Why am I doing this again???
I sold 5 items last week for 92.23... eBay fees plus taxes collected were 59.17 which left me with a net of 33.06... I charged 4.90 for shipping for each item: 4.90 x 5 = 24.50.
With postage backed out (33.06 - 24.50) that left me with a total of 8.56. COGS was 5.00.
Pretend profit: 3.56 --- doesn't include gasoline used to find items, nor the time value.
Yeah, I don't think this is gonna be working for me... lol
23 comments
laststopgeneralstore
·2 years agoDid you ship anything that morning? if so then your selling cost will also count the labels from the prior days sales.
You're fee's are not over 50% and you math isn't correct.
Either you have a very bad business model or you're not charging correctly or both.show us the entire page including the bottom portion of it that break everything down.
laststopgeneralstore
·2 years agoebay fee's, promo, store, insertion etc... click that little arrow button for us do see the entire break down of those fee's.
chubbycatcollectibles
·2 years agoIt must be you have a high amount on your promoted listings. If you are doing 15 or more then that's it.
inhawaii
·2 years agoIf a seller does not know exactly what the fees are and what expenses are and how much profit they will make BEFORE they list and sell something, they are doing something wrong.
I don't undestand sellers who list and sell something, then are surprised at how much the fees are or how little profit they made.
ajs_coins_and_alchemy
·2 years ago@bottlerocketrecordsbooks
According to the itemized selling costs in the 2nd picture, your selling costs for the 5 items is $16.22. Your total selling cost in pic 1 is $53.22. That's a difference of $37.10
That is not a store fee cost. Store costs like 28/mo or 75/mo (22 & 56 if annual?)
I just looked at one of your listings... @bottlerocketrecordsbooks DO YOU NOT HAVE A STORE SUBSCRIPTION???
You have 971 listings. Unless I'm missing something, it appears to me you have no store subscription, which means you get only 250 free listings and pay 30 cents per listing insertion after that. That's 721 paid listing insertions, or $216.30/month. You can get a store subscription for $28/month that gives you 1000 free listings (you can save nearly $200/month).
Am I completely amiss? Do you have a store? Do you have more free listing insertions? I'm just guessing those extra selling costs are listing insertions because it makes sense and nothing in your profile or listing tells me you have a store subscription because it usually says "Visit Seller's Store" and yours says "See Seller's Other Items".
buyselljack2016
·2 years agoSomething seems a bit amiss with those seller fees.
6 sales for me totaling ~ $325 (sale price +buyer paid shipping + sales tax)
Shows net ~ $242 ..................$10 needs to be subtracted for two labels to be printed tomorrow making it $232.
of that ~$64 shown .................... the eBay fees on my sales are ~$45
That's ~ $45 on ~ $325 is vastly different than the fees and %age that you are displaying.
Seriously flawed if you did not purchase labels on eBay.
 
The seller fees for the 5 items you display do not add up anywhere close to what is shown.
buyselljack2016
·2 years agoAlso................. if you are not buying shipping online............ that is also costing you $$ off your bottom line.
dbfolks166mt
·2 years agoSomething seems a bit amiss with those seller fees.
6 sales for me totaling ~ $325 (sale price +buyer paid shipping + sales tax)
Shows net ~ $242 ..................$10 needs to be subtracted for two labels to be printed tomorrow making it $232.
of that ~$64 shown .................... the eBay fees on my sales are ~$45
That's ~ $45 on ~ $325 is vastly different than the fees and %age that you are displaying.
Seriously flawed if you did not purchase labels on eBay.
 
The seller fees for the 5 items you display do not add up anywhere close to what is shown.
Totally agree but OP has not returned with any more information but I get the feeling they may be using PL.
oldwestcoins
·2 years agoSell coins. Lower eBay fee, smaller shipping packages, less shipping costs, consistent size inventory. Real simple. I've been doing it for over 23 years. Over $2 mil in sales and $150k in eBay fees. And yes, I started out with nothing. This is not my main selling ID.
ajs_coins_and_alchemy
·2 years agoI second this for all the reasons above.
Low Ebay Fee (7.35% on Bullion and 9% on all other coins).
My average Item sold price is over $50.
Very cheap shipping (99% of pkgs under $5).
Inventory is extremely consistently sized and easily manageable in a home office.
I can carry 24 packages (typical Monday) to the post office in my backpack on my bike.
I have been selling coins for 18 months. I started out with literally nothing. I've re-invested everything into the business to grow it quickly, but organically. I've done over $125k in lifetime sales (last 18 months). My current sales rate is $15,000+ per month (currently growing month over month at a rate of $1,000+). My average profit margin is 27-28%.... Although I re-invest everything, this is a really decent full time income if I decided to stop re-investing it all and syphen it off.
Want to know something funny? I started selling grandma's stuff on EBay to help her out. Doing this, I decided I needed a home office. I decided to buy some stuff to resell to save up for a home office. 18 months later, now I'm buying to resell to save up for a home.
Done right, EBay can support you full time. Done right, EBay can help you save $50k or more for a down payment on a home. No one said it's easy, just that it's possible. Time + grit + hustle + luck = Possibilities.
Edited to add: Up until last month, every single item I bought to resell was purchased right here on EBay. I made $70k in purchases on EBay for resale. I never left my house to conduct business other than going to and from the post office. I bought on EBay and resold on EBay from the comfort of my home. No travelling to garage sales, estate sales, thrift shops. No wasted gas or endless miles driving around. (I seldomly use/need a car to get to the post office. I walk and/or bike.) I only recently developed a relationship with an estate seller from across the country. He sells to me direct now, so I have greatly increased my supply, greatly decreased my efforts, and even increased my margins.
dbfolks166mt
·2 years agoWithout more specific details and making some assumptions that the $92.23 was the total value of all the sold items not including sales tax. Taking an average 10% sales tax rate and assuming your actual shipping cost was $24.50 the numbers look somewhat like the following. Are you using promoted listings?
isaiah53-57
·2 years ago@bottlerocketrecordsbooks
I dread to think of how many sellers there are out there in the same boat you are in. Not accounting for their time and expenditures and in return not having a clue as to how much true profit they are generating for themselves
That aside, I'm going to do a a little speculating and try to find more profit for you based on more realistic numbers because the numbers on that sales record page are accounted very strangely...
You show total sales of $92.23
The tax is collected separately(you still pay a fee on it though), so for now,
your Top Line is still $92.23
Looks like you paid $5 for the items and $33 for shipping = $38
Line adjustment of $38 for Shipping and Acquisition costs = $54.23
ebay fees are 13.25% of the ENTIRE 5 SALES($92.23) + 5 separate .30 cent Transaction Fees = approx $14.50
Line adjustment of $14.50 for fees = $39.73
So your Bottom Line after the costs of your Product, Shipping and Fees is $39.73....Right?
In order for you to be left with only $3, you would have needed to promote your listings at over 30% to incur an additional $36 in fees to end up with $3 profit.... Did you even use Promoted listings?
ci1000
·2 years agoI just clicked on a similar report in my seller hub, located under "payments/reports" My report shows the same insane figures you are seeing in your report because my store fee of $59.95 is include in the summary along with all of the standard fees. This will definitely skew your percentage.
In the report I accessed, under the expenses category, you can click on "fees" and see exactly what is included.
yuzuha
·2 years agoSame for me, since I was billed for my store on the 1st. Once I took that out, the numbers looked totally normal and accurate.
dbfolks166mt
·2 years agoI am unsure if the $92.23 is the total cost paid by the buyer or just the total of your selling prices. Looking at your most recent sales for most of them you accepted an offer so I can't run the numbers but for the following item I was able to do so. One thing I did note was the items ship media mail. What the buyer pays for media mail is what the seller is going to pay to purchase the actual label since there is no discounted shipping on media mail. With calculated shipping the buyer generally sees full retail shipping costs but the seller gets the discounted rate when they purchase the label and the difference is usually sufficient to cover the FVF's on the shipping and the packing material. You may want to consider adding a handling charge to your items that are shipping media mail to cover those fees.
The following shows one of your items and a cost breakdown of the fees and your net payout from eBay. Of course out of that net comes other costs, COGS, Federal and State Income taxes, sourcing, etc.
12345jamesstamps
·2 years agoMost of my items are $1.98 with free shipping. I am not complaining.
I don't need tracking for something inexpensive or repeat buyers. So a .66 stamp works for me.
Every now and then I sell an expensive item.
And I have "Express Payouts" which I get if there are "available funds".
I also buy under retail for postage which I buy on eBay and can use.
If you sell similar items...your business model should be "repeat buyers".
I do it for extra cash and for fun....not to make a living from it.
Never give up.
asset_liquidators
·2 years agoYour seller fees are 57.8%? You are doing something seriously wrong!
bottlerocketrecordsbooks
OP2 years agoBut, what?!?!? I mean, I'm not buying shipping labels from eBay, so it feels like I'm just getting GOUGED by eBay for fees... I don't get it...
 
lakefor94
·2 years agoMight be a serious problem with your business model. I did notice the buyer pays the shipping costs. Are you charging the buyer enough to cover all those costs?
The math in your post needs work. Other than that, selling items for $20 is not going to create much profit especially if your buyer is not paying enough to cover actual shipping costs.
Make sure to investigate the total, broken down costs in All Transactions under the Payments tab.
bottlerocketrecordsbooks
OP2 years ago I don't know if you can see that photo or not...
lisa5768
·2 years agoYour selling costs include any postage you purchased through eBay labels, any subscriptions you have like store fees and your eBay FVF. If you scroll further down the page to below the bar graph to Selling costs you can expand the entries and see exactly what is included in that number.
With postage backed out (33.06 - 24.50) that left me with a total of 8.56.
Your net is the $33.06 not $8.56 You subtracted the shipping labels from you net twice.
susanb1872
·2 years agoDoes the $92.23 include the sales tax?
mtgraves7984
·2 years agoIf it's any consolation, your buyers paid the shipping costs. That's all I got.