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

[bartender100]

Anyone doing Profit Maximiser?

[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.

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

i had a strong password. I suspect that someone working for Paypal Malaysia or Singapore got to my account. No great damage done, but I can no longer use Paypal. I had to call a number in Ireland, they wouldn't accept the details for my account that I gave. Better to have payments made directly into your account in Farang land.

[Alwyn]

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

Very true. The World and it's dog in Thailand are trying to sell Thai Silk products on Ebay (I know one person who makes a fortune, but he's cracked wholesale markets). PayPal will block accounts if somebody says they didn't get their product - normally these are Russians so most I know will not seel to Russians. Period. Then there's the vagueries of the Thai Postal system too... A niche market is great but take a container of it home and sell it on the markets, then money is to be made!

[ryanhull]

I remember a few years back, when I was selling on ebay.co.uk/.com and came to Thailand for a 4 week holiday.... I got an email from ebay to say my account had been frozen due to 'suspicious activity'... anyway I called up and managed to speak to someone with a brain cell which was a surprise... they stated yeah your account has been frozen as your IP does not match your normal UK IP, as I am quite up with technology I nicely explained to the operator I was on holiday in Thailand and therefor was just logging in to check sales etc.

The operator said well that's the problem my Thai IP is flagging up, so I said, what I am not allowed to go on holiday and check my ebay account from abroad? they said no and to call back when I am in the UK to get the account active again. I had already at this point passed all the security questions on the phone so they knew it was me but still would not unblock my account.... anyway I logged into my UK VPN and called them back litterally 2 minutes later and said I am back in the UK now, my account was the unfrozen... what a joke... why ban a whole country`s IP. So basically your not allowed to go on holiday according to ebay... I wonder if the same would happen if for example my IP was spanish or somewhere in europe?

End of the day, ebay/paypal have no intelligence to actually look into cases properly and use common sense, its all done by some stupid computer system and the staff do not know there ass from there elbow... its a 'computer says no' type company.

Paypal have frozen over 1200 pound in one account I had years ago for no reason other than they found the payment suspicious, luckily the payment was from a mate of mine for a car I sold him and he was more than happy to play along with the system to help me get my account un-frozen, even then it took a month of constant calls and emails from us both.... paypal is bullshit and only protects the buyer regardless of the situation, they again have no common sense.... I know of one guy who`s whole business had to be closed down due to paypal freezing his account which had over 24,000 pounds in... reason? because paypal found his account 'suspicious'.... more like because they wanted to hang onto his money.

I have a paypal card and if i ever have any money in paypal it gets withdrawn instantly purely because I do not trust them one bit, sure they can then put my account in the - but I would then arrange some ridiculous payment plan with the debt collectors they then pass it onto for example 5 pound per week.

Bottom line is, be very careful with paypal and do not give them 1 inch of trust because they do not give two shits about the small fry.

[Bangersandcash]

Thought I would finally join this forum to make a comment as I can contribute to this thread.

To the OP give it a go, don't listen to all the haters they probably have not even tried to sell on eBay.

I have sold on eBay in Thailand for 4 years now, starting at one item a week to on some occasions 100 a day. Business is a bit slower this year but I know the reasons why and moved with the times and started new lines.

Income at the moment about 6k English a month has been as high as 10k a month.

In regards to a comment saying you will be banned if you don't have stock when you sell is rubbish, this is how I started with minimal investment. Never an issue with ebay or PayPal I even have a thai account manager.

Etsy is for handmade goods that you make yourself and can be asked to provide proof of this. Etsy goods command higher selling prices and is a very easy system to use and is flooded with thai sellers. They have a 3 strike policy and your out if you infringe rules and as someone said before it can be competitors doing this or if your your items are likely to break copyrights you won't last long.

Amazon tough one to crack probably the worst selling experience and site but huge number of people shop at that site.

If you become established just open your own shop on shopify or a similar platform lower fees not worrying about getting banned but have to work hard to get your customers.

In summary ita not a myth that eBay is over, that's just the people who sold fake bags and football shirts talking when it was possible to get away with years back. In fact people shop more online now all as you have to do is find your niche and become established.

[rocketboybkk]

No, find another income source & leave the bars put until you have money

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[ev1lchris]

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.

Are you being serious?

[wooloomooloo]

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.

Put me down for an authentically blessed amulet. I can feel the power of prayer.

[ryanhull]

Are you being serious?

Haters gona hate... try it out as I have said, and don't give away what your going to sell to anyone if its a niche.... sometimes in business you just have to test stuff out, set out what your prepared to loose and if it works out win! if not well you haven't lost anything significant! I know guys selling all sorts on ebay in the UK, if half of them listened to the critics they would never have started and some make good money..... take some advice with a pinch of salt and just give it a crack!

Also... look at 'completed listings' this is a very useful tool for knowing your market

good luck

[BKKdreaming]

Years ago I was in Chaig Mai and saw some neat Vespa goodies,

I figured that I could sell 3x my cost..... WRONG

When I got to a computer I checked eBay and someone else in CM was selling them at 20% over what I paid ,

So check before you jump !

[stickylies]

conclusion: some people succeed on ebay or etsy. others don't. depends on biz model, market and talent.

the ones that run a successful biz on ebay from thailand are not here telling TV members how they do it.

OP should just try it. he has nothing to lose.

[BKKdreaming]

Do you only try and sell on the main eBay.com website ?

Or do you have better luck with eBay.UK , eBay.de etc ?

I tried to sell on eBay.de from our Thai based account and could not !

Are there any other eBay country websites that are easy to sell on ?

Thanks for the info

[HooHaa]

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.

as one other poster has remarked, send a motorcycle taxi.

[ryanhull]

Do you only try and sell on the main eBay.com website ?

Or do you have better luck with eBay.UK , eBay.de etc ?

I tried to sell on eBay.de from our Thai based account and could not !

Are there any other eBay country websites that are easy to sell on ?

Thanks for the info

Sell on ebay.com and click the option to list on other ebays (.co.uk etc) or sell on ebay.co.uk and list the items to sell on .com etc, cost a little extra I think but worth it.

I think car parts are a little cheaper in Thailand, for example I knew a guy selling 4x4 plastic wheel arches covers for ford rangers etc, plus little bits like leather car seat covers.... dont think he made massive amounts but for some its something to do and can cover basic costs.

Cheers

[NeverSure]

The guys I know who are making lots of money are sourcing from China and having things dropped shipped. The US doesn't have import duties so some guys first get the product so shipping will be quicker for the buyer.

But I know guys in Thailand who never see the product. They have a drop shipper in China.

To get the best price and even to buy some things they have to buy a lot of it up front and that would be hard from Thailand - getting it into and out of Thailand through customs. It would be easier to do if living in China. There are guys with hundreds of thousands of feedbacks and even some I think over a million.

A quick look brings up this guy. He's importing to California and has sold 259 of this item on one auction. He has more than 125,000 feedbacks and I've seen guys with a lot more. He ships all over. He has lots of different items listed. LINK

I'd look into getting a drop shipper in China and forget about Thailand because the supply and amount of things in Thailand just isn't that much.

Cheers

[BKKdreaming]

If you are a car guy you want what you cannot have !

So if your Toyota came with Amber side lights and Thai ones are clear someone will buy them

Or lots of other stuff but you need to know your market and key words to find the buyers

There is money to be made every there , I guess it matters how much you want to make and how hard you want to work !

Just like the real world

........

[ev1lchris]

I just sold a handbag I bought for $10. It sold at $1.07. I'm doing it wrong.

[BKKdreaming]

You need to start your auctions at at least 50% of what you want.....

Really closer to your cost if you bought right....

10 years ago you would get 10-20 bids on an item , but now it is less than 5 and all in the last seconds because buyers are using snipe programs.

Most eBay listings are now fixed price / buy it now