eBay fees are INSANITY! Am I the only one?

[rob2e]

I thought I was doing people a solid by listing auctions starting at $0.01. I thought it would be nice to sell something for a penny if no one else bid besides the first person. I listed MANY DOZENS of auctions. I then started noticing I was PAYING eBay money, not RECEIVING it.

An auction for a book sold at 1 cent plus $3.19 (the minimum shipping amount for media mail) and eBay charged me a 14.6% fee INCLUDING fees based on SHIPPING! So I have to pay 80 cents, PLUS the $3.19 shipping to earn one penny. Auctioning that book COST ME 79 cents (as the buyer paid the shipping).

First, it's insane to charge 14.6% of anything less than what it would COST you to auction something.

Second, charging a final fee on the SHIPPING?!?!

Am I the only one? Am I missing something? This seems very bad.

[2013grotz]

Good luck.  I'm actually doing something similar with similar stock, and really not having a lot of success doing it, simply because I won't take losses and there's no demand for a lot of things at the prices you have to sell things for on ebay to be able to not lose money.  (Looking at Terapeak is pretty scary for most items for what they *do* go for.)  So I've ultimately had to just give away or destroy a lot of my collectible/garage clutter instead.

[rob2e]

Ya, I'm gonna set minimum prices for things to go, and if they NEVER go I'll just keep renewing for 8 weeks in perpetuity. Ha!

[coolections]

You really believed you can list anything for 99 cents and people would flock to your item. WOW

[soh.maryl]

Even if you are just dumping out your garage and collectibles, was your plan here actually to lose money?

Stop what you are doing now and read the  fee schedule.

If you want to give thing away like you have been doing, donate to GW or other facilities.  At least that way, you won't be spending money for fees.  

[soh.maryl]

So you decided to sell on eBay, did not read anything at all about selling or fees, and somehow thought that you would make money selling for a penny? And then stated that eBay fees are insanity.  

[gamersbaystore]

You can always have sales once in a while to push older inventory that's set with BIN prices. It also does help to have some sort of promotion going to move product, such as buy 2 get 1 free, I do this with all my media related items.

[luckythewinner]

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@rob2e wrote:

I thought I was doing people a solid by listing auctions starting at $0.01.

I listed MANY DOZENS of auctions.

Am I missing something?

This seems very bad.

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Yes, it is bad that you did not check the fees first.

The 30 cent fixed fee alone with take 30% of a $1 sale.

[maxine*j]

Think of it this way:  If you had a brick-and-mortar store, you'd pay rent (or a mortage), buy fixtures and furnishings appropriate to the goods you'd sell, pay various state and county and city business fees, owe for utilities, liability insurance, cleaning and repairs,  account for the merchant fees on credit card transactions, and on and so on.  In light of all those expenses, could you stay in business and make the necessary after-tax profit if you sold items for a penny? 

It's the same here:  You have to look at the overall fee structure -- which eBay makes as clear as day -- and then decide how to price your merchandise.   Remember that you put the same effort into listing and selling a one-dollar item as a  100-dollar item. 

For me, if I can't list something for at least $85, I don't list it at all.  For others, that figure might be considerbly lower or considerably higher.  But you have to work this out for yourself, or it's not worth your while to sell here.

.

[electrola_man]

It is really important to get a good grasp on what all the costs associated with your business are.  In a lot of cases there is a listing fee for starting an auction that is refunded only if the item sells.  There are final value fees that are of varying percentages that you'll need to learn for the categories you sell in, and they include the percentage of not only the selling price, but the shipping price charged and any applicable sales tax charged to the customer as well.  That means that you need to offset the fees on the shipping somehow, either by adding a handling fee or by making sure the minimum selling price includes enough to cover it.  Shipping costs more than just postage, in most cases.  Boxes, mailers, tape, labels, and bubble wrap or other packing materials all cost something, and need to be covered.  I don't try to make money on my shipping, but I have a pretty good sense of what it all costs and make sure my listings cover them.  The more you sell, you're also bound to end up with some return requests that you might feel are unfair, but you may still be required to refund.  That costs something, and some amount should be covered by every sale to cover the occasional need for that.  If you are considering buying something for resale, you want to have some established business goals to end up with a certain percentage, or dollar amount, of profit after everything is done.  You want those goals to be boiled down to something you can do in your head so it isn't too difficult every time you are facing a purchase decision.  You want to make sure that whatever price the item can sell for, based upon your minimum price and shipping charge, leaves you with enough to make the whole experience worthwhile.  When you set up a listing, never set it up such that after all costs, you've done a bunch of work, yet you'd have come out ahead by just throwing the item in the trash.  Good luck with your business.

[m60driver]

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@rob2e wrote:

Are you saying I should make my lower auctions NOT auctions, but just set a buy price?

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Absolutely!  Few of your listings make sense to sell as auctions as most are "long tail" items, items that will take awhile to sell.  Better to just list your items at a competitive price and then send discounted offers to watchers.

[johnrj1226]

Only if you  want to make a profit.  Some people are charitable and some like a super bargain price - their call..

Personally when I sold for a career and later on eBay  never once operated as an ONFPO  = Obviously Not For Profit Organization..

[johnrj1226]

Auctions are passe.  Not  many folks want to sit around and  play the auction game that can end at  any time of the day unless they are just playing around.  The "I want it now" crowd wants it NOW and know they can get the item - unless the carrier looses it or the seller can't ship it for a myriad of reasons..

[12345jamesstamps]

Have you thought of listing maybe a group of 3 books with similar subject matter? Just a thought.

Shipping would be a little less. Listing single books you are in competition of the big sellers. Unless you have like 1000 listings it is hard to compete with the big sellers. Just an idea.

Another example : The book "The Empire Strikes Back" could sell under Star Wars stuff. I know you want to do media mail with the eBay postage & label thing. But if it got listed differently...under "Star Wars" and you just write the address and put postage on it you could still do media mail. ..it might sell. Just a thought.

[fuzzface50]

if the item is readily available in stores,  mass produced with many for sale here, set a buy it now price.

Hard to find item, very few listed, an original part versus reproduction then feel free to list it at an auction and hope you find 2 bidders that just have to have it mentality.

[soh.maryl]

Uh, if you had listed your items for a starting price of one cent, and then they sold for that price, where do you figure your anger should be directed?