Free Shipping on items under $10

[772gammy]

I'm trying to determine if it is worth the time/effort to list something for under $10 with free shipping-even if it's first class USPS.  Seems that after fees & shipping expense there is little to no profit.  I see many sellers doing this on $6-9 items.  Just curious as to the opinions.  

[mtgraves7984]

I'd not do it.

[coolections]

Only you can decide what is best. Do you not mind spending time listing, selling, then shipping that many items for a low amount of profit. Personally if I am not going to make at least $10 I would not sell something but that is just my threshold, everyone is different.

[justafemster]

It depends. 

Let's figure this on a $10 sale.

Ebay's going to take their cut of $1.55 plus $0.30 so $1.85

Postage is going to cost $4.00 (tracked first class, 8 oz, give or take $0.50)

So far it's $5.85 before you make a penny.  

Is it worth it to you to make $4.15 if you got it for free?  Or if you sell hundreds a day at the cost of $1 each?  Not so much if you paid $4 each.  

That's a decision we all have to make.

[coffeebean832]

Some sellers have high volume and access to shipping discounts the rest of us don't.

Some sellers paid pennies to acquire their inventory.

Some sellers have no idea what their actual expenses/fees/profits are and don't realize they're losing money.

Some sellers list loss leaders to drive traffic to their store.

It doesn't really matter if those other sellers are listing at that price. The question is can you afford to list at that price and make it worth your time? Are competitors listing at that price? If the answer to the first question is is no and the answer to the second question is yes- then selling lots might be an option- or simply not selling it online is another.

[donsdetour]

Unless you paid nothing for a great deal of such items: it is not worth it.

[house*of*paws]

Hi @772gammy 

I would think that only new seller, trying to build up feedback for selling, would consider it worth their time and effort to list these items.

[m60driver]

Sometimes I just want to clear inventory that has not sold and I will lower the price to a break even point after fees and shipping.  And many such items I only purchase for a dollar or less.  I recently purchased a very large lot of widgets and quickly more than tripled my money before sales slowed down.  Some of the remaining items I lowered to $3.99 just to get rid of them, items that I could just put in a envelope and mail with a single stamp first class.  But when I return from my vacation in February I will relist them in larger lots and not as single low priced items.

[dbfolks166mt]

It seems to work, or not, for a lot of the Sri Lankan sellers. 

[auctionpet]

It's completely up to you. Some folks are happy to make a mere $1 profit, they think it's the 1930s😉

[soh.maryl]

What would be your plan if you $9 item costs $10.50 to ship?  

[wheeler1044]

I do this to make money. I'm not a charity. People are just way too cheap. 

[katzrul15]

@772gammy 

We do not sell anything that does not at least net us $10 after fees, shipping and a burden rate we use for each order regarding overall taxes we owe on our sales, etc.

For us, you are doing about the same amount of work for the low hangin fruit type sales as you are for the higher value sales (listings, pix, packing, shipping, resourcing.....rinse/repeat).

However, we do have 1 item that is a lower dollar item (we sell for about $13/free ship) that we have .85 cents cost in and it is under 3 oz, so approx $3-$4 (depending on loc) to ship.  It is not breakable and I can pack and ship one in under 5 min, label printed and we have tons of multiples, so I am just relisting, etc.

That is worth it to me - we usually get great FB, ships easy and for a while, we were shipping 10-12 a week, so they were decent orders to keep things moving.  

As others have said - it really is up to each Seller how much/how little they are willing to make on each transaction.  

[dirk12955]

How does the profit of $1.00 or 3-4-5$  look on an eBAy listing look under this scenario?

You make a listing to sell an item with a $2.00 net profit that let's say cost you $1.00

You only need to make the listing one time.    It's good forever.  (More or less)

What if the seller has 100 of these items?  or a 1000?      Or is able to source however he needs 

as time goes buy at $1.00 per item and nets $2.00 per sale?

The listing is made.     Add to the number of items when necessary.   

Make a sale,    2 minutes to package it up.

I sell stamps.    costs me .58 cents to mail with tracking.   Not every sellers situation is the same. 

[femmefan1946]

Free Shipping is NOT free.

The cost of shipping is included in the price.

Which is cheaper ? A $10 item with $5 shipping? A $15 item with Free Shipping?

There is no right answer-- but the buyer is paying for shipping.

I do offer Free Shipping -to both Canada and the USA- but my items cost me very little, I do not track, I am buying in Canadian dollars and selling in US dollars, and I use discounted postage *stamps rather than paying for post office labels.

A penny saved, after all.

*You can buy discounted mint never used postage stamps on eBay for 20% to 50% below face. The USA has not demonetized any postage stamps since your Civil War.  We Canadians can also get some discounts on package rates even if we are using postage stamps rather than labels. It is possible that USPS does the same.