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The right products for eBay - Q & A

Carol calls in to discuss what kind of products are not “for” eBay.

Rich Sloan: All right.  We’re going to go back to the Nation.  Thanks a lot for that call, Gary out of Arkansas.  We’re going to Washington, Michigan.  Carol, welcome to StartupNation radio. 

Carol:  Hello, Kevin.  

Kevin Harmon:  Hi, Carol. 

Carol:  I have a question.  I have a product that we manufacture, and I had it on eBay and it didn’t do well.  Maybe some products aren’t meant for eBay, do you think? 

Rich Sloan: What kind of product was yours, Carol? 

Carol:  Okay.  We manufacture authentic reproduction kits of British antique samplers. 

Jeff Sloan:  And just another quick question, Carol, so then we’ll turn it over to Kevin.  Is it selling well outside the eBay environment?  I mean, is it selling well in any environment? 

Carol:  It does --                 

Jeff Sloan:  But it just doesn’t sell as well --

Carol:  -- but I haven’t put it out on that big of a market yet. 

Jeff Sloan:  Okay.  So it does sell elsewhere; it’s just not selling on eBay? 

Carol:  Right. 

Rich Sloan: Kevin, what’s the prescription? 

Kevin Harmon:  Yeah.  I mean, that happens; there’s no doubt.  You know, if you look at the world of e-commerce, eBay has, last I checked, something like twenty percent of it, which is an incredibly large chunk for one company to have, by the way, but obviously that means that not all products will sell on eBay, and what I would always suggest people do is they need to research the marketplace before they think about even inserting products on there. 

Carol:  Right. 

Rich Sloan: So, in other words, find out what products are selling on eBay so you go and do research that way? 

Kevin Harmon:  Exactly, exactly.  I mean, that’s the cool thing about eBay.  It’s the most efficient marketplace in the world, basically.  So you can always figure out what something is going to sell for.  You can research what you can buy it for, obviously, and go from there. 

Rich Sloan: Yeah.  Right.  And that gives you kind of a bellwether or a benchmark in order to figure out how you want to have to a presence on eBay.