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For many resellers, eBay is the ultimate platform. You have so much freedom to sell what you like with very few restrictions. Whether it’s new, used or completely broken, eBay allows you to list it on their site. There are so many product types, categories and varieties of things on the site, and it’s constantly being added to with fresh inventory.

… which is all very nice.

It was my world for a good few years, because the process was pretty simple, and it worked with where I was at in life. I had my own place, a spare room for stock, and I could do whatever I wanted when I finished work. Living in London meant I had lots of options for sourcing too. The conditions were perfect.

The thing with Amazon and its Fulfilment by Amazon programme is that they take away all of the parts of eBay selling which just aren’t much fun for me (now as a parent with very limited time). This includes:  

  • Taking photos
  • Writing descriptions
  • Sending out parcels

As you can probably tell by the tone, I’m just not a fan of those kinds of things. As for the first two, the reason is because it’s just so difficult to find the motivation to dedicate actual time to eBaying. Doing either of those means it’s action time, and I can just never get myself in the mindset to do it.

The sending out parcels part feels especially time-intensive for me these days, because it’s not just about heading to the local Hermes Parcelshop, it also means finding enough packing materials to keep me going, printing out multiple labels per day, and always being switched on.  

What’s even more important to me now is that there’s very little of eBay that I would be able to outsource to someone else and still make profit from.

Dealing exclusively with new products as an Amazon seller, the majority of the work can be done remotely and with very little effort more my part. There are days when even I’m not even in the mood for that, and I can quickly hand it off to someone on People Per Hour.

A lot of my general weekly Amazon work now is just admin, and labelling products (which can be done as downtime at the end of the week). I really don’t feel like I have the brainpower for eBay these days, which is why I’m thankful I found Amazon pre-kids.

Ultimately you’re going to be a lot more productive if you put your all into just one platform. Amazon often feels complicated for most at first – especially if you’re using their FBA service – and so it requires you to properly commit to learning it without distractions. If you’re a successful eBay seller, you’re going to send a lot more time working for £5,000 of sales than an FBA Amazon seller is.

As of right now, eBay is no longer a platform I use for reselling. I just use it for decluttering my own things. There’s mad profit to be made in the Midlands, now that I’m declaring myself out of the game, but just watch out for when I feel like returning.

Chiino
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