Ebay Calculations

Ebay Calculations

Posted 2 Apr 11 12:48 am.
After months of preparation I finally started making sales both online and offline. I was so excited when I made my first sale on ebay then more of them continued to pour in. Then I noticed by the time the money made it to my paypal account it wasn't much more than what I paid for it at wholesale price. For example. I bought a pair of jeans at wholesale price of $19.00 regular $50.00. I chose to sell them on ebay for $33.00 with $7.00 shipping. ($40.00)
Ok, here's the break down which I'm sure you already know how this works:-)

Insertion Fee $0.50
Final Value Fee $3.96
Paypal Fee $1.26
Shipping $7.00
Grand total of $12.72

Total Net Profit $20.28 Which I brought at wholesale for $19.00

That's along way from the initial $40.00. If you try and increase your prices, ebay increase there prices. Which brings me to the question, how are people make money on ebay? It seems more of a ripoff and not worth the time and effort. Please tell me I am wrong about all this?

Regards,
Patrick

Hi PatrickL, I so agree with you. That is why I haven't sold anything on eBay for such a very long time already.

There are other sites that have very low fees or no fees at all.

Here are just a few:

www.boocoo.com
www.yardsellr.com
www.bonanza.com
www.mondro.com

And there are much plenty more out there.

Good Luck!

Ebay Calculations

Posted 2 Apr 11 12:48 am.
After months of preparation I finally started making sales both online and offline. I was so excited when I made my first sale on ebay then more of them continued to pour in. Then I noticed by the time the money made it to my paypal account it wasn't much more than what I paid for it at wholesale price. For example. I bought a pair of jeans at wholesale price of $19.00 regular $50.00. I chose to sell them on ebay for $33.00 with $7.00 shipping. ($40.00)
Ok, here's the break down which I'm sure you already know how this works:-)

Insertion Fee $0.50
Final Value Fee $3.96
Paypal Fee $1.26
Shipping $7.00
Grand total of $12.72

Total Net Profit $20.28 Which I brought at wholesale for $19.00

That's along way from the initial $40.00. If you try and increase your prices, ebay increase there prices. Which brings me to the question, how are people make money on ebay? It seems more of a ripoff and not worth the time and effort. Please tell me I am wrong about all this?

Regards,
Patrick

Actually, that is a $9 or so profit margin, which is pretty good for ebay. I too am unhappy with the fees on ebay, but it is still possible to turn ok profits. You just really have to find a niche.

One thing that I will point out is that you cannot expect you get close to retail prices when you sell on eBay.

eBay is largely a wholesale marketplace now, and buyers go there looking for a bargain and do not expect to pay the RRP.

$9 per sale is really good! If you can up your volume of sales, you could do very well.

Life as an eBay seller can be tough - a new seller with no processes in place or software tools to help them could easily spend 1.5 hours earning that $9.

For this reason, we recommend two things to all our SaleHoo members:

1. Find a niche item or items to sell (jeans are quite competitive), something less popular should pull better margins

2. Try different marketplaces such as Bonanza and Addoway or others that timelinegoods recommended (www.boocoo.com, www.yardsellr.com, www.mondro.com ). Yes, these have less buyers than eBay coming to the sites everyday, but they also have a lot less sellers so your profits will be better (most "eBay alternative marketplaces" are fee-free or have very low fees which also helps your bottom line).

Many SaleHoo members have found that implementing these two things is a recipe for success.

Bonanza and Addoway have importers so that you can easily import your items from eBay without spending time listing them.

Addoway is a fee-free marketplace and on Bonanza, you only pay if you sell an item. And even then, the fees are very low.

You can also accept other payment forms on these sites, so you might be able to skip the PayPal fees too - bonus!

@ Alice, thank you for coming on. I always check out your forums and I must say that I have learned a whole lot from you. And just from this forum, I also learned of another site that I never knew about, Addoway. I will check them out.

Take care! :-)

Yvette

Thanks everyone for the help. I will definitely keep working on finding my niche. I will give some of these other sites a try also. Thanks again!

This may help you.


Link hidden: Login to view

I recently noticed that ebay is charging fee on shipping cost also. The default shipping is set to $6.00 but they charge like $0.54 on that $6.00, I spent lot of time and money acquired apple products but after all my hard work, I make around $5-10 after all fees and postage BUT ebay/paypal make around $30. I can't really see ebay is a business opportunity for people with low starting capital like myself. what about an ebay boycott? anyone?

I'm sure many would want to join you but I doubt it would make that big an effect, unfortunately :( Many have left eBay for other auction sites, yet a few still end up returning to eBay - Amidst all the fees eBay still generates a lot of traffic as compared to other auction sites. There is something about eBay that attracts buyers to go there...

You have to take note that eBay is a business so they will try to get as much money as they can on each item being sold on their site!

Also, if you are low on capital you might consider selling non-electronic products. The market for electronic products is quite saturated making competition just as stiff.

Now may be the best time to start selling elsewhere. But I suggest you keep a few of your eBay listings running as a means to drive traffic to your listings on other auction sites :)

Hope this helps!