eBay

cellumany · ‎03-05-2023

How do you make money selling a trading card for .99 cents paying .30 cents to list it plus a final value fee, plus .65 cents shipping? When you do sell a card for .99 what's the payout? Is it because you can claim shipping costs on taxes? Thanks for your patience and assistance.

stainlessenginecovers · ‎03-05-2023

First of all; a 'tax write off' against 'gross' does NOT mean that cost is wiped out.

If you are in a 35% tax bracket (most are: 10% fed, 5% state, 15% Self Employment Tax) so

$10 shipping equals $3.50 less in taxes that you will pay. You are still EATING $6.50

2nd; sellers get 250 free listings a month, so there's no .30c listing fee (I think it was .35c?). Many more have a 'store' which can give you even more, depending on how many 'listings' you want.

3rd- many of those are simply 'loss leaders'- costing the buyer maybe .10c or so ($1 minus .44c fee minus .60 stamp is minus .01c) while now either...

a.) hooking buyers into buying more, other more expensive

b.) just (hopefully) building up feedback

Lastly, they simply have no idea what math is or fees are (which we see threads started by many)

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stainlessenginecovers · ‎03-05-2023

First of all; a 'tax write off' against 'gross' does NOT mean that cost is wiped out.

If you are in a 35% tax bracket (most are: 10% fed, 5% state, 15% Self Employment Tax) so

$10 shipping equals $3.50 less in taxes that you will pay. You are still EATING $6.50

2nd; sellers get 250 free listings a month, so there's no .30c listing fee (I think it was .35c?). Many more have a 'store' which can give you even more, depending on how many 'listings' you want.

3rd- many of those are simply 'loss leaders'- costing the buyer maybe .10c or so ($1 minus .44c fee minus .60 stamp is minus .01c) while now either...

a.) hooking buyers into buying more, other more expensive

b.) just (hopefully) building up feedback

Lastly, they simply have no idea what math is or fees are (which we see threads started by many)

cellumany · ‎03-05-2023

Thanks for the response. I get trying to bolster feedback but many times buyers don't leave it. According to eBay I should have over 4,000 feedbacks so about 65% of my buyers have left it. Also, as you are I also am not in business to lose money. I guess maybe selling more than one card together might be the answer. Who knows?

soh.maryl · ‎03-05-2023

Excellent synopsis!

The best way to figure out other sellers' motives is not to bother. Waste of time. They may do this to build up FB, don't want to actually make money or are clueless about how eBay works. Your time is better focused on YOUR selling strategy.

fallgold4031 · ‎03-05-2023

Just a first impression, but I would think that you would want to charge a minimum of 1.50 per a card. Also, I would assume that you would charge the customer for the shipping fee, instead of offering free shipping on a .99 cent item.

luckythewinner · ‎03-05-2023

@cellumany wrote:
Is it because you can claim shipping costs on taxes?

I wish someday people would realize that getting a "tax write-off" for an expense that you pay for does no magically generate income.

Spending 65 cents on shipping to save 18 cents in taxes still leaves you losing 47 cents 😀

cellumany · ‎03-05-2023

I didn't assume anything. Just trying to figure out why people list items they will lose money on.

yoonix1 · ‎03-05-2023

It's simple...DO NOT sell them so cheap. Or more likely: do not offer free shipping, do not pay 30 cents per listing rather register a store subscription, hang on tight on EBAY because is not easy at the current economy.

varebelrose · ‎03-05-2023

Many people selling cards for 99 cent are going to be buying discount postage stamps here and shipping them in a plain envelope, so maybe 25 cent for shipping instead of 65 cents... and I would imagine many people buy more than one card at a time.