Rob and Melissa Stephenson, from Flea Market Flipper, talk about adding eBay live to your reselling income stream.
eBay Launch Lab Live Workshop: https://learn.fleamarketflipper.com/reseller-jumpstart-workshop
Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fleamrktflipper/
You can find us at: https://fleamarketflipper.com/
Should You Add eBay Live To Your Income Stream?
Rob: What's up, pro flippers? On today's episode, we're talking about eBay live. And more specifically, should you add this to your income stream right now?
Rob: Alright guys, so today on this episode we are talking about eBay live. We just were at eBay Open, a couple weeks ago. They were really, really hitting hard on eBay live.
So is this something you should be adding to what you are already doing?
Melissa: Yeah, it was definitely a big highlight of the whole convention, was eBay live, it was like the center of the whole, what are the, is that called that area where they, like Expo Hall. Yes. Where they have all the different things set up.
It was, that was the, the center of everything was eBay live. And they had a place where you could go in and do, go live with, with eBay's channel. And it was pretty cool. Like they had a whole bunch of people going in there. They had the Backstreet Boys there one day. They did, they did. I don't remember the collector they were with, selling cards. But anyways, it was pretty cool that, that they had a couple of Backstreet Boys there. So, it was kind of fun, but they're really promoting it and so. We started to be like, is this something we can do? So we have absolute, just a disclaimer, we have absolute no experience with live selling whatsoever, but we might look into it in a, for a couple different reasons.
Rob: So for us, it does not make sense for our normal business model. We are going very low volume high, high dollar amount on items that we are selling. eBay live, you're going to actually push through some volume. So Melissa and I are like, how can we jump on this bandwagon? In the past, any, platform that actually pushes new features on the platform, they push it hard and you get stuff seen very, very well.
When you'll, when you're willing to jump onto new features on a platform. So eBay, like we said, they are pushing this live a lot right now. So we are thinking, how can we do this? How can we take part in this? What better way to do it than to have our kids jump in and start selling stuff on eBay live.
So that is how it's going to work for us. That is what we are going to try to experiment with, is getting our kids to do something that they're passionate about and we narrowed it down to three categories, three things, that we are going to try to do with them. Set up the eBay live. And then go with that.
Melissa: Yeah.
And I wanted to add like the reason why we really wouldn't, it wouldn't work for our business model because how many people are going to be sitting there going live bidding on a, a $2,000 cooktop. Yeah. Like it, it's the person looking for that specific model at that specific exact time that, you know, they're updating their kitchen or there's one to none, there's broke or whatever.
So it's not really, we don't have, you know, a hundred people who are looking for the same item at the exact same time. So for our business, it wouldn't work. And we love just throw it on there and forget it. Like we kind of, we like that model. But as far as, like Rob was saying, for our kids, this is something that they, they've shown interest in.
We, we came back and we told them about it and our oldest definitely, she's really excited about it and she wants to do it. So we're going to start to look into it and we will make sure that we keep good track of everything that we find in the process. So, absolutely. I have a couple other points, but you can, I don't know if you want to say anything.
Rob: No. Absolutely. Are we going to talk about the, the three categories we chose? So the three categories for our kids that we lived into, what their passions are, what they like to do. My oldest daughter loves Squishmallows, so we're going to try to get an eBay live going where she can actually buy Squishmallows local, sell them on eBay, and then ship them out.
Excited about that category. That's probably going to be the first one that we end up doing is the, Squishmallows. We'll do that. And then for our other daughter, she's a little bit more passionate or she likes Disney stuff. So Disney memorabilia. Huge down here in Florida, in Orlando more specifically.
You can get it from thrift stores.
Melissa: It ends up at the thrift stores. Everywhere. yard sales, brand new stuff too. Absolutely. Brand new, new stuff.
Rob: So you find some really cool stuff. So that's the one that we're going to live into with our middle child, our middle daughter, and then our son loves 3D stuff.
He loves the little knickknacks that you can create on 3D printers. So we're going to be buying a 3D printer off of marketplace or eBay. And that is what we are going to live in with him. Is really go after some different types of things that he'll be able to 3D print and then do a live selling on eBay with that. So.
Melissa: Now not all those categories might not be open yet. So when I did a brief search, I haven't, we haven't really done a whole lot of research on the eBay live thing. We just know that eBay is pushing it and so we're going to try to hop on. We want to do it, we want to hop on board. So right now, it's by invite only to be able to do this, but I'm pretty sure you could get in touch, which is what I'm going to do, in the next week or so is see, I don't think we've been invited.
I haven't even looked. I'm not in your account. I'm in the kids' account and I don't check mine. So, and the kids' account hasn't been very active, so I doubt they've been invited. So it might end up being on your account. So we'll have to, we'll have to see if that, but if we haven't been invited yet, we'll have to go and see if I can reach out to a couple people and see if that we can get that done.
And right now their biggest categories they're pushing are collectibles, like trading cards, any kind. It just said collectible toys. So I don't know if Squishmallows would fall under that or not. I do feel like Disney's a collectible, so that would probably fall under that. I don't know any of the rules about selling Disney stuff too, but we'll have to look into that.
So we'll have to, you know, do some research, do some research on it, which we are going to do, and we'll share with you what we find. I would love to know, let us know in the, if you're watching this on YouTube, on the comments below, or, you know, find us on social media. Are you have, are you currently selling on eBay live?
And do you love it? Do you not love it? I feel like people who have done live selling really enjoy it. So it's kind of like the QVC of now.
Rob: It is. And you think back to where eBay built their roots when they were developing eBay. It was auction. Auction. Yeah. It was on auctions now. Never a live auction. You know what I mean?
It wasn't somebody actually coming on camera doing it. I don't think they had that technology back then, but it was the whole countdown. You set a seven day auction, you count it down, you get all these people interested within seven days and it counts down to that zero timer. And if you are not the highest bid, I remember using bid snipe, I remember using some of these different snipers that would go in and bid in the last, the last three seconds, your highest amount of bid. So it is very back in the day, it's how eBay built their roots off of the auction and now they're just bringing it back with a newer version of it, which it'll be cool, it'll be cool. A lot of other platforms are already doing it and I think that's why eBay's jumping, jumping onto the bandwagon because other platforms are doing really, really well with the live selling.
Melissa: When eBay did, so we don't do any auctions now, but when we used to back in the day, when you used to do them, when you had that person bid that last little bit, they didn't have to, it didn't extend it. Right? Now, the auctions that we do now, they extend it like five minutes and they're like, make more money. But I guess as a seller you would like that.
Rob: Absolutely.
Melissa: So. But as a buyer,
Rob: I don't think eBay's doing that for these, I think it's an automatic account now, but I'm no, I know.
I know.
But I'm just saying. It is kind of crazy that that's, that's exactly how a lot of the auctions are going. But for the auction houses makes sense. When you get somebody in there and you extend it three to five minutes, getting more people time to get in there and bid higher. They by far make the most amount of money, 'cause there's so many more people that would bid after that bid, five
Melissa: more minutes later,
Rob: zero deadline if they had more time to do it and they would just keep bidding and bidding and bidding. So I hate that as a buyer, but as a seller you would absolutely love to be able to do that. For sure.
Melissa: So, yeah, no, it would definitely help.
So another thing that is different between eBay live and regular eBay is. It would be beneficial to have a social media following and eBay would like you to have some experience with live selling or going live on different platforms. So, you know, we've been putting ourselves on the internet for a while, so we, like, we have, we've, you know, done live stuff.
We haven't done a lot of, we haven't done live selling yet though, so that's something, it'll be a whole new experience, which absolutely. Which we're kind of, excited about. But in our business, having a social media presence does not help our eBay business. That's not the reason we have social media.
Our, our buyers are not on our social media. They're not there to follow us. It makes sense. If you're selling stuff like t-shirts or vintage collectibles and you like this seller that is selling and they find a lot of that stuff and you go buy from them, that makes total sense. But for us, since we're doing a lot more of, you know, exercise, equipment, appliances, like any random stuff that we find that's worth money, it doesn't really make sense to share that stuff on our social media like.
Are you buying a stove from a, a follower, but you're somebody you're following on Facebook thing? No. No.
Rob: And typically when you buy one, you don't need another one for a long time. Right. So you're not following what they're doing and trying to buy more of that stuff. So.
Melissa: But it does make sense to have a social media following if you wanna do eBay live.
So it really just two different business models and we're just, we're just going to try it out and see what it, it's like with our kids. But it would be helpful to have a social media following because you can, you know, share with your people your niche, what you're selling, and they will start following you.
For that niche, if that's something that they enjoy and they wanna see the different kinds of collectibles that you come up with. So that makes complete sense. Absolutely.
Rob: Absolutely. So.
Melissa: Yeah, so having that could definitely help and yeah, so they're just looking for trusted sellers with access to social or have a, a proven live stream and active social media are the, some of the biggest things that they're looking for.
So I don't think, when I briefly looked in your account, I don't think you've been invited. So I'm going to do some research and see if we can get an invite, invite. Sweet. In the next week or two. So cool. So we can go live with our kids.
Rob: Don't forget, reach out. Let us know if you are already selling on eBay lives or if you are moving in that direction and what your experience is.
We'd love to hear from you guys. That would be amazing to know what to expect. And yeah, we'll be right behind you if you are, and if you have not yet. Hopefully we'll lead the way and show you guys what to do.
Melissa: I do want to add something too, like whatnot kind of paved the way for these live auctions.
And then you have TikTok shop too. So people are doing a lot of live selling and they're doing really well with it. But eBay, if they can pull it off and do it like them, they have the better platform. Like people do get frustrated with whatnot. I know, like trying to get in touch with customer service and some different little things.
I, we don't have personal experience, so I can't speak for us. We've never really, so we've never sold on the platform, so I have no idea how to like getting in touch with them, but I just, what I've heard from some people. So eBay, and not that, you know, eBay's perfect, but they have a large volume track record behind them and a big company to be able to help kick this off the ground.
So we'll see how it goes. And maybe nobody jumps on, I don't know, but I think it could be kind of fun.
Rob: It should be a lot of fun. We should have a good time.
Melissa: So are you going to be out there? Yeah. Buying the Squishmallow. Absolutely. And before we jump off, depending on when you're listening to this, we might have just started our four week workshop of eBay Launch Lab.
So if you've never sold on eBay before or you've been wanting to get started for a long time and maybe you have analysis paralysis and it's like, feels like this big mammoth of something, check it out. The link will be in the show notes below and we'd love to see you there. It's four weeks live, with us to really get kicked off. Kicked off going. So.
Rob: You are amazing. Thanks for spending some time with us today, and we can't wait to see you until the next episode.