posted on October 4, 2001 12:53:35 PM
A friend of mine who is an accountant suggested that I do a simple spread sheet for EBAY listings- When I did it I was shocked becuase when I listed my cost for the item, the EBAY new listing amount, plus the commission, then AW's fees and commission, PAYPAL's commission etc I found that I was lucky if I broke even on a sold item and I was taking a loss on an unsold item-Unless you are listing and selling large quantities of items do the arithmetic- would be interested in comments from other EBAY sellers-
posted on October 4, 2001 01:32:01 PM
i don't see how one would need a spread sheet to tell them that. ebay is not brain science or rocket surgery. lucky for me 99.9% of the items i sell were obtained free of charge, so i guess that makes the math a bit easier. you could dump paypal and save some, AW too. if you aren't selling many items per month they may be an unneeded expense.
posted on October 4, 2001 02:11:24 PM
clancey - you make it up in volume
You do not need to be a rocket scientist. You must have large margins to sell on ebay if you want to make money. If it is just for fun, then it does not matter.
By the way, you forgot to factor in:
Gas to post office, bank, buying goods, etc...
Packing/shipping supplies, don't forget the labels.
Miscellaneous costs - such as electricity, ISP, printer toner and paper, etc...
I am sure there are other hidden costs.
By the way, one of the biggest cost you can get rid of is the online payment fees, such as PayPal or Billpoint.
posted on October 5, 2001 03:55:25 AM
You need to purchase items cheaply that sell at a price where you are profitable on most items so that:
1 items that don't sell don't matter. I buy dozens of things every month and I break even after just a few sell.
2 items that sell for less still cover their costs.
3 all of your business expenses are not building up as a balance on your creditcard. All of your fees, supplies and merchandise should be readily paid for out of pocket or paid off completely each month if you use a card.
4 you keep your overhead down. Some fees are inevitable, others are optional.
5 you have the time to become profitable. If I was starting from scratch, I probably would not show profitability for the first few months.
posted on October 5, 2001 05:01:14 AM
This is just a guess, but I think some of us go into this thinking, "if I can double my money..." because we've heard that retail is twice wholesale.
That won't work on eBay, unless maybe you're selling high end items.
At this point in time, I'm concentrating on two items and still do the odd collectible if I run into it. I've got set limits on what I'll pay, though these are flexible if an item is special and I know it in advance.
You might also try other sites. A couple of posters have been happy w/their Yahoo results.
I don't know what you're selling, but consignment might be something to look into also. It saved my butt in the beginning when I was learning about shipping costs. Nothing like buying an oil painting to resell only to find that because of the dimensions, it would cost so much to ship, no one would bid.
Cutting costs is a biggy. I think Billpoint is less than PayPal now for items less than $15.00, so if that's the range your items sell in, you might want to switch. Or to C2it which doesn't charge the seller.
Learning how to store your pics with your ISP is really easy. I'm no computer wiz at all, and it took me less than a half hour to download the ftp application and learn how to use it.
If you're new, don't feel bad, the learning curve is swift!
posted on October 5, 2001 09:20:08 PM
I found it very helpful when I started selling at Yahoo to make a spreadsheet that allowed me to put in an item price and then it would calculate what's left after Yahoo and PayPal fees were removed. It's even designed to subtract item featuring costs at Yahoo - for any number of auction days and "bid" for the featured item list.
Looking at this spreadsheet convinced me that featuring isn't worth it on the items I sell (nearly all of which open and close under $5). Also it convinced me to be happy that some bidders do choose to send cashiers check or money order, because I may have to stop at the bank, but I save a PayPal fee. Even the shipping costs are taken into account, as they affect PayPal's fee but not Yahoo's.
What I really ought to do now is go in and add more to it, to calculate exactly what the shipping would be (right now I have to manually enter a number).
Yahoo ID: grantje
