@isaiah53-57 wrote:
@laststopgeneralstore wrote:
I'm always more than happy to share my numbers. Every time I do my numbers, I end up making a lot more than I would at a regular job and most importantly(for me anyway) I have freedom of time to do whatever I want when I want without anyone telling me that I can't.
eBay takes up maybe 25 hours a week of my time.
Regardless of what I can prove or show to anyone, nobody will every believe, like yourself so I try not to waste to much time on that because I could really care less about what other people think. Making money selling $10-$20 items isn't that hard either. My average cogs is $5.41 and I still manage to make between $8-$15 profit per item selling on average 14/day right now and is only going up. Average revenue per day is $323.11 at a 40% GPM, $129.24/day profit pre tax. At the end of the month, as of right now, I make about $3200 or close to $50/hour, calculating this month hours thus far. Most of my time is spend sourcing the items. Taking photos and actually listing doesn't take that long once you have your processes down. At my current rate that number is going to be closer to 7k-8k mark by end of year and continue to go up.
I looked at this when you posted it and left it alone knowing these numbers weren't right - Something I read in another post brought it back to mind and made me come back to it:
I remembered your statement of "eBay takes up maybe 25 hours a week of my time - I have freedom of time to do whatever I want when I want without anyone telling me that I can't." I knew it wasnt right when I saw it, and again, just left it alone, but it didnt sit well with me...
So after reading this other post, I decided to do some quick calculations regarding your statement that you "sold 1988 items in 90 days" in an earlier post on the same thread - Now, just in accounting for the time to list and ship 1988 items (assuming you are working alone and considering just the time to lay items out to take pictures, remove spots and/or lint, measure, create a listing, store the item, retrieve the item, print & ship, plus minor variables) one could very conservatively consider an average of 20 min per sale to do that, which is 3 units per hour.
If you take 1988 sales and divide it by 90, that amounts to approximately 22 sales a day - 3 sales on avg per hour amounts to 440 minutes to list and ship 22 sales which is over 7 hours per day 7 days a week - Thats 49 hours per week...
Lets say you are fast and you can list and ship on avg in 15 min per sale(4 per hour) which amounts to 5.5 hours per day, 7 days a week - Thats 38.5 hours per week...
Now, thats not even accounting for the time it takes you to source your items, which by your own admission is the most time consuming thing of all - It also doesnt account for your travel time to and from your sourcing locations, your time to and from the post office, your time fixing the printer, your time answering questions, your time setting up promotions, your time revising listings & marking down, your time accounting, your time ordering supplies, your time dealing with returns and after-sale issues etc etc etc etc.
And then I look at your average COGS per sale of $5.41? With your 10+% Promotions(which you mentioned is your normal promotion rate in another thread) on top of the already high FVF on the entire sale, my guess is you are paying close to $5.00 in ebay fees alone on average per item - That leaves me wondering where the purchase price of your item is in that $5.41? - It leaves me wondering where the price of gas is, the cost for storage, office supplies, shipping material, wear and tear on assets, TAXES, etc etc etc etc, let alone Health Insurance which runs most single people $300 to $600 a month...
Here's my guess - My guess is I cleared more money than you working 20 hours a week for UPS with full health insurance, a generous 401K and 3 weeks paid vacation than you did struggling to jump through the fiery hoops of selling here - My guess also is that I made more than 80% of the full time sellers who struggle here working 25 to 60 hours a week - And Me? I truly did have the time to do what I want, when I want - I also had the peace of mind that my business wasnt at the mercy of the next bad company decision, or the next thief or scammer - Here is a title of a thread you started back in 2020 - "Sales have dropped off/come to a screaming hault since beginning of month & getting very worried" - I dont see that peace of mind you eagerly promote in the post I'm responding to in that thread - And guess what, there is no telling when you may need to post something just like that again - could be right around the corner...
Really after all is said and done, my point is not to hit you up for what you wrote, but more so to show that a huge percentage of sellers here dont account for their time or their expenses properly and if they did, they likely would be doing something else - Like getting a job - So if I've offended you, my apologies...
What's comical to me, I have said this too before. Goes over like a lead balloon too. But what you say is truth. There are so many sellers here spinning their wheels not making anything. They refuse to run their business, like a BUSINESS.
"Oh I sold this item I bought for $5 for $30! I'm making bank!" That is as long as the gas, fees, and expenses are all free.... And as long as their time is worth less than minimum wage.....
They see a payout and forget all the money they spent and the time they spent, to get that payout.
There is a reason this platform is shrinking every quarter. There are sellers who have lost their backside pretending this platform is making them money. And sometimes they are bankrupt before they pull out. It's not a good place to be. Having a handle on your business is VERY important. Too many sellers are a slave to the platform, because they refuse to look around themselves.
The platform as drifted FAR away from what it once was.
mam98031 • Volunteer Community Member • Buyer/Seller since 1999
