Selling a item for 1.50 and free shipping ?

[havefaith*123]

What l would like to know is l see sellers list items for 50 cents or   1.50 with free shipping  how do they make any money  doing that...what is the secret to making  money when selling items such as DVDs at such a low price.

[18704d]

Item losses can be used, in a variety of ways, to grow one's business.

Lynn

[mallontown]

are these USA sellers or Chinese

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[city*satins]

The only way to make money this way is if those items are 'loss leaders' and they actually bring in business to sell more expensive and profitable items.

Some sellers are able to do that but they need a lot of inventory, high visibility, and a clear strategy.

I would say that the majority smaller volume sellers who do it are just uninformed and unwise and have

1. never done the math

2. believed eBay's advice that they should lower the price to .99 cent with free s/h

[havefaith*123]

 USA

[havefaith*123]

I couldn't under stand that either it's like what don't l know about selling

[havefaith*123]

They are USA

[luckythewinner]

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wrote:

What l would like to know is l see sellers list items for 50 cents or   1.50 with free shipping  how do they make any money  doing that...what is the secret to making  money when selling items such as DVDs at such a low price.

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A couple thoughts.

First, it is always a danger to look at a few of a seller's and try to make assumptions about his business as a whole. If a seller lists 100 auctions at 99 cents and 75 of them end at 99 cents, that might be a disaster ... but if the other 25 all end at $50, it could be a smashing success. Losing $150 on shipping may be worth it if there is $1250 in profits at the other end. 

Second, some sellers do use eBay as a place to build a mailing list. I buy vinyl records, and there are at least a dozen sellers who regularly send me an email or website link with thousands and thousands of records for sale. If losing a couple dollars on shipping on the first sale gains you a lifelong customer, it could be worth it. 

Third, some people are dishonest. If they work in the mail room at a large company, they may be slipping their packages into the company mail and not paying anything at all for shipping. 

Fourth, there are some businesses where losing a hefty percentage is actually considered to be a successful venture ... money laundering, for instance 🙂

[bacicat67]

When I see this..no shipping costs - I think the sellers mail their items from a job that has a mailroom, so their job is paying for the shipping costs.   Just my thoughts.    I do know someone who did that.