Ebay sellers in Thailand

[wonderlust]

I read on a website offering apartments near Pattaya with ADSL that their rooms are popular with ebay sellers and I wondered how westerners manage to make a living as ebay sellers in Thailand. I'm not interested in doing it myself, just curious. Anyone here doing it? What do they do - pick up stuff in markets in Bangkok and sell it for an inflated price to buyers in the west? What's stopping a local Thai getting in on that and undercutting them? I'd be surprised if there's much money to be made doing it.

[Flashermac]

Doubt if there are all that many, since PayPal has been periodically stopped to Thailand. Some SE Asia countries will not be touched by PayPal at all. I think at the moment you can receive money via PayPal in Thiland, but not send it out.

 

Ask KS about PayPal. I think he's had some bad experiences with them.

 

 

[rookie]

FWIW...

I've met a few people that sell on E-Bay as well as seen a number of others with loads of packages at the Post Office.

Of those I know, some do it ocasionally and make maybe $200-US/mo +/- and the one that is frequently updating his E-Bay lists is makes about $1000++/mo. Many sell clothing...mainly soccer jerseys and the like to the European market. You can get knock-off jerseys and other soccer related stuff for cheap...compared to the costs back in Europe. Some sell other Thai related items. The mark-up can be 5-10x cost. Many avoid the US and more often hassles w/ customs.

Yet...it is ILLEGAL...as none have work permits, and potentially it could be a major problem for the seller.

[wonderlust]

Are they selling counterfeit items? I would have thought ebay would ban you pretty quickly if you tried to do that. I wouldn't have thought genuine branded or sport clothing would be that much cheaper in Thailand, especially taking into account the cost of postage to Europe.

[rchapstick]

Are they selling counterfeit items? I would have thought ebay would ban you pretty quickly if you tried to do that. I wouldn't have thought genuine branded or sport clothing would be that much cheaper in Thailand, especially taking into account the cost of postage to Europe.

 

In theory, yes they ban fakes. In practice, it is hard for them to enforce. Unless you are a major player, I suspect that one can fly under radar.

 

For a non-English speaking Thai, I suspect that it would be hard to develop a good reputation as their adds would likely be full of fractured language, and they would have a limited ability to respond to queries.

 

WRT not having a work permit, I imagine it would be borderline impossible for the Thai authorities to track down ebay sellers without work permits.

[pe7e]

Are they selling counterfeit items? I would have thought ebay would ban you pretty quickly if you tried to do that

 

You're having a laugh, e-bay is full of fakes in fact certain sections don't have any genuine items for sale in them at all i.e. 'Chanel Sunglasses'. The sellers say they're genuine, and the buyers think they're buying genuine, but they're not, they're Chinese copy's. There's a lot of Thai stuff for sale on e-bay but the price it fetches is usually very low and not worth the effort, some of the fake gear's worth selling if you're prepared to tell lies when describing it and take the risks involved. You would need to set up your e-bay account in farang land and get some decent feedback before traveling though, Thai based sellers face major credibility issues, would you trust one?

[unit731]

A small example of Thai selling on eBay North America.

 

I searched Frontline Plus. Manufactured in Thailand. Same stuff. All in all cheaper with postage than purchasing here. A years supply can be US 100.00-150.00. Much cheaper purchasing from eBay Thailand.

 

But as far as making a living. I guess it depends on what making a living is.

[Flashermac]

When folks first started offering Thai products on eBay, they seem to have done well enough. But with so many offering them now I doubt they still are.

 

 

[Julian2]

I though about doing something like this as a sideline, mainly jewelry and gold chains. For it to work you would need a partner in the country you wish to market in who would collect the money through PatPal, then let you know where to send the product.

Then of course you would need a secure way of posting anything valuable, something which has been discussed here, over and over and over......

[redwood13]

Mate of mine was selling trainers and football shirts and doing very well for quite awhile, but eventually ran into the problem of competitors making ridiculously high bids on his listings. That is, on an item that might sell for US$20, they'd bid US$150 thus killing the listing. They'd get banned but rejoin under new credentials and repeat as necessary until he finally just gave it up and moved on to something else.

 

-redwood