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

[GarryP]

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!

There is no copyright in the fliptop. It may have had a patent at one time but if it did, that expired years ago. The only thing they have is the trademark and possibly copyright in the artwork which appears on the side of some models. Probably just idle threats.

[Kasset Tak]

I'm from Sweden and we used to have a good trading site where I did a good deal of money in the past. They where sold to eBay, now it's all the same problem with Paypal and so on.

Now I sell pharmaceuticals thru my nephew instead. I know that it might be a bit of a gray area but all are happy and we don't sell anything totally illegal. I buy legal medicine (ex. Amoxi) at the pharmacy and send it to my nephew living in Norway. He sell for less than in the pharmacy and without the need to see the doctor it's about 40% of the price in Norway. We split the profit and last December I made about $1,000 (B 30,000) this way.

[MauiSteveBKK]

I live half Bangkok, Half Maui, Hawaii.

+ Started April 2 with EBay & Amazon. Just closed Amazon after about $350 in sales. Their fees are too high.

+ We import clothing. Women's clothing from Thailand. No "brand name" or using a big name logo.

+ The items are $3 - $6.50 USA each. DHL adds about $1.00US to the clothing item.

+ I will receive tomorrow (Monday on Maui) a shipment from BKK of two boxes, over 250 dresses. Shipping is better if it's a lot.

+ I just placed an order Friday for 50 more clothing items. $300 for clothing. $185 for shipping.

+ In 120 days, we have sold 63 items on EBay for around $20 - $25. We have developed a "niche".

+ All transactions use PayPal. I pay with PayPal. I collect on Ebay with PayPal. It is very good to use.

+ I ship from Maui, Hawaii.

FUTURE. When Thai wife and I are in Bangkok.

+ Will source more products. Spend my time in BKK & Chiang Mai looking for products. Then Ship to Maui, Hawaii.

+ I will process orders in Bangkok. My son will ship products. We sell EVERYTHING USPS Priority Mail Padded Envelope 1-4 Business Days and it costs us $5.70 each. I charge $6.95 for shipping/handling on EBay.

+ I have a distribution company on Maui. If you wanted to sell on EBay or Amazon, you can sell -- we will ship for you.

So. Example.

I buy a dress. $6.50 cost. Shipping is $1.00 - $1.50 each. I have total cost of $7.50 - $8.00 or so. I charge $21.95 for the item on EBay.

I am looking for more products.

I think we can easily make $500 or more a month.

The business is for my Thai wife. She has been on Maui 3 months from BKK on a K1 Fiancee VISA.

I love our little business, EBay and Paypal. We did well on Amazon, but it's much harder to upload more inventory, and their fees are higher. Plus, honestly, I'm too laze to handle both EBay and Amazon. So I picked one.

Any questions, ideas or more product ideas .... please send to me.

Steve

[ev1lchris]

Wow Steve! You are living the dream!

[DLang]

A friend sells clothing to contacts in the UK music industry. Nightclub promoters mainly. T-Shirts for their clubs/events/DJ's/festivals mainly.

[bazza40]

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

Strange, I trade options against shares or cash in my share trading account and have evolved the opposite saying.

"I always profit from selling options. I never make money buying them."

Edited July 6, 2015 by bazza40

[theguyfromanotherforum]

You will not be able to make anything on eBay. Like the other poster the fact you are selling from Thailand will get your account suspended. Also VPN will get you banned. Had a PayPal account since 2001 and it got banned here.

[slerickson]

I'd never do anything with them. Sold a 40 some year old turntable on it. Buyer didn't approve of the condition. I never made any claims about the condition. As a seller I had no defense even though my ad said no returns EBay charged me back for the sale and shipping. I got it back and the buyer didn't package it properly so the turntable was turned to junk. Called eBay and they stated there is no provision for dealing with that problem, so basically Tough Shit.

It's a return policy they instituted last year.

Edited July 6, 2015 by slerickson

[ev1lchris]

I would never sell anything more complex than clothing on eBay.

[DLang]

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

We use a local motosai taxi man for everything. All post office, bills, etc. A great thing about Thailand, costs peanuts and save us time, effort and travel.

[monk280915]

Wife sold ladies blouses on Ebay for about 1 year. Had her PayPal account set up through Kasikorn bank. She shipped all over the world from Koh Samui. Just make sure you explain the shipping details such as item ships from Thailand and will take some time to get to them. I believe she wrote 6 - 8 weeks. Never had problems with Ebay or PayPal. Keep good records and learn how to track packages. We had problems with people complaining they never received a package, but the tracking information showed delivery was attempted several times. With this evidence the negative feedback was removed. Everything was going great, she was averaging 60K baht a month until other Thai sellers on Ebay found out she was making "big money". Then one day about 5 of them started selling the same things she was at almost cost and ran her out of business. She researched their profiles and all 5 are from the Bangkok area and 2 owned the shops she was buying her inventory from. Moral of this story is; sell something that is unique or not easily accessible to others.......good luck

[USNret]

One other thing... If you become moderately successful, you will be making daily trips to the post office. It will soon become obvious you are running a business (for one thing, you cannot or should not say you are sending a "gift" on the customs form). So it's only a matter of time before someone reports you for working without a work permit. Not sure how you will overcome this problem unless you have a really understanding gf who will mail packages for you. Which I doubt.

[stickylies]

@op: just do it. trial and error. you will see if it works (for u) or not. nothing to lose except for maybe a couple of baht and self-esteem....

[stickylies]

One other thing... If you become moderately successful, you will be making daily trips to the post office. It will soon become obvious you are running a business (for one thing, you cannot or should not say you are sending a "gift" on the customs form). So it's only a matter of time before someone reports you for working without a work permit. Not sure how you will overcome this problem unless you have a really understanding gf who will mail packages for you. Which I doubt.

er, does it say "no work permit" on the OP's forehead ? one is not supposed to show one's WP at the post when shipping parcels, right?

[Spouse]

Have you had a look at Amazon FBA?

Basically, they let you use the Amazon fulfilment service to ship your products to your customers on your behalf.

So you could pick up 100 fisherman's pants and send them to the Amazon warehouse in one lot, then list them on Amazon or Ebay, and then when an order comes in, Amazon pick, pack, and send your items out to the customer.

Of course they take a cut but they also take most of the work off your hands .

You could pick up 1000 mobile phone chargers from Alibaba and send them to Amazon for listing on their website.

Lots of people do similar stuff: http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html/?nodeId=106096011&sr=1-1&ref=spkl_3_1_2076470442&pf_rd_p=2076470442&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_t=301&pf_rd_s=desktop-signpost&pf_rd_r=1RQP52A2JFAVJZCBNJ7F&pf_rd_i=fba&qid=1436166737

Have a listen to the Amazing Seller Podcast.

Good luck!

[thailandforumaddict]

If you want to be poor compete with al the stupid sellers on Ebay who sell too cheap...

[stickylies]

Wife sold ladies blouses on Ebay for about 1 year. Had her PayPal account set up through Kasikorn bank. She shipped all over the world from Koh Samui. Just make sure you explain the shipping details such as item ships from Thailand and will take some time to get to them. I believe she wrote 6 - 8 weeks. Never had problems with Ebay or PayPal. Keep good records and learn how to track packages. We had problems with people complaining they never received a package, but the tracking information showed delivery was attempted several times. With this evidence the negative feedback was removed. Everything was going great, she was averaging 60K baht a month until other Thai sellers on Ebay found out she was making "big money". Then one day about 5 of them started selling the same things she was at almost cost and ran her out of business. She researched their profiles and all 5 are from the Bangkok area and 2 owned the shops she was buying her inventory from. Moral of this story is; sell something that is unique or not easily accessible to others.......good luck

jup. copycats are the biggest prob.

my farang GF did a smart thing from back home. she sold scarfs on etsy which she didn't even have. she just took hi-res arty pictures from a (work-)shop's stock in Northern Thailand and when a scarf sold (90$/70€) she had it sent by the shop (which she paid through her Thai kasikorn account). no sweat. no WP. no TVF paranoia. oldksool "pocket money" fun (not lifesupport!).

[USNret]

One other thing... If you become moderately successful, you will be making daily trips to the post office. It will soon become obvious you are running a business (for one thing, you cannot or should not say you are sending a "gift" on the customs form). So it's only a matter of time before someone reports you for working without a work permit. Not sure how you will overcome this problem unless you have a really understanding gf who will mail packages for you. Which I doubt.

er, does it say "no work permit" on the OP's forehead ? one is not supposed to show one's WP at the post when shipping parcels, right?

I never said the post office would report you. But news has a way of getting around. Who doesn't know someone who was reported by someone. It happens. One p!ssed off neighbor for whom you reported loud music sees you carrying out packages every day, presto -- you get reported, contorted & deported.

Edited July 6, 2015 by USNret

[USNret]

Wife sold ladies blouses on Ebay for about 1 year. Had her PayPal account set up through Kasikorn bank. She shipped all over the world from Koh Samui. Just make sure you explain the shipping details such as item ships from Thailand and will take some time to get to them. I believe she wrote 6 - 8 weeks. Never had problems with Ebay or PayPal. Keep good records and learn how to track packages. We had problems with people complaining they never received a package, but the tracking information showed delivery was attempted several times. With this evidence the negative feedback was removed. Everything was going great, she was averaging 60K baht a month until other Thai sellers on Ebay found out she was making "big money". Then one day about 5 of them started selling the same things she was at almost cost and ran her out of business. She researched their profiles and all 5 are from the Bangkok area and 2 owned the shops she was buying her inventory from. Moral of this story is; sell something that is unique or not easily accessible to others.......good luck

jup. copycats are the biggest prob.

my farang GF did a smart thing from back home. she sold scarfs on etsy which she didn't even have. she just took hi-res arty pictures from a (work-)shop's stock in Northern Thailand and when a scarf sold (90$/70€) she had it sent by the shop (which she paid through her Thai kasikorn account). no sweat. no WP. no TVF paranoia. oldksool "pocket money" fun (not lifesupport!).

That's a great business model; you have no costs of carrying inventory. Just be aware that it violates the terms & conditions on eBay. You cannot sell items that you don't physically hold. It might be ok on etsy; not sure. Anyway, if you get caught doing this on eBay, expect to get banned.

[GarryP]

One other thing... If you become moderately successful, you will be making daily trips to the post office. It will soon become obvious you are running a business (for one thing, you cannot or should not say you are sending a "gift" on the customs form). So it's only a matter of time before someone reports you for working without a work permit. Not sure how you will overcome this problem unless you have a really understanding gf who will mail packages for you. Which I doubt.

er, does it say "no work permit" on the OP's forehead ? one is not supposed to show one's WP at the post when shipping parcels, right?

I never said the post office would report you. But news has a way of getting around. Who doesn't know someone who was reported by someone. It happens. One p!ssed off neighbor for whom you reported loud music sees you carrying out packages every day, presto -- you get reported, contorted & deported.

Been here for more than 3 decades and don't know anyone who was reported. The average neighbor would not know who to report you to anyway. So don't piss off the neighbors and you will be alright.

[Kasset Tak]

I like to collect these Thai Buddhist amulet so while reading this tread I just checked what's for sale on eBay. Those amulets I do have some knowledge about where all copies. Remember I don't talk about real or fake (magic) I'm talking about something originally made/blessed by a monk vs. Made by Somshai to look like that amulet.

[smotherb]

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.

I've known four people who sold Thai handicraft online. Two went back to teaching English, one still sells online, and one made a great distribution deal with a firm in California, but got circumvented when the California distributor made a deal with the Thai supplier. Seems to be like any other business venture, you have to stay on top or you lose.

[ryanhull]

@ev1lchris no one here can predict how it will go for you, so many variables are in play... in anycase as a new ebay seller your going to be limited to like 10 listings a month to start with until you can show good feedback etc..... everyone in this thread has pointed out solid good advise which I personally agree with most ofit. I was a power seller in the UK and also did a bit from Thailand, well the wife did but I controlled it all, it turned out it after postage/time/refunds blah blah it wasn't worth the hassle.

What I would say to you is really simple:

1. Get 2-3 items your thinking of selling (be prepared to loose them)

2. Use google chrome with a free VPN addon (choose your country)

3. Try selling your 2-3 items

4. See what happens

If they sell and you get good feedback and make a profit after postage, great jobs good. If not and you have the dreaded 'chargeback' customers + bad feedback then you might want to reconsider, in business you can only listen to others to a certain extent as we all have different opinions and I have started businesses in the past people said wouldn't work when they have, and vice verser... so give it a crack and record your costs both from ebays cut/postal... how long it took to arrive etc.

At the end of the day, your either going to sell your 2-3 items and think, wow I made some decent profit and they sold quite quickly with no hassle, or your going to think damn I lost money and what a hassle that was.

Give it a test out.

Cheers

[ryanhull]

@ev1lchris no one here can predict how it will go for you, so many variables are in play... in anycase as a new ebay seller your going to be limited to like 10 listings a month to start with until you can show good feedback etc..... everyone in this thread has pointed out solid good advise which I personally agree with most ofit. I was a power seller in the UK and also did a bit from Thailand, well the wife did but I controlled it all, it turned out it after postage/time/refunds blah blah it wasn't worth the hassle.

What I would say to you is really simple:

1. Get 2-3 items your thinking of selling (be prepared to loose them)

2. Use google chrome with a free VPN addon (choose your country)

3. Try selling your 2-3 items

4. See what happens

If they sell and you get good feedback and make a profit after postage, great jobs good. If not and you have the dreaded 'chargeback' customers + bad feedback then you might want to reconsider, in business you can only listen to others to a certain extent as we all have different opinions and I have started businesses in the past people said wouldn't work when they have, and vice verser... so give it a crack and record your costs both from ebays cut/postal... how long it took to arrive etc.

At the end of the day, your either going to sell your 2-3 items and think, wow I made some decent profit and they sold quite quickly with no hassle, or your going to think damn I lost money and what a hassle that was.

Give it a test out.

Cheers

[seancbk]

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

True, not as easy as it once was... but still doable.

Not true about Paypal. I have 3 accounts (one set up in Hong Kong, one setup in the UK and one setup in Thailand), Paypal have never questioned why I log in from multiple countries (Singapore, Macau, China, Thailand being the most often).

The issue with the Chinese sellers is right, but if you are buying something in Thailand, that is again less of an issue.

One thing to remember is that 100% of your sales do not need to be from Ebay, you can use Ebay to market your business and once you have found a customer deal direct. Also customers can (and perhaps) be wholesale, messing around selling one item at a time is only any good if the margin is high. Better to sell larger quantities to people who will then split the order and sell it individually at a market in their own country.

For the record I stopped doing Ebay when I moved here from HK.

[seancbk]

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.

Not true.

I know someone selling T-shirts.

Cost: 100-140 THB

Postage to furthest distance (New York) - THB 180

Total cost: 220 THB

Average price for a T-shirt online US$20 ~ THB 670

Potential profit per T-shirt @ THB 450

Other costs - Fraud (minimal), returns (minimal), Marketing (depends how knowledgeable you are at Social media)

I'm sure there are plenty of other products that would be similar.

[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.

Not true.

I know someone selling T-shirts.

Cost: 100-140 THB

Postage to furthest distance (New York) - THB 180

Total cost: 220 THB

Average price for a T-shirt online US$20 ~ THB 670

Potential profit per T-shirt @ THB 450

Other costs - Fraud (minimal), returns (minimal), Marketing (depends how knowledgeable you are at Social media)

I'm sure there are plenty of other products that would be similar.

So what kind of an income is that?

Just calculate how many shirts you have to sell to get a reasonable income. You can't do that under the radar because you have to go to the post office with 10 or more packages per day and have transactions with your suppliers. So soon you'll have to go for a Thai company, 4 Thai employees social security (not easy anymore to pay only that, work permit, company tax, personal income tax, accounting fees, etc.

Indeed it's possible, but you'll need a massive volume and still have to compete with the guys that do this from cheaper countries and get the shirts for half the price.

Thailand's silly rules make it virtually impossible to do any sustainable business at little or no cost. I know people who work under the radar, but they run the every day risk to get caught and loose the business, a lot more money and have to leave the country.

[Cloggie]

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.

Unless you use a weak password I do not see how they can hack your PayPall account

[Fullstop]

Yes. I make a fortune selling a particular item found cheaply in Thailand and I have minimal competition.

Err....What's that? You want to know what it is? ..... Yeah, right.

[theguyfromanotherforum]

I just want to clarify my previous post as I was writing on the mobile and have some experience with this.

There will be some major obstacles with selling stuff from Thailand and it will mostly involve paypal.

Regardless of what everyone tells you PayPal does not like Thailand. So you have to be extra careful what you sell. Bags, jewelry and clothing that even slightly resemble major brands will certainly get you suspended. DVD's and media are also out of the question because eBay considers Thailand the hub of piracy. Anything that you want to resell from MBK (except cosmetics) will get you suspended. Someone mentioned that it is most likely the competitor that will get you reported but the fact is that there are many companies watching eBay auctions 24/7 and you simply can not get away with anything anymore. eBay has become very strict. That is the fact.

PayPal is fine with accounts that have been sort of grandfathered... like accounts that are older than 10 years. However, every single new account is scrutinized. As I mentioned before I had a PayPal account open since 2002. I wanted to sell a legitimate blu ray that I bought on Amazon and had it shipped to Thailand. I just wanted to sell it to get some of the money back. PayPal advised me that I should open a separate "Thai" PayPal acount. I did that, but somebody from Universtal saw my auction and assumed I was selling a pirated copy. I lost my paypal account in Thailand and my PayPal account in Canada that was open since 2002. Any proof including and invoice from Amazon that I purchased this blu ray legitimately was not accepted. PayPal still holds over $200 in that account for over 2 years now and still refuse to release the funds.

Beware.