Amazon or Ebay – Side Hustles Week 3 of 4

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Last week I set a goal for us to make £100 in side hustle in time for the next blog post; I’m glad to say we made it! We totaled a very close £100.48 in side hustle income this week and learnt some lessons about selling online along the way!

Also, I’d like to proudly announce that as of today, I have cleared my family debt! It’s been a tough 4 months but I’m glad to have paid this back; I now only have my overdraft to tackle; and if all goes well I’m set to achieve my goal of paying this all off by the 30th November. Wish me luck!

This week’s side hustle earnings were all made through book sales which has given us a little more experience in selling items online – . Fi  has been listing her items on Ebay while I have been listing mine on Amazon, let’s see how they stack up against each other…

Speed of Sales

Ebay and Amazon have very similar traffic rank figures with Ebay slightly leading here. However, Amazon is well catered to books and e-books which leads me to believe that this may be the quickest way to shift our paper based friends. Speed of sales is  important with university books as there is a window of only 3 months in the year where students are likely to buy them. So far Amazon has worked well in terms of sales as I have managed to sell all three books that I have listed. On the other hand, Fi managed to sell one of her books within a few hours of placing it on Ebay!

Charges

Amazon charges an enormous 17.25% to the seller on the sale of a book (plus an 86 pence processing fee). However, the listing is permanent and will stay until the item is sold or until you take it down. For example: I sold a book at £39.29 but only made £28.65 after charges and packaging. Despite the commission fee, Amazon is often the best platform if you want to shift an item quickly at a fixed (and reasonable) price.

Ebay often offers some great deals whereby you can list items for free and pay just the 10% commission fee once the item is sold. If you don’t sell the product in your time frame, you can put it back up again for just 20 pence. You’re more likely to get a bigger bang for your buck with Ebay but it may take a little longer and you’ll have to keep an eye on your listings.

Charge for a £30 sale on Amazon

£6.03

Charge for a £30 sale on Ebay

£3.50 (Ebay) + £1 (Paypal) = £4.50

Additional Side Hustle Efforts

Today I listed my first copy writing gig on Fiverr! It is still early days so no orders but tomorrow I will be looking to improve the gig with the use of video and some extra information. I can imagine it is very hard to be seen on Fiverr and will need to do some research into where the demand is and what I can do to stand out with my shiny new (yet short of reviews) profile. I’ll keep you updated!

Fi has also stumbled across a platform called Swagbucks where you can earn virtual money by watching videos online. The virtual money can then be exchanged for Amazon gift cards (perfect for Christmas!). I’m going to look into how much work this would be to make it worthwhile!

What is your preferred selling platform?  Any exciting side hustles from you this week?

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I have a burning passion for generating big results - FAST. Fascinated with personal finance, entrepreneurship and high performance in the workplace.

2 COMMENTS

  1. I’m on a similar journey trying to clear debts myself. So far I’ve cut back on spending to clear my debt quicker. But now I’m considering a side hustle to have more to pay off debts with. I’m just so attached to my things, I just know its going to be difficult.

    • It’s hard clearing out old stuff out but I’m sure I have plenty of things that could make some extra money (other books, electronics, etc.)! Thanks for the comment, your blog looks ace! It’s great to find another UK PF blogger!

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