother looking at mem cards. They are cheaper in the UK on Ebay. I buy them there and sell them to Thai shops. Absoloutely true.

[meadish_sweetball]

Live rates at 2007.08.09 13:27:33 UTC

Notice: The THB rate shown below is the international rate. Rates used within Thailand may vary.

1.00 USD

=

31.1450 THB

United States Dollars Thailand Baht

1 USD = 31.1450 THB 1 THB = 0.0321079 USD

(From xe.com)

Paypal seems to use the offshore rate which actually makes sense unless they are exchanging the money within Thailand, where the rate is higher.

[CobraSnakeNecktie]

I got banned from e bay, and I think it would be better if you just looking for another site to sell ur things. try this site www.ioffer.com. And if you want to do ur business on e bay, u need to have PayPal account (not recommanded) my girl she has her small business about online shopping and she just got a big problem with e bay and PayPal last week.

why did you get banned? trademark infringement?

[bolognamare]

Don,t bother looking at mem cards. They are cheaper in the UK on Ebay. I buy them there and sell them to Thai shops. Absoloutely true.

May be the UK market is quite full (even if i don't think it, there is surely a niche not well developed), but not the USA and surely not the rest of Europe, i have recently bought from an USA and from an Hong Kong ebayer 2 diferent compact flash card (4GB) for my canon eos 350D for 30-35 euro (in Italy they cost around 85-100 euro everywhere, internet e-shops too), so it's possible to earn enough to have a decent income, but it's necessary to check well in advance your niche.

About payment if you don't want to risk with paypal you can open a US bank account and accept only wire transfers in your auctions, you can check payments online.

Once the business is started (3-500 positive feedbacks) i suggest you to invest 1-2000 us dollars for a little e-commerce website (with a freelance coder) where you can forward your ebay customers (you will save a lot of money, because ebay earns a lot of your incomes).

Edited August 9, 2007 by bolognamare

[rainman]

You don,t need Paypal account to be with Ebay.

If you're in Thailand, you cannot open a seller account with just a credit card - they require a verified PayPal account.