Do You Think eBay Owes You A Living?

I recently read an article in the Wall Street Journal about eBay sellers clamoring for a replacement of eBay's management.

These articles about eBay sellers expressing dissatisfaction are nothing new. Every time there is any change to the eBay system, the whiners who feel entitled to an income come out of the woodwork moaning about how their livelihoods have been ruined either by eBay's changes or in this case the lack of changes.

The truth is these eBay sellers believe two falsehoods. Their first error is they seem to think eBay owes them a living. That couldn't be farther from the truth.

EBay cares about it's users as a group. Not individually. If you have ever had problems with eBay, you understand this. The changes made are done to increase eBay's income with the least amount of harm to sellers.

The only people eBay's management is responsible to are the stockholders. If a change makes sense for the stockholders, but will upset a few sellers, the change is going to happen.

The second falsehood these eBay sellers base their attitudes on is thinking eBay is static. When I first started selling on eBay it was more difficult to create listings. The learning curve required was not great, but it took some thought and preparation.

Once we got started, we continued to increase our skills. We learned new things and got better at it.

Our eBay Businesses Were Not Static

Since then, eBay has made improvements -- maybe I should say changes because not all the modifications are in the best interest of sellers -- in the listing and selling process. This had made the site more accessible to both buyers and sellers. Making it easier for people with no skills to use eBay adds to eBay's revenue. It's a smart choice.

But, on the other hand, being easier floods the eBay marketplace with sellers who don't have a clue. Sure they can bumble through a few web screens to list an item or two, but this doesn't prepare them to make a full time living from eBay.

These sniveling eBay sellers think because they managed to get a few auctions running, they are done. No more learning is required. Just ride the gravy train into the sunset.

That isn't how life works. Life is a constant struggle. You are either moving forward, or you are falling behind.

These eBay sellers -- I know some of you will be upset because I call them whiners, but that's what they are -- are falling behind and rather than working to catch up, or like some of you working to get farther ahead, they would rather complain and try to keep things as they were.

In the early 19th century the whaling industry was huge. Sailors sailed half way around the world in order to hunt whales. Consumers wanted whale oil and business was booming.

In the 1850s, people started using kerosene and other petroleum products because they were cheaper and better. The whaling industry quickly died.

No amount of pissing and moaning would have altered this. I am sure some whalers complained. I am positive others made changes. They became shipping companies transporting goods from China to the US. They became fisherman harvesting the schools in the great banks. Some probably went west.

Whatever they did. . . The point here is they all did something. The world changed and they adapted.

I just checked some statistics.

In March 2006, eBay was the eighth most visited website in the world. Also in March 2006, approximately 40% of web users visited eBay on a daily basis.

Over the past few months, eBay's visitors have declined a bit. Currently eBay is the tenth most visited website, and only 33% of internet users visit eBay.

Some of this decline is due to the normal summer slump, some might be due to other factors that don't concern us.

Lets think about those numbers. Sure they are smaller now, but they are still pretty big. There are still plenty of buyers searching eBay.

But, eBay is not a seller's market anymore. This means the competition among sellers has become fierce. In order to succeed, you need to stand out.

Whining is a way to stand out, but it's really only a way to make people ignore you.

Here's a few things all eBay sellers must do to succeed in today's more competitive eBay marketplace:

1. Continue to add new products to your offerings. This is important because some products will become so competitive, the profits will disappear. By constantly adding new products, you'll have replacements for the ones that stop selling.
2. Explore new avenues of selling. Try an eBay store. Set up a website. Advertise in one of the online malls. Build an email list and start an online newsletter. Look for different ways to connect with buyers. All of these things reduce your dependence on eBay for your income, and will help you weather changes.
3. Track your results. This is the only way to see what is happening, and make educated decisions. I sell toy trains. I know some items go through slow periods, and don't sell well. I incorporate this into my listings. I hold things for the higher demand periods.
4. Look for new opportunities. I went from selling my own items on eBay to doing eBay consignment sales, to writing about toy trains, to teaching others how to find antiques and collectibles, and finally to teaching eBay selling skills. Then I branched out started trying out other online activities like affiliate sales and building websites to host Google ads. All of these things spring from my original toy train business. Some were profitable and fit my personality, others weren't. If I hadn't sought out these other opportunities, I'd be more reliant on eBay. This is called diversification and helps lower the effects of eBay changes beyond my control in any one area.
5. Get to know your buyers. I wrote a few months back about the importance of identifying people rather than products. Once you start thinking of yourself as a marketer to a specific group of people, avenues beyond eBay will open to you. The eBay sellers complaining in the WSJ article are just product sellers. They are not niche marketers.
6. Test new things. Last week I heard about using Home Page Featured auctions to get top listings in the search results on Google. This is an opportunity waiting to be exploited. I'll be doing my first test auctions using home page featured listings later this week. What have you learned recently? What are other people doing you could try?
7. Improve your selling skills by learning from others. I think that's why you are reading this. Buy one of my eBay books. Read it and start improving your skills. You'll do a better job of listing your items and you will learn how to stand out from the crowd.

If you haven't already taken the Auction Revolution eBay Seller's Quiz, go take it now. I bet the eBay sellers whining to the newspapers would fail. Even worse, they'd argue with me about it afterwards rather than starting to improve themselves.

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Terry Gibbs has taught over 7,000 people how to make a good living on eBay. Terry's most recent eBay instruction manual is The Auction Revolution . The Auction Revolution is your guide to eBay and beyond. Here on Iwantcollectibles.com, you will learn about buying and selling antiques and collectibles, and about eBay.

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