There’s been an exodus of media sellers from eBay over the past few years. Many of the site’s previous mega-sellers dealt in books, videos and music — new and used. Many are out of business, or are now selling on Amazon.
Recently a lively discussion on this official eBay seller board explored this issue. A summary:
- Amazon hosts unlimited, no-risk listings for $39.99 a month. The costs are a 15-percent commission and $1.35 closing fee. And that includes payment processing. Non-Pro Merchants get free listings and pay 99 cents per item more.
- The new fee landscape at eBay: $15.95 a month plus .20 cents listing fee per item, plus 15 percent final value fee, plus PayPal fees of nearly 4 percent. Listing fees are eliminated with a Store subscription of at least $49.95 a month.
- Amazon seems to have more customer traffic now, and displays the lowest price, while eBay traffic is lagging, and continually tinkers with its sorting of search results and Store visibility.
Given all the above, why would a seller with 10,000 media items list them on eBay for $550 a month in fees, while sales would probably improve on Amazon, with only $39.99 a month at risk?
It may depend on what kind of books you have, and how you like to sell. Here’s one poster’s defense of eBay:
- You can sell rare books, cheap books, combine books into lots, and set your prices as you wish.
- You can determine shipping costs beforehand, based on your actual costs of packing materials, postage, and the weight of the book. Insurance costs can be factored in.
- eBay allows the collection of sales tax, too.
- Pictures can be easily added on eBay.
- Buyers can ask questions about the items or your shipping and return policies. International buyers can inquire about shipping.
- Shipping can be easily followed up by a personal thank you, and buyers often respond with feedback ratings — at a much higher percentage than on Amazon.
- eBay auctions are a lot more fun than Amazon’s fixed-price Marketplace. It’s exciting to wake up in the morning and check the bids on your items, rather than a list of “Your item has sold” messages.
What has been your experience with eBay, and do you think it’s still a viable platform for media sales?
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7 Comments
eBay is dead in the ground and completely decomposed. Nevermind selling on that crapbox, I barely even shop on there.
I recently sold (gave away) a 20 book lot of Thomas Merton books for $28 my min. set bid. I guess it’s foolish to wait for a bidding war.
List on half.com and opt in to eBay and your items show up on eBay for free. You just pay the final value fee. I have 4000 items listed and sell at least one per day on eBay but compared to 20 per day on Amazon.
I have always sold more books and DVDs on ebay than Amazon. I am not sure why but it’s still that way even though sales are way down. Prices of books across all sites have tanked. I think publishers and wholesalers are dumping their merchandise dirt cheap. I am seeing more Sales & Markdowns from my wholesalers than ever before.
With 1800 titles listed I sell still 20 – 30 per day on ebay. I was doing 40+ per day previous… until April hit. Then ebay tanked for me.
I am just hoping the mega sellers are down also and some won’t be able to hang on with their micro-thin margins, then they will go away and I can start making a modest living again.
Christine
I’ve just closed my ebay store. I’ve been a powerseller for 5 years. I’m moving to Amazon and just reducing my stock and stopping online selling. I’ve stopped buying anything to resell. I’m moving to online writing instead. What used to sell on ebay for $50, now sells for $5-10 or doesn’t sell. It’s just too difficult to sell there any more.
I sell a lot of items on eBay – but not books. Given the time it takes to put together a listing, photos, etc…. then the book rarely sells and if it does sell in auction format – it usually sells for the opening bid price. I’d rather just list on Amazon.. I can list a ton of books fast and for free and they actually sell for what I want for them.
I still list on Ebay all the time. I just live with the fact that some things will sell and some won’t, just like real auction houses deal with. I sell rare books and for me Amazon was horrible. I couldn’t set the prices properly and nothing sold after months and months! I was concurrently selling on Ebay and doing well. I am not a high volume seller so 7 sales in a weeks worth of listings is good! Things are slowing down not because of Ebay (although some of their practices are annoying) but because of the economic downturn and the internet itself. People don’t have disposable income to buy 50.00 dollar books every week.
The internet has also exposed the burgeoning fact that books that were once thought scarce are actually plentiful. So the landscape has changed. I will continue to sell on Ebay because when I have the right rare book and the right customer sees the listing it sells. Selling is what it’s all about.