Can someone give me advice for selling on ebay?

Hi. I'm new to selling on ebay and was hoping someone here could give me some advice. (Just made my first sale on 10-27-11 and been a member since 1-6-11) I have a lot of questions so bear with me, but I want to get this right and could use some help from my friends… (Terry, paws are you there? LOL. Seriously I need help guys and if you guys have it then this person needs it. I'm not refusing anyone else's help either. Whomever has knowledge about this topic please do post.) ABOUT EBAY…. 1. Has anyone on here ever sold on ebay as a real business before? You know as a top rated seller or with a store or in volume? If so could you offer any tips on how you became successful? 2. How much time would one need to make a good income from ebay and reach power seller status as an estimate? I'm currently not working so I have time, but I wanted to start out part time (about 4 hours a day) and build up to 8 or 9. Would 40-45 a week be enough to to make a full time income do you think of about $25-35,000 a year? I heard one guy was grossing 16k per month in sales but he was working 12-14 hrs, 7 days a week. I can't do that ever so it 's out of the question, but I want to know if anyone could give me income potential estimate based on the hrs I stated. If you can't give it for the the hrs I stated, can you please list your gross and net for the hrs you put into ebay? 3. How many sales do you avg per day and month and how many do you think one person like myself could feasibly handle? 4? 5? more? 4. Is there anyway to automate the process to make it less time consuming for any of ebay and especially with the listings? 5. How long have you been a member and how long did it take for you get your first sale when you tried? How many items have you sold and is it difficult to file your taxes? 6. How do you deal with chargebacks and flaky buyers? 7. HOw much startup capital did it take for you start your business and how much is costing per month for you to run it? I apologize if these seem like personal questions, I'm just trying to get a feel for what will happen for me, you what I expect and project for and estimate for and numbers crunch for. BTW My magazine sold for $1.50 the shipping was $4.50 and I paid $0.84 in fees so that no one can say I am asking for more information than I am willing to provide. And on to the second part… I wanted to use dropshipping for my selling, but wanted to also know if any ebay sellers here had any experience, good or bad with dropshippers. Not plain wholesalers only, but wholesalers who dropship. Just so you know this would be my main supplier for products if that helps. ABOUT DROPSHIPPERS… I've been trying to find a good drop shipper and after a little searching discovered that many of the companies are scams and that that lists are worthless. I had heard about Worldwide Brands and Thepowersellersunion.com and was wonderiing if anyone had any experience with them and their dropshippers. I have heard some negative things about WWB and pretty much nothing negative about PSU which made me wonder exactly what could be wrong with that company. I know it can't all be good, but then again I'd like to get a review from a real person on PSU as well. Can someone… 1. Compare WWB with PSU based on their personal experiences and give reasons why one is better than the other. (And especially since WWB charges 300 vs PSu's 65 I'd be willing to pay more if I knew WWB was better) 2. Tell if you need a tax id number or state tax certificate to work with dropshippers from either company? 3. Tell if they had success with either companies dropshippers on ebay? 4. Tell how to develop a relationship with a dropshipper and what kind of questions to ask one? 5. Give examples of good niche products? 6. Is someone better than either of these companies? I was attracted to them because I heard they cut out middlemen and keep their information current. Does anyone know of anyone better than them and could recommend them? 7. I've heard electronics are terrible for dropshipping. Is this true and why? 8. How do chargebacks and refunds factor in when dropshipping on ebay? For instance how does one deal with refunds when a) it has to be done with an unseen dropshipper and b ) the refund is being done minus the ebay and paypal fees. How can you budget your income properly when you have the risk of a return? Secondly has anyone dealt with chargebacks for expensive dropshipped merchandise or scammers returning boxes filled with other items (ie a rock. I heard of one scammer doing this to a seller who wasn't a dropshipper) to dropshippers when required to return the item and then having the drop shipper get angry at them? 9. Can someone recommend high profit products? Or high turnover products? 10. Give the pros and cons of dropshipping and any other advice you can on the subject. Thanks for your patience and any help you can provide with my questions. I just want to learn from some experiened members what it takes to be successful in this field so that I can perhaps supplement my income to start and if I'm successful enough replace my income. All your advice is much appreciated.

17 questions (in total) about Power Selling on e-bay and you have only ever done 1 normal transaction?

A lot of the questions are "how high is the sky" type of questions and some require lengthy answers.
All of the questions are basically "an easy way in to e-bay success please". A little naive don't you think?

A few e-bay generalities from a long time e-bayer:

Many people make a living from e-bay selling "fakes". From iPhones to expensive Golf Clubs etc. The practice is rampant on e-bay.

Buyers nor sellers have no legal protection whatsoever for any bad transaction, but e-bay creates the "illusion" of protection because as soon as e-bay takes any real action on behalf of a buyer or seller they could be classified as more than just a place to advertise. Legally they would be displaying a measure of sale "responsibility" and that is never going to happen!

The new "feedback" system now favours buyers, not sellers. An unhappy buyer, for any reason can leave negative feedback but a seller cannot. Buyers who win an auction might change their mind. In fact they might be biding on several of the same or similar items and will just buy the best deal. Many sellers now only sell "buy it now" for this reason (item has to be paid for immediately or the the sale will not register). This feeback system leaves buyers with 100% positive feedback regardless of how dodgey they are!

As for new items sold on e-bay, it's a buyers mugs game. Only idiots buy new items from e-bay that are readily available from online stores (always at far cheaper prices).

Many "new" item sellers have no stock at all but just order from an online store after their e-bay sale and send it on.

Many "new" items are old stock no longer in production bought very cheaply and often factory direct in bulk, but sold at less than current model prices. These are the serious e-bay players who make money.

What to sell and how to make an e-bay living? Know your market, from the buyer, the source side of things and don't forget to pay tax.


Cheers and good luck,
Lee

Thanks for your response Lee. I know I haven't made many transactions yet, but I was considering getting deeper into selling on ebay and wanted some advice from others about how it is done. I don't think it is easy at all and didn't mean for my questions to imply that I did. I was just wondering if others could fill me in about their experiences so I wouldn't get burned. (Scammed) I have been doing lot's of research and reading, but couldn't find the answers to these questions readily available so I thought I would ask someone here. Again you should unerstand my desire to want to know some things first as a new seller before plunging in. If I make the wrong decision due a lack of information it I who will have to eat the loss and not the responders to the questions. Thanks again. leader2 ps I have made 31 transactions on ebay and half.com, 30 of which I was rated. (I didn't receive a rating for at all for whatever reason) and all of those were positive. So I'm just trying to learn as a seller before I get into it as much I would want and then make a huge mistake. It's better to learn from others first as you know and I would have no problem helping anyone who asked. I am not naive and know there is a lot that goes into running a successful ebay business (like taxes, dealing buyers (some of whom might be problem buyers), market research etc.) so please don't call me naive. I am just trying to learn about this and don't want to invest a ton of financial resources before I find out what I really need to know and then regret it later like anyone else.