Starting a Lego Business on Ebay - Tips and Advice

[Cristina08]

I'm thinking of selling lego as a business on ebay, either second hand, pieces etc... any advice would be great! =]

[littlenicky]

Here's a good starting point: http://www.brickpicker.com/index.php/forums/viewforum/14/ You can probably start reading through the various forums and that will help you get started. There are also articles on this site that you can read which will give you great insight on the aspects of selling. Good luck!

[cflannagan]

I'm thinking of selling lego as a business on ebay, either second hand, pieces etc... any advice would be great! =]

First, know the business. That's where I am now.. learning everything about LEGOs.

Then the rest should come to you naturally, if you wish to continue to pursue the business idea.

[Anakinisvader]

Watch those fees. There is a fee to list. There is a fee after sold. There is a fee from paypal. There is a fee on shipping charges. Get familiar with the fees and do all you can to cut costs. Selling is easy but the cost of shipping and fees will get you in the end if you don't pay close attention to them. BTW, this post if fee free.

[cflannagan]

+1 agree w/Anakinisvader - fees, fees, fees everywhere. Oh, and did I mention fees? You might want to check out this calculator - put in some figures, to get an idea of how much ebay and paypal "eats" at your profits, it's pretty sickening. http://www.newlifeauctions.com/calc.html

[Teeird]

I don't think any of us are trying to discourage you with the amount of fees. There are about 4 nicely sizable fees taken into account with selling on The Bay, but that shouldn't discourage you to start selling. Just do your due diligence, know the fees, and have fun selling.

[cobi]

If investors don't sell on Ebay, where do we sell? I am in the same boat, I have been buying sets to sell later, just not sure where to sell them! Anyone out there with some advice would be appreciated.

[Flyfisher]

First off, Open a business, an LLC will work fine. Use the business for tax write offs, wholesale deals, etc. Open an eBay store for lower listing fees, make sure you offer Refunds so you can become a Top-Rated Seller and receive the 20% off Final-value discount. Feedback is EVERYTHING, customers feed the machine, gotta keep them happy. Keep an eye out for your big spenders and they'll keep coming back for more if you take care of them. Yes, ebay is Fee heavy for the everyday normal person selling a few things. But there are plenty of discounts and fee reductions if you do it right with a business the way it is intended to be done. Good Luck!

[StarPod]

Dont quit your day job but start small and educate yourself with the essentials of returning large profits

[comicblast]

Offer free shipping. According to many members here, free shipping attracts buyers much more quickly than "Calculate" or "Flat Fee". I do not know very much about the mental processing of buyers, so it would probably be helpful for you to see my own inquiries on Brick Picker about this. You can see the thread about this at: http://www.brickpicker.com/index.php/forums/viewthread/2032/

[Cristina08]

Thanks for all your advice, i have taken it on board and will be sure to share my experiences with you! Does anybody know any place i can buy lego keychains in bulk? They're

[pickleboy]

I disagree that the fees for ebay are too expensive. They provide an awesome service that no one here could replicate with their own website. When you consider the benefits they provide, the price of ebay is actually pretty cheap. Nothing is free... That's my 2 cents.

[cflannagan]

I disagree that the fees for ebay are too expensive. They provide an awesome service that no one here could replicate with their own website. When you consider the benefits they provide, the price of ebay is actually pretty cheap. Nothing is free...

That's my 2 cents.

May as that can be, it's much higher than I recall - there was a period of time I stayed away from ebay for several years (PayPal and ebay held my money that I made from selling PS3 for months, despite buyer receiving PS3 with proof of delivery and leaving positive feedback, that I can only describe as borderline criminal).

When I came back, I look at the fee schedule and have to wonder how anyone can really make money with a combination of ebay and Paypal fees.

Not really surprised to see other "trading/marketplace" sites popping up. Yes, they are going to lack volume that ebay has, but this really says something about what people think of ebay.

[pickleboy]

And those sites will charge more as they have more customer inquiries, have to buy more data storage, provide benefits that ebay does that they don't like one click shipping etc, and they have to hire people to do all this work... I'd rather sell three or four items at 33% profit in a year than one on my own site at 50-60% or one of the ebay competitors. I agree it's a large chunk but you would make less with your own website or using a auction website with cheaper fees and very little traffic. ebay keeps the overhead down for those who do not want to own a store or a website and they provide an instant audience. Let me ask you guys... How much should they charge?

[Anakinisvader]

Dont get me wrong. I'm not trying to discourage because of the fees. I'm just saying, make sure you factor them in with your pricing strategy. They are just the silent killer if you dont realize they are there and how much they can be. I think EBAY is a great place to do business. I've been on there for over 10 years selling LEGO's. It's just not a get rich quick type of selling platform.

[pickleboy]

I certainly didn't take it that way. I was just pointing out to people the huge cost of the things that ebay provide on their ends. Yes, there is no get rich quick in this...

[Yellow]

Let me ask you guys... How much should they charge?

I look at eBay as I look at Wal-Mart... with detest.

To answer a bit of your question, I do not think they should charge fees on shipping!

CNBC did a really good documentary when Meg Whitman worked their.

[cvail8]

The problem with ebay as currently set up is there is no protection for sellers whatsoever. If you have a dishonest buyer, you are screwed. I'm a Silver PowerSeller with Top Rated status (most of the time). I've sold nearly $40,000 worth of items in the past year. So I've generated a healthy amount of money in fees for them. I know, $4000 is a drop in the bucket there, but it's a not-insignificant amount of money. And still ebay ignores my customer service questions and treats me the same as the scammer down the street. For example, I recently had a bidder who bought a shirt and didn't pay for it. They had about 1400 feedback, but still they didn't pay for their item. So after opening an unpaid item case and waiting the 4 days, I closed the dispute. The buyer left negative feedback, even though ebay says they will remove feedback left by a buyer who didn't respond to an unpaid item case. I've sent at least 4 emails and called a few times and gotten no response about the removal of the feedback. The negative feedback caused me to lose my Top Rated status, losing me the 20% discount on Final Value fees and the extra USPS discount as well. Even though I'm promised better customer service because of my Silver PowerSeller status, I've still gotten no action on getting my Top Rated status restored. Another problem was I sold a $150 vintage Starter jacket. It was paid for with buy it now, so there wasn't an issue with the payment. I packed up the item and shipped it out. That night, I got an fraud alert email from Paypal telling me to hold the shipment. I went to their site and replied to the dispute saying that I had already shipped the item, entering the tracking number. About a month later, I finally got a response. The payment had been refunded to the buyer, even though I had shown that I had done nothing wrong and the tracking showed the item delivered. I called, incredulous, and asked what I had done wrong. They couldn't tell me anything about the case other than that a Paypal account holder had reported that they had not authorized the payment. Except, the address associated with the account was the ADDRESS I HAD SHIPPED THE ITEM TO! And you can't change a paypal confirmed address without proof that you live there. So basically, if you just say you didn't authorize a payment, apparently you still get the item. And your money back. And the seller is screwed.

[tigereyes5811]

All I gotta say is not as easy as it looks!!! Key is to find cheap shipping...and to flip items fast...either breaking the sets down or selling pieces in lots. The fees will kill you if you don't sell quick. I feel eBay is better if you are selling retired sets w big returns. Small items are tough. A lot of work I tell ya!!!! Better off selling small pieces and broken down sets on brick link.

[Alcarin]

Just sell items on Bricklink way better than Ebay for LEGO stuff. I only sell on Ebay rarely when I have items i want to put on auction and sell to less smart base of LEGO users (overall) You want to do LEGO business ? BRICKLINK is the way to go, plain and simple fees are 75% less, and shipping is not included and you work it out for shipping costs.

[Yellow]

The problem with ebay as currently set up is there is no protection for sellers whatsoever.

You hit the nail on the head Cvail on a huge problematic area! I personally do not see eBay being able to fix this problem ever. Because eBay has to walk a fine line over disputes with very little evidence. Unless you video tape the entire packaging process like atleast one member here does, and even then one could dispute if that box was actually sent it is extremely difficult to prove that you really sent what you sent even with photos because it becomes a case by case depending on who is actually investigating the crime. I imagine in most cases the seller would win out but their will be instances like yours where even if they follow protocol that you could still end up on the losing end. And your instance was a major hit to your business by losing those perks.

All someone has to do is say this was not shipped correctly, I did not authorize this, item is different then what I was led to believe in the auction. What is eBay to do? eBay will become known as eScam by sellers when high priced items they sell return a loss when a buyer complains.

For instance, if someone wanted a MF all they would have to do is once when they receive the goods is to empty the contents out and put legos or mega blocks in its place, take a photo of it and complain to eBay. Now what is eBay supposed to do in this instance? Because Legos come in a box, how does a seller prove that he really had what he had? Which side does eBay take?

eBay does not want to be known as a site full of scams for buyers as what has happened in the past which has caused some of these new protocols. (not being able to leave negative feedback for buyers, new PayPal users having their funds held for long periods, etc). But people have figured out ways now how to cheat that system. What does eBay do?

[cflannagan]

We need some type of new "disruptive" change in the buying/selling marketplace.. I'm thinking of a middleman that also doubles as shipping business - it checks the package somehow (maybe opening up package to check the contents), but the logistics of doing that for ebay is unimaginable, I just don't see it happening unfortunately.. just wishful thinking on my part.

[Snowcrash]

Ebay has a major problem brewing, because there are now sites out there advising people on how to scam honest sellers using ebays own policys. There's many variations on the scam, but essentially the transaction goes through like normal with no hint that anything is amiss until the buyer opens a "significantly not as described" complaint against you. They then send something back and get a full refund. Maybe you get a less than mint copy of the same set, maybe a different set, maybe one that's been tampered with, or maybe a box of rocks. The point is as far as ebay and paypal are concerned the buyer returned the item, they have a valid tracking number showing something was delivered back to your address. There's no "seller protection" even though just such a service is advertised to protect you in case of fraud such as this. Local police will not want to get involved in what they consider a civil matter, and if the guilty party is halfway across the country as seems likely then unless you get extremely lucky you're unlikely to get any help from law enforcement in his/her locality. Federal authorities may take your report, but are slow to act and again are unlikely to assist you in recovering your property or gaining restitution. Even a valuable Lego set would probably not be worth your time to travel and seek redress in a legal action in small claims court. Unfortunately if you do get scammed on ebay your only hope is, well, ebay and their "seller protection". Here's the good news: Lego is currently not on the radar of scammers and thieves whi are looking for mainstream electronics and other high end/popular goods to run their grift on. If you're trying to sell and iPad on ebay though, God speed. Steps to take to protect yourself include documenting everything. Take lots of pictures of your item including one of it in the shipping packaging. Follow the rules regarding tracking numbers and requiring signature for anything over 250$. If you get scammed don't make threats or do anything stupid, you aren't going to get restitution from the scammer anyway. Get anyone and everyone who will listen to take your story. Report the theft to your local PD, the PD in the town where you sent the package, the ic3 (internet crimes complaint center), the FBI cyber crime division, the postal inspector, etcetera. You'll want as many reports as possible documenting the crime so you can try to get your money back from ebay/paypal. The goal here will be for you to be made whole, not to punish the thief. Also remember that the amount any of these people/agencies will care will be inversely proportional to dollar amount taken. Nobody will care if someone steals your 3$ minifig, they might if someone steals a $500 set, and you'll almost certainly get a reaction if someone steals a $10k afa graded 10179. The other reason you want to create this paper trail and have such detailed documentation is in case ebay/paypal decide to give you the electronic finger. Social media is a powerful tool. You go through their appeals process with all of that and get denied, with what is clearly a case of a fraudulent buyer and a failure of their seller protection guarantee, then package it together into a slick story and post it on reddit and tweet it out. I'll guarantee you you get your money back within an hour with a formal apology, as well as gain a huge cult following. People love stories like this and big companies hate them. Well, that's my big ebay spiel. All that being said, you're going to have to be prepared to eat some losses on ebay just like if you were in any other business/investment. Sometimes people will scam you, sometimes you'll just run into idiot buyers, you may even make an occasional mistake which will cost you some money.

[littlenicky]

The only way you are truly protected by Paypal is getting a signature. While its not required unless its $250+, you will never win in a case if the customer files a chargeback/stolen credit card on any amount. It definitely costs more to get a signature but it gives you the piece of mind. I have started getting signatures on who I feel may be suspicious (low feedbacks) and anything over $100. With Fedex, you get $100 free in shipping insurance so I am covered there. Unfortunately, Paypal is such a monopoly that we need them to process payments. Thats the brand most buyers go buy. If you tell them you don't accept Paypal, you will lose out on the lot of sales. So, if someone scams me, I just chalk it up as a lesson learned and the cost of doing business. I have not had any one scam me in a while but that's because I have learned from my mistakes. If you sell at all in any capacity, I'm sure you will fall victim to a scam or two. I just hope karma bites them back harder.