Slashdot Mirror
Is eBay the Promised Land?
johnny.shz asks: "Even the politicians were claiming: millions of people are making a living off eBay. eBay does have millions of people selling at any given time, but how many are actually making a living? I've sold many things on eBay, mostly junk. My feeling is that I'm making eBay richer (all fees plus PayPal account about 10%), but certainly not myself. Despite all the hoopla of the new promised land, I don't see the promise on eBay. How many of you are making a living off eBay? How many of you actually know someone who does?"
And on the other side of the equatorial line, NZ has 1000 new businesses created from online auctions.
Auction Drop does the same. You can drop off at any mailboxes etc/UPS store.
by "Deal sites", i mean he lives on fatwallet.com
and yea, rebate whore as in do the rebate, sell the box, sans upc.
I do the upc rebate game, but i make a little cash on the side by doing cable/dsl home installs for people I know (like my manager at work, family friends, etc). I tend to ask for a price of 75-100 dollars, including hardware. works out for me, and they're happy because going to worst buy and buying the router would have cost them 30-50 and nobody to setup for them.
Grump
Is it true that more people vote for the winner of American Idol, than vote for the president? -Ali G.
I've got a lot of friends who seem to be losing money on Ebay, regularly.
I honestly don't understand it, the first place they visit is Ebay no matter what kind of purchase they're interested in.
To start with it might seem like a good deal, but I've seen lots of them pay way over retail prices in the "heat" of the auction because they don't know how to stop.
I've used ebay a few times, (only a few - my positive feedback has me listed at 4), but I've always known what my limit was.
I don't understand how somebody can be pleased they won an auction for a book at $10 when it's available from a store, or amazon, at retail for $5.99!
There must be a ton of people losing money like this ..
Index of 4000+ local yahoo freecycle groups. All groups are ways of getting stuff for free, and getting rid of your own stuff easily. I got a 27" TV for my bedroom and a free router.
-Clio
Karma: Bad (mostly from not giving a fuck)
Blog: http://clintjcl.wordpress.com
Beyond all this, I think the web and ebay are really a much better way of running a small business than a traditional storefront.
Personally, I think a storefront is a terrible idea for a business, unless you're selling something that people really want to get locally for some reason (like groceries). First, the rent is horribly expensive, if you're located someplace where there's customers (obviously not Wyoming). Second, you have to pay for employees, unless you really want to man the store 12 or more hours per day, with no vacations ever. Employees are a huge expense and hassle. Just the paperwork for one employee will waste a lot of your time.
As a consumer, I'd much rather buy something online if I can.
1) I don't have to worry about operating hours. I can buy things online at any hour, like in the evening after work, or even from my computer at work. Most small shops have terrible operating hours; they seem to think none of their customers have regular jobs. If you're a shopkeeper in this modern economy, and you want to be successful, you need to have very long operating hours, perhaps from 8AM to 8PM, so everyone can get there at their convenience. This means hiring employees, and it all adds up to a huge overhead expense.
2) I don't have to go anywhere to buy stuff online. I can do it from home, or even from my computer at work. I don't have to make a special trip to drive someplace, waste fuel, take time off from work, try to get there before they close, etc.
3) The prices are best online, and I can shop around quickly. I can pull up 6 windows simultaneously for 6 different online shops, and compare prices in minutes. I can't do that easily by driving around. And invariably, the prices online are much lower than any small shop, where they charge huge markups to cover their exorbitant overhead expenses that I've already discussed. Why should I pay more so I can talk to some pimply-faced teenage cashier?
4) I don't have to pay sales tax. While this advantage may disappear in the future (I hope not), it's very significant if your purchase is over $100 or so, and usually more than makes up for the shipping cost. I do hate ebay sellers that charge astronomical shipping prices for tiny items though.
5) There's a much better selection online. At a small storefront, you're limited to the products that retailer decided he had space for, and would be profitable enough. Usually, stores only deal in certain brands. Internet stores aren't usually so limited, and if you're preferred brand isn't at one site, it only takes a few seconds to find a site that has it.
Now, with all the benefits that shopping on the internet gets me, I very rarely buy stuff at storefronts, except for 1) groceries, 2) home improvement/hardware stuff, 3) items from certain specialty shops that really are worth visiting in person (like used book stores) and 4) hot deals from big-box stores that I've learned about on the internet. If it's at all specialized, it's probably worth buying online. If I as a consumer am basically avoiding most small storefronts, why would I as a potential business owner want to operate a storefront? Unless my primary market is people too backwards to be shopping on the internet, I wouldn't. Over time, more and more consumers are going to be me; mom-n-pop stores are not doing well now, and are not going to make a comeback, so trying to start up a business with a storefront is a pretty stupid idea if you ask me.