SELLING PRE LOVED CLOTHING

[donnamccwynnum]

Hi Folks 

Just wondering 

How do you price your pre loved clothing ?

Also combined postage 

I had a lady wanted combind postage . which is fine

However she wanted combined postage with this auction and the next auction 

Do you allow this and if not ,,, what to say in your postage ??

Many Thanks 

Donna

[lane-ends]

I only use BIN. i have no idea how much a particular item is worth so I list everything the same and reduce until sold.

If you are using postage as an extra cost rather than freepost. Then if you sell combined items you issue buyer and invoice and you can make a discount on the invoice for combined post.

it is important that buyers wait for invoice and pay for whole lot in one go than individually. You can state that on your listings if you like.

Total value of package needs to be same as payment for paypal protection, rather than several payments for one package.

[lane-ends]

Also it is normally recommended you put measured dimensions on listings rather than just tag size HOWEVER, buyers are now clueing on to the fact this is debateable. So if item does not fit they raise a not as described citing measured dimensions. This means you get a defect and have to pay return post if you want it back. Given return post is often more than items value to you, tendency is to say keep and refund..Buyers know this. They have no need to prove the dimensions are in effect wrong. Even if it comes back matching you still loose and cop a defect.

So in other words the new MBG can mean too much info is more scope for claiming not as described. MBG is  now a way for buyers to force a seller paid for return.

[dotm2004]

HI Donna

I also sell pre-loved clothing .... but children's only.

I price the items according to brand etc and try to be fair to the buyer and also to myself 🙂

I sell auction only, as I'm always happy with the price I put on, and often get more than I expect when I have a couple of bidders who want the item.   I don't like to lock myself into Buy It Now.

As far as combined postage goes ... I sell heaps more by doing this.   If a buyer is interested several of my items over a few weeks, I put the items to one side .... stipulate that I'll be sending an invoice at the end of three weeks (minus postage).    Then they advise me when they want their items and I send a final invoice with postage.  It's a great saving on postage for the buyer too.

I know this wouldn't work for a lot of sellers, but I find it increases my business considerably.    I always have at least two people with a running order, and two have been 'customers' for a couple of years.

I know it's a risk, but if you suss out the buyer's feedback, etc it seems to work.

Good luck

Dot

[saarzi]

I take into consideration -

Ebay fees, paypal fees, original item cost, postage cost, postage packaging cost,

AND my TIME to source the item, photo, iron, list the item, as well as cost of going to the post office AND things like, car miles,  printer ink (which is more expensive than gold, literally).

You can either pay yourself an hourly rate, and break it down as a cost per item, or, take it out of the profit.   On Ebay I take it from profit, other sites, i take a wage (as a cost, before profit). I do this because Ebay regularly throttles accounts, and restricts sales (they dont tell you, they just do it).  Other sites will be much more reliable, and I can predict well ahead of time what I will make (you cant really do that here). 

I also add on TAX. If you are going to sell over $5000 in sales per year (REVENUE, not profit), also be prepared to pay TAX on top of all that, as well. Ebay is required to report you to the tax department on various rev amount - it differs each year (usually around $10k, but they are getting tighter).

I add all that up, and break it down per item. Thats how I come to my COST per item. Anything above is profit.  I follow it all in an Excel spreadsheet (colums are listerally "total Item cost", "sell price", "Profit".... along with a few other columns of things I like to track, for example, how many days it takes an item to sell.

Also, I always research brands etc before listing. No point in listing something for $40 when no one will pay that amount because you can buy it at Kmart for $10, or listing something for $30 when people will easily pay $150.

Also, just to let you know, clothing is considered one of the hardest areas to do well in because theres just soooo much competition, both online and off.

[lane-ends]

There is also a difference between currently available sttore lines and superceeded lines. With the former you are competing with stores. With the later you are not. In this regard old stock can actually sell for more than current.

If someone likes a style and it is theie size then they will buy it if not over expensive, brand and original RPP may have little impact in this case.

eg I have sold target plus size old stock for more than new price and smaller sized BNWT upmarket brands at less than 10% of new price. Everyone knows chain store brands and sizings = less risk and it may just be what they where looking for but can't find. Designer stuff is less known and fit less sure=bigger gamble

[saarzi]

I totally agree.

Have you ever done auctions?   I have always done BIN, only because Id rather list for free and wait a month or two to sell something rather than sell it for less than what it cost me, or pay for the listing and not sell it at all.

Maybe ill wait till something has 10 watchers then try an auction.

[dotm2004]

Maybe try a few auctions to start ?   And chose the most popular.  List for a reasonable price, but perhaps less than the BIN price.

I always list items to cover the cost and hope for higher bids. I often find this way, you may have a couple of bidders both wanting the item, and ultimately get a price higher than BIN.     I seem to get a lot more sales this way and have a faster turnover. 

Then, I'm just a boring old grannie  ... but I live in hope 🙂

[lane-ends]

problem with auctions you can get wrapped up in margins per item that sell..But that has to pay the cost of items that dont. That is what wipes total profit out.

With clothes its not enough that two buyers like your item but it has to be in their size too. That is why many things sell for one bid at a price way lower than buyers limit.

If you have to auction something then it either needs to be a hot seller, or you store has built up a dfollowing of buyers who like to combine buy.

Unless you have free auction fees, the fees can go through the roof.

[digital*ghost]

---

@donnamccwynnum wrote:

However she wanted combined postage with this auction and the next auction 

Do you allow this and if not ,,, what to say in your postage ??

---

I don't sell clothing anymore (haven't done for quite a while, but used to), so won't comment on anything else, but when it came to postage I quoted it separately and decided on a postage cap (meaning, I had auto-dicounts set up for a maximum postage price any buyer would have to pay), and along with that, I just had a line in my listings along the lines of 'happy to combine postage to save money wherever possible" - the 'wherever possible' is there because it's not always possible to save money on postage when more than one item is purchased.

I basically went by satchel prices, so whenever someone bought multiple items, I would issue a new invoice depending on whether I needed to use a 500g or 3kg satchel - the price of a 5kg satchel was my pre-set cap, so people could have bought 20 items with a 500g satchel price quoted for P&H, but they would have all combined automatically and postage set at around $15.00, from memory (no one ever bought enough to warrant even one 5kg satchel, mind you, but I figured if anyone ever bought so much that I needed more than one 5kg satchel, I wouldn't mind paying for it myself  ).