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Hi, I’m Mark from Singapore.
I started selling on ebay.com & com.au in ’08, when the local retail market went to crap & combined with the seasonal lull period.
Ebay allowed me to access other markets which were not affected by the seasonalities/ recession.
I’ve stopped selling as a business for the last 5? years, though I continued to use it to source for stuff for work or fun.About 4 months back, I decided I wanted to give ebay a go again and found your forum/ podcast 2 months back when I was surfing for answers.
Now I’m hooked on your podcast, thanks Jay & Ryanne! I think I learnt more about ebay in the last 2 months then I did in years!!
Ebay is a strange beast, I think ebay today is far different animal then the one I was used to sell on in 08/09.
Currently my ‘philosophy’ is to become a full time ebay seller. With a stretch goal of living debt free, so I’m taking my ebay business seriously now, listing and sourcing and growing the inventory.
I’m also available if anyone has questions about selling more to my part of the region.. We really do buy quite alot from ebay.com too.
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Welcome. I did not think of Singapore as being a big eBay territory.
–Are you an expat in Singapore, or born and raised there?
–Where do you scavenge and what do you find?
–Are you mainly selling to people on eBay inside Singapore, or shipping to US?
–What do people in Singapore by on eBay? I tink we may have only sold a handful of items tehre in the past ten years. -
Hi Jay! wow you guys are really early risers!
well I’m born and raised in Singapore, 38 years old now. I did spend a few years in Australia and in the UK for school.
What have I do sell on ebay? Back in ‘09,10 I used to buy dead stock of Japanese automotive parts from shops in Singapore and sell them on ebay.com.au or co.uk occasionally .com too to earn on the exchange rates. Currently today I’m mostly selling some new toys/collectibles things that interest me at the moment but I am trying to move away from the ‘commodities’ mould.
I attended my first ever ebay conference in Singapore last month, it was exciting! But alot of the big boys were into selling commodities. (Things that are $X retail, but discounted by Y%). Selling commodities is a terrible way to live, because there will always be someone who has a bigger discount rate, can operate cheaper and more efficiently. Living on single digit percentage profits is horrible!
So besides selling toys, I’ve been looking into setting up pipelines for myself, but its slow going as Im trying to only buy things that I’m interested in, instead of just buying something because I think it can sell on ebay if you know what I mean?
Lately I’ve found computer game tshirts, apparently lots of pre-orders for new PC & console games here come with free tshirts. Also I’ve been lookin into buttons from branded clothes, but its slow going as I’m still learning about what I’m finding.
As for thrifting, I’ve visited a few local goodwills but I dont think I’ve seen anything thats really sellable. or shipping. In fact I’ve been surfing facebook/local craigslists for items, and usually there will be sellers looking to sell urgently or have posted an advert so long ago, that they are just glad to get rid of the item.
As for the ebay market that I’ve been selling into, lately its been into the USA and CANADA, but thats primarily because of the toys that I’ve been selling. Why dont I sell in Singapore? Because Singapore’s so small, I’ve been trying not to sell the toys back into my sourcing ground.
What do folks from Singapore buy from ebay/ or the internet? Lately I’ve seen everything, as long as its shippable. Retail rentals in Singapore is ludicrously expensive and that affects the selling price on most things, so lots of folks have turned to buying on the internet.
For myself, I have bought tools, home and garden stuff, clothing (american brands, dickies, Eddie bauer, dc shoes, sketchers, Tom’s!), automotive parts, toys! and all sorts of other rubbish) from ebay.com, I’ve seen friends decorate their entire home with stuff bought purely from ebay.com
Besides the global shipping programme, our own post office offers a package consolidation service out of Portland, OR, so if some of you might have shipped to an funny serialised number in Portland, it might just be one of my packages getting consolidated!
phew thats quite a mouthful!
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–Makes sense to buy video games and toys that might be common there, but not common overseas. I know that Manga and other Japanese comics/toys were difficult to find here for a long time.
–Do people in Signapore “thrift”? Is it common to donate old stuff and buy old stuff? I had no idea they had Goodwills in Singapore: http://www.sccfsc.sg/our-open-community/the-goodwill-store/
Glad you found us here. We dont get many active scavengers outside of the US and Canada. (and sometimes the UK)
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