There are a LOT of small sellers that are either losing money or making less then Philippine customer service agents per hour and some of them are clueless.
I have an item I sell for $80. Usually I am the only one listing this item and I was selling about 1 a month. It is a type of collectible that sells, super hero type stuff. Rare enough and old enough it is valued by collectors at that price, with no evidence to the contrary. I vaguely noticed sales slowed but figured it was the time of the year. Get a message from another seller wondering why he can't sell his for $10... He said he only paid $5 for it, which is why he priced it at $10..... I tried to tell him he is losing money..... it's like beating your head against the wall. Why would anyone list an item that buyers gladdly pay $80 at $10 (and lose money)... I understand maybe you want to sell it quickly but wouldn't $40 do the same job, maybe better? If I am listing an item and there is only one other listed and I believe the price is fair and reasonable I will list mine at the same price and figure I will beat them in some other way or mine will sell after there item does.
Saw a small seller on here commenting on the endless "sales have dropped" threads bragging about his sales, because if you know what you are doing and have good product it sells. I looked, he was selling stuff for $0.99 or $1 , 75% of his items sold for under $5, 99% under $20... advertising exact postage for shipping..... he sold a 3 pound item for $1.... exact shipping.... I sure hope it wasn't going to region 8, the fees will kill him on that transaction. Almost all his items that sold for a profit were going to cover his losses.
A while back saw a seller selling an item for less then it cost to ship, but he was trying to dig himself out from below average seller standard, back when they were suspending sellers for that.
Another item I sold about 2 years ago, for about the same price as that other item, $80+, I pass them up at local auction now, don't even bother with them, because now they sell on ebay for under $10 plus shipping.
Sometimes it is huge sellers making profit by volume, but more often then not, it is someone selling 40 - 80 items a month, even the guy that was selling 200.... maybe he made $200 profit.... that IS a LOT of work for $200, probably much less then $2 an hour, some months maybe he made more, but with that model, some months he pays out.
