[Stereo]

I had a dabble with this last year with some success. I take care in what I am breeding, only send clean eggs with good shells, package well etc. and it's was fairly lucrative to be honest. I carried on selling through winter, testing fertility all the time and got good sales then too. But suddenly it seems that every man and his dog is on there flogging eggs for whatever they can get. Some of the prices are so low you might as well put them on the gate.

Now, I've been a long term seller on eBay through my other businesses and realise that often people pile into what they see as a 'good thing' and kill it until nobody is making any money any more. You always have to be one step ahead. I sort of thought that with hatching eggs it would be not so easy to enter the market as you would need land but by the look of some of the listings, birds are kept in horrible conditions, crammed into sheds and garages. So maybe it's not so hard to get into if you don't care. I have held my prices as I'm not interested in a race to the bottom but sales have dropped considerably to be honest.

I'm not really moaning but was wondering if anyone had sold eggs on eBay over the long term and noticed any patterns.

Is it that people are putting their breeding flocks together at this time of year and flogging off poorer eggs cheap? Is it just a general gold rush by idiots who can't do the maths and won't make a penny while ruining other people's margins? Does this happen every year at this time?

[Womble]

I think it's the gold rush, Stereo.
 
There was a listing on last night for six Welsummer cross RIR eggs at £10+!    In the end I couldn't figure out which listings were for quality and which were rubbish.  so I just stuck that day's farmyard mix eggs under my broody instead and kept my cash!
 
So, last night I would have paid good money for GOOD hatching eggs, but I couldn't find you    amongst all the dross. There are a few things that I think would help with that though:
 
 
1) Have a username like "Stereo Hatching Eggs" or similar. This marks you out as serious.
2) Have excellent photos of your stock, preferrably in breeding pens. Make clear the males are unrelated and that the photos are of the actual birds, not just ripped off from google! 
3) Have a great description, including whether they're utility stock or show stock. Half the time people try to differentiate themselves by saying 'show quality', but unless you include photos of your rosettes it means nothing. Also that's going to make me less likely to buy - I want egg layers!
4) Have different types of eggs for sale at the same time ('sellers other listings') and combine postage on multiple / mixed orders.
5) Include feedback / comments from happy customers in your listing.
6) Ignore Ebay and advertise on TAS instead! 
 
HTH! 
 
 

[Stereo]

Thanks, I've pretty much done all that but you know on eBay, price is everything. I have good feedback aside from the odd nutter who put the eggs in a toaster and expected them to hatch and all be hens etc. etc.

I'm thinking of setting up a website soon as I have good experience with Magento and use Linnworks for stock control so can tie it all together.

I guess I just need to build some trust so people come back year after year. I certainly haven't found a decent eBay seller yet for hatching eggs. You either get some hybrid rubbish or poor eggs, mucky eggs or just outright failure. I bought 2 lots of lavender Araucana eggs of a lady on eBay last year purporting to be the best you could get and I got white birds, birds with wattles and other such nonsense. She's still selling on there now. Rubbish.

[Womble]

Have just seen your ad in the marketplace..... will be in touch the next time somebody I trust goes broody  .

[NicandChic]

I sell my Light Sussex on eBay, and got 12 silkies bought via ebay in my incubator at the moment (candled and got 10 developing, 2 duds) Ive always had really good buying experiences buying eggs and selling, I don't ask for a lot as the poly boxes cost hardly anything, rather than eat them / chuck them...I can sell some for a few quid!

[hughesy]

I used to sell hatching eggs on ebay for a couple of years. I got fed up of all the idiots who expected 100% hatch and left poor feedback if they didn't get it. The price thing is a problem because it's very difficult to tell the good stuff from the rubbish. It's also very time consuming doing all the packing and posting. What finished me in the end was the fact that between ebay and paypal they were making more on a dozen eggs than I was.

[Castle Farm]

If your producing quality birds set yourself up a web site.


This time of year it goes mental I get orders from all over the world, but normally only sell in the UK.


There are thousands of breeders out there producing rubbish.


 Avoid any that state bred from 'unrelated stock' as they haven't a clue what the birds genetic make-up carries.

[Stereo]

Yes, I think I will do that.

[lord flynn]

Is it just a general gold rush by idiots who can't do the maths and won't make a penny while ruining other people's margins?

yes.

There is one prolific seller of one of the breeds I keep who has done untold damage to said breed by flogging cheap eggs from birds that are no way near the standard-although tbf to him, he keeps his birds well. People then breed form these and sell them and so on.

I have had major FB fights with people who just cannot understand why a hatching egg should be more expensive than an eating one. I see people selling hatching eggs from pullets that have just come into lay and I see birds kept in horrible conditions (ducks and poultry).

I've had little luck with postal eggs myself-even direct from the breeder. Last lot of duck eggs I got 1/6 under a broody duck.

Stereo if you want good araucana, its worth contacting the FB group or there's a couple of people I can give your contact details to if you'd like. Where are you? is it worth trying Gumtree/local pet pages etc/agri stores etc?

[Castle Farm]

Iv'e been breeding for many years and my best advice is not to get more than 2 breeds...3 at the most and make your mind up between Utility or Exhibition strains. Big difference.


Research the breeds your interested in and look into what breeds they originated from.

[Stereo]

To be honest I'm heady towards the utility breeds and trying to get them back to a true standard where all chicks are useful. So, things like Marans, Sussex, RIR, Wyandotte, Ixworth etc. I think if you were going to do something like Araucana seriously it would involve a hell of a lot of hatching and culling to get decent egg quality. I've had little luck buying in stock from people who purport to be experts. Last year I bought a huge selection of Ixworth eggs from around the place and only one batch is of a decent size. The rest are clearly not up to spec.

On that note Castle, the said hatch of Ixworth have ended up as 6 hens and 1 cockerel which is a really nice big bird with all the right dimensions, good laying potential in his bone structure and placid too. I also kept on some of the other cockerels. Given that I want to breed from the 6 best hens, would you advise putting them in with their brother or using an inferior cockerel? I know some people cringe at the idea but I really want to get this breed right.

[lord flynn]

I think if you were going to do something like Araucana seriously it would involve a hell of a lot of hatching and culling to get decent egg quality.

yes they do, especially with lavender as its hard to get good feather quality on lavender and then you are selecting for eggs on top of that.

[Womble]

I have had major FB fights with people who just cannot understand why a hatching egg should be more expensive than an eating one.

I sold a box of eating eggs to a friend, who then borrowed an incubator from his neighbour and hatched the lot of them. He said it was the best £1.50 he'd ever spent.
 
I was a bit miffed when I found out, but then confused myself trying to work out if I was being unreasonable or not! 

[lord flynn]

 
I was a bit miffed when I found out, but then confused myself trying to work out if I was being unreasonable or not! 

of course you weren't. He wasn't buying a breakfast, he was buying all the work, feed, planning, breeding (including losses) that went into those hatching eggs.

[Womble]

But they weren't hatching eggs - they were breakfast eggs! 

Edit: And he got five hens and one cockerel!