Hi there, Mrs. 1500 once again. Periodically on Mondays, we will be asking you, our lovely, amazingly intelligent readers, a question regarding finances. There are no right or wrong answers on these questions, we are merely seeking your opinion. I would love to hear your views on the matter, as I am either undecided or trying to better my spending. I will post the general consensus or the best answers on Monday of the next week. Without further ado, here is this week’s question.
A few weeks ago, I purchased a sign at my local thrift store, because I thought it was cool. After I got home and researched it, I discovered it was from a ride during the 2007 Sturgis Motorcycle Rally in Sturgis, SD. I paid $8 for this sign, and upon discovering it was a Sturgis item, thought that perhaps I could make a few bucks selling it on eBay.
Well, that is exactly what I did. I sold it for $11. “Wow, the profits. Amazing find, Mrs. 1500,” you are collectively thinking as you read this. Yeah, I was unimpressed, too.
Consider that I am a casual seller at best on eBay, so it isn’t like I made $3 and I was already going to the post office, or that I live ANYWHERE NEAR said post office.
That information divulged, what do you consider an acceptable profit for selling on eBay? You can give either a percentage or a dollar amount, although if you do percentage, I made out fairly well for an $8 item.
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Since you no longer need it, I think that’s good enough. B they, I don’t know how eBay works so maybe others might have a different opinion.
KC @ genxfinance recently posted…What is a Trust Fund?
I think an acceptable profit on ebay is whatever you can get. If the amount you got wasn’t enough to make it worth your time then it wasn’t acceptable. Personally I don’t sell much on ebay because I hate having to go to the post office. Of course the new flat rate boxes have made things better and I also don’t mind using the APC.
Brian, I think you said it very well. If it isn’t worth my time… This definitely wasn’t worth my time, because I don’t live near the post office – or any of the other package delivery places.
Mrs. 1500 recently posted…Ask the Readers: What is an acceptable Profit on eBay
It’s very difficult to determine what’s an acceptable profit on EBAY because you do on occasion find products being outrageously auctioned. I recommend staying at a profitable level and try to hit a single (5-6%); if you hit the grand-slam on the item… smile.
David recently posted…10 Cheap Ways to Stay Fit
I have had great luck with selling used snowboards. I find them at the thrift store for $25 or less – sometimes with bindings! I resell them on eBay for $65-$75, which makes it worth it to me. I might be comparing the two sales…
I honestly thought the sign would go for more, since it is Harley-related.
Mrs. 1500 recently posted…Ask the Readers: What is an acceptable Profit on eBay
I definitely hear your point. When I was in High school, I also used to sell stuff on Ebay for much more than 5%. I also lost 10 dollars one time, trying to bid on an item that was too expensive.
David recently posted…10 Cheap Ways to Stay Fit
I’ve never sold anything on ebay and only bought maybe 1 item there so I’m not exactly a great source for that. If you no longer need the item then any profit is good to me. I doubt you would have gotten $3 profit from a garage sale. Although it really depends on whether the post office is out of the way. For me it’s about 2 mi from the house and I’m averaging about $0.10 per mi in gas for my car. So my profit would have just taken a 6.7% hit. Ouch! Without being close to a post office then I would definitely do my best to stack auctions to end on the same day to make one trip there.
JC @ Passive Income Pursuit recently posted…Stock Valuation Method – Discounted Cash Flow
I did have another auction end at the same time, but the winners paid at drastically different times. I ended up going twice. I dislike auctions where the lister says “I only go to the post office once a week.” Sigh.
Mrs. 1500 recently posted…Ask the Readers: What is an acceptable Profit on eBay
I’d recommend looking on Amazon or other more reliable price determining website to figure out the value of an object. For instance, if you want to auction off your PS3 and it’s value used on amazon is $75, I’d recommend starting the bidding 5% below that price and see if any movement is generated by the auction. If you’re interested in selling, the last thing you want is to lose value.
Daniel recently posted…Lend $25 To Small Business Around The World For Free
I don’t know if we will sell on ebay again as eBay and PayPal made it far too easy for us to pay for a scammer to steal our item recently.
I wouldn’t sell anything on their you’re not willing to have out of your house at the cost of shipping and the PayPal fees. Though I am perhaps a bit biased at the moment.
Mrs PoP @ Planting Our Pennies recently posted…It’s Too Easy to Buy Stuff These Days!
I did have one scam on eBay, where I was buying. They got my money ($8, but still, I really wanted the stuff they were selling) and I never got the stuff. Paypal wouldn’t do anything because it was only $8. They have a minimum threshold for returns, which kind of makes sense and kind of doesn’t. This was a long time ago, not sure if their policy has changed…
But Mrs. PoP, that super-stinks. I hope it wasn’t too valuable…
Mrs. 1500 recently posted…Ask the Readers: What is an acceptable Profit on eBay
They got us for about $75 between the shipping and the paypal fees, but luckily it was an item that even though it was worth almost $400, was given to Mr. PoP for free about a decade before and had been sitting in a drawer mostly unused. So at least it didn’t cost us the item as well since it was free.
Mrs. Pop @ Planting Our Pennies recently posted…It’s Too Easy to Buy Stuff These Days!
I would think that Paypal would at least return their fees. I was told they would look into it starting at $25 or $50. But this was almost 10 years ago, too.
That super-stinks. Losing $75 is terrible.
We don’t do a whole lot of selling on ebay, and I probably wouldn’t purchase an item to resell unless I knew I could make over $20 or so with it. Too much of a pain, especially after ebay takes their cut and you take the time to package and ship the item.
That being said, we do sell items that we want to purge if we think we’ll get at least $10 or so out of it. If not more than that, we usually just donate the item.
My dad did recently sell his vintage car on there (a 1976 Triumph TR6 roadster) and was happy with the transaction. It’s great that he got to set the “reserve” so he knew what he’d get out of it for sure. The total fees were less than $200, and the buyer had to handle picking up the car or having it shipped, so this ended up to be a good deal for my dad!
Mrs. Herb recently posted…Bravo’s Italian Restaurant
We had a great experience with eBay Motors, too. We bought a Toyota MR2 at a garage sale (seriously) and sold it on eBay for a huge profit. The guy rode up on the Mega Bus (megabus.com) and drove it back home. He loved my car, which made it slightly easier to give up. That and it only seats two…
Mrs. 1500 recently posted…Ask the Readers: What is an acceptable Profit on eBay
I say that if you can make a profit, then why not? Ebay is more about what people are willing to pay, not about what the item is actually worth. Two people might be battling it out for an item from their childhood and will pay whatever it takes sometimes!
Michelle recently posted…Clean Eating and $1,910 in Extra Income
Oh how I wish someone would have battled it out for this sign…
Mrs. 1500 recently posted…Ask the Readers: What is an acceptable Profit on eBay
I’ve actually been purging belongings on ebay a lot. We’ve been really surprised at how much some of our belonging are going for and have thrown that at our debt.
I don’t know that I would purchase anything to resell. I know there are many people that do…but it’s truly a part time job….and I don’t think I’m in the know of what someone wants…but for the stuff I’m selling on ebay…most all of it is profit because I didn’t purchase a good portion of it.
Yeah, I don’t think I am in the know about what people want, either… Too bad. I could do this for a job.
Mrs. 1500 recently posted…Ask the Readers: What is an acceptable Profit on eBay
I say if you can make a profit then go for it. I know it may “only” seem like $3 but that’s not bad seeing as you spent $8 on said item. The only thing we ever sold on Ebay was an old Jeep several years ago. We had tried everything else but got no serious bites on it. We posted it on Ebay and had several serious bidders the first day. We got to sell to a 17 year old who was buying it as his first car, which was pretty nice to be able to do.
John S @ Frugal Rules recently posted…What a Pair of L.L. Bean Slippers Taught me About Customer Service
I think eBay Motors helps you get a fair price for your car. We got a great price for ours when we sold it. Way more than we would have gotten locally.
Mrs. 1500 recently posted…Ask the Readers: What is an acceptable Profit on eBay
This was the first time I was really disappointed in an ebay transaction.
Mrs. 1500 recently posted…Ask the Readers: What is an acceptable Profit on eBay
Oh, good question. I guess it boils down to whether the profit was enough for the time you spent posting the item on ebay and going to the post office. It’s hard on small items when the profit is only a few dollars. Of course, had your $8 sign sold for $30, we probably wouldn’t be having this conversation. 🙂 I guess that’s the allure of ebay, sometimes you make out like a bandit and other times not so much but that’s a risk worth taking.
Shannon,
This whole post was inspired by this lackluster sale. So maybe I did get something out of it after all. But yes, if it sold for $30, this probably wouldn’t be up here.
Oh well, there are some interesting perspectives, which is what I wanted.
Mrs. 1500 recently posted…Ask the Readers: What is an acceptable Profit on eBay
Alan, I don’t even want to calculate my profit after time spent listing and driving to the post office. I did mix it in with other errands, it wasn’t just a drive to the post office, but the post office isn’t all that close to everything, anyway.
Mrs. 1500 recently posted…Ask the Readers: What is an acceptable Profit on eBay
That’s a pretty significant ROI. Muuuch better than what I’ve seen in my portfolio 🙂 I usually don’t sell anything on ebay. I had so many problems when I tried to sell my iPhone 4 (back when that was Apple’s flagship device) that I haven’t so much as typed in the URL into Firefox. While $3 may not be worth bragging about, it does sort of make you think what could be out there that people don’t realize is worth a bunch of money. I guess that’s why all of those fake Pawn Shop shows are popular on cable.
Johnny Moneyseed recently posted…Buying a second house and prepping our first for rental
Johnny,
I was hoping this was one of those things that was worth a ton. I have read so many stories, “I bought this for $1 and sold it for $500 on eBay.” But you really have to know what things are worth. I guess I should just stick to snowboards. I do well with snowboards on eBay.
Mrs. 1500 recently posted…When I grow up, I want to be a Banana!
I’ve never used EBay to sell anything before however I have sold on Kijiji in Canada. If I buy something at a garage sale or at a Thrift store or better yet got it free I sell to make a profit, yes but it depends on what it is. It’s hard for me to say what an acceptable amount to profit is, at least from my perspective. 🙂 Well done selling it for $11 🙂
Canadianbudgetbinder recently posted…How I Changed My Life- I Won The Debt, Divorce, Drugs and Drinking Jackpot!
I keep seeing Kijiji everywhere. I need to check that out.
I generally think in terms of the hourly rate rather than a dollar amount or percentage. It takes time to hunt the items down, photograph them, list them, etc. And the fees now are horrible! I had a work-at-home job for a while that paid $13.50 per hour, and I generally won’t bother with money-making schemes that will pay less than that.
I do make an exception if it’s stuff I already own and just want to get rid of–it’s nice to get a little money back instead of just giving it away.
Jen @ Jen Spends recently posted…Convert pre-paid debit cards to Amazon gift cards to use every penny
That is a great point. I never thought of it in terms of dollars per hour. I need to be more specific in what I sell.
It seems like 1) selling in bulk or 2) selling expensive products are the only ways to make a worthwhile profit on ebay given the time commitment of going to post offices, etc. The percentage that they take is absurd.
Yeah, I just got my bill from them. Not pretty.
Id have to say that its probably not worth your time if it isn’t over $10 and 25%. Unless of course its a fund hobby. Then go crazy with 3% profits.
CashRebel recently posted…Earth Day And Corporate Sustainability
Since I don’t live near the post office, and it isn’t really on the way to anything, I like those numbers. 25% profit or $10. I do make money selling snowboards on eBay. I should just stick with those.
I sell anywhere from 5-20 items a month on ebay. To make it worth my time, I just list all the items at one time. I created a template of my terms for the sale and I just change the description from one item to the next. I also use the ebay app on my iphone as this makes adding pictures quick and easy.
But back to the first question, I think $3 is the minimum amount I would take, after fees, to make it worth my time. Also, if you don’t want to go to the post office and if at least one of your packages is priority mail, you can schedule next day pickup for free. For many of my items that cannot fit in a regular mailbox, I only offer priority mail so that I don’t have to go to the post office.
In addition, I don’t set the price below the price I want for the item. The mistake many people make on ebay is to list the item at a very low price thinking that many people will bid on the item. For there to be a bidding war, you need at least two interested parties. For some items that is a tough sell. Instead, I list the item what I think it is worth. Many times the item won’t sell the first time, however, it takes virtually no time to relist an item as it is only a click of a button. So even though it took 5-10 minutes to create the initial listing when describing the item and listing photos, relisting the item over and over is easy.
I have been selling off old
crapstuff in my mothers house from used twin sheet set ($24.99) to miniature garbage can I got free from an earthday fair ($10.49) to two old pairs of jeans ($14.99). It’s just amazing what people will pay for stuff that I was planning on donating or tossing. The adage that one mans junk is another man’s treasure is what keeps eBay going!See, I read these stories and think I can make money doing this! I need to explore their app a little more. I need to explore their site a little more.
Thanks for the information. More things to think about…
Yeah, Mr. 1500 sold a snowboard once, and guessed on the shipping costs. When I took it into the post office, they quoted me a price about 3 times higher than what we charged the buyer. But then they gave me this nugget of advice, if I could get the box size down a few inches, it would ship at almost 1/3 the price they first quoted. I sure did get that box size down and we ended up losing $4 on shipping costs.
The moral of this story is pack tight.
If you think you’ll be doing a lot of eBay selling, it’s worth investing in a postal scale. I picked one up for cheap on Amazon and it has been such a convenience! It’s really tough to guesstimate–that used to keep me from selling on eBay.
In its earliest days, eBay was essentially unregulated. However, as the site grew, it became necessary to restrict or forbid auctions for various items. Note that some of the restrictions relate to eBay.com (the U.S. site), while other restrictions apply to specific European sites (such as Nazi paraphernalia). Regional laws and regulations may apply to the seller or the buyer. Generally, if the sale or ownership of an item is regulated or prohibited by one or more states, eBay will not permit its listing. *..
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