eBay

jeeplvr2000 · ‎07-22-2021

Ebay sellers would benefit greatly if they itemized every cost associated with their sales. I just did it right down to the last penny and was sickened by what ebay is charging sellers per sale. With taxes, insertion fees, seller fees, and shipping, profit margins on ebay are nearly worse than just giving the item away. I honestly don't know how some people sell items for under 20.00 unless they're getting them for free. My seller fees with shipping on just one of my items is substantially more than the build cost of the item. My choice is to raise my price and sell nothing. Am I missing some ebay selling secret here?

tools* · ‎07-22-2021

You paid too much when you bought the item.

donsdetour · ‎07-22-2021

@jeeplvr2000 wrote:
Ebay sellers would benefit greatly if they itemized every cost associated with their sales. I just did it right down to the last penny and was sickened by what ebay is charging sellers per sale. With taxes, insertion fees, seller fees, and shipping, profit margins on ebay are nearly worse than just giving the item away. I honestly don't know how some people sell items for under 20.00 unless they're getting them for free. My seller fees with shipping on just one of my items is substantially more than the build cost of the item. My choice is to raise my price and sell nothing. Am I missing some ebay selling secret here?

If you were not doing all of this before you may have had loss of money..

Yep it seems to be an eye opener to a great deal of folks..

They were not doing books and had no clue.. Still a lot of them out their this way..

coolections · ‎07-22-2021

@jeeplvr2000 wrote:
Am I missing some ebay selling secret here?

Buy low sell high is the secret. If you cannot buy low enough to make a profit don't buy it to sell it.

coastaltechsolution · ‎07-22-2021

All I can say is at least you are starting to figure out exactly what you earn on your sales.

yuzuha · ‎07-22-2021

@jeeplvr2000 wrote:
Ebay sellers would benefit greatly if they itemized every cost associated with their sales.

You should be doing that before you ever purchase an item for resale.

buyselljack2016 · ‎07-22-2021

I sell some items under $10.

After fees, and shipping costs what is left on the items is less than 50% of the selling price, but I know that is how it will be.

I know what the fees are. I know what it will sell for.

I make money on those items.

kako_5344 · ‎07-22-2021

@jeeplvr2000 wrote:
NEW VERSION 7.0!! same price.

First line in the Description.

Does that count as Not As Described? Everybody can see you've raised the price from the two previous sales at $18 to $22 today.

luckythewinner · ‎07-22-2021

Ebay sellers would benefit greatly if they itemized every cost associated with their sales.

Clever sellers start measuring their business activity from the very first sale.

With taxes, insertion fees, seller fees, and shipping, profit margins on ebay are nearly worse than just giving the item away.

That may be true for your ebay business, but not for mine.

I honestly don't know how some people sell items for under 20.00 unless they're getting them for free.

I can show you how it works for me for an $18 vinyl record.

Selling price = $18

Shipping cost = $3.45

Sales tax = $1.50 (7%)

------------------------

Order Total = $22.95

less sales tax = -$1.50

less eBay fees = $3.18

less shipping cost = $2.89

less packing supplies = $0.65

less item cost = $2.00

------------------------

Net profit = $12.73

This means that I am putting 70.7% of my selling price in my pocket. And that is the only number I really care about, aside from what I call my "hourly wage" (i.e. dividing that number by the hours I spend on eBay).

lepke1979 · ‎07-22-2021

You need to either get your stuff for less money or raise your prices. And more importantly, have a rough idea of what you'll make when you sell it. Just do a quick calculation in your calculator or setup a spreadsheet with 7.5% for sales tax or a variety of sales taxes. Or just multiply the sale price by 15% for the fees.

Not saying paying FVF on sales tax doesn't suck. But the amount it increases the fee shouldn't be enough to break you unless you were already broken and just now realizing it.

I will say however, it would be nice if eBay did what Mercari and Poshmark do and show what you will get on the sale price or offers. It gets a little hinky I guess because sales tax is variable. But can either give a dummy rate or just say it excludes sales tax.

As for insertion fees. If you're paying enough of them, it may be time to consider getting a store subscription.

And the under $20 thing. I get a lot of cosmetics, clothes, and whatnot for under $1 - $3 (sometimes more, but those sell for a bit more or was possibly a dumb purchase on my part). Sell a $2 item for $9.99. After shipping ($3.85 or less), fees ($1.55 excluding taxes), and if it was promoted. I should make $2 or $3. Not life changing money, but it's profit. Profit goes up from there for higher priced sales for same or close to same inventory cost.

releasethekraken_1 · ‎07-22-2021

@jeeplvr2000 wrote:
Ebay sellers would benefit greatly if they itemized every cost associated with their sales. I just did it right down to the last penny and was sickened by what ebay is charging sellers per sale. With taxes, insertion fees, seller fees, and shipping, profit margins on ebay are nearly worse than just giving the item away. I honestly don't know how some people sell items for under 20.00 unless they're getting them for free. My seller fees with shipping on just one of my items is substantially more than the build cost of the item. My choice is to raise my price and sell nothing. Am I missing some ebay selling secret here?

The eBay fee on the items you have listed would run no more than $5. If your build cost is “substantially less” than that, and since your buyer is paying for shipping, then you should be clearing close to $25. So where’s the problem?

luckythewinner · ‎07-22-2021

@lepke1979 wrote:
It gets a little hinky I guess because sales tax is variable. But can either give a dummy rate or just say it excludes sales tax.

It also gets "hinky" because of category, store subscription level, promoted lsiting percentage, which shipping option is selected, whtehr there are international fees, whether there is sales tax, whther you have penalty fees, what your seller rating is, and probably a half dozen other factors that influence fees.

gjs_16 · ‎07-22-2021

I look at it this way...

If I charge what I need to get in order to profit a tidy little sum, lets just say where I'm averaging a decent hourly wage that I can live on? If I do that I am WELL above the lowest priced sellers, and the best part is I have a lot less buyer problems associated with those bottom prices, too.

I am not saying I don't get buyer problems, believe me I do!

And some are rather interesting as well, but I get LESS of the real doozies.

mr_lincoln · ‎07-22-2021

@jeeplvr2000 One thing you are missing is factoring in year end Income taxes on your pricing structure. You actually hit on a good point about Sellers selling anything under $ 20 ... while that may not be the magic number it points to something I rearned a while ago ... and that is to set the lowest sale price anything will sell for. That amount will vary from Seller to Seller based on what categories they sell in and where they acquire their inventory (and for how much of course) ... a number of years ago I figured this out and started at $ 9.95 and in about a year and a half worked it up to $ 14.95. I was no the path to raise that amount again to $ 19.95 when Covid hit and disrupted the entire Buy and Resell process I had worked out in the categories I sell in.

The other thing that approach did was help me take a harder look at what I acquired to resell. It also helped to bring the quality of what I sell up along with the average sale price over time. I think the ongoing increase in shipping costs has done more damage to Selling than the eBay fees, those are just percentages used to calculate profit margins.

Regards,
Mr. Lincoln - Community Mentor