Selling costs. Is it me or have they completely gone crazy with the selling cost?

[flipiteresellers]

I noticed this month that my selling costs have been more than 2x what I was able to get in my monthly payout!! I normally will bring in about approximately 2000 in a monthly payout with roughly 2800-3500 in sales. This month 3000 in sales and less than a 1000 in my monthly payout. 

I am a top rated seller with 99% satisfaction rate. I don't understand what is going on!!!

[luckythewinner]

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@flipiteresellers wrote:

I noticed this month that my selling costs have been more than 2x what I was able to get in my monthly payout!! I normally will bring in about approximately 2000 in a monthly payout with roughly 2800-3500 in sales. This month 3000 in sales and less than a 1000 in my monthly payout. 

I am a top rated seller with 99% satisfaction rate. I don't understand what is going on!!!

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If you want to know what is going on, do the basic grade-school math and find out what is going on. 

You should know EXACTLY what your selling costs are. 

It's not secret information.

No one here has access to your transaction information, so we can't do it for you. 

That aside ... 

You offer free shipping, so that is going to distort your numbers. If you sell an item for $100 and offer free shipping and it costs you $20 to ship it, then what you really did was sell an $80 item, not a $100 item. 

[monica-sells]

How is that possible (unless you are paying 50% in promoted listing fees)

Last month (for comparison sake) one of my accounts was

$2558.89 in orders and payouts totalled $2017.76

Not the proper way to determine your profit, but those are numbers to compare to.....

and now...the rest of the story.....

[luckythewinner]

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@luckythewinner wrote:

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@flipiteresellers wrote:

I noticed this month that my selling costs have been more than 2x what I was able to get in my monthly payout!! I normally will bring in about approximately 2000 in a monthly payout with roughly 2800-3500 in sales. This month 3000 in sales and less than a 1000 in my monthly payout. 

I am a top rated seller with 99% satisfaction rate. I don't understand what is going on!!!

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If you want to know what is going on, do the basic grade-school math and find out what is going on. 

You should know EXACTLY what your selling costs are. 

It's not secret information.

No one here has access to your transaction information, so we can't do it for you. 

That aside ... 

You offer free shipping, so that is going to distort your numbers. If you sell an item for $100 and offer free shipping and it costs you $20 to ship it, then what you really did was sell an $80 item, not a $100 item. 

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For instance, you sold Keurig machines for $24.99 with free shipping.

How much did that shipping cost? How much did the machine cost? How much were fees? How much was your net profit? 

[nobody*s_perfect]

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Yes, this exactly.  All those appliances for under $50 with free shipping, it's a wonder they're making any money at all.

[ms.rodriguez*]

I agree with many others. Take a look at your sold items and see if you accidently checked something like Bold print or used a 2nd title. ALL of those things increase the fees. Are any items listed in 2 categories.  Definitely check.  If you use a tablet to list or relist,  a box can be accidently checked if your finger hovers too close the tablet screen.   You would need to manually un-check all boxes that increase fees.

[buyselljack2016]

My "selling costs" run between 25-30%.

It varies depending upon how much my "shipping labels" cost.

You need to have a look to see what the breakdown of your "costs" are, as well as what was included in the "payout".  My "payouts" are always fully in the month of the sales, but that's just the way I'm set up with no "carry over/hold back". YMMV

 

[hartungcards]

Nobody said there was going to be math on this quiz.

[luckythewinner]

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@hartungcards wrote:

Nobody said there was going to be math on this quiz.

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It's entirely optional. 

Any seller is free to operate his business completely in the dark if he so chooses. 

[nobody*s_perfect]

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@ms.rodriguez* wrote:

I agree with many others. Take a look at your sold items and see if you accidently checked something like Bold print or used a 2nd title. ALL of those things increase the fees. Are any items listed in 2 categories. ...

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Those would increase his listing fees, but that wouldn't have the huge expensive effect mentioned in the OP.  Listing in a second category would cost 35 cents at most, and would double any listing upgrade fees, but the only really (potentially) expensive one is Reserve. This has to be due to FVF and shipping.

[isaiah53-57]

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@monica-sells wrote:

How is that possible (unless you are paying 50% in promoted listing fees)

Last month (for comparison sake) one of my accounts was

$2558.89 in orders and payouts totalled $2017.76

Not the proper way to determine your profit, but those are numbers to compare to.....

and now...the rest of the story.....

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So it appears your fees were about 20% of your total?  - Question is, how much of that $2017 payout did you have to pay in shipping? $400? 500? So the amount you made after shipping was likely more like $1500 to $1600 - In consideration, that $500 you paid in fees equates to about 30% of your payout after accounting for shipping. Considering  how long it takes to source/travel/photograph/list/clean/ship/account/communicate/etc/etc and that Uncle Sam is gonna take about 20% of net after ALL costs, money transfers and deductions, how do you make a living here?

[monica-sells]

I do just fine...

for the period I posted my shipping costs were 181.70 (I use a combination of ebay and pirateship)

my refunds were 118.00

My sale to fee ratio was 16.8%

Sorry I don't fit the mold of your imaginary ebay seller or your convoluted math....

I am semi-retired collecting SS. Self employed in retail for 50 years. If I ever pay 20% in income tax I will have to re-evaluate my tax-filing skills...

[chapeau-noir]

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@hartungcards wrote:

Nobody said there was going to be math on this quiz.

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[inhawaii]

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@flipiteresellers wrote:

I noticed this month that my selling costs have been more than 2x what I was able to get in my monthly payout!! I normally will bring in about approximately 2000 in a monthly payout with roughly 2800-3500 in sales. This month 3000 in sales and less than a 1000 in my monthly payout. 

I am a top rated seller with 99% satisfaction rate. I don't understand what is going on!!!

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Fees have not gone up this month.

[dbfolks166mt]

     You did not provide a lot of information to work with. You gave a broad range of normally 2800-3500 in sales with approximately 2000 in monthly payout. Do you know exactly what your sales were for the month? You stated 3000 in sales and less than 1000 in payout. Others have already suggested possible causes the only other thing I would add in is have you received all your payouts for the items you sold in the xx time range? Payouts may trail sales by anywhere from 3-30 days or longer. 

     You need to develop a decent cost model to calculate your anticipated eBay Fees and your other selling costs. The eBay fee percentage depends on what category you are selling in and the cost of the item(s). You can find those in the eBay fee schedule. If you are using PL then you need to factor that into the model as well. Normally my eBay fees run around 14-15% but I do not use PL. 

     The second portion of your cost model should factor in all the other non eBay related selling costs which include shipping, supplies, COGS, Federal and State income taxes, POV and any other expenses you would enter on the schedule C of your taxes. Use the model to determine your listing price so that you achieve a desired ROI. If you cannot achieve the desired ROI it may be something you want to sell elsewhere or not sell at all. In general my total selling costs are around 60-70%. My ROI will vary considerably depending on what I paid for the item.