why so many great sellers use ebay?

[sebans]

I'm wondering why so many ebay great sellers pay thousand of $ commissions instead of selling their items on their own site?

May be becouse they wouldnt sell that much or nothing at all?

If this is this the reason. May be I should shut down my e-commerce site and create a simple page with links to a big auction site where I'll have my items listed.

sebans

[Dreamquick]

Because they dont want to pay for their own on-site facilities to do the trading, preferring to leverage their ad-hoc stock supplies through the ebay interface...

It works if you have lower priced inventory which is suited to being sold through ebay - ie lots of limited supply items, however if you have regular product lines or want to avoid looking like a company operating on the cheap then your own site with ecommerce facilities is the way to go.

Trading purely on ebay is like operating out of an unfurnished warehouse - it gets the job done but doesnt instill confidence in nervous first time buyers...

- Tony

[jsinger]

We are brick/mortar and have our own successful website. We've tested Ebay a few times with terrible results. Only worthwhile for dumping junk products regardless of price.

With our products, Ebay prices seem be heading lower and lower. Some buyers never come up with the payment. Selling a few products there is hard work if you don't have things automated.

I just don't understand the big deal with Ebay.

---

WSJ did a story of "professional" ebay sellers about two years ago. Basically they were dirt poor farm wives who'd be picking cotton if it weren't for Ebay.

[Essex_boy]

Ebay... Oh what I could say if I were allowed... I sell paintings online and find that using ebay to sell them is a very much a hit and miss affair.

And an expensive one at that.

When pieces sell they SELL - great prices etc however you get dumbcoffs asking why it cost $15 dollars to ship a painting half way a round the world - after they have placed a winning bid, or people bidding on items and not paying blah blah.

I dont find Ebay great on customer support anyway.

The only time I have had consistent success and made money on Ebay is when Ive sold Sterling silver items all of which are antique, otherwise forget it.

[Essex_boy]

... Oh yeah one last point. Has any one noticed how dam rude so called 'professional' ebayers are? It doesnt seem to matter that they are buying or selling they are just dam rude. Emails Ive received from them take the position that they are the next Getty and you are just dirt.

Some really suck

[kjs50]

I have a web site and sell on eBay. I get generally less revenue from the eBay items, but I do it to make a little extra cash. I'm a Powerseller on there, and for my category, I haven't had any major problems.

I think eBay is great for someone starting up. It offers a quick way to generate leads and start selling. Ultimately, you'd want only a small percentage coming from eBay due to the commissions.