The Power of Ebay

[JSR]

I've just been looking at ebay shops.

I didn't realise it was a monthly payment subscription - either £14.99, £49.99, or a whopping £349.99 per month!

The 5p listing fee is if you're on the £49.99 per month subscription, but you can get a 1p listing fee - if you pay £349.99 per month. Otherwise, it's 20p to list.

The Final Value fee when the item sells is 9.9%. And, of course, there's your PayPal fee that needs to be taken into account as well.

So, ebay take money when you list, they take money when you sell, they take money when you receive payment, and they take a monthly fee as well. When exactly does the seller, y'know, the person who actually does all the work, make any money out of this?

Example: Using an ebay shop to sell ten items costing £10 each:

10 items @ £10

Listing fee = £2 (10x 20p)
Final Value fee = £9.90 (10x 9.9%)
PayPal fees = £5.40 (10x 3.4%+20p)
Monthly fee = £14.99

Total cost = £32.29
Total sales = £100 (10x £10)
What you end up with = £67.71
ebay percentage = ~33%

So, ebay end up with a third of your money - and that's before you think of things like your manufacturing costs.

Blimey! Someone tell me I've done my sums wrong, please!

[AJLA]

Looks absolutely crazy. I do remember having looked into it previously thinking it seemed quite expensive.
No the direction I need to go in now mind. They really do eat into your profit margins don't they?

[Paul]

thats why I caceled my subscription
try sell mugs for £5 where is the profit gone???

[GoldRapt]

thats why I caceled my subscription
try sell mugs for £5 where is the profit gone???

What alternative have you found please Paul?

[Paul]

non but i decided to not do sublimation for business... not no wany way....
as I said in other post my other hobby is a photography so i want to join this two and start some business then.
Iam still on ebay but with mug templates. fees a killer!

[jennywren]

I have looking at ebay but having seen the costing you would have to turn over quite a bit to make a living or even to add to it, a friend of mine has been trying for ages to get me to do one, but having read what I have here its a NO. I had a gut feeling but knew very little, she always said she made loads and it all had to with listing, I never understood I'm straight retail, but I do know she on the internet day and night and lives on feed back, which is no good for me I make mistakes sometimes and therefore feed back would some be bad, at least when I make a mistake at the shop I can grovel and offer discount or something in return and if they don't I would only lose (sadly) one customer and its not there for all to see. I know for my friend it works but it looks not for me.

[John G]

You might think ebay fees are steep but if you run a business with premises you'll find ebay fees aren't as bad as you think.

[Karen.]

I agree John, although the problem with ebay is a mixture of the fees being high and the fact that people xpect the prices to be very low.
I would love nothing more than to have premises at the moment.

[Flash]

You might think ebay fees are steep but if you run a business with premises you'll find ebay fees aren't as bad as you think.

Correct John I pay a nominal rent on our shop. Now that is just the start, the pile of bills that then start coming through the letterbox is nothing short of phenomenal

1) Business Rates
2) Insurance
3) Electric
4) Water
5) Telephone
6) Broadband

Shall I go on
Conclusion And this is free advice to all. Ebay is cheap! If you use Ebay well you can drive traffic to your own website where the fees are much less

Phil

[John G]

[/quote]1) Business Rates
2) Insurance
3) Electric
4) Water
5) Telephone
6) Broadband

Tell me about it - its even worse when you have very little/no work on - the bills still need paying