Ebay fees took all my profit

[mn467462]

Bought a book for 25¢ thinking it would be easy profit. Listed it for $2 (700% more than what I paid for it). And ended up with 54¢ net profit after everything. I ended up losing money, from the label, ink, tape, a bubble mailer, and my labor. Ebay are straight thieves. 

Is it any wonder this place is going down the toilet? You're seriously gonna charge 14.65% on a $2 book, plus the shipping, and the tax? That ends up being a 75% fee. 

It's no wonder sellers have to markup things by 50% just to make a penny here.

[caldreamer]

You cannot make any profit by selling $2 items.  EBAY fees charged on (purchase price + shipping + sales tax) plus 30 cent handling charge.

You should bundle multiple items together and sell for at least $25 if you want to make any profit.  

[mn467462 · Accepted solution]

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@caldreamer wrote:

You cannot make any profit by selling $2 items.  EBAY fees charged on (purchase price + shipping + sales tax) plus 30 cent handling charge.

You should bundle multiple items together and sell for at least $25 if you want to make any profit.  

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I did do this as a scientific experiment, because I already had that hypothesis. But the result is just absolutely pitiful. It's no wonder this place is going the tubes. Selling something for 700% more should always make you a profit. You shouldn't have sell something for 500,000% more just to make a dime. Sad.

[redmodelt]

When did you sell this book? There are no completed or sold listings on the account in the past 90 days. Was it a different account?

All FVF fees are spelled out in the help guides. Did you do any reading in those guides about selling on eBay? Did you sign up for Managed Pay? 

eBay is not the place for quick money, esp new sellers. 

[downunder-61]

It is not pitiful, it is Business 101 - due diligence on fee's versus price to be listed at. eBay is very transparent about all costs and fee's involved it is up to you to set your mark up and if it is not covering shipping, taxes, fee's, do not list on the site

[mn467462]

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@redmodelt wrote:

When did you sell this book? There are no completed or sold listings on the account in the past 90 days. Was it a different account?

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My selling account 

[mn467462]

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@downunder-61 wrote:

It is not pitiful, it is Business 101 - due diligence on fee's versus price to be listed at. eBay is very transparent about all costs and fee's involved it is up to you to set your mark up and if it is not covering shipping, taxes, fee's, do not list on the site

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No, it's not. It's greed 101. I've been selling on ebay for decades, and I used to be able to make a great profit selling things at a 700% markup. It's pitiful that you can't do that anymore.

[slippinjimmy]

Don't try and tell us you were making a "great profit" before on the same  $2 items?

The 30 cent fixed transaction fee is a killer on $2 sale (15%) bearable on a $20 (1.5%).

Still, you managed to more than double your money on your 25 cent book.

I rarely sell books but I wouldn't buy a single one for resale if I didn't think it would sell for at least $20 (not even if it was free).

[slati_2013]

What do you think would have been a decent profit for you to make on a single $2 sale? People who sell things for $2 usually sell tens of thousands of them and make their profit on quantity. Imagine you sold 10,000 of these $2 books and made a 54 cent profit on each sale. Then it becomes real money. That is how big sellers who sell items for a few dollars make their money. 

[lepke1979]

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@mn467462 wrote:

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@caldreamer wrote:

You cannot make any profit by selling $2 items.  EBAY fees charged on (purchase price + shipping + sales tax) plus 30 cent handling charge.

You should bundle multiple items together and sell for at least $25 if you want to make any profit.  

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I did do this as a scientific experiment, because I already had that hypothesis. But the result is just absolutely pitiful. It's no wonder this place is going the tubes. Selling something for 700% more should always make you a profit. You shouldn't have sell something for 500,000% more just to make a dime. Sad.

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Your so called experiment could have been done spending a few minutes with a calculator. If the money you could have earned after doing that isn't to your liking. You do something else with the book (donate, throw away, etc.).

[a_c_green]

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@mn467462 wrote:

Bought a book for 25¢ thinking it would be easy profit. Listed it for $2 (700% more than what I paid for it). And ended up with 54¢ net profit after everything. I ended up losing money, from the label, ink, tape, a bubble mailer, and my labor. Ebay are straight thieves. 

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What puzzles me is that you had all the relevant numbers to calculate the outcome even before you started. Why would you even bother to list a $2 item here? Surely the time you spent on listing, packing and shipping should also be factored in; that's time you didn't spend doing something else that might have been considerably more profitable.

[fashunu4eeuh]

eBay has little control over what prices seller’s set, and what items they list. So a lack of profitability is entirely within a seller’s own purview. The problem is not eBay’s fees—those are stated. Profits

are supposed to be covered by the prices sellers set for their buyers to remit. All expenses need to be covered by that price. 

Not everything is suitable to be listed on this site. You said so yourself, 

“Bought a book for 25¢ thinking it would be easy profit.”  Well, you miscalculated. And during these tough times, where there is so much competition for the consumer’s ever-shrinking discretionary dollars, miscalculations in product selection and pricing strategies can make for a painful outcome.

So how is eBay responsible for your retailing choices?  You listed an item at a price that couldn't meet your profitability needs, and seemingly did not take into consideration the full impact of eBay’s selling fees on your bottom line. 

[marnotom!]

Margins and mark-ups don’t pay the bills.  Dollars do.

Do you really think all your time and effort spent on listing, selling, and shipping that book was worth $1.75 even before your costs and eBay’s cut?

[craft-stash]

My "profits" are down 90% from last year.

I made $64.74 last month.

Store Fee $22.99.

I might not make it till years end!

Total Loss!!!

Ebays Fault!!!!

[dhbookds]

Selling something for 700% more should always make you a profit

Does even Walmart/Dollar Store sell anything for 25c?  Don't think so.........  It's because their costs exceed any hope of making a modicum of profit......  THEY figure it out before trying to sell something at a loss....