Minimum profit you will accept?

[b86fiero]

Hi All,

Just wondering if you have a minimum profit - percent or dollar wise - that you accept per item sold?

With the huge increase in merchandise listed for the holiday selling season are you finding you have to reduce your profit expectations to stay competitive?

Are you using a repricing tool to automatically lower your price to a penny below the competition?  Does it work?

At what point do you stop trying to race the competition to bottom? 

Are you willing to offer loss leaders in hope of encouraging multi-item orders?

BJ 

[orangehound]

It depends on 3 factors:

(1)  Whether it is a single item or a multiple-item listing

(2) If the item has a high return rate (e.g. shoes) then I need more.

(3) If I feel guilty throwing something away.

For a single item, I'm looking at a minimum of $10 profit ... but I need to average a minimum profit of $25 over all single-listings (I want to average much more, but ...)

If it is a multiple listing of significant quantity, then I don't want to sell below $5 profit per item.

* Profit is [sale price]-[acquisition price]-[eBay/PayPal fees]-[shipping cost]-[shipping supplies]-[business taxes]

[jason_incognito]

it's not just profit. 

To me there is a cost in writing a listing, monitoring emails, and going to all the fuss of packing and shipping.

[ted_200]

Just wondering if you have a minimum profit - percent or dollar wise - that you accept per item sold?

I sell 99¢ start auctions, so whatever profit I get isn't determined by me.

With the huge increase in merchandise listed for the holiday selling season are you finding you have to reduce your profit expectations to stay competitive?

I generally don't sell over the holidays, but put up a few listings because eBay offered me half-off on fees - more profit!  I'll probably regret doing that, but that's a different topic...

Are you using a repricing tool to automatically lower your price to a penny below the competition?  Does it work?

Since I sell auctions, no... but Amazon and Walmart seem to think this strategy works.

Are you willing to offer loss leaders in hope of encouraging multi-item orders?

I offer shipping discounts to encourage multi-item orders.  I try not to ever have anything selling that produces a loss, but it happens every now and then.  There is an upside to that... it encourages bidders to keep looking at my listings, which generates more bids, which will increase profit on future/other items. 

[thatsallfolks]

I buy things that will at least double my money, after fees. For lower-priced items, I need triple or more.

No, I haven’t reduced my expectations.

No, I don’t use pricing tools, and I base my prices on sales history, not what others are asking.

I’m not racing anyone anywhere.

No, I don’t use loss leaders. It isn’t necessary.

[d-k_treasures]

I sell using only auctions also, but I usually see at least a 100% profit.

Fixed price is elsewhere.

[southern*sweet*tea]

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@b86fiero wrote:

Hi All,

Just wondering if you have a minimum profit - percent or dollar wise - that you accept per item sold?    No. I have no set percentage. I'm flexible.

With the huge increase in merchandise listed for the holiday selling season are you finding you have to reduce your profit expectations to stay competitive?  No

Are you using a repricing tool to automatically lower your price to a penny below the competition?  No. I rarely look to see what others are selling similar items for.  Does it work? 

At what point do you stop trying to race the competition to bottom?   I don't have to stop because I never started.

Are you willing to offer loss leaders in hope of encouraging multi-item orders?  Everything I sell I make a profit on. Am I willing to lower prices to encourage multi-item purchases? Sometimes.

BJ 

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[baantiques]

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@b86fiero wrote:

Hi All,

Just wondering if you have a minimum profit - percent or dollar wise - that you accept per item sold?

With the huge increase in merchandise listed for the holiday selling season are you finding you have to reduce your profit expectations to stay competitive?

Are you using a repricing tool to automatically lower your price to a penny below the competition?  Does it work?

At what point do you stop trying to race the competition to bottom? 

Are you willing to offer loss leaders in hope of encouraging multi-item orders?

BJ 

---

The basic metric I use is that I need to sell an item for 3x what I paid

1/3 - price of item

1/3 - expenses in selling item

1/3 profit

I'll make exceptions to that for higher dollar items.  For instance, I'm selling a Model T project car and I'll probably sell it for less than 2x, but that still translates into a decent payday.

When I buy giant lots of parts, I often want to pay even less.  Why?  Because of the time involved in packing, moving, unpacking, and sorting - all that happens long before I list anything.  Plus, I'm looking for at least sirloin to sell on Ebay.  Anything less than that gets sent to the swap meet, so if I see a lot of chuck in a pile of parts, I know a lot of it will end up on the dollar tarp.

[orangehound]

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@jason_incognito wrote:

it's not just profit. 

To me there is a cost in writing a listing, monitoring emails, and going to all the fuss of packing and shipping.

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Of course.  That's why there is a different profit margin for a single-item listing vs.  a multi-item listing.

For me, it takes me an average of about 1 hour to acquire, list, and ship an item.

[sin-n-dex]

Depends what it is... 

If I buy a token for a dollar, I want to see almost $9 in profit.

If I buy something for $50, then $25 in profit is OK if it's not high scam. With the high scam stuff, I won't touch it unless the numismatic value greatly outweighs the silver value. Anything sold close to bullion seems to have "issues" when it reaches the buyer. That partial discount fishing thing...

We determine the profit when we buy the item.

Cheers, C.

[thevintagesilvershop]

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@d-k_treasures wrote:

I sell using only auctions also, but I usually see at least a 100% profit.

Fixed price is elsewhere.

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You mean MARK UP.  Profit margin is NEVER over 100%.  Mark up is. 

For example (assuming no other expenses other than item cost).  If you buy something for $1 and sell it for $100, your profit margin is 99/100 or 99%.  Your mark up on this would be 99/1 which would be 9,900%. 

Another example.  If you buy something for $100 and sell it for $200, your profit margin is 100/200 or 50%.  Your mark up on this would be 100/100 or 100%. 

People get profit margin and mark up confused all the time. 

[d-k_treasures]

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@thevintagesilvershop wrote:

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@d-k_treasures wrote:

I sell using only auctions also, but I usually see at least a 100% profit.

Fixed price is elsewhere.

---

You mean MARK UP.  Profit margin is NEVER over 100%.  Mark up is. 

For example (assuming no other expenses other than item cost).  If you buy something for $1 and sell it for $100, your profit margin is 99/100 or 99%.  Your mark up on this would be 99/1 which would be 9,900%. 

Another example.  If you buy something for $100 and sell it for $200, your profit margin is 100/200 or 50%.  Your mark up on this would be 100/100 or 100%. 

People get profit margin and mark up confused all the time. 

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Except I said profit, not profit margin.

If an investor makes $10 revenue and it cost him $5 to earn it, when he takes his cost away he is left with 50% margin. He made 100% profit on his $5 investment.

[rolenboy01]

I like to make atleast $1.50.

[ersatz_sobriquet]

I don't like listing items that only have $10 profit in them, I figure that is less than minimum wage when all is said and done, unless it is a multi-listing and I can list once and just relist month after month, that's no more of my time than the initial listing.

50% is a very bad percent to me. Even a 25% investment is bad. 10% investment of selling price works for me. 

But then there's error purchases, reduced value from when I initially purchased it items, and other situations where the profit margin is not what I would like. It is what it is....just sell it. 

Too low end, and it's going to the yard sale, donated, or flea market. I'm not going to work for $10 an hour on ebay. 

[chicboutique31]

do sell and cut yourself short. Sell what you feel the item is worth and what you need to make the profit on. If it doesnt sell, drop the price a bit when you relist. you neve know, someone may just stumbl upon your item without a detailed search and purchase it. Ebay works in many different ways. I try to not worry about what eveyone else is doing, and do my own thing and so far, it was worked out very well. best of luck!