I've been planning on a a soft-relaunch as a jazzy eBay store as we re-establish in Australia, selling on eBay.co.uk, before we go back to a full bells and whistles website. The UK eBay t-shirt market is not quite as stagnant as the US has become, and prices are generally in the $15-25 range.
I have certain external business connections with eBay as part of my work outside of t-shirts, which gives me a lot of tools for monitoring sales and throughput there. In-depth anaysis 6 months ago, and a test run selling there, were excellent, which showed a very healthy business model (we sold our entire 3 figure test run in two weeks, and above price aims).
However, over the last few weeks, this picture has changed, and drastically. Sell-through rates in the t-shirt market, and sell prices, have plummeted.
I'm now a little scared about our business model which was healthy and rosey 6 months ago....
I stopped selling on Ebay US a while back because I could see the tides turning. There are way too many sellers right now and this holds true for all areas of Ebay, not just t shirts. In time the new sellers will leave and there will be great oppertunity again and the cycle will repeat. Right now though it is TOTALLY a buyers market. In fact, there is a website out which lists all the ebay auctions that are about to close with no bids and people can swoop in get items, sometimes for a penny. This is possible becasue with all the sellers your item could be buried on page 10-12 of the search results for all 7 days and only spend it's final 5 minutes on the first page.
I know some people think they are making money, but if they did a detailed anaylsis of the fees (ebay and paypal), costs, etc I think most would find out they are just trading money back and forth.
Just my two cents on ebay......But it will come back, just not sure when.
Not exactly crakbot. I am definitely making money on ebay. It ends up costing $2-$3 per shirt sold for me, becuase I sell about half of the shirts I put up for auction. I sell them for 11.99, so I still make plent of money per shirt.
I really dont think that the ebay sellers are going anywhere, becuase they are making money. Buying online, and the internet in general are here to stay, and are certianly not going to decrease in volume any time soon. There are more sellers, because there are more buyers. Its simple supply and demand.
Maybe I did not explain myself clearly. I totally agree that internet commerce is here to stay and is growing. I also am not saying that ebay is dead and about to go away. What I am saying is that the trend line for ebay is pointing in the wrong direction for sellers. You can still make money at it but do you want to put your energy where things are going downward?
By the way, no hard feelings towards ebay. For two years I made a ton of money on ebay so I thank them for getting me started. But the explosion in sellers is making it much more diffucult.
P.S. You sell anti-Bush shirts so I will secretly pull for you to succeed
I put my first shirt on ebay and sold it at a $14 profit, after paying all ebay and paypal fees, cost of shirt etc
Yes, we made about $15 profit per shirt with a test run of a few hundred a few months ago, and they sold very, very quickly with Buy it Now.
I think I've discovered the source of the problem on eBay UK. Several of the major players are a few hundred feedbacks from 10,000. They've cut prices dramatically, and many have follwed suit, in order I guess to hit that 10,000 mark.
If you are trying to create a brand identity (like Bape etc) I dont think you want to make your shirts so cheap as to log them in the category of humor T-shirts. Some consumers will associate price with quality and worth.
I agree. Call me picky, but I wouldn't buy a great t on eBay that was $5. I'd presume it was some cheap baggy thing, and probably badly printed. If the same one was $15, I would be cautious, as always on eBay, but far more confident to buy.
The eBay T-Shirt Market Quivers 
