Do any of you make a living selling stuff on eBay?

[ev1lchris]

I've been thinking about traveling and selling stuff on eBay to generate income. I would buy from where I travel.

Has anyone else been successful at this? She people think it's a bad idea.

[kandi]

eBay's SO 90's...

[ev1lchris]

That's what I keep hearing.

[Cypress Hill]

Is the OP still trying to find a way to make his stay in Thailand permanent?

Ignore the eBay naysayers - a lot of people do very well on there - but all you're gonna get here is grumps telling you to go home, pay your "dues" and come back in your 60s

Try some expat-focused Facebook groups like "Bangkok Expats" - should be able to get some solid advice there.

[ev1lchris]

Yes I am. What can I say? I love Thailand so freaking much.

Thanks for the positive words too. Everyone on the net is so negative. Especially Reddit.

I'm slinging handbags on eBay here in Los Angeles. I figure if I do okay here then I could do well in Thailand.

[Thongkorn]

the next thing will be YOU NEED a Work Permit.

[konying]

Not as easy as it use to be, even more harder when selling anything brand name from Asia.

Paypal will be another headache who will see something wrong with logging in from different locations.

And finally, no way to beat Chinese sellers who will sell to break even.

Unless you can find something niche to sell, you will not make a living out of it

[Denim]

I was doing quite nicely until November last year although not on ebay.

Over a two year period I gradually found a customer base and towards the end was regularly making about 35,000 baht a month profit....best month hit 58,000 baht. Then it all abruptly fell apart and my store was closed on copyright infringement grounds.

Fair cop.....no complaints. Its just that living in Thailand so long and seeing Superman , Batman and Hello Kitty t shirts etc at every market , you forget those things are copyrighted. In fact....as I now belatedly realize, if you've heard of it it probably has a copyright.

Also, Thailand has tightened up a lot recently so it is not as easy as it used to be. Proceed with caution as you will remember the 2 Frenchmen recently busted for selling football shirts.

[impulse]

Best of luck to you chasing your passion.

As others have indicated, EBay's changed and become harder- especially for casual or "non-linear" sellers. But for every door that closes, another 5 doors open on the interweb.

[ryanhull]

One problem you will have is postage...

Its expensive for fast tracked postage, and alot of ebayers pick up on the fact your sending from Thailand and say they never recived it when they did, this means you have to proof you posted it which can be a real ball ache with just a Thai receipt.

Ebay/Paypal do not like Thai IP`s for some reason, so depending on where you originally registered your account you might want to use an IP mask (VPN) for example if you registered your ebay account in the UK then use a UK VPN.

However that said, depending on the demand and competition of what your selling, some users do not mind waiting the 2-3 weeks postage time which means you can send a little cheaper, and say you get 100 sales and 10 of those claim it never arrived, you might still make profit even refunding those 10 if that makes sense. Be careful of selling counterfeit goods as you will get away with it for so long then you will be completely banned off ebay (not even able to make a new account).

If you check out what people sell from Thailand using the advanced search you'll mainly see stuff like soaps, thai beauty products etc which are obviously so cheap here it gives good mark up plus with them being light postage is not too bad.

All in all it comes down to the weight of what your selling and the postal times, i.e will you customers wait 2-3 weeks or will they buy from a UK seller giving a 1-2 delivery time, in some cases your products might not have any competition meaning you could sell them well. I have quite alot of experience with ebay as I used to be a power seller in the UK, please feel free to PM me if I can help.

p.s it does no harm selling 1-2 items as a test and working out postal costs etc to see if its workable?

Cheers

[NeverSure]

There's an old saying in the business world and old sayings often get to be that because they are true:

"No one ever made any money selling anything. He made the money when he bought it."

If you can find a really good product(s) at a price that's already money in the bank, and keep a steady supply coming you have already made money.

Cheers

[zierf1]

I'm making money selling services/digital products. Not on ebay though.

[ev1lchris]

I'm making money selling services/digital products. Not on ebay though.

Is there a better online market?

[ryanhull]

Is there a better online market?

Amazon might be worth looking at, but the % they take is high and rife with people trying to abuse the buyers rights...

Aside from facebook... there is craigslist/olx etc but I think they are more for cash sales in person, might be worth looking into however.. I know my wife buys alot of stuff for our baby via facebook pages (bit dodgy though as you have to bank transfer and hope they are genuine)

I hear lazada will let you sell through them, they are a bit of an amazon I believe. You might want to create your own webstore? it isnt something you want to jump into/pay for without testing if you will even get any sales to be honest

Cheers

[MAJIC]

I was doing quite nicely until November last year although not on ebay.

Over a two year period I gradually found a customer base and towards the end was regularly making about 35,000 baht a month profit....best month hit 58,000 baht. Then it all abruptly fell apart and my store was closed on copyright infringement grounds.

Fair cop.....no complaints. Its just that living in Thailand so long and seeing Superman , Batman and Hello Kitty t shirts etc at every market , you forget those things are copyrighted. In fact....as I now belatedly realize, if you've heard of it it probably has a copyright.

Also, Thailand has tightened up a lot recently so it is not as easy as it used to be. Proceed with caution as you will remember the 2 Frenchmen recently busted for selling football shirts.

The whole copyright thing is a minefield I gave up selling,when they told me my posting was infringing Zippo,as the fliptop was the same but not the same size,and not named as Zippo. I then looked up the rest of lighters up for sale,and lo and behold their were hundreds and hundreds! of fliptops!

This was a long time ago, and I have just typed in on Ebay "Flip Top Lighters" and guess what? there are still hundreds of Flip Top lighters listed!

Edited July 5, 2015 by MAJIC

[ryanhull]

The whole copyright thing is a minefield I gave up selling,when they told me my posting was infringing Zippo,as the fliptop was the same but not the same size,and not named as Zippo. I then looked up the rest of lighters up for sale,and lo and behold their were hundreds and hundreds! of fliptops!

This was a long time ago, and I have just typed in on Ebay "Flip Top Lighters" and guess what? there are still hundreds of Flip Top lighters listed!

Thing is mate, its not ebay its competitors reporting your listings to get rid of you!

[MAJIC]

The whole copyright thing is a minefield I gave up selling,when they told me my posting was infringing Zippo,as the fliptop was the same but not the same size,and not named as Zippo. I then looked up the rest of lighters up for sale,and lo and behold their were hundreds and hundreds! of fliptops!

This was a long time ago, and I have just typed in on Ebay "Flip Top Lighters" and guess what? there are still hundreds of Flip Top lighters listed!

Thing is mate, its not ebay its competitors reporting your listings to get rid of you!

I wouldn't be at all surprised!

[BKKdreaming]

It is easy to make small money on eBay to live a Thai lifestyle ,but you are not going to make $2000 a month without it becoming a full time job if you are doing it from Thailand.

Why ??? Main reason is that if you sell a product that can be bought in Thailand for 3-4 times cost , a Thai will cut your price and be happy with 2-3 times cost.

Make your own product and you might win for a short time until someone just copies your product !

No easy get rich quick items for eBay anymore....

And yes we make our own items , and no one has copied them yet !/

Edited July 5, 2015 by BKKdreaming

[cooked]

As mentioned above, Paypal is not easy to use in Thailand. My account got hacked and they refused to restore it, I can't use it.

[Jessi]

Not as easy as it use to be, even more harder when selling anything brand name from Asia.

Paypal will be another headache who will see something wrong with logging in from different locations.

And finally, no way to beat Chinese sellers who will sell to break even.

Unless you can find something niche to sell, you will not make a living out of it

AS this member has said in the above quote.

I sold on ebay back in 02,03 & 04. It was much easier back then.

I made my money by finding dealers in The U.S. and Europe and wholesaling to them.

IMO & Just MO, the main ones making money from Ebay today,,, is Ebay & Paypal

Yes be very careful of Paypal, if they see a change in your ISP (Country) They will freeze your account,

It happened to a friend of mine, he had over US$30,000 in his account & he couldn't get at it for 6 months.

Good luck with your venture. Do your homework first.

[Guest]

You know, every once in a while I stumble upon a really good thread.

Informed people offering sincere advice .. no bashing, no BS ..

Thank you all for a good read .. learned some good things.

Have a great week!

[al007]

Not as easy as it use to be, even more harder when selling anything brand name from Asia.

Paypal will be another headache who will see something wrong with logging in from different locations.

And finally, no way to beat Chinese sellers who will sell to break even.

Unless you can find something niche to sell, you will not make a living out of it

Paypal is easy to deal with just get another account based in thailand, you need a different email address , I even link it to my non Thai bank account in fact same account as I use on my other paypal account

On ebay I can choose which paypal account to use on the same ebay account

[konying]

Not as easy as it use to be, even more harder when selling anything brand name from Asia.

Paypal will be another headache who will see something wrong with logging in from different locations.

And finally, no way to beat Chinese sellers who will sell to break even.

Unless you can find something niche to sell, you will not make a living out of it

Paypal is easy to deal with just get another account based in thailand, you need a different email address , I even link it to my non Thai bank account in fact same account as I use on my other paypal account

On ebay I can choose which paypal account to use on the same ebay account

Now try selling /receiving money into that account on regular basis and come back with update

[ev1lchris]

Are people being overly cynical?

[Jessi]

Are people being overly cynical?

I dont think so.

The members are trying to pass on their knowledge, its up to the OP

what he takes on board.

[konying]

Are people being overly cynical?

Not sure about others, but I have had about 15 PayPal accounts , only 1 remains open and it's because I do not use it.

I have had at least 30 eBay accounts over the last 15 years and only 1 remains open only because I use it to buy not to sell.

Was a titanium power seller with over 20000 feedback at 99.2% and got closed down .

Once was selling LV bag, used with original receipt , closed down because apperantly not licenced to sell LV.

Was selling imobile, closed down for unknown reason.

List goes on.

[AlQaholic]

You can always sell wickwickies glasses.......

[sammygood]

postal charges will take any profits you think you will make

and next thing, with your daily boxes at the post office, someone will ask you for your work permit

you can imagine what is the next thing you will need

[recycler]

Selling stuff from Thailand will be difficult, prices are too high and on top of that the shipping kills it and than you didn't even start marketing your stuff. I had a shop online selling silk, handycrafts and decorative items until 8 years ago and than it was already like this.

It takes long to source stuff and than you need a Thai to deal with the suppliers, often the suppliers are not that reliable so you need back-up suppliers and you'll need back-up for your contacts with suppliers when they run, and so on.

You'll see many things and think it would be great to sell online, but in most cases there is no way you can make money on it.

Maybe in Myanmar, Laos, Cambodia and China you can still get prices that give you a competitive advantage and the suppliers don't think they will get rich over you in a few weeks.

[ev1lchris]

I want to do simple things like jewelry, bags, and wallets. Small and easy to ship.