How can eBay sellers sell items so cheap?

I don't think ebay items are really that cheap. You have to make sure you include the shipping price with the item price and that is your cost. Always check shipping price BEFORE bidding. If you add the shipping and item it usually cost about the same as it would in a store. Honest sellers won't profit from shipping and they get deals by bargin hunting.

They often jack up the shipping as well. eBay charges based on selling price, not shipping. If they acquired the item at a good price and then charge more than actual shipping costs they profit on both the sale price and shipping.

1. They buy wholesale in huge quantities.
2. Their overhead is very low usually.
3. Often they work a deal with companies who drop ship the items for them as the sales come in, so they are just the middle man.
4. Sometimes the items are cheaply made and not nearly as good as they look in the photos.
5. Some categories sell alot of "pirated" things (especially DVD's and CD's) and other fakes.
6. Some items are JUNK, and you get what you pay for, and it is too expensive to return. They know this, and they often will have a return policy that makes return very difficult within their time frame.

Other reasons also, but these are 5 of the top ones I can think of after using it for 10+ years.

Some of these compines work at home, so they cut huge overhead costs. Like paying rent for another building or paying lots of employees. There could be several othere reason to there sucess.

Maybe they find stores that are going out of business and are seleling all there stuff for half off ore more.

Should it not be how come EBAY is so dam CHEAP they do not even care about sellers anymore, just sales of products that they never owned never will and they screw two people over in the transaction seller loses and buyer is now forced by ebay to pay sellers fees because seller needs to add it to costs as ebay think its ok to sell a DVD or CD with free Postage and packaging i asked royal mail to give me FREE postage and packaging they ask was i having a Laffffffffffffffffffffffffffff i said well EBAY says it ok so it must be right

IVE TRADED ON EBAY FOR PERSONAL THINGS FOR THE MOST PART BUT IVE NOTICED THAT THE SHIPPING IS WHERE THEY GET IT NEAR OR ABOVE YOUR LOCAL RETIAL OUTLET. WHICH CAN OFFER YOU MORE IN PERSON HELP. WITH RETURNS OR OTHER QUESTIONS IN PERSON RATHER THAN IN EMAIL.
IVE WORKED FOR COMPANIES WHO HAVE THE SAME _COST_ AS THE ITEMS SOLD ON EBAY COMPANIES WITH BIG BUYING POWER SO AT TIMES IM LOST FOR WORDS.

wouldn't i love to know that answer as well.

Some of the items were probably stolen, they got a really nice deal, or someone gave it to them... lots of possibilities.

Or they have a company and buy items in bulk, which lowers their price.

It never fails to amaze me how stupid and lazy people are. dont you ever think before you spew your ansewers out, Jeeezzz

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check them out they can help you

Some items may be fake, imitations, junk or COUNTERFEIT. But I've also bought "generic" unbranded items that look exactly like well-known brand items. In fact, upon inspection, they're not just similar, but it's hard to tell whether they're actually the same item or not - one with a brand name on it, the other without.

Most manufacturing plants are currently in emerging or economically underdeveloped countries where labour is cheap & workers rights scarce. Products we pay top dollar for in the West are produced in China, India, Taiwan, etc. for near to nothing - workers are paid cents an hour - and sold to us for hundreds of times what they're worth (an mp3 player costs roughly 2 or 3 bucks to produce, including materials, labour, transportation and publicity expenses...look it up, it's true). What do we pay for it later? $50? $100? Prices aren't set according to what's fair, but rather according to what people are willing to pay.

Would it surprise anyone if a few (rightfully) disgruntled workers decided to divert X amount of products from the production line every month, before they're tagged, and earn a little extra after being exploited for 16h. Perhaps give supervisors a cut so everyone's happy & quiet? Later, on ebay, you pay $6 (to a guy who earns 2 cents an hour for his hard labour) for an item that cost $2 to produce, for which you would have paid $60 or more in the mainstream market.

Is it really that wrong? They earn a little extra on the side to feed their families, you pay a fair price for the product. The company loses out. But hey! Maybe they deserve it...maybe they brought it on to themselves...maybe the excess greed had to bounce back someday, and the equation balance itself out...

Cause theyre stolen

I have just calculated the cost of buying six bulk items of stationery for my company from their usual catalogue:

£297.46

Cost of the same or equivalent items on eBay [including postage]:

£63.30

Well i am a seller on ebay and it really depends on the item and the people who want to buy it and what are willing to pay. Alot what i do is either buy in bulk and or i post ads on the internet and in the paper to sell other peoples stuff for a percent of what it sells for so people are constantly dropping stuff of to me to sell for them i sell it take a percentage and send them a check. Its a great extra way to make money if you have the time to put it in.

some poeple might want to just rid themselves of something they don't want anymore..

A lot of the things are broken. That's why I use craigslist there are no shipping fees and the website is non profit. Basically they set the seller up with a temporary email and give them a page to post a description and pictures. Then can meet with the seller in person and test what you're buying before buying it.