Amazon or Ebay?

[gomikeoh]

As a habitual flipper and seller of my own personal goods, I wanted to receive perspective on what the CAG community felt was the better option. Which one provides more profit? Which one have you felt sells faster? Which is better overall?

The reason why i also ask is because I have never used the Amazon store and was wondering if it was worth it.

[belal.rawi]

I've used Amazon for over two years and its pretty simple.

All you do it set up an account with your bank account and start selling.
No posting fee. Just pick a price and write a simple description and post it.
Amazon charges what they think is an appropriate shipping fee (depending on the product/weight) and takes a fee after the item has been sold.
You just pack the item, print a shipping label off their website and ship it. Its a fairly simple and easy process.
The cons are that for a few items, the shipping fees and not enough to cover the actual shipping cost. Not that big of a deal for most items. Also, the fee that Amazon takes isn't low - but at the same time, not super high - not sure about the exact percentage but it tells you how much it will be before you make the final post.

I sell text books on Amazon, so my experience might be different, but when the semesters in January and August start, I am making good money selling text books. I remember posting 12 books on the same day, each at around $100. Within 36 hours, they were all sold.

What exactly are you selling?

Hope this helps.

[belal.rawi]

Heres Amazons Fee Pages

http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=1161240

I never realized the were taking 15% from me, plus some flat fees. Assholes.

[mtxbass1]

Am I reading those fees right for selling games?

15% of the sale price as commission for a game.
A $0.99 transaction fee.
A $1.35 closing fee.

Good grief...and I thought eBay was bad.

[slidecage]

ebay takes the same amount on BIN auctions.

last year i would said Ebay but after what i sold at Xmas i would say AMAZON all the way

[chronodev]

Another option, if you are selling Videogames, is Chasethechuckwagon.com (http://www.chasethechuckwagon.com/)

They only apply fees (and reasonable ones) if your auction sells

[ninja dog]

Am I reading those fees right for selling games?

15% of the sale price as commission for a game.
A $0.99 transaction fee.
A $1.35 closing fee.

Good grief...and I thought eBay was bad.


Ebay takes just a little bit less after ebay/paypal combo.

I spend the little extra to list things in under a minute vs. ebay's ridiculous listing form and annoying buyers.

[karkyco]

...sounds like amazon and chasethechuckwagon are where I'll be going...

[farfus]

As a habitual flipper and seller of my own personal goods, I wanted to receive perspective on what the CAG community felt was the better option. Which one provides more profit? Which one have you felt sells faster? Which is better overall?

The reason why i also ask is because I have never used the Amazon store and was wondering if it was worth it.
You gotta make a lotta profit on ebay for it to be worth it, ive sold many a game there, but sometimes its not even worth the drive to the post office lol...

[DarkRider23]

It's preference really. I learned how to use eBay way before Amazon and I'm just more comfortable listing things on eBay. Now that I have the templates for almost all the types of things I sell set up, it takes me 1-2 minutes to list something.

eBay fees are less if you use regular auctions instead of buy it now auctions.

[SaraAB]

Just avoid the BIN on ebay with video game auctions and you are fine. If you want a certain price just put the game up for that price, someone will bite and it will be just like a BIN, just that you will have to wait for your auction to end.

[Chris Dillon]

i flip my books on half.com. I got 50$ for a book my school offered me 15$ for. A little bit harder flipping books on there in may though when very few are in school for the summer.

[encendido5]

I've had pretty good luck with Amazon. I don't mind the higher fees since it takes a minute to make a listing since I don't need to worry about pictures or a long description. You can also change the prices at will, like if you see an item selling for lower, you can change yours to match.

I got in a price war with another guy once. I listed something for $150, which was the lowest price at the time. The guy came back with $145. I lowered mine to $140 and it sold. I thought that was pretty funny.

[Grico]

half.com or amazon are best if you want the option of your item sitting awhile to get a better price. No upfront fees for posting. Depending on what you are selling half can be alot better than amazon for fees. Amazon charges alot of automatic fees when it sells while half.com does a percentage. Posting anything under around 4-5 bucks on amazon is not really worth it as the fixed fees eat most of everything but shipping costs. Over $10 the fees are pretty similar. If you are not posted alot of things cross posting on amazon and half can be good as it increases the item exposure. I do that for some of my higher value items I want gone. You should need to delete it from one place when it sell on the other.

[Vinny]

ebay takes the same amount on BIN auctions.

last year i would said Ebay but after what i sold at Xmas i would say AMAZON all the way

Sure is. It's 15% for BIN auctions on eBay for video game software/hardware, movies and most other things. But with eBay, you have to pay PayPal fees and listing fees whereas with Amazon you pay a flat $1.35 per auction. So depending on how much you sell it for, it could be better at once vs the other.

I gave Amazon a shot and while things are generally priced higher there, they seem to sell faster on eBay. But Amazon has one huge advance as you can keep your item up as long as you want or until it sells.

[VipFREAK]

15% of the sale price as commission for a game.
A $0.99 transaction fee.
A $1.35 closing fee.

Good grief...and I thought eBay was bad.

Hmm... yeah, I'll stick with CL.

[mtxbass1]

Sure is. It's 15% for BIN auctions on eBay for video game software/hardware, movies and most other things. But with eBay, you have to pay PayPal fees and listing fees whereas with Amazon you pay a flat $1.35 per auction. So depending on how much you sell it for, it could be better at once vs the other.

I gave Amazon a shot and while things are generally priced higher there, they seem to sell faster on eBay. But Amazon has one huge advance as you can keep your item up as long as you want or until it sells.

Is this correct for Amazon?

If I sell a game, for $15, the fees break down like this.

15% commission on $15 = $2.25
99c transaction fee = $0.99
$1.35 "closing fee" = $1.35

Which is $4.59 in fees on a $15 sale. That's HUGE. Is that correct in how Amazon works?

[encendido5]

One other positive I’ve noticed on Amazon is that I can list things at their highest ebay value and they will sell pretty quick. It seems most people will trust Amazon over Ebay even if they do get a better deal.

[wubb]

It's preference really. I learned how to use eBay way before Amazon and I'm just more comfortable listing things on eBay. Now that I have the templates for almost all the types of things I sell set up, it takes me 1-2 minutes to list something.

eBay fees are less if you use regular auctions instead of buy it now auctions.

I'm the same way. Plus, now that I have a lot of feedback on eBay, I'm resistant to starting over at 0 FB on Amazon.

[VipFREAK]

It seems most people will trust Amazon over Ebay even if they do get a better deal.

Not that eGay has a good reason, but how does Amazon have a better one? I've always been reluctant.

[encendido5]

Not that eGay has a good reason, but how does Amazon have a better one? I've always been reluctant.

This is just my opinion, but I feel like Amazon is as reputable as a regular B&M store like BB, Walmart, Target, etc. Even though you’re buying from random sellers, they are still backed by the Amazon name. With ebay, you get an unknown since you don’t know who you’re buying from and ebay has been known for scammers. Plus I’m sure there are people out there that don’t really get the whole auction or buy it now concepts. Add Paypal into the mix and you’ve got a bunch of hoops for casual computer users to step through. On amazon, you just take out your credit card and pay for what you want.

[VipFREAK]

I get that but what about private sellers that want to sell new or used stuff? There's no real check to make sure they won't scam you? Yes, Amazon does have a better reputation, but that doesn't mean you still can't get scammed.

[ChaseTheChuckwagon]

...sounds like amazon and chasethechuckwagon are where I'll be going...

Thanks for considering the Chuckwagon :) So everyone else knows, we have auction feeds set up now with http://www.Google.com/base a new marketplace/classified area that is getting started by Google. This in addition to feeding your aucitons through http://www.oodle.com should bring in more traffic to your items. These feeds filter all our running auctions into these marketplaces in essence magnifying the exposure of your stuff.

There is no cheaper place to sell, that actually works, so give it a try. We are building the population each day, registering 150+ each month. And looking to hit our target of 2,000 members the first year.

We are always doing what we can to continue bringing more "buyers" to the marketplace to help out you sellers. Right now we are the most successful video gaming dedicated "auction" site ever!

[howlinmad]

Is it as easy to get scammed with Amazon and their sales model as it is with PayJerk errr....Pal?

Have a few things I've been thinking about putting on Amazon that aren't doing anything on my trade list.

[i_bent_my_wookie]

I trust Amazon more, I will shop eBay only if they are highly rated as reliable. I've had a few problems before with eBay and have never had a problem from Amazon.

[Vinny]

Is this correct for Amazon?

If I sell a game, for $15, the fees break down like this.

15% commission on $15 = $2.25
99c transaction fee = $0.99
$1.35 "closing fee" = $1.35

Which is $4.59 in fees on a $15 sale. That's HUGE. Is that correct in how Amazon works?

That's right. Keep in mind though that you get to keep your listing up as long as you want and that, usually (though not always), Amazon marketplace prices are higher than eBay prices.

As stated before, it's about preference.

[Grico]

I'm the same way. Plus, now that I have a lot of feedback on eBay, I'm resistant to starting over at 0 FB on Amazon.

To my mind people don't look at feedback as much on amazon. They make your percent positive salient to buyers but not the number of transactions. Amazon people are also a lot less likely to leave feedback. With ebay the consumer is focused on buying it from some random person while amazon makes it alot less salient that your marketplace purchase is from the same random individual sellers. Most of the huge volume sellers of books and dvds seem to post their full inventories on both amazon and half.

[VipFREAK]

Keep in mind though that you get to keep your listing up as long as you want and that, usually (though not always).

That's enough for me to want to try and sell something. Thanks