eBay

justliving2000 · ‎10-25-2023

I have a question. How can a seller sell an item for $2.99 with free shipping? Still paying for shipping and ebay fees. Where is the profit in this? Is there a method I can use to do this too?

kensgiftshop · ‎10-25-2023

There isn't any profit, unless it's a seller from China.

Have a great day.

gloryglorygifts · ‎10-25-2023

IMHO there is very little profit in it unless they got it in bulk, for under a dollar each, and slap a stamp on it in an envelope. No profit in it unless they have a large volume of sales from that and other higher priced products.

dennis_fastone · ‎10-25-2023

Tried to figure this one out for many years now. Hope you get an answer so we both can understand this insanity.

simba6 · ‎10-25-2023

Some sellers list some items at a bit of a loss in hopes it will bring buyers to look at their other lisings and buy other items too.

You would have to list items that don't cost much to ship. Sports cards can be mailed for just a stamp. Do keep in mind that shipping like that risks damage and no tracking can lead to refunding.

inhawaii · ‎10-25-2023

It's very easy ....... of you don't mind losing money.

Highway Patrol - Junior Brown

kensgiftshop · ‎10-25-2023

It depends on where the seller is from and what and how many they are selling.

Sellers from China pay no or very little shipping, unlike the rest of us.

They probably pay 5 to 10 cents per item.

Last I heard they don't pay any fee's or very little , unlike the rest of us.

If they sell an item for $2 and free shipping and sell a couple hundred, there's pretty good profit.

Have a great day.

ebeths_eclectic_collectibles · ‎10-25-2023

Realistically you could sell stamps, coins, postcards and baseball cards and use standard envelope shipping and you could earn a profit and shipping is very inexpensive. Unfortunately using this method of shipping is restricted to only those categories. Conceivably it would work great for stickers and magnets but this kind of shipping is not offered for these categories

12345jamesstamps · ‎10-25-2023

As a seller of stamps...as other sellers of stamps...it is easy.

Repeat buyers is my business plan

Buyers buying more than one item.

I have had 2 buyers this week who purchased more than I can handle. Can you believe it?

One buyer purchased some good items and another buyer went and bought 99 items one day and I think another 99 items last night.

It can be done.

As a one-kid operation my 90 day total is $2,519.36

I guess I managed to make a little profit selling items at $1.98 with free shipping.

High end items will have tracking of course.

I guess I proved a lot of sellers who said it can't be done here wrong.

redlinear · ‎10-25-2023

@12345jamesstamps ,
How do you get around eBay wanting you to upload tracking on shipments?
But no, you've not really proved anything except you sold a bunch of stuff at $1.98.
Unless the $2519.36 is NET total, after expenses

dirk12955 · ‎10-25-2023

I also sell stamps. I have several 100 items listed over 3 accounts at $3.99 with shipping included.

Profit? There's not much profit if they buy one item. But there is some. By the time I break up a collection and I get down to to the cheap stuff, like a $3.99 stamp, MY cost is zero on that item.

It's easy to sell stuff at $3.99 with shipping included when you already made 400% to 500% or more on the

good stuff.

Maybe the $3.99 sales are not so profitable. But when my average sale is $10.00 or

so you don't worry too much about it.

redlinear · ‎10-25-2023

@dirk12955
I guess there's cheaper shipping options for stamps/cards than there is for car parts.
My cheapest shipping option is $4ish.
I think it's $4.20, but if I'm counting change, I better do something else.
I list quite a bit that I don't consider profitable or worth my time. But, usually when I discover that, I'm almost finished with the listing. So, I continue on and price it just to where I won't lose money on a sale.
Then again, probably like you....I buy my items as "Lots".
It'd be impossible to assign each of my items a cost.
(somewhere around $8 is my minimum safe selling price for anything though)

dirk12955 · ‎10-25-2023

My business model is to have no actual money in any of my inventory.

This is for USA sales only

Sell a stamp for $3.99 the shipping thru ebay and USPS is .63 cents That includes a

poor system of "Tracking" that works perfectly fine for me about 99.5% of the time. We see

sellers here on this board all the time complaining that the system is junk and is a failure.

Buyer buys 2 stamps for $3.99 each the cost to ship is still .63 cents

Buyer buys a set of stamps for $9.99 the cost to ship is still .63 cents

Buyer spends $20.00 on stamps the shipping will still be .63 cents (Probably)

My average sale is about $10.00 and I have 3 selling accounts

worldcoinauctions · ‎10-25-2023

Yeah I sell a lot of coins at 99 cents with a dollar shipping. My take on them is about 60 cents after selling costs, and most of the coins I sell at those prices cost me far less. I'm not being paid well for my time but I sell better ones too under another ID so it works out. Coins, cards, stamps, paper money (world) can all work in this way.