The Numbers – September 8-14, 2025

[ChristineR]

Total Items in Store:  1301 (over 1300 for the first time!, approaching 1000 basic store listings)
Items Sold: 10
Gross Sales: $610 (including eBay fees, shipping, and taxes)
Net Sales: $393 (minus eBay fees, shipping, and taxes)
Cost of Items Sold: $109
Highest Price Sold: $88
(two vintage mini paintings as a set https://www.ebay.com/itm/236143341617)
Average Price Sold: $61
Returns: 0
Money Spent on New Inventory This Week: $
Number of items listed this week:  20

This week on Ebay I was pretty disappointed with weekend sales.  I listed and then just sold 1 item on Sunday, usually my best day of the week. I reduced my sales percentage to just 10% and forgot to run it until Sat am.  TBC…

[jaepete]

here’s what I’ve got for Sept 8-14 .

I’ve been on a roll with listing and suppose that’s why I’m selling more. I spent a few hours in the garage last week consolidating my storage bins. For storage I number my bins and boxes and then list that in the notes for each item. I started doing it after already having a few hundred items listed so I’m still catching up on going through and adding storage location info to items. It’s also helped me discover a lot of stuff that I though was listed and is not. I’ve also been doing lots of End Listing and Relist to groups of 10 items at a time. Trying to update prices and info as I go.

Total listings: 559
New listings this week: 15
Items sold: 9
Gross sales: $369.75
Cost of items: $20.00
Ebay fees: $85.51
Gross Profit: $264.24
Average sales price: $41.08

High sale of the week: $135.00 for a water ski. I paid $4 for it at an estate sale. This would’ve sold for more but part of the boot was damaged.  Still great markup for a $4 item!
https://www.ebay.com/itm/197606677894

 

[ChristineR]

I heard an interesting theory on Youtube this week – hypothesis  I guess  actually – that Ebay is trying to get people to use free or flat rate shipping (true, apparently) and this is because the new buyer AI helpers will need non-calculated shipping to compare.  So people will just soon skip over Google shipping and go straight to chat GPT and ask what is the best place to buy this item at the best price.  And others think we are headed for just skipping the clicks altogether.   So the person speculates that Ebay will start encouraging its sellers to prepare them, just like it did with item specifics before that was required.

I also found out that making a shipping table for your flat rate pretty much negates any advantage you would have, which makes sense.  So if you are coastal, you are stuck with overcharging your nearest people with flat shipping and potentially losing some sales, but maybe getting seen on Google shopping and/or by Ebay customers who are further away from you.  Still seems like crossposting with Posh is better all around at least while they have this deal for ground for under $7.

I miss Ryanne and Jay doing a much better job discussing these things than I am doing!

[The_SEAM_Store]

Sept 8-14, 2025
Total items in store: roughly 4500 listings
Items sold: 56
Gross Sales: $3591
Net sales: $2584
Cost of items sold $515 ($198 mine / $317 consignment)
Highest Sold Item: $218, Roluc Yeti Boots
Average Price Sold $73.29
Money Spent on new inventory: $192
Number of items listed this week. 30

[MyCottage]

@ChristineR

I hadn’t seen that on YT—do you remember which YTer it was?

But I’ve been saying that ebay is well aware that agentic AI poses both an opportunity and a real challenge….because more and more people will be using Agentic AI to find stuff to buy….rather than going to sites like ebay or Amazon or Google Shopping.

Elsewhere, I’ve mentioned that I think Agentic AI is the main reason ebay recently introduced automatic positive feedback for sellers….feedback is probably a “trust indicator” for Agentic AI tools, and so ebay wants its sellers to have a higher number. It is also one of the reasons ebay is finally revving up (however slowly) its Livestreaming Sales….the hope is they can pull in people who want some activity. Buy It Nows can be found by Agentic AI, but I think it would be harder for AI to scrape Livestreams. So, yes, I definitely think —and have said elsewhere—that when ebay makes changes these days, we should always evaluate them through the prism of Agentic AI. Some may have nothing to do with it, but others might be tied to it pretty closely (even though ebay won’t necessarily say that).

[ChristineR]

@Mycottage Commonwealth picker.  Thank you for putting a name to what I was discussing.  I’m so low tech.

[jaepete]

I prefer to do flat rate postage for my listings as I’d be concerned that Ebay won’t charge enough. Since ebay already takes some of the shipping money I mark that up to compensate. I also add in about $1 for packing materials.

Having said that, I was watching a reseller on Youtube recently who says that he generally uses the “calculate shipping” method because he said Ebay generally over charges by about 30%. essentially another revenue stream for him. I’ve asked for clarification on how that works and waiting for his reply.

[Sharyn]

I’m guessing that he is charging USPS regular rates. But, when he goes to buy the shipping label, he gets eBay’s discount rates. The difference is profit.

I already pass on the discounted rate to the buyer, but eBay’s fees are based on both the purchase price plus shipping, so I end up losing money on shipping.

[ChristineR]

@japete it’s not too hard to run the numbers and see how you end up for the year.  I’m calculated and do not pass on the discount.  I ran my numbers for last year and using the profit to buy any  non-recycled materials (mostly large bubble wrap and packing foam), I came out with a $400 “profit”, which is pretty much breaking even on shipping.  So, I really like calculated shipping for this reason.

However, yesterday I started an experiment and put some retail arbitrage items on flat rate shipping at 1 and 2 pound rates.  I looked at some recent sales on similar weight items going across the country and went a little under that.  I’m hoping the Google crawlers will come and find those items, some of which are Christmas.  I’m going to check after 3 days since they said at Ebay open it takes that long for the crawlers to find your item.

[Antique Frog]

Talking of livestreaming, I now get almost daily notifications on my phone from eBay about livestreamed baseball card events. I’d blame a certain somebody, but it’s my own fault 🙂

[Sharyn]

Huh, I never thought of that. I assumed the notifications were mostly baseball cards because those were popular for livestreaming, and they do well in that forum. But, you might be right. Those notifications are mostly cards.

[The_SEAM_Store]

I’ll weigh in.

I use a flat rate shipping. Which I calculate and adjust annually if needed. My rate includes a $0.25 “SEAM Store prime” fee for the right to free returns. This offsets the price of return shipping labels.  I do lose a little on some shipments coast to coast, and make a little on more local shipments. In exchange I provide a consistent, quality, careful packaging/shipping that buyers can rely on for each purchase they make. I also offer continual discount promos on multi-item purchases which also include free shipping.

[ChristineR]

@seamstore I like that approach.  Are you doing that fee as a handling charge?

[The_SEAM_Store]

It’s just added into the flat rate I charge.

[Timo]

@the_seam_store: That sounds like a really well-thought-out system. Could you share some details on how you’ve set up your flat-rate shipping, combined shipping / multi-item promotions within eBay’s platform? I like your approach.

[The_SEAM_Store]

I use “business policies” to set up shipping tiers by 1lb increments.  Most of my items ship under 5 lbs.

Every year or so I evaluate the total spent vs total collected for each tier and adjust if needed.

I use the “order discount” tool to offer a continual store wide quantity discount, you can customize it to suit your needs.

I use “shipping preferences” to set up a promotional shipping rule that offers free shipping when more than one item is purchased by Buy it Now in one transaction. This works in conjunction with the quantity discount above.

[Timo]

@the_seam_store: Thank you. I have a basic understanding of shipping policies although I am not using those. Is the ‘order discount’ tool part of that or found elsewhere?

I am familiar with ‘shipping preferences’ and ‘promotional shipping’ settings. So basically, you have that set up such that any purchases of 2 or more items result in totally free shipping? I suppose it can be two from the same item listing or from any 2 separate listings?

[The_SEAM_Store]

Order discount is found under the marketing tab on the seller hub.

 

[Timo]

I found it. thanks again.

[Timo]

Effective October 5, 2025, through January 18, 2026, the United States Postal Service (USPS) is implementing temporary price adjustments for select package services. These adjustments affect USPS Ground Advantage, Priority Mail, Priority Mail Express, and Parcel Select services. Retail and Commercial rates will both be impacted.

For USPS Ground Advantage commercial rates, there will be specific increases based on weight and distance (zone). For packages weighing 0-3 pounds, the increase will be $0.30 for shipments to Zones 1-4. Shipments of the same weight tier traveling to Zones 5-9 will see a $0.35 increase.

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