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Ebay Versus Amazon

by antis
43 replies
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Hi everyone, I am planning to open a store either on ebay or amazon. Where do you all think would be more beneficial to start? I know that ebay charges a lot of fees, but I don't know much about amazon. I hope to find some good answers here, because I really cannot decide.
#amazon #ebay #versus
  • Profile picture of the author Bannaz
    I would start with Ebay.
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  • Profile picture of the author Auctiondebteliminator
    Well, I might be accused of being biased on this one, but my bias is based on one thing only: Data.

    I would start with eBay.

    Why? Because the research is amazing. I'm not talking about the expensive research tools that do nothing for you.

    I'm talking about the fact that eBay allows you to KNOW what items WILL sell for before you ever sell them. Additionally, using those factors, you're able to predict what your profit is going to be. Yes, even with the fees.

    I never mind paying the fees. The fees are there so that eBay can continue paying millions of dollars a month marketing FOR me.

    I don't have time for that, nor the clout, nor the resources that eBay does.

    That is their leverage they are giving me.

    They have the name recognition that I can tap into - and they are giving me the data where I can make those amazing, PREDICTABLE decisions that Amazon is NOT giving me.

    It's an amazing feeling to know that I can look at all of the people on eBay that are lowering their prices --- unnecessarily, and rank higher than them - taking higher profits that I KNEW I was going to get. It's all so predictable based on economic principles.

    Amazon is just missing that one missing link that doesn't make me go in as much as I'd like.

    I don't hate Amazon, and I watch them closely. I'm a fan of making money --- whatever medium allows me to do it best.

    I have websites, affiliate and dropshipping. But I love my eBay stores the best because of the free data I can exploit.
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    • Profile picture of the author antis
      Can you explain more where and how do you explore it? Thanks
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  • Profile picture of the author PublicImage
    Start with ebay. It sets a good foundation and structure. Watch the fee structure there. Amazon commissions are small, but people trust trust both. On ebay the secret is to be honest and make the auction listing "pop" with many pics and eye catching listing headlines.
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  • Profile picture of the author jbthemummy
    Start on eBay, just the easiest and I think it will be fair to say that most of us (Including myself) made their first sale on eBay. It was a great feeling and I still remember it
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  • Profile picture of the author lanadecals
    I would do both. You will start with eBay first though.

    Have you applied to Amazon yet? The application may take MUCH longer than eBay. With eBay you'll start selling right away.

    Make sure you're aware of all of the rules with Amazon. They are more critical with listing policies.

    Happy selling!
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  • Profile picture of the author gknugurlu
    Start with eBay and than do it in Amazon too. Do both of them. You may catch some clients that is not in the other one.
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  • Profile picture of the author BradVert2013
    I've sold on both EBay and Amazon. I never really got many sales on Amazon, but seem to do pretty well on EBay. So I'd start with them.

    A word of caution though: EBay is cracking down hard on sellers who have less than stellar customer reviews. They've been kicking off sellers who have been there for years. And abuse by buyers is notorious. If you're a newbie on EBay, one bad buyer review can get you kicked off.

    That said, my experience has been fairly positive. The fees don't bother me as I see it as the cost of doing business. eBay brings in a TON of traffic and they do a lot of advertising.
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    • Profile picture of the author Silas Hart
      I'm probably going to go against the grain here, but I say start with Amazon.

      The major thing eBay has over Amazon is it's open sales data. When you apply that data to Amazon whose only real data openly available is Sales Rank - if you know what rank means in each category. However, there is resources out there that help such as camelcamelcamel, webscout, etc.

      Amazon has a better payment system, working with PayPal sucks and in my opinion, out dated. Amazon doesn't hide behind a "3rd party" that they actually own.

      There are higher consistent sales on Amazon for new items - because Amazon has stronger traffic.

      Amazon customer service is so many steps above eBay/PayPal. If I have a problem with Amazon, which is very rarely, I can get it solved pretty quickly and easily. I found out I had been over paying on 1000 electronic cords for storage and sales because it wasn't sized correctly - Got a refund 30 minutes later and an apology. Woke up a month ago to over 300,000 listings on eBay removed because of a Vero claim --- for a non-name brand product. Took 2 days to fix with an account manager (which you won't have starting off) - and saying "good luck" when it came to relisting all 300,000 items (lucky I do .csv inventory back ups daily or I could have been screwed)

      Amazon is more long term as a business. It's pretty much their core principle. Amazon is also more innovative than eBay, especially with its' sellers. Amazon has FBA and within just a couple years, invested millions into warehouses - and within a couple of years, there will be hundreds more. Amazons buy box is not always dominated by the most inexpensive seller, so on Amazon, you could charge more for items and still get the sale. On eBay, this isn't the case as much as people cry about this little fact - on eBay, people shop for the cheapest and not the most convinient. This is why sellers from China and Hong Kong have dominated the eBay market. While Amazon surely won't stop you from being the most inexpensive seller for an item, they do urge price matching based on condition. If you are listing through work flow, you set the condition, and you can click to choose to price match and most sellers do in good ranking items - the only problem is the new sellers who are coming from eBay and assume you have to undercut everyone by 10% to make the sale.

      Buyers are better at Amazon, and Amazon knows it. The DSR system is seriously flawed and eBay uses it as a filter to screen out small and medium leveled sellers. Why am I successful on eBay? Not because of the great deals or great customer service... its because I list and sell in such a high volume that a couple bad feedbacks and low dsrs won't affect me - and both of those are inevitable. On Amazon, nobody really leaves feedback. I might get 1 feedback for every 100 items I sell, it's not pushed on buyers because Amazon understands that if you bought something and you didnt jump on your computer to leave feedback and you don't do so for months - its generally assumed because you were happy with your purchase. on eBay, they send a couple emails to the buyers (which instantly irritates most people) and does not tell them that ANYTHING LESS THAN 5 DSR SCORES IS BAD. It's intentional misinformation by choosing not to educate the buyer.

      Amazon will take a loss to keep both a happy buyer and a happy seller. eBay wouldn't touch this with a 10 foot pole. Once a buyer bought an over-sized item, wasn't what she wanted, Amazon paid for the return shipping and placed it back into my inventory, and she got her money back and I didn't lose anything. I had a scammer buy 100 (literally, 100) LEGO sets from me for $4200 and then filed a claim saying their card was stolen after they received them. Guess what, I kept the money. On PayPal, I once had someone file a claim their card was stolen after they purchased a HP laptop from me for $1000. Fee's were removed from my paypal account without notice, sent back to seller... who wasn't obligated to send me anything back. I tracked the person down and they provided proof their card was stolen and VISA had refunded the money to PayPal and reimbursed the buyer because of their buyer protection... A claim with VISA proved this as well... but did I see any of it? Nope. Free money for PayPal I guess and I was out a $1000 laptop.

      The only thing eBay has is open data... but it isn't hard to create an account and access all that data and apply it to Amazon. When I use the data for sourcing, I add on an extra 10% because my sales volume is higher at Amazon.
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      • Profile picture of the author antis
        Originally Posted by Silas Hart View Post

        I'm probably going to go against the grain here, but I say start with Amazon.

        The major thing eBay has over Amazon is it's open sales data. When you apply that data to Amazon whose only real data openly available is Sales Rank - if you know what rank means in each category. However, there is resources out there that help such as camelcamelcamel, webscout, etc.

        Amazon has a better payment system, working with PayPal sucks and in my opinion, out dated. Amazon doesn't hide behind a "3rd party" that they actually own.

        There are higher consistent sales on Amazon for new items - because Amazon has stronger traffic.

        Amazon customer service is so many steps above eBay/PayPal. If I have a problem with Amazon, which is very rarely, I can get it solved pretty quickly and easily. I found out I had been over paying on 1000 electronic cords for storage and sales because it wasn't sized correctly - Got a refund 30 minutes later and an apology. Woke up a month ago to over 300,000 listings on eBay removed because of a Vero claim --- for a non-name brand product. Took 2 days to fix with an account manager (which you won't have starting off) - and saying "good luck" when it came to relisting all 300,000 items (lucky I do .csv inventory back ups daily or I could have been screwed)

        Amazon is more long term as a business. It's pretty much their core principle. Amazon is also more innovative than eBay, especially with its' sellers. Amazon has FBA and within just a couple years, invested millions into warehouses - and within a couple of years, there will be hundreds more. Amazons buy box is not always dominated by the most inexpensive seller, so on Amazon, you could charge more for items and still get the sale. On eBay, this isn't the case as much as people cry about this little fact - on eBay, people shop for the cheapest and not the most convinient. This is why sellers from China and Hong Kong have dominated the eBay market. While Amazon surely won't stop you from being the most inexpensive seller for an item, they do urge price matching based on condition. If you are listing through work flow, you set the condition, and you can click to choose to price match and most sellers do in good ranking items - the only problem is the new sellers who are coming from eBay and assume you have to undercut everyone by 10% to make the sale.

        Buyers are better at Amazon, and Amazon knows it. The DSR system is seriously flawed and eBay uses it as a filter to screen out small and medium leveled sellers. Why am I successful on eBay? Not because of the great deals or great customer service... its because I list and sell in such a high volume that a couple bad feedbacks and low dsrs won't affect me - and both of those are inevitable. On Amazon, nobody really leaves feedback. I might get 1 feedback for every 100 items I sell, it's not pushed on buyers because Amazon understands that if you bought something and you didnt jump on your computer to leave feedback and you don't do so for months - its generally assumed because you were happy with your purchase. on eBay, they send a couple emails to the buyers (which instantly irritates most people) and does not tell them that ANYTHING LESS THAN 5 DSR SCORES IS BAD. It's intentional misinformation by choosing not to educate the buyer.

        Amazon will take a loss to keep both a happy buyer and a happy seller. eBay wouldn't touch this with a 10 foot pole. Once a buyer bought an over-sized item, wasn't what she wanted, Amazon paid for the return shipping and placed it back into my inventory, and she got her money back and I didn't lose anything. I had a scammer buy 100 (literally, 100) LEGO sets from me for $4200 and then filed a claim saying their card was stolen after they received them. Guess what, I kept the money. On PayPal, I once had someone file a claim their card was stolen after they purchased a HP laptop from me for $1000. Fee's were removed from my paypal account without notice, sent back to seller... who wasn't obligated to send me anything back. I tracked the person down and they provided proof their card was stolen and VISA had refunded the money to PayPal and reimbursed the buyer because of their buyer protection... A claim with VISA proved this as well... but did I see any of it? Nope. Free money for PayPal I guess and I was out a $1000 laptop.

        The only thing eBay has is open data... but it isn't hard to create an account and access all that data and apply it to Amazon. When I use the data for sourcing, I add on an extra 10% because my sales volume is higher at Amazon.
        Are there any tools to find out which products would be profitable on Amazon? I know Ebay has some, but I don't know if Amazon does.
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        • Profile picture of the author ttnhatto
          I has started on eBay. The fee is about 15-17% of total money receive. I try to sell something on amazon but it may loss more than ebay (about 21%)
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        • Profile picture of the author Gary77
          Originally Posted by antis View Post

          Are there any tools to find out which products would be profitable on Amazon? I know Ebay has some, but I don't know if Amazon does.
          Yes the Terapeak.com online app. has a basic Amazon 'best seller' data to go along with the more detailed breakdown of data from eBay. (they are tabs in the interface you can switch between them). its about 30 bucks per month to use it.
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      • Profile picture of the author Gary77
        I agree with Silas Hart - with my experience on eBay, they really don't care too much about looking after the seller, certainly the buyer is a protected species at all costs. I still use both platforms (ebay and Amazon) as they are both great income streams.
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      • Profile picture of the author RobertAnthony
        DS Domination is a creation of Roger Langille, who has been working as a content copywriter for the past 10 years. He is one of the top rated sellers on eBay, where he consistently made over 7 figures a year. He has combined his knowledge and experience in the creation of DS Domination, so its effectiveness is guaranteed.

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        https://dsdomination.com/sp/pro/?app...=RobertAnthony
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  • Profile picture of the author repricerexpress
    Yeah, I would do both—you won't know which works for your particular business and stock without giving them ago. That's not to say you shouldn't do your research etc. but nothing replaces actually selling on a marketplace to test your business's viability.
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  • Profile picture of the author irma zuhro
    I would choose Ebay,
    I find it difficult to shop and sell on amazon, when a voice verify. I am not fluent in the English language and ultimately failed verify amazon account. in addition to the payment system that facilitates not limited to trade there. I hope amazon change its policies and facilitate in every way and become global in demand all over the world.
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  • Profile picture of the author Auctiondebteliminator
    When people complain about eBay 'not caring about the seller and only buyers,' I tend to lay low - and allow them to go to other venues.

    It just lets me continue to sell without the added competition.

    Think about it this way, folks:

    eBay has a marketplace HAS TO favor buyers. Why? Because if it wasn't a favorable place for BUYERS then why would people BUY there if they felt like they were being screwed over all the time?

    They don't want to find it a place where it was easy for scammy sellers, knock-off products, or unsafe practices. That is why they have rules and high standards.

    Standards that I feel I need to EXCEED.

    I take the 'Top-Rated powerseller' standards and blow them out of the water. Those are not my standards, because I know that if I exceed those, my buyers will come back over and over again and REMEMBER me as a great eBayer.

    I am buyer-centric - not 'me-centric'.

    And you know what? It has increased my sales, my turnover, and yes - my profit margins.

    eBay knows this. Because when ONLY the best sellers are there - then items sell for higher prices, more often - which, in turn, makes eBay more money.

    It's all in the math - and eBay (and I know it - as I've seen my eBay fee bill climb steadily that I'm willing to pay - as I don't have to market a site. They are perfectly willing to do that for me.)

    -ADE-
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    • Profile picture of the author BradVert2013
      Originally Posted by Auctiondebteliminator View Post

      When people complain about eBay 'not caring about the seller and only buyers,' I tend to lay low - and allow them to go to other venues.

      It just lets me continue to sell without the added competition.

      Think about it this way, folks:

      eBay has a marketplace HAS TO favor buyers. Why? Because if it wasn't a favorable place for BUYERS then why would people BUY there if they felt like they were being screwed over all the time?

      They don't want to find it a place where it was easy for scammy sellers, knock-off products, or unsafe practices. That is why they have rules and high standards.

      Standards that I feel I need to EXCEED.


      -ADE-
      I do agree with you here. eBay HAS to be buyer-oriented, or no one will trust them enough to buy there.

      However, after being active on both the selling and buyer eBay forums, I will say that buyers think sellers are out to rip them off, and sellers think buyers are trying to rip them off.

      There seems to be an air of distrust on eBay right now, on both sides.

      But like you said, a seller can limit the risks of bad buyers by exceeding Ebay's own standards.
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  • Profile picture of the author Max Anderson
    Amazon and its not even close!
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  • Profile picture of the author Ecommerce Advice
    I don't understand why you want to start with one?

    If you already have a great product why do you not want to get as many sales as you can? By doing just one you are leaving money on the table!

    It only takes a few minutes to list the products

    What is the reason you want to try one?
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  • Profile picture of the author Mr XRS
    I just shut down my Amazon store down . I opened the store in May I did lots of business but did not make much money. I had 60,000 products and have White gloves status. I still have my Amazon webstore.
    I keep having asin merge problems that got worse over time. They Merge 2 products together to make room in their data base. It ends up with the wrong item being shipping to customers. the problem is your bad reviews go up on google when someone does a search. Since I opened my webstore I could not allow Amazon policy of merging products hurt my reputation,
    I asked my White Glove manager to put a end to this. I got the run around and closed the store. The competition is so strong that you have to lower your price so much that Amazon was getting 1/2 the profit. I did $108,000.00 worth of orders and and made around 10,000. since May. So know I am working on getting the website rolling which is not easy but the money is mine.
    I have my Ebay store ready to Go .Bit they will only let me start with a 100 items and work my way up in numbers. So that is my Amazon story ,

    Asin Merges su k
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    • Profile picture of the author Auctiondebteliminator
      Originally Posted by Mr XRS View Post

      I just shut down my Amazon store down . I opened the store in May I did lots of business but did not make much money. I had 60,000 products and have White gloves status. I still have my Amazon webstore.
      I keep having asin merge problems that got worse over time. They Merge 2 products together to make room in their data base. It ends up with the wrong item being shipping to customers. the problem is your bad reviews go up on google when someone does a search. Since I opened my webstore I could not allow Amazon policy of merging products hurt my reputation,
      I asked my White Glove manager to put a end to this. I got the run around and closed the store. The competition is so strong that you have to lower your price so much that Amazon was getting 1/2 the profit. I did $108,000.00 worth of orders and and made around 10,000. since May. So know I am working on getting the website rolling which is not easy but the money is mine.
      I have my Ebay store ready to Go .Bit they will only let me start with a 100 items and work my way up in numbers. So that is my Amazon story ,

      Asin Merges su k
      That selling limit will be lifted in no time. Make sure you have a Paypal verified account, and sell a few items with positive feedback received.

      You can be proactive in lifting that, and request a 'specific limit' when you call in that not too high, but then the next month you can do it again.

      Before long, you'll have no limit.

      Good luck!


      -ADE-
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      • Profile picture of the author Elon Bomani
        Amazon has been very good to me. It has saved me and my family's financial butts!

        I did not even attempt E-bay when I found out that for unique buyers Amazon return is $189 dollars per sale and E-bay is $39. Amazon has over 160 million credit cards on file and they are the 1# E-retailer in the world. If I had to align myself with someone, it would be with the best.....Time is money and money is time.

        I got into the FBA program and in 9 months sold over $200k worth of products without knowing a whole lot...I heard a lot of horror stories about E-Bay and I had my own with paypal and just didn't want to take the gamble.....I am not going to say anything bad about E-Bay...I enjoy shopping there and have had good experience and really bad experiences with Crazy sellers as a buyer.....

        Anywho, I can only say the professionalism and customer support at Amazon is exemplary! I have been reimbursed easily for returns and damage products. I think I have made a lot more money quicker than if I had worked with E-bay...I don't have to deal with customer support, shipping, tracking, deliver issues at all! I just list, pack, ship them to Amazon and I am done...

        Matter of fact, today I got a big check from Amazon and I only worked 10 hours this month because I have been on vacation and creating a product for people who want to do the Amazon biz.....I made pure profit from items I shipped in Aug. and Sept. of this year....I can't wait until X-mas season starts. It can only get better.

        Working with Amazon has been a truly blessing...it is not perfect.....I do have to compete with Amazon on some product listing but I can handle that....I think it is good not to put your eggs in one basket and work with both, but I personally didn't have time with the learning curve on E-Bay...!!

        Wishing all Good sales and the best e-commerce experiences on Amazon and E-Bay forever!!!
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  • Profile picture of the author rookie51
    I have stores on both. Amazon generates substancially more revenue. However getting approved by amazon in a "restricted" category like "Clothing & Accessories" can be difficult. eBay is very on top of compliance issue such as trademark and copyright. For example I had a tshirt for sale that said "facebook" on it and within 12 hours I received a suspension notice.

    eBay is a good training ground for online selling but Amazon has much more traffic. I would do a "store" on either until you have experience on both. I've been on Amazon for about 5 months now and still dont have a store, the revenue is good, so I'm not bothering..

    hope this helped.
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  • Profile picture of the author jiggy79
    Are you sure about that auctiondebteliminator, about paypal? I was told differently, that there is a 90 day probation period, make 25 sales and sales have to exceed to $250 worth of sales.
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    • Profile picture of the author Auctiondebteliminator
      Originally Posted by jiggy79 View Post

      Are you sure about that auctiondebteliminator, about paypal? I was told differently, that there is a 90 day probation period, make 25 sales and sales have to exceed to $250 worth of sales.
      I have never run into this issue.

      Can you cite your source please so I can look into this? (I tried researching it after your comment, but found nothing)
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  • Profile picture of the author Ryan David
    The advantage to Amazon is being able to move thru merchant fulfilled quickly and head to Amazon FBA. I've done both and, head to head, Amazon (merchant fulfilled) and Ebay are about the same.

    But once you enter the realm of Amazon FBA, there is no comparison. Amazon blows it away by a longshot.
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  • Profile picture of the author amcg
    If you're reselling goods, Amazon is probably my suggestion and I've used it for both books and electronics. eBay particularly lends itself to private label/unbranded products as a result of it's provenance paradox being the marketplace of the Internet.

    Above all, if you can build an core customer base, you can easily launch your own store and use either platform as arbitrage at the very least.
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  • Profile picture of the author smonica
    Chiming in with another vote for amazon! Having been both a buyer and seller on ebay, the way their rating system works is really annoying for both ends. Amazon is also often seen as more trustworthy, in my experience, and seems like a better place to shop/sell for the long term.

    But really, try out both. Everyone has their own preferences, and you'll make some extra money with two venues to sell on.
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  • Profile picture of the author NewParadigm
    ebay needs product reviews like amazon. ebay needs to lump all exact products together in search, then let you compare the sellers prices/reputation etc...
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  • Profile picture of the author wilson98
    ebay is much more easier to start but amazon has more potential.
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    • Profile picture of the author DWolfe
      Originally Posted by wilson98 View Post

      ebay is much more easier to start but amazon has more potential.
      How do you figure ? I have sold on both platforms and see no real difference. I have an Amazon affilate site that required a simple verification to post links.
      I also have 3 physical products in another nich that Amazon promotes and than I ship it when it is sold.

      I do not have a e-bay store but it takes just as much time to take photos and upload to e-bay and hope it sells through an auction or buy it now price. e-bay is faster in selling than Amazon if you want to sell via auction. Both Platforms are pretty simple to use and if anything if you dont mind selling through Amazon the potential may even be better .
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      • Profile picture of the author desertwander
        Do both eBay and Amazon.

        Also an eCommerce shopping cart.

        With the systems I use, I can put the item, images and description on the shopping cart. Then with a few clicks of the mouse, have all my items on eBay and Amazon. Inventory is in one place. All the orders flow into one ordering system.

        Do all the marketplaces.
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  • Profile picture of the author Moneymaker2012
    I have been on both, but truely ebay produced more sales for me. But I didn't leave amazon behind, combining income from both is really good for me. But if you prefer to choose one then choose ebay as they have more visitors than amazon.
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    • Profile picture of the author MaxAdvocate
      I would also prefer eBay. But as far as policies are concerned, ebay is strict than Amazon. On the other hand it's ebay which has the better success rate.
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      • Profile picture of the author ShaggyMax
        I sell on eBay and Amazon. In my professional opinion eBay is easier and less intimidating to start selling on. Do your number crunching, if the margin is there...dive in and have fun! Good luck!
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      • Profile picture of the author Silas Hart
        Originally Posted by MaxAdvocate View Post

        I would also prefer eBay. But as far as policies are concerned, ebay is strict than Amazon. On the other hand it's ebay which has the better success rate.
        Completely backwards.
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  • Profile picture of the author ViralMediaBoost
    Ebay has ridiculous fees something like 15%, if your wanting to go for the more profitable option use Amazon but for small store like yours id use Ebay.
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  • Profile picture of the author big tymer
    Why not just do both ebay and amazon? cover the bases. its not that much more work involved.
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  • Profile picture of the author gregdavidson727
    Originally Posted by antis View Post

    Hi everyone, I am planning to open a store either on ebay or amazon. Where do you all think would be more beneficial to start? I know that ebay charges a lot of fees, but I don't know much about amazon. I hope to find some good answers here, because I really cannot decide.
    I would go through Ebay. And I wouldn't open up a store unless I'm selling something that nobody else is selling. Ebay stores have to be promoted just like a regular e-commerce store. List everything in the regular listings because you'll get more traffic and are more likely to make sales.
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  • Profile picture of the author Auctiondebteliminator
    RobertAnthony -

    You forgot to mention that you really want people to join DS domination with your link because you're an affiliate.

    You didn't cloak that very well.
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    Famous for my '$1000 dollar challenge,' I've been teaching people how to DOMINATE on eBay for YEARS. Sell 100% of your items FOR A PROFIT. Rank higher, sell faster, sell more, and DESTROY your competition with a data-based approach. Quit listening to Guru's-in-training! Click now below!
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