topic Re: Difficulty Making Money in Selling

Difficulty Making Money

bbwspares — Thu, 07 Feb 2013 01:24:49 GMT

Hey all, I haven't been selling online for long, and i work for a local car dealership, I have been selling spare car parts online, and i have found alot of fees to go with it, some months we are losing money.

I dont own a store, its just a stand alone ebay selling page, I have not been given permission by owners to open a store. So I am sort of stuck in this dilemma where i am selling a heap of things, monthly and getting nothing out of it.

My fees for last month were around $800.

Can i please get some advice on what to do and how to cut this down dramatically.

Thanks

BBWSPARES

Re: Difficulty Making Money

digital*ghost — Thu, 07 Feb 2013 01:36:04 GMT

With $800 for casual selling fees in a month, opening a store would be the best option to reduce fees, so before anything else I would seek whatever permissions necessary to try and get one active. Your multi-quantity listings must be costing you a small fortune - without a store, the insertion fee is $1.50 per item, so for a quantity of 10 priced at $50+, you'd be paying $15 for every 10 day listing - $45 a month, as opposed to 20c a month if you had a store.

If you can't open a store under any circumstances, I would suggest you consider how many of those items are likely to sell in 10 days, and only list that quantity. (eg, if you sell one or two per 10 days, only make two or three available for each listing - it's pointless to pay to list a quantity that won't sell in ten days).

There is very little else that can dramatically change your fee structure, aside from using several IDs to take advantage of 30 listings per month with 0 insertion fees (you still pay final value fees), but it's not really the ideal solution.

Re: Difficulty Making Money

digital*ghost — Thu, 07 Feb 2013 01:38:49 GMT

without a store, the insertion fee is $1.50 per item,

Just to clarify, insertion fees are based on the start or BIN price of an item, 50c for items priced up to $19.99, $1.50 for items $20-$99.99, and $3.00 for $100+

Re: Difficulty Making Money

bbwspares — Thu, 07 Feb 2013 02:17:16 GMT

I have taken down 30 of my 50 items that aren't moving at all, i will see how this goes for one month and re-evaluate it after that.

Thanks for the comments, it does help to learn some more about it all.

Re: Difficulty Making Money

thebarginfinder — Thu, 07 Feb 2013 07:29:43 GMT

I sell car parts too, Its a mugs game, I sell bugger all even having some of my prices atleast half of every 1 else, People dont work on cars any more it seems, Its all to hard for people,Im taking the rest of my stock to the auction house on a pallet,

Re: Difficulty Making Money

the_hawk* — Thu, 07 Feb 2013 12:15:47 GMT

I sell car parts too, Its a mugs game, I sell bugger all even having some of my prices atleast half of every 1 else, People dont work on cars any more it seems, Its all to hard for people,Im taking the rest of my stock to the auction house on a pallet,

I always check prices with my local aftermarket retailer and can often by cheaper than online.

Re: Difficulty Making Money

arnl7178 — Thu, 07 Feb 2013 12:32:23 GMT

Just a small comment.

You state, in your listing ...

A return will not be accepted if the item or packaging is damaged.

I wouldn't bid on anything you were selling because of that one little line.

It's your responsibility as the seller to make sure the item gets to it's destination undamaged. A buyer does not *have* to pay extra to be sure of that.

Re: Difficulty Making Money

arnl7178 — Thu, 07 Feb 2013 12:33:12 GMT

oopsie, thebargainfinder didn't write that quote .. the OP did.

Re: Difficulty Making Money

arnl7178 — Thu, 07 Feb 2013 12:35:15 GMT

Sorry, triple post!

I just realised that quote above is for items returned to you. A little hard to understand what you meant there.

This line ..

Barry Bourke Pty Ltd will not take responsibility for any loss, theft or damage to any items that are dispatched.

Is worse IMO.

Re: Difficulty Making Money

bbwspares — Thu, 07 Feb 2013 23:13:05 GMT

I will have to go through and check my listings, as i said i am new to this, and all that description was made before i took over the page.

Are they the only changes i should make? reword or delete?

Any feedback would be great.

Thanks

Re: Difficulty Making Money

arnl7178 — Fri, 08 Feb 2013 09:30:59 GMT

I just had a look at your listing Holden Commodore SS VU + VX Badge Kit of Three. I'm not sure if you've changed that or that's how it was, but that's just fine. Returns are accepted, and you are posting using registered post to cover yourself.

Good job!

(I'm still learning too, so I understand how confusing it can be). Good luck! 🙂

Re: Difficulty Making Money

bbwspares — Wed, 13 Feb 2013 22:06:31 GMT

Yeah i went through and changed every listing, I didnt realise the previous people who ran the page had such strict guidelines

I think this way is more acceptable and easier for a customer.

I want repeat business so this will work fine.

Re: Difficulty Making Money

crichtonscraftgwen — Wed, 13 Feb 2013 22:28:03 GMT

As you are listing BIN if you opened a store you would pay $409.95 a month but only 20c for a listing and you can list as many as you like of the one item under the listing and for up to 30 days. Far cheaper than not having a store for the quantity you have listed

Re: Difficulty Making Money

bbwspares — Wed, 13 Feb 2013 22:32:04 GMT

Thanks for that, It is something i am looking into, I have deleted all my listings that do not sell at all, some of them were on there for years just relisting every 7 days, so i removed all my dead items.

I have re worked my listings, and re worded my descriptions to be more appealing to a buyer.

Now i am going to test this all out this month, if the fees are reduced because of my reduced listing i will keep it the same.

If not, I think i will have to speak to management about opening the store.

Thanks all

Re: Difficulty Making Money

bbwspares — Wed, 13 Feb 2013 22:33:30 GMT

just to understand, the 20c Listing, does that mean when an item relists after 7 days they charge another 20c, or what? i dont understand it fully.

Re: Difficulty Making Money

crichtonscraftgwen — Wed, 13 Feb 2013 22:38:46 GMT

Yes they charge 20c everytime an item is relisted but why list for 7 days when you can list for 30days and then if it is not sold it can be relisted. I have over 500 items listed some sell and some dont but I relist and some may be listed several times before they sell. My fees are no where near what you are quoting as paying.