@kerryvonhoffshaw wrote:
Ebay takes my profit. Australia Post takes my cost price. Centrelink takes 50%. The tax man wants his cut and the buyers want it all for free. Seriously?
As others have mentioned, there's actually quite a bit of time and work involved in creating / building a successful eBay store; it's rare (especially these days) for someone to be able to find long-term (or even short term) success straight away with a couple of niche items, particularly the kind where a lot of people probably have established retailers they already purchase from.
Selling a few items at a loss is quite a common technique, and you have to effectively view it as advertising (that is, offering the opportunity for an item below cost/market value vs paying money for an ad somewhere, to try and bring traffic to your store). I'm not saying everyone needs to have loss leaders, but that it can ultimately work in your favour if you try it.
If the standard prices you are charging are not covering your costs (and IMHO it is better to look at profit/loss from an overall point of view rather than on a per item basis), then as others have suggested you may need to rethink your prices, or perhaps just some of them.
I also agree that utilising the 40 free while you establish yourself is probably a good idea - your gallery images look great, but I think your listings would also benefit from a little re-organising of the description. I personally prefer a 14 point font for descriptions, with the item being sold very clearly stated. While it's great to have the info you've included re: white sable brushes, there's three different brushes shown in the first listing I looked at, and some buyers may be unsure of whether they're getting one or three brushes, and/or in which size. Some may go ahead and assume the listing is for all three and be disppointed when they receive their item and find out they don't - it's always better to be safe than sorry.
