Cheney's Ebay Economy

[Spud]

So last Thursday the vice-president informed us that economic indicators aren't telling the complete story as they don't include such numbers as Ebay sales. Link

Was that just a quick shot from the hip or is Ebay truly an economic driver? I buy more stuff at garage sales than I do on Ebay.

Anybody bringing in a sizeable chunk of their income off Ebay?

 

[Tkang_TKD]

Truthfully, there are a select few sellers on eBay that actually turn a profit. I've been selling since Nov '03, and to date, I'm about $500.00 in the whole after eBay and PayPal get their chunks of the sales.

Many of the Powersellers I've engaged in conversation indicate that they have difficult times on eBay as well. The problem is that the markets are saturated, and products that took in top dollar 3 years ago ususally sell at below wholesale pricing now.

Thrown in some billing problems when eBay switched billing companies, and some sellers are really in the red.

I have done better in one Garage sale that lasted four hours than what I've done in almost a year in business on eBay.

 

[michaeledward]

Anybody bringing in a sizeable chunk of their income off Ebay?

Well, since you asked ...

I am hoping to generate about $3500.00 from this auction. Any of you guitar players out there interested in a nice limited edition Rickenbacker.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=3747901441&ssPageName=STRK:MESE:IT

I actually Ebayed this back in August and the high bidder was at $3700.00 bucks, but the buyer backed out.

Then again, this will probably be my last Ebay auction for years.

Mike

 

[MisterMike]

I'd say eBay is all profit for it's sellers.

If you are auctioning that old computer that cost you a grand 2 years ago for 200 bucks, you really can't count that as 'losing' money. If you are getting a fair price based on the depreciation, you're in the plus.

As for those who have stores on eBay, it won't take long to turn a profit if you are buying wholesale and selling around retail. I think there is a significant amount of cash coming in to those folks. A lot of fraud too...ever search on Tibetan artifacts? sheesh..

I think eBay is better than yard sales. If you have a digital camera, all you have to do is take a pic, rather than go hang signs, put out a table of stuff, and then pack it all back up. I've done well on eBay and if I can, I know lots of other people are.

 

[Flatlander]

"If we only included bake sales and how much money kids make at lemonade stands, this economy would really be cooking," Edwards said in a statement

Great riposte!

 

[Tkang_TKD]

As for those who have stores on eBay, it won't take long to turn a profit if you are buying wholesale and selling around retail. I think there is a significant amount of cash coming in to those folks.

This is what I have tried. For example: I buy and sell computer hardware/software and such. I have accounts with some of the bigger wholesale distributors out there, but I do not have the cash flow to by 100's of thousands of dollars in inventory to get a good wholesale price.

I typically break even at best, this after 1 year of selling. It's not the easy money that it's made out to be, and it is ultra competetive. For example, I would have to sell Windows XP Home edition for about 75.00 per copy if I want to sell any at all on ebay, and at that price, I'm generally selling at a loss.

If I could sell at retail, I would probably turn profits of around 10-15% per copy. Unfortunately, people will go to the store to buy retail before they'll buy retail on eBay in my experiences.

 

[MisterMike]

Yes, admittedly, for the small guys, geting started is going to be tough and it will be a while before you see a substantial profit.

I'd try looking into things fewer people offer on eBay. Seems some things are pretty saturated on there.

Of course if I had the answer, I wouldn't be selling just Kenpo pins on there...

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=1060&item=5323716698&rd=1&ssPageName=WDVW

 

[rmcrobertson]

To me, the minor problem with all this is that it's just one more example of the production of the World of Endless Work.

You know--longer and longer work-weeks. More and more continuing education. Privatized retirement plans, so everybody can spend more and more time planning and worrying. "Choice," in pharmacy cards for retirees, so that they can sort endlessly through options. And on and on--the endless expansion of work.

This isn't democracy, it isn't choice, and it isn't even very rational--except in the sense of taylorization. It's the production of the world of endless work. It's the translation of every human activity and all human time into the language of capitalism.

Or to quote Rowdy Roddy Piper, watching the alien Dan Quayle on TV speechify about doing away with negativity in America: "You just knew it'd be SOMETHING like this."

 

[RandomPhantom700]

:soapbox:

 

[rmcrobertson]

Well, I figure better a commercial for laziness and freedom than a commercial for work and capitalism....

Or to explain more clearly: after the first, the previous posts were all, so far as I am concerned, soapboxy. It's just that they more-neatly dovetailed with current mythology, so they appear to be perfectly normal.

 

[RandomPhantom700]

Anyway, to now respond to an actually relevent issue:

" If we only included bake sales and how much money kids make at lemonade stands, this economy would really be cooking,' Edwards said in a statement."

I love that quote. But it does kinda allude to my current inquiry: wouldn't all the sales on EBay be counted as part of the GDP, or GNP, or whichever indicator it would fit as, and hence already actually be indicated in the economy? Or is it that, since the buyer and seller are each private individuals, it doesn't count as one of those?

 

[rmcrobertson]

I'm pretty sure they already count.

But guys like Cheney aren't communicating in words, exactly. They're communicating in symbols: here, the symbols say, a) economy fine, measurement wrong; b) measurement wrong because old-fashioned; c) our pParty progressive, democrats old-fashioned; d) we're happening guys! we can say, E-Bay!!

From time to time, there, pardner, you might consider that just possibly somebody like me knows what they're talking about. Of course, dismissing info you don't like as irrelevant is always easier than thinking.

 

[Feisty Mouse]

I think Cheney's comment is asinine, actually. As if Ebay sales are not accounted for anywhere. Good on ya, Edwards!

And as if simply counting Ebay commerce will significantly change the dismal economic picture for the average (or median, or modal) American.

 

[RandomPhantom700]

From time to time, there, pardner, you might consider that just possibly somebody like me knows what they're talking about. Of course, dismissing info you don't like as irrelevant is always easier than thinking.

I'm not getting into it with you, robertson. Save the bait for the next fish.

And as if simply counting Ebay commerce will significantly change the dismal economic picture for the average (or median, or modal) American.

I must agree. He's trying to evade the issue, plain and simple.

 

[Tkang_TKD]

Anyway, to now respond to an actually relevent issue:

" If we only included bake sales and how much money kids make at lemonade stands, this economy would really be cooking,' Edwards said in a statement."

I love that quote. But it does kinda allude to my current inquiry: wouldn't all the sales on EBay be counted as part of the GDP, or GNP, or whichever indicator it would fit as, and hence already actually be indicated in the economy? Or is it that, since the buyer and seller are each private individuals, it doesn't count as one of those?

I would say yes and no; Yes because small sellers like me who actually get a business license and pay business taxes on profits are probably included. The casual seller on the other hand, probably does not fall into any of those indicators, as they do not for the most part report their eBay earnings (I could be wrong, but most folks that sell once in a blue moon have stated that they don't report the couple of bucks they make here and there).

I don't know if the seller/buyer being private individuals has a bearing.

 

[RandomPhantom700]

Thank you. And, if all true, that just shows that the stuff that isn't being reported isn't really that big of a factor.

 

[PeachMonkey]

I'm not getting into it with you, robertson. Save the bait for the next fish.

I usually see eye-to-eye with you, RandomPhantom, but replies like this come off, to me anyway, as:

Capitalism Good.
Criticism of capitalism Bad.

 

[RandomPhantom700]

I usually see eye-to-eye with you, RandomPhantom, but replies like this come off, to me anyway, as:

Capitalism Good.
Criticism of capitalism Bad.

My comment was not really about the merits of capitalism at all. In his previous post, rmcrobertson said:

"From time to time, there, pardner, you might consider that just possibly somebody like me knows what they're talking about. Of course, dismissing info you don't like as irrelevant is always easier than thinking."

I took this as a personal attack, which it is, and simply responded that I didn't want to get into it. I said this because I didn't want to be responsible for turning this thread into another grudge match. Nothing about capitalism whatsoever, or at least I didn't mean for there to be.

 

[PeachMonkey]

I took this as a personal attack, which it is, and simply responded that I didn't want to get into it. I said this because I didn't want to be responsible for turning this thread into another grudge match. Nothing about capitalism whatsoever, or at least I didn't mean for there to be.

Thanks for clearing that up.

PM

 

[rmcrobertson]

I'm fairly sure that I don't see why bringing up capitalism in the course of a discussion of current economics, e-bay, buying and selling is irrelevant.

As for the other nonsense, O Random, you might want to peruse the posts in which you a) responded to what I wrote with a little gerbil on a soapbox, b) responded to what I wrote by writing, "to now respond to an actually relevant issue," c) responded to what I wrote with a snooty comment addressed to, "robertson," d) responded to what I wrote by asserting that you weren't the one turning this discussion into, "another grudge match," in case you choose to think about why I might occasionally snap at you a little.

These sorts of tactics have become, I am sorry to say, common in the wake of Limbaugh, Hannity, Savage, and the like. They represent, insofar as I am concerned, a widespread refusal to actually think about what's being said, what the current situation is, what our system's history is, and the human consequences of the ideas of the likes of Dick Cheney.

In other words, I take them as one more sign of what I'd generally call, "capitalist ideology," which really, really works.