Newbie question about pricing - and prices on ebay.

[jason.etheridge]

Hi all.
First, sorry to ask just a noob question... but hey we all have to start somewhere right?!

Anyway...

I'm considering getting into sublimation printing as it really fits well with my current skill set.

However I've been looking at the prices of finished mugs selling on ebay for around £4.95 inc shipping.
Am I missing something here? Below is my guess at the absolute cheapest I could product a mug (please feel free to correct me).. where is the margin?
Or are they just pumping them out at such a volume they are happy with pence profit.

[TABLE="width: 141]
[TR]
[TD]BlankMug[/TD]
[TD="align: right]0.75[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Paper[/TD]
[TD="align: right]0.10[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Ink[/TD]
[TD="align: right]0.10[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD][/TD]
[TD][/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Ebay[/TD]
[TD="align: right]0.45[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]PayPal[/TD]
[TD="align: right]0.37[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD][/TD]
[TD][/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Packing[/TD]
[TD="align: right]0.10[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Postage[/TD]
[TD="align: right]2.80[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD][/TD]
[TD][/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]Total[/TD]
[TD="align: right]4.67[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]


Again, sorry for such an odd question - and I expect many comments to come back about using cheep supplies etc, however I'm just curious to how they are doing it.

Many thanks
Jason.

[socialgiraffe]

Hi Jason

Welcome to the forum, this has been discussed many times (the search function is your friend ), but to sum up, some do it as a loss leader, some use the cheapest materials there are which would save about 20-30p and they also can get the postage slightly cheaper.

I suspect they are making between 30-40p per mug so not really worth it.

[pisquee]

It's all about volume - but not just in terms of big volumes of tiny profits - it's them buying in volume to get much lower prices ... if you buy your supplies by the pallet/container, print on wide format roll paper, using bulk inks, and have negotiated a good rate with Royal Mail, then the prices above will be a lot cheaper

[GoonerGary]

You need another 50p or so for proper packaging and perhaps a little more for a good quality mug. But don't compare yourself to the cheap and nasty on ebay. It depends on what your business will be; printing other people's photos onto mugs or printing your own designs onto the mugs? IMHO You will only make decent money by printing your own designs unless you are going to be a big promotional company. After that, you need to decide if you want to make 50p or £5 in profit. How many mugs can you print in a day and will that feed you? I wouldn't get out of bed for a £4.95 sale. There are people on ebay earning decent money selling £7-8.99 mugs including P&P.

[jason.etheridge]

Thanks for the helpful comments guys.

So it's fair to say that you can make money/sales from eBay?
Also do you think my ink price is correct per mug?


Many thanks
Jase

[pisquee]

Also do you think my ink price is correct per mug?

very much depends on what ink you're using - same goes for paper...
Our paper cost is about £0.01 per mug, with ink cost so lower than that

Also another factor to consider is VAT registration - you don't mention whether the price you were quoting with inc or ex VAT and what your VAT status is.

[jason.etheridge]

Nice... Your paper and ink costs super low. I assume you are making good use of the sheets.

[GoonerGary]

Thanks for the helpful comments guys.

So it's fair to say that you can make money/sales from eBay?
Also do you think my ink price is correct per mug?


Many thanks
Jase

I personally don't sell on eBay, but it depends if your product is right for ebay. Are there a thousand people doing exactly the same thing as you? eBay is a race to the bottom when it comes to price, but you don't have to join the race and focus on quality and service instead. Ink price? Who knows? How much ink are you using on your mug, you will know the cost when the bottles finish divided by the amount of mugs you printed. 10p is probably a fair estimate.

When factoring in your costs especially on ebay; it is what you don't sell that matters. All those listings fees each month for the non selling products have to taken off your profits. And that is assuming you can reach the top pages on ebay so that people can find your product. But without knowing what you are planning to sell, I can only give generic advice.

[galerion]

Its probably worth looking at getting or making a photo light tent so you get consistant photo's for listing. Also ebay these days isn't just about getting on the first page of the search results from your desktop web browser, increasingly people are using their phones and tablets to shop. So make sure you fill out your item specifics as people using these devices tend to filter results using these.

[pisquee]

Nice... Your paper and ink costs super low. I assume you are making good use of the sheets.

We don't use sheets, we use 100 metre long, 44" wide rolls, can get 12 mug transfers across the roll, and then the printer cuts off at 22cm.