You are correct in saying that most items you could sell, we could sell. That is what makes selling on eBay so hard. The entry to start selling is very, very low, which brings on huge amounts of competition.

As you made mention of, one of our other posts talks about finding the right product to sell. That is really the key to it all. Of course, it is incredibly difficult to find the right products to sell. Sigh, if it was easy, we would all be eBay millionaires right now…

How did you know we liked eggnog? The trouble is finding the good stuff! Not being satisfied with most eggnog keeps the quantity we consume to a minimum.

We look forward to reading your future comments!

My husband and I were talking today about expaning into other products and felt that most things we can buy and sell, you could buy and sell. Add paypal fees, ebay fees, etc and there are many items we can’t even break even on. I know you discussed picking the right product in one of your other posts, but it seems that the increasing fees combines with the number of sellers of a specific product – there are so many items with little or no margin!

Agan, I can’t complain about eBay. It’s just not Utopia. And having our entire business built around it may be no safer than working for someone who could let you go anytime.

Best of luck! Keep up the great articles and if you have too much eggnog this season and want to share what and how you sell it – you know my email!

It is eBay’s world. We just try to survive in it. What else can you do when eBay is just about the only game in town. You have to play by their rules or you have to pack up your bags and go home.

Let’s hope that eBay doesn’t continue to treat their valued buyers like this. We aren’t holding our breath as eBay is shifting towards favoring buyers as they attempt to reverse the decline that you mentioned…

Having said that, eBay’s rules are hardly black and white. Almost every single year, we have had multiple listings ended for “violations.”

The most recent was eBay ending 35 auctions of 95 listed. All 95 had the exact same violation – but they only ended 35.

Here is what I found offensive about how it was handled:

1. It was inconsistent. If we were in violation, why end only 35 of the 95.
2. The verbiage we were using that led to the violation had been approved a year earlier by our PowerSeller Account Manager. No policy had changed – just one eBay employee had interpreted the rule incorrctly.
3. Why not email us and request we change the verbiage within 24 hours or risk our auctions being ended?

It was handled so poorly.

Here is what our auction said:

“We can often accomodate up to 20 fans for a game. We obviously don’t list a group of 20 seats in one auction because most people do not need 20 seats. If you need a different size group, please email us for details. We will gladly set up an auction for you.”

That was what it said, and it was ended. We need to add the sentence “We will not sell outside of eBay.”

They also said we couldn’t have our ticket website on our listings (even though you can’t buy a ticket on our site, nor does it have listings.) They said that because my website makes people aware that there are other places to buy tickets – it was a violation. I could place it in my “About Me” but I decided not to risk them changing their mind tomorrow.

All in all – I feel like I am treated like a criminal even though I have never broken a rule.

More reasons why eBay is experiencing their first year of declining member growth and active users (according to Fast Company issue a month or so ago.)