This is a short series of posts comparing selling successfully on eBay and on Amazon from the seller’s perspective. This time I am looking at buyers and their expectations.

The buyers on Amazon and eBay are different.  Amazon buyers are loyal to Amazon many would not dream of buying on eBay.  eBay buyers often feel that Amazon sellers charge too much.  On eBay they expect less, post an item within a week and the buyer is happy.  Post an item sold on Amazon more than 2 days after the sale and the buyer will complain.  Amazon buyers are more expectant and demanding.  Depending on your point of view, this is either a good or a bad thing.

Personally, I think that customers with high expectations are a good thing.  It drives bad sellers out of the market.  Conversely it can make them a pain to deal with.  They do not expect to have to email to ask if their purchase has been posted, and neither should they.  It is just that they will do it after 24 hours, eBay buyers will do it after 96.

I enjoy working with eBay buyers there is more interaction than with Amazon buyers.  Consequently, the average time spent on eBay sales is less than on Amazon sales,  From the point of view of your business the advantage has to go to Amazon.

Result; Amazon wins.

Score

Amazon            4

eBay                 0

This is a short series of posts comparing selling successfully on eBay and on Amazon from the seller’s perspective. This time I am looking at the payments methods and costs.

Question: How much does shipping cost on eBay? 

Answer: As much as the seller thinks he can get away with!

Question: How much shipping cost on Amazon?

Answer: As much as Amazon thinks is reasonable!

Which do you prefer as a seller?  Some eBay sellers use a lower price for their items and charge high shipping fees to boost their profits.  I am against this practice but it goes on and some buyers seem to be taken in by it. 

 With Amazon the shipping costs are constant between sellers and so it is easier for the buyers to make comparisons.  Usually, the Amazon shipping fees are reasonable for the seller.  If they are too high then you can reduce the price of the item.  If they are too low then the price must reflect that. Either way it does mean that the seller has to know the true cost of shipping.

Advantage;  Amazon

Score;

Amazon       3

eBay            0

Sell successfully online

eBay is THE marketplace, you can buy and sell almost anything to almost anyone. It, therefore, provides an unrivaled way to make money quickly and easily without the tedious commute, the long hours, the unsympathetic boss.

Most of us are always looking for new products, the magic bullet that will make our fortune.  “What do I sell?” is the most common question budding eBay entrepreneurs ask when faced with the thousands of eBay categories.

Stuart Turnbull faced the same challenge 3 years ago before he chanced upon the basis of his strategy. He speant the next 3 years researching, testing and refining his idea into a plan that ANYONE can follow to make incredible eBay profits.  He has put all his knowledge together in a great ebook that explains everything we need to start buying and selling prints on ebay.

No special equipment is required, you can be up and running within days for a few pounds and an hour or 2 a day is all that is required to sell successfully following his guidance.

So now you have the secret to what may be the perfect eBay product for you there really is no excuse for not grabbing your slice of that pie!
As with all ebooks there is absolutely no point in you buying it UNLESS you will do something with it.  Do not waste your time or money but if you have a desire to expand into another profitable area then this might just be for you!

TEs, again. As I mentioned in a reply to a comment from Paul on the original TE post (see here) I am putting the finishing touches to a short report about making money from TEs. The working copy is here and I will replace it with the finished report ASAP.

BTW, as the provisional title is “The Whole Horrible Truth About Traffic Exchanges” you can tell that I have not changed my mind about them, but I am still open to persuasion.  In fact, this working paper shows you a way to make money from TEs, but does put a slant on the whole thing………

After my comments about Traffic Exchanges I am told by Tony that they are! (See my comments here).

He is registered with a number of Traffic Exchanges (TEs) and by using the Firefox browser (and highly recommended it is too) he can have tags open for a number of them at once. In effect, he goes from one TE to another so that he does not have to wait for the 10 second count down, or whatever.

I understand that this makes his surfing more efficient but my comments about the general worth of the traffic from TEs stand……….

A couple of days ago Jane and I hosted a murder party.  You know the kind of thing.  You invite 6 friends and everyone takes a role in a whodunit.  One of them is the murderer and the others have to work out who it is.  It is great fun!  It includes lots of laughter, story telling, guessing, and dressing up in 1920’s clothes (that is when it is set).

As everyone has to dress in character and I was a photographer I obviously wanted and old camera to wear around my neck.  I bought one from a rummage sell for 50p an old Zenit EM an SLR made in the USSR.

Guess what? They are selling on eBay for £8! and the lens is selling for £12!  That is a heck of a mark up. While I am not saying that anyone can make a fortune through buying and selling old cameras, you would need to know what you were doing, it is certainly possible to make some money.  As I said before One Man’s Rubbish……

The idea behind traffic exchanges is very appealing to many site owners. Your site is viewed by 1000s of people, what more could you want?

This is the basic deal, although details will vary from exchange to exchange. You submit your site to the exchange. Going through the exchange you visit other sites. For every 2 sites you visit you receive 1 ‘credit’. A credit gives you one visit from another exchange member. The result if you vivist 100 sites a day is that your site gets 50 hits a day. Wonderful!

The trouble is, why were you visiting the other sites? To get people to visit your site. Did you really care about those sites? Did you revisit any of those sites? Did you bookmark any of them? Did you buy from any of them? Did you read the whole site or just tick it off your ‘to do’ list?

Why do you think anyone from the exchange should pay any more attention to your site than you did to theirs?

Just how valuable do you think traffic from traffic exchanges is, really?