eBay

siberbunny · ‎03-03-2023

Why are my costs to sell on ebay 78 percent of my sales

brightlightbookseller · ‎03-03-2023

What costs are you calculating?

If that's after CoG, and shipping, and everything else that you might could possibly include, that's actually not too bad.

If that's just eBay fees, I'd say you're calculating wrong.

luckythewinner · ‎03-03-2023

@siberbunny wrote:
Why are my costs to sell on ebay 78 percent of my sales

We cannot see your account and we cannot read your mind.

So we cannot tell you why they are 78% of your sales until you give us a detailed breakdown of your costs.

And once you do that, you will know why they are 78% of your sales.

luckythewinner · ‎03-03-2023

Example:

Vintage English Screw Barrel Pistol 1725 Picture Home Decor Burnt Paper On Wood
$4.99
+$11.45 shipping

The price + shipping is $16.44 and by adding a hypothetical 7% sales tax the total would be $17.59.

If it is in a typical category, your fees would be 30 cents plus 13.25%, for a total of $2.63.

Assuming you paid the full $11.45 for postage, your total selling costs would be $14.08.

So that would put your selling costs at 80% of the buyer's total payment ($14.08 / $17.59).

caldreamer · ‎03-03-2023

You need to check your items to make sure "asking price" is high enough to cover EBAY fees. When you have $4.99 with expensive shipping costs (you are probably losing money). EBAY fees charged on entire total (purchase price + shipping + sales tax) plus 30 cent handling charge. Additional fee of 1.65% for international buyers. If you "promote your items" there will be an addition fee when you item sells.

Your description for some items says "no international shipping". But when I checked I see that you "allow international shipping" for that item. You may want to correct that.

luckythewinner · ‎03-03-2023

@luckythewinner wrote:
Example:

Vintage English Screw Barrel Pistol 1725 Picture Home Decor Burnt Paper On Wood
$4.99
+$11.45 shipping

The price + shipping is $16.44 and by adding a hypothetical 7% sales tax the total would be $17.59.
If it is in a typical category, your fees would be 30 cents plus 13.25%, for a total of $2.63.
Assuming you paid the full $11.45 for postage, your total selling costs would be $14.08.
So that would put your selling costs at 80% of the buyer's total payment ($14.08 / $17.59).

Another way of looking at the above example is to calculate how much of the selling price you put in your pocket at the end of the day.

You made $2.36 ($16.44 - $14.08) profit on a $4.99 item. So kept 47% of your selling price.

One way to improve this is to focus on items with lower shipping costs.

In the above example, if your $4.99 item had been shipped by First Class at $4.50, your profit would have been $3.35 or 67% of your selling price.

And better yet, if you charged a flat $4.50 for shipping and the cost was really only $4.00, your profit would have been $3.85 or 77% of your selling price.

coolections · ‎03-03-2023

Please do not say you are offering free shipping but not charging the buyers for the shipping. That is the ONLY way your fees can be 78%.

redlinear · ‎03-03-2023

Because you are selling cheap items.
$5 item with $10 shipping. That's $15 of which eBay is going to get about $2 and then it cost you $10 to ship it.
You made $3 on a $15 sale....That's 80% selling cost/fee.

luckythewinner · ‎03-03-2023

@coolections wrote:
Please do not say you are offering free shipping but not charging the buyers for the shipping. That is the ONLY way your fees can be 78%.

He did not say his fees were 78%. He said his selling costs were 78%. Fees are only one part of selling costs.

soh.maryl · ‎03-03-2023

OP did not state his FEES were 78%. He was referring to his SELLING COSTS. Two different animals.

southern*sweet*tea · ‎03-03-2023

@soh.maryl wrote:
OP did not state his FEES were 78%. He was referring to his SELLING COSTS. Two different animals.

Right, but some people don't seem (or want) to understand that.

Fees are a part of total selling costs, fees are not the entirety of selling costs.

Fees are fees. Selling costs include fees, cost of goods, postage, shipping materials, labor, time, ink, paper, tape, etc.

The easier you are to offend the easier you are to control.

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