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I’m in the hospital now with my wife, on day 3 of trying to induce our 3rd kid to come. All is well but obviously ebay is somewhat on hold.
Last week was a good week.
Sales: CAD$2806, 10 sales, COGS: $242, Fees: ~$390, Postage: $443 –> Gross profit: $1731
Expenditures: $20 –> Cashflow: $1953
Listed: $1140, 27 itemsCouple hydraulic switches sold for $500.
This was before payment. I am not sure if it would be possible after payment… guessing not.
Hi all, another OK week on the bay.
Sales c/w shipping: CAD$1656, 13 sales, COGS: $156, Fees: ~$190, Postage: $330 –> Gross profit: $981
Expenditures: $2691 –> Cashflow: -$1553Bought a lot of good stuff at 2 local auctions.
Oh, and I’m back in the office now. Which, paradoxically, makes me more motivated to do ebay than before – to recover the wuflu good times of staying at home.
What a cool starburst clock Steven sold in the video!
I had a really good week last week.
Sales c/w shipping: CAD$4275, 19 sales, COGS: $350, Fees: ~$589, Postage: $273 –> Gross profit: $3063
Expenditures: $0 –> Cashflow: $3413
Sold a big ugly actuator for $450 that I am THRILLED to get out of storage, it weighs like 250 lbs and takes up a pallet worth of floor space. Buyer is arranging shipping to Vietnam(!). Hopefully it will be picked up today.
Also sold 7 standing desks for $300 each, but the shipping turned out to be a bit of a killer at $126 per desk. Still, I bought them for $30 each so I can’t complain. One weird thing is that I got a quote on freight shipment but it was double the price to send a pallet as it was to send 7 individual large 50 lb packages in the mail.Despite it not working out this time, getting a relationship going with a local freight company is something I’d recommend if you ever sell big stuff, including furniture. Leaving it to the buyer to figure out freight loses you some buyers who don’t want the hassle.
Something interesting happened today to me as an ebay *buyer.* I had been looking at some homeschool book bundles last night, and then I got an offer today from the seller for a discount price. The difference was, I did NOT have the item watched, I had just looked at it a fair bit the previous day.
I wonder if that is who is on the receiving end of our “send offers”. I.e., not actual watchers but just people who looked at the listing.
Hi guys, good to hear from you as always. I had a decent week.
Sales c/w shipping: CAD$2095, 12 sales, COGS: $688, Fees: ~$292, Postage: $337, Gross profit: $778
Expenditures: $0 –> Cashflow: $1466
Best sale was a voltage surge suppressor for $750.Hi guys. I had a decent week on ebay.
Sales c/w shipping: CAD$1392, 11 sales, COGS: $227, Fees: ~$195, Postage: $162 –> Gross profit: $808
Expenditures: $1062 –> Cashflow: $1035Hi guys. Good week.
Sales: CAD$2061, 16 items, COGS: $406, Fees: ~$281, Postage: $366 –> Gross profit: $1008
Expenditures: $487 –> Cashflow: $1414
Listed: $270, 6 items
Doing lots of good buying, just acquired another storage unit. We have a baby, our third, coming at the end of July, can’t believe how fast that day is approaching. Hoping things stay hopping on ebay.I think maybe we are confusing two issues here.
(1) A buyer asks for free shipping as part of a price negotiation. Basically, they are just asking for a discount. Depending on whether shipping is a large or small fraction of the overall price, you might humour them, or you might say “are you crazy?” for a great big item that will cost $$$ to ship.
(2) Baking the shipping cost into the item price as a business strategy. This is what I would say may be a good idea for certain sellers, including coffee roasters… specifically, where there is high competition, and where your package size & weight are very predictable.
It’s not really about spreading the shipping cost over many items. Your price should cover your shipping costs 100% (at least, averaging over different postal zones), so even if you sell only one you should still make a profit. It’s really just about buyer psychology.
If I did free shipping in this sense I would expect to make the exact same profit per item as with calculated shipping – because the postage cost to me has not changed, and the buyer’s willingness-to-pay has not changed. But I would expect more sales due to buyers not seeing how the sausage is made and getting irrationally grumpy.
Interesting discussion on free shipping. I do not do free shipping on ebay, but if I sold something in standard sizes with high competition, I would. It should be easy to figure out the cost to anywhere in the US, and then set a rate of $X_avg (based on most common destinations) so that on average shipping is breakeven, then bake that rate into the purchase price. There is no need to lose money on this unless you do the math wrong.
There’s a reason Amazon and others do free shipping. Buyers hate paying shipping, even if it is irrational. I do as well. Given an item I am perfectly willing to pay $100 all in for, if it’s $50 plus $50 shipping I start asking a lot of questions and trying to reduce that cost. If the seller hadn’t shown me how the sausage is made, I would have just bought it without question.
I had a cooler week on ebay after two months of absolutely gangbusters sales.
Sales c/w shipping: CAD$1151, 12 sales, COGS: $92, Fees: ~$162, Postage: $300 –> Gross profit: $596
Expenditures: $1003 –> Cashflow: $689I can’t find the graph, but I read a while ago that e-commerce penetration increased more in the last few months than in like 5 or 10 years combined. That may not be totally sticky and while I think the wuflu buying boom will moderate, it seems like ebay is going to be a more hopping place from now on than it was before.
Morning all. Another great week on ebay, and I am finally back to sourcing which feels good.
Sales c/w shipping: CAD$4604, 14 sales, COGS: $181, Fees: ~$618, Postage: $504 –> Gross profit: $3301
Expenditures: $611 –> Cashflow: $3482
Sold some security cameras and shipped to Poland. Kind of surprised by this sale given the weight of these things, buyer paid $350 for shipping.Regarding the caller with the “intense” grumpy buyer wanting a refund on pants with no drawstring. A dissenting opinion for you.
Although the buyer did do that feedback extortion thing, which is naughty, it sounds like they’re right about the pants. Personally, crappy tone or no, I would always prefer to sort it out with the buyer directly rather than have a case opened up. A marketplace works best when sellers and buyers can work things out directly rather than always going to the arbiter. It also helps to not have that return on your metrics, although that is a relatively minor issue.
Forcing the return process, the result is they spend *your* money and the post office’s time to return a defective item to you, which you then throw in the garbage. Just refund them.
Morning all, had a good long weekend and another good week on ebay. We cleaned out our shed and I can finally work in it instead of tripping over bins. And I built some square foot gardens & potato planter buckets.
Sales c/w shipping: CAD$3432, 21 sales, COGS: $254, Fees: ~$473, Postage: $555 –> Gross profit: $2150
Expenditures: $516 –> Cashflow: $2404
Finally going to get some scavenging in this coming week. My favourite source has opened up again.Hi folks.
Another good week on ebay. Like you said, it won’t last forever but let’s make hay while the sun shines.
Sales c/w shipping: CAD$3146, 22 sales, COGS: $663, Fees: ~$435, Postage: $441 –> Gross profit: $1608
Expenditures: $0 –> Cashflow: $2270
Sold an icemaker for $400 locally, very glad to get that out of storage. Also a surveying instrument for $700.Didn’t really scavenge… again.
