Amazon selling, what are the ups and downs versus e-bay?

[war-digs-it]

As the title suggests, I am interested in expanding my selling venues and
am wondering if there are benefits to selling on both sites or
is one simply becoming the better of the two?

Looking very briefly at Amazon a couple times it seems so foreign to me as
I recently became a power seller on e-bay and work that site hard.
I will feel like a complete newbie seller again and that sucks.

Any good, bad or miserable experiences appreciated.

 

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[famous turtle treasures]

As the title suggests, I am interested in expanding my selling venues and
am wondering if there are benefits to selling on both sites or
is one simply becoming the better of the two?

Looking very briefly at Amazon a couple times it seems so foreign to me as
I recently became a power seller on e-bay and work that site hard.
I will feel like a complete newbie seller again and that sucks.

Any good, bad or miserable experiences appreciated.

I highly recommend Amazon for any barcoded items.

Here are some pros:

1. Very easy to list.
2. No need to take pictures
3. Easy to determine what is currently selling on Amazon as well as how fast it will sell.
4. Better customers.
5. Shipping credits.
6. Some products sell faster.
7. Negative feedback has less of an impact.
8. No monthly listing fee.

Here are some cons:

1. Harder to get feedback from customers ( it can be a bad thing )
2. Higher fees but the ease of listing and speed of sales makes up for it.
3. You do not get your money instantly. You have a 2 week waiting period.
4. If you don't pay the $39.99 for a pro merchant account, you pay an extra $1.00 fee for everything you sell.
5. Amazon will sometimes merge listings on you without you knowing which can cause mixups in orders.
6. I have been having an issue with Amazon selling my inactive listings every once in awhile.

I love selling on both, it keeps the risks spread across multiple platforms so my income cannot be 100% cut off by any one platform. I am sure there are other pros and cons that I could come up with but those are the ones off the top of my head.

 

[war-digs-it]

Thanks Turtle! That is about as perfect as a reply could be.
Love your posts and and always looking for more. Thank you for the
reply and sharing your knowledge!!!

 

[Cojones]

They hold your money for 21 days.

I think they are gearing up to start forcing pictures sometime in the next few years. You could already add pictures to listings in certain categories. This is a brand new feature but I think it is just the beginning.

Higher class of buyer on amazon which would equate to less problems.

Legos hardly sell on Amazon. I had some start wars lego sets on Amazon for a month. No takers . Listed on the bay. Gone in a few days.

You can't set your shipping price unless you are a merchant.

No matter what the customer is always right. On ebay you actually have more of a chance of winning a case if you could believe that. But the clowns at Ebay have figured out what the clowns at Amazon are figuring out right now....... Most sellers are also buyers.

Who knows how many potential customers ebay booted before they figured out they were shooting themselves in the foot.

 

[dejapooh]

I highly recommend Amazon for any barcoded items.

Here are some pros:

1. Very easy to list.
2. No need to take pictures
3. Easy to determine what is currently selling on Amazon as well as how fast it will sell.
4. Better customers.
5. Shipping credits.
6. Some products sell faster.
7. Negative feedback has less of an impact.
8. No monthly listing fee.

Here are some cons:

1. Harder to get feedback from customers ( it can be a bad thing )
2. Higher fees but the ease of listing and speed of sales makes up for it.
3. You do not get your money instantly. You have a 2 week waiting period.
4. If you don't pay the $39.99 for a pro merchant account, you pay an extra $1.00 fee for everything you sell.
5. Amazon will sometimes merge listings on you without you knowing which can cause mixups in orders.
6. I have been having an issue with Amazon selling my inactive listings every once in awhile.

I love selling on both, it keeps the risks spread across multiple platforms so my income cannot be 100% cut off by any one platform. I am sure there are other pros and cons that I could come up with but those are the ones off the top of my head.

Another few pros...
Listing time is greatly reduced. It only takes a few seconds to list each item.
You can get a very quick summery of your prices compared to others to see if you are the cheapest or not, and then to adjust the price if you are the cheapest.
You do not pay fees on the shipping fee

Another few Cons
The shipping fee they provide for is often less then it actually costs to ship the item. They give $3.99 for any "Book" if you sell a set of encyclopedia, 37 books, you get $3.99. Good luck with that shipping.
The 15% PLUS $1.35 is a big percentage on inexpensive items. I will not list anything for less than $14.99 because after that, especially considering the shipping loss, I lose money or make so little that it is not worth my time.

 

[famous turtle treasures]

Another few pros...
Listing time is greatly reduced. It only takes a few seconds to list each item.
You can get a very quick summery of your prices compared to others to see if you are the cheapest or not, and then to adjust the price if you are the cheapest.
You do not pay fees on the shipping fee

Another few Cons
The shipping fee they provide for is often less then it actually costs to ship the item. They give $3.99 for any "Book" if you sell a set of encyclopedia, 37 books, you get $3.99. Good luck with that shipping.
The 15% PLUS $1.35 is a big percentage on inexpensive items. I will not list anything for less than $14.99 because after that, especially considering the shipping loss, I lose money or make so little that it is not worth my time.

Yup, those are the others I missed! Shipping light stuff can make you money ( I made $1600.00 in shipping alone last year ) and heavy items will make you loose you money.

 

[dejapooh]

Not only will you loose money, but you will lose some too...

 

[Datil_mountain_muse]

Yes, watch your shipping on Amazon.

Some AMZ buyers are persnickety. You must list your item EXACTLY as per the listing.

AMZ is not suited for collectibles.

 

[neo]

Craigslist free to post and local buyers just have to meet can sale fast.

 

[housemom6]

Yeah but you've never heard of an ebay killer. if your gonna do craigslist meet the person in a public place like the police dept.