Minimum order amount

[rmv5555]

Why does ebay not allow sellers to set a minimum order amount?  It's so dumb that I have to fill these small orders for 99 cents.   They should let set a minimum order amount so that I don't have to deal with these small orders that don't make me any money or even lose money.  Their customer service said to add a shipping fee.  This would work in theory but would destroy your search impressions.  When is this company going to start to do ANYTHING that makes sense

[rmv5555]

I mean that's why I do it.  But the amount of single item orders is 95% of the orders.  

[rmv5555]

Totally worth for me to learn grammar

[rmv5555]

With my scanner and software I can list 300 cards an hours.  So it's worth my time.  It'd be worth my time even more if I could guarantee a minimum order amount without adding shipping or artificially inflating my prices.  If I do it their way I don't get the search impressions and my sales plummet

[mam98031]

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@rmv5555 wrote:

If they let me set a minimum order then customers could pick out the exact cards they wanted.  I wouldn't have to sell lots of cards hoping someone wants that exact lot.  Or artificially inflate the price with shipping that would kill my search impressions.  It'd be a win win

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Yet that is simply NOT an option on Ebay.  You need to learn to work within the rules and tools this site offers if you want to sell here.  

I never said you were wrong to want this option.  I said it doesn't exist on this site.  You are always free to contact Ebay and put in your suggestion if you want.

https://www.ebay.com/help/policies/member-behavior-policies/unsolicited-idea-submissions-policy?id=4...

[mam98031]

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@rmv5555 wrote:

combined shipping is a nightmare I'm never going back to that.  the other stuff you're saying makes sense though.  the 99 cent listing do make me money whenever they buy in bulk.  If I lot them up or artificially add a shipping charge then my search impressions and sales plummet.  The most helpful thing would be ebay letting me set a checkout minimum so I could sell cards for what they are worth and the buyer could pick out exactly what they want.  But that's never happening so I'm probably just going to take all my cards worth less than $2 and set them on fire.  That'd be enjoyable at least and it'd be a huge step in getting off this platform

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I'm not sure why it is a nightmare for you.  I've used it for all the years I've been selling.  It works great for me.  

Let's say you sell 15 different items to one buyer.  Send them an invoice to contain combined shipping.  It doesn't have to be an overly complicated thing.  Lets say shipping on the first item is $1.00 and 25 cents for each additional card.  Shipping would be $4.50.

You are only hurting yourself with these penny auctions and free shipping.  Or 99 cent listings with free shipping.  You are self inflicting issues that don't need to be there.  You have the power to fix it.  Your buyers will follow, give them a little time to adjust and they will be fine.

[mam98031]

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@rmv5555 wrote:

I could care less anymore about this store.  ebay has been a nightmare.  all my efforts are towards firesaling what I have to and getting off of here and on to another site

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You are making it a nightmare by not working within the tools and rules of the site.  You want something the site does not offer.  Stop that.  Reset your mind and find a way to work within the site options and you will have less stress and likely make more money along with having happy buyers.

[mam98031]

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@rmv5555 wrote:

With my scanner and software I can list 300 cards an hours.  So it's worth my time.  It'd be worth my time even more if I could guarantee a minimum order amount without adding shipping or artificially inflating my prices.  If I do it their way I don't get the search impressions and my sales plummet

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You need to accept that this is NOT going to happen.  Instead of keep insisting this is your ONLY way to be successful learn to work within the tools that ARE available to you.  You are so fixed on this that you can't see there are other ways to make money within the current set of rules.  Stop being so myopic and open up your mind to new ideas that ARE available to you.

[pjcdn2005]

You could charge a minimal amount for shipping and then set up your promotions manager to have free shipping with a minimum purchase of $xx or a minimum of 5 cards or something similar. That would encourage buyers to purchase more than one card.

[rmv5555]

Yes except I'd get destroyed in search results because everyone sorts by lowest price + shipping

[onefootflipper1]

You can list 300 cards per hour, so what. Does it matter how many items that sell at a loss that you can list per hour.

You lose 17 cents on every order assuming a 5 cent cost of goods/supplies. If somehow all your envelopes and sleeves and labels are free then you only lose 12 cents per order. 

If 10 percent of those sell and if you are really fast and could pack 30 of those suckers per hour you could lose $10 an hour.

The best thing you could do with those cards is either throw them directly in the garbage or use them as packing material for cards of value  that do sell.  

I have already made the mistakes you are making right now. Since they are already listed that is a sunk cost. If you want to try to salvage that then raise the price of all your cheap cards to 1.99 plus 84 cents shipping. They are worth pulling and shipping at that price. Anything lower and you are doing better just working at McDonalds. 

You are wasting your time chasing pennies down sewer drains instead of earning dollars.

And there is literally NOTHING you can do to get the average cheap card customer to purchase more than 1 card at a time on ebay. I have put my 10,000 card store buy 1 get 1 free and 90 percent of the customers did not take the free card.

Looking at your store you sold 284 cards for real money in the last 90 days and 601 cards that you  shipped out at a dead loss and 84 in that inbetween zone between $2 and $3 shipped which will pay the salary of the kid working at the card store but still is barely worth dealing with.

What if you just hadn't listed any of the ones under $3 in the first place?

[rmv5555]

Yep.  Closing up the store on end of August.  Whatever is left goes to bonfire night.  That'll feel awesome high on cocaine and drunk as well

[kensgiftshop]

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@rmv5555 wrote:

combined shipping is a nightmare I'm never going back to that.  the other stuff you're saying makes sense though.  the 99 cent listing do make me money whenever they buy in bulk.  If I lot them up or artificially add a shipping charge then my search impressions and sales plummet.  The most helpful thing would be ebay letting me set a checkout minimum so I could sell cards for what they are worth and the buyer could pick out exactly what they want.  But that's never happening so I'm probably just going to take all my cards worth less than $2 and set them on fire.  That'd be enjoyable at least and it'd be a huge step in getting off this platform

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Since you have a store, can't you set it up to where if they buy so many of the $0.99 cards, they get a little discount?

[rmv5555]

Yes I have a $5 of 10 coupon which no one uses hardly.

[onefootflipper1]

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@rmv5555 wrote:

Yep.  Closing up the store on end of August.  Whatever is left goes to bonfire night.  That'll feel awesome high on cocaine and drunk as well

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When I was a card specialist my monthly sales doubled within one month of not listing bottom of the barrel cards anymore.  

A 99 cent shipped card loses 17 cents.

$2 shipped makes 72 cents.

$3 shipped makes 1.60

$4 shipped makes 2.48

Time yourself, how fast can you fulfill those orders? I can do about 24 per hour. The fastest guy at the card shop I used to work at could do 30.  The larger you scale the longer it takes to fill orders as there are more bins.

[rmv5555]

yep I'm just going to get rid of it.  I hate doing it.  Going to try and sell everything by Sept 1st and burn whatever is left