Life in a Shoe Amazon store???

[IreneIssh]

I'm not so familiar with ebay, but this was my guess as well. I've also seen tons of commercials lately for new services (especially smartphone apps) where people can re-sell stuff in supposedly less cumbersome and time-consuming ways.

I know this is OT but has anyone tried selling with these stores? I tried vinted for a while, but never sold too much. I have some things I wanted to sell, and was going to list them on eBay but now I'm not sure 

[EmmieJ]

Years ago, I used to sell stuff on eBay - mostly used video games, name brand clothing that I found at secondhand stores (in excellent condition only), and other misc stuff.  But the surcharges are just too much.  Ebay even wants to take a portion of what you charge for postage to ship your item.  I still buy some items on eBay but no longer bother to list any items.  Another problem - too many big sellers.  You type in a search and listing after listing is clearly the same item, in a different color, from the same huge seller.  Another problem - no way to give adequate feedback when you're unhappy with a seller.  So I now use eBay with extreme caution, and will not spend over a certain dollar amount because if the item turns out to be a dud, I no longer bother returning it, leaving neutral or negative feedback, etc.  I just write it off as a loss.  I often wonder if Carly Fiorina took over eBay.

[desertvixen]

Ironically, I just bought something on eBay - suffering from Old Navy canceling the sweetheart line of jeans with no warning and my older pairs developing structural issues.

[AnywhereButHere]

This makes no sense: 

I can't imagine too many legitimate reasons you wouldn't want to share a link to your store with readers of your blog. Wouldn't that drum up more business? 

Advertising. She's doing it wrong... 

Ah, maybe! I was joking, but now that I think about it, there is quite a bit of erotica on Amazon.

Hell, it could be your garden variety Harlequin.  I loved those when I was, ummmm, younger (cough, cough). 

[Elinor]

The Coghlans are doing retail/online arbitrage  with Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA). They have recommended this course before: https://www.udemy.com/arbitrage/

[salex]

"Quit his job" can mean many things.  He may have quit.  It may have been a temp/short term job that ended, thus he quit.  He may have been asked not to come back, so he quit..... just as he may have gleaned old VF merchandise, or it may have been his last paycheck from the failing organization--or both.  

[GenerationCedarchip]

On 12/1/2015, 6:16:59, batuityma said:

eBay is a sinking ship. Up until recently I've been making a decent part-time income buying discount merchandise and selling on eBay. But they have made horrible changes to their business model in the last couple years and it is a total mess. PayPal was basically keeping eBay afloat financially but they split off into two separate companies in July.  My sales have been circling the toilet this year. Many small scale eBay sellers have jumped ship and gone over to "the river." I'm considering it too. 

I can believe it. I used to sell stuff on EBay to try to make a little money and then what I couldn't sell, I'd donate. However, they've made listing and selling so cumbersome that it's just not worth the effort.

[HereticHick]

Did see that now they are trying to set up an online tshirt business?  I wonder if this is partly to give the Coughlan girls some income streams (yes, I know that a few of the older ones have at least part time jobs).  

They haven't had any luck in marrying off the girls. They should attend a Kelly Bates seminar on the topic.

[silverspoons]

I used ebay years ago to help me get out of my marriage. I had a graduate degree but was living very rural so had limited options for work. I was able to make a 5 figure profit in 6 months with a creative craft item at the time (I was in no way crafty but watched trends). Back then I would have to wait for paypal to mail me a check. I will always be thankful for ebay being there during that time in my life.

I used ebay throughout the years, I have sold used items and bought in bulk. My husband and I had plenty of income but the ebay money made us be able to pay off our car in a year or buy the extras not necessary items in life.

Ebay in the last 5 years has struggled are the pro-buyer or pro-seller. At first they were pro-buyer. They started those star ratings and it hurt sellers. I had over 1000's positives, no negatives in 10 years but I did not have 5 stars in every category , the shipping time was 4.6 and I inform all buyers I lived in rural Utah and even priority mail, first class, 2 day UPS , everything is longer from where I live. Because of my 4.6 out of 5 stars I got limits put on my account. This is when I slowed down selling. Buyers could complain and get there money back for almost any reason, many out of my control. I stopped selling altogether 17 months ago when I got my first negative. I had bought 100 Essie nail polishes for under $100 on ebay. I wanted some for myself and I used them as teacher gifts. I had some leftovers and decided to sell them in a lot for a good price since I had gotten more then my money's worth out of the lot. They were bought I shipped them same day and nail polish has to go ground (post office rule). Two days later I got the negative and found out another Essie seller on ebay bought them and gave me the negative thinking I was new competition. Ebay would not help me. I had proof of shipment and delivery and they gave the buyer back a full refund, they had the Essie lot and I had a negative.

 

Now I still buy on ebay but it is mostly hard to find items and mostly from overseas. I was shocked to see ebay seems to have switched to pro seller. I bought several items and asked for a combined shipping invoice from the seller. I waited a week and no response. Then on day 8 they sent me a non paying bidder. Ebay has no customer service except phone and the wait can be hours. They do not take emails or live chat. I tried waiting on the phone but I did not have the time. I got a non paying bidder strike and now I am banned from buying from some sellers. It is hard for me not to peak on ebay for Christmas. Last year my son's favorite gift was a $6 limited edition shirt on got on ebay that was handed out at some video game convention but I always look anywhere else before buying on ebay.

Amazon has amazing customer service but higher fees. You have to do the math carefully on what you buy and sell on amazon but at least you know as a buyer or seller you have amazon's customer service to help. My son has had an amazon store during the summer and done well. He found items well priced and let prime ship them. You lose profit with amazon shipping but it makes you items so much more desirable.

I do believe ebay is a sinking ship as well. It is people like me in rural areas that still have few options that are drawn to ebay and many foreign sellers. My local craigslist is not very popular. It is yard sales or donate.

[desertvixen]

53 minutes ago, silverspoons said:

Amazon has amazing customer service but higher fees. You have to do the math carefully on what you buy and sell on amazon but at least you know as a buyer or seller you have amazon's customer service to help. My son has had an amazon store during the summer and done well. He found items well priced and let prime ship them. You lose profit with amazon shipping but it makes you items so much more desirable.

 

This.  I do mostly books and am not really trying to turn a profit, just get stuff I'm not keeping out of the house.  My price point is usually under $11, because that's where the shipping compensation is more than the Amazon fees

[HereticHick]

The Coughlans are now marketing tshirts under 2 different names on Amazon now: hipshirtz and wordshirtz, according to the LiaS facebook page.

Under "hipshirtz" they are selling a "Captain Obvious" slogan tshirt. One of over 400 "Captain Obvious" tshirt designs on Amazon.

[ladyamylynn]

9 minutes ago, HereticHick said:

The Coughlans are now marketing tshirts under 2 different names on Amazon now: hipshirtz and wordshirtz, according to the LiaS facebook page.

Under "hipshirtz" they are selling a "Captain Obvious" slogan tshirt. One of over 400 "Captain Obvious" tshirt designs on Amazon.

Wonder if anyone is going to report them for copyright violation for the Star Trek shirt?

[HereticHick]

1 hour ago, ladyamylynn said:

Wonder if anyone is going to report them for copyright violation for the Star Trek shirt?

Ohh--I thought the very same thing!!

[teachergirl]

okay, I am going to sound like a jerk, wouldn't it be easier to GO GET A JOB??? I get that you can make money off of this, but we are talking about supporting a family of 12 with all bills, food, expenses, etc. I don't get it.

[FoxyMoxie]

I've always felt that the Coghlans are an interesting example of the poorer end of the aspirational VF bubble. Kim is 2nd gen fundie homeschooler, what do we know about Perry? They seem to have picked up some Duggary grifting skills, I agree with teachergirl that Perry should go get a job and maybe even  the older girls - they are more relaxed in those circles about SAHDs working. And start marrying off those kids! How old is the oldest son? I know they had a load of girls first.

[slickcat79]

5 hours ago, FoxyMoxie said:

I've always felt that the Coghlans are an interesting example of the poorer end of the aspirational VF bubble. Kim is 2nd gen fundie homeschooler, what do we know about Perry? They seem to have picked up some Duggary grifting skills, I agree with teachergirl that Perry should go get a job and maybe even  the older girls - they are more relaxed in those circles about SAHDs working. And start marrying off those kids! How old is the oldest son? I know they had a load of girls first.

Well, they tried that with Deanna and it didn't work so well...I feel like, if anything, they'd be more careful with their kids' future spouses (assuming they have that much say).

I think little Perry is 8...for sure he's not more than 10.

[HereticHick]

7 hours ago, teachergirl said:

okay, I am going to sound like a jerk, wouldn't it be easier to GO GET A JOB??? I get that you can make money off of this, but we are talking about supporting a family of 12 with all bills, food, expenses, etc. I don't get it.

"wouldn't it be easier to GO GET A JOB?" is a phrase that could be applied to most of the families we snark on in FJ!!  : )

I don't seen how they can compete with the hundreds of other teeshirt retailers on Amazon, Zazzle, etc.

[FundieFarmer]

On December 13, 2015 at 4:22 PM, silverspoons said:

I stopped selling altogether 17 months ago when I got my first negative. I had bought 100 Essie nail polishes for under $100 on ebay. I wanted some for myself and I used them as teacher gifts. I had some leftovers and decided to sell them in a lot for a good price since I had gotten more then my money's worth out of the lot. They were bought I shipped them same day and nail polish has to go ground (post office rule). Two days later I got the negative and found out another Essie seller on ebay bought them and gave me the negative thinking I was new competition. Ebay would not help me. I had proof of shipment and delivery and they gave the buyer back a full refund, they had the Essie lot and I had a negative.

I had a similar issue with a pair of shoes I sold- so frustrating. The buyer bought them and then slammed me for a refund, saying I had shipped them wrong and they were damaged in shipping. She turned right around and listed them on her used shoe store for twice the price. That listing wound up helping me though, as eBay didn't give her a refund because I had photo proof from before they were shipped that exactly matched what they looked like on her listing. They didn't remove the negative rating though, and it came back to bite me. It's not worth it as a seller, since the site is so buyer-skewed.

It's also not worth the hassle as a buyer. You can't cancel transactions, you have to ask for a refund/to return, a seller may say no and then you have to open a case...I'll go to bed with Amazon any day of the week before I willingly deal with eBay for anything other than antique purchases.