I would like to start a business after bk

[so-beyond-broke]

Hi:

Does anyone know how to start a business like on Ebay. I most likely will have this summer off from working at a school and would like to dedicate this time operating a business - not to be rich of course but maybe earn an extra 500 a month. I've always heard of people doing it online such as Ebay, but there are so many scams out there. People always want you to send some $$ for info and it wasn't worth the paper it was printed on. I have in the past tried home assembly work - making jewelry, bookmarks or other seasonal items. I would mail anywhere from 30-50 bucks for a starter kit and send stuff just to be rejected by whoever inspected it. After working a F/T job and raising kids, to spend several hours to assemble one item to have rejected - really SUCKED!! I vowed that no matter how good the ad sounded, I would not get conned again.

Are there any legitimate opptys? If you were involved in a business venture how did you start out?

Thanks

sbb

[robivi3]

I ran an online toy store for four years. Right now is not a good time to start on ebay. I was a seller for many years. Prices are way down on ebay. Take it from someone who was a SERIOUS seller. My Attorney told me that several of his other BK cases were doing over 500,000 per year churning cash on ebay. As I have several other friends who used to do ebay (one owns the largest Antique and Replica radio site online) I know that many people were selling to churn cash while their businesses sank. It reached a point to where some unscrupulous distributors were undercutting us on high end collectibles. Deer Park, the replica radio distributor had to set minimum pricing standards and checked ebay constantly and even quit supplying certain businesses. My freaking distributor was not as helpful and undercut me, they are gone now because of their antics. high end collectibles (we're talking 200.00 and up) do not come from many distributors, there are not a whole lot of them, so when one undercuts you with the pre-sells you are screwed.

In truth, for the most part if you missed the 90's you missed out on the 'net for the little guy. If you do not have HTML savvy, do not have the hundreds of hours of time to learn Frontpage or MIVA or the credit to have a merchant account and you do not know about spidering, searching and cannot pay into a "pay per click" account even for the casual browser, or if you have no knowledge of META Tags, Addweb type programs you have no business playing at business on the 'net. In the old days a cheesy website and unknown name could do some business, those days are gone.

I know that many will right to refute me and give you encouragement. but encouragement to someone without savvy as to eBay and the business side of the Internet is misplaced. You DO NOT start a web business without capital. You are not going to put up a page and have people click on it. As for ebay, without an established reputation and something better than one of those "get rich on ebay" disks you will not learn how the search features and all work. It takes capital to be in business on ebay also and many people are just churning cash there, i did it when things were very slow and lost money, but it paid bills when things weren't flowing.

Sorry to rain on your parade but unless you have a niche so special or a talent that is extremely unique you need some capital for even a small business and ebay is a risk. If it's so great then why isn't the guy selling those "get rich on ebay" disks doing it? Likely i will get chastised for this post but in the end I'll here you were right...

Steady income, nothing like it...

[SinkingFast]

Robivi is right about eBay. It's not easy at the start. Unless you already have an established User ID with significant positive feedback, you're not gonna get decent bids.

Plus, if you don't have a merchant Pay Pal acct, many people just won't bid on your items. I know I don't. I don't like to send Money Order in the mail. That's extra expense to buy a USPS MO, I don't wanna send a personal check, I always mail Priority when I used to make payments that way, with Delivery confirmation. I just don't like it. That adds $6 right there for MO and postage. After Pay Pal came along and got bigger, I pay with Pay Pal. If the merchant doesn't take Pay Pal, I don't bid on their stuff.

If you're looking to sell just to make some side money, and don't care what price something brings, you may do OK on eBay. But you may have to relist items several times to get them sold. You'll also have to be prepared to ship the stuff as well. You'll have to have all that arranged in advance so you know what price to list on your ads for shipping.

At least these days, you don't have to physically run to the Post Office to ship. You can click, print, and ship, thru the USPS website now. I got a couple things off eBay at Christmas and they came that way. The USPS website even notified my email direct that the packages had shipped with the tracking numbers included in the emails.

I know a couple jewelers and several coin dealers who've had the same experiences Robivi described. They quit selling on eBay because they were loosing money. I know dealers who have stalls in those Antique Malls. They buy stuff off eBay for cheap and mark it up to sell in their Mall stalls.