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Old 21-01-2007, 03:25 PM   #1
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Default Can you afford to sell in Ebay?

Hello to all,
I have started to sell in Ebay and tryed to make some research and here it is what i found
Ok let's try to sell PSP Value pack.
Let's say we have funds to buy two PSP consoles. Looking for wholesale prices we got two PSP for 130 pounds with all shipping and other fees.
Ok we added the item in Ebay in auction form and the starting price was 0.99 pounds.
In the auction we used only picture gallery. The listing was for 7 days. So in last day auction ended in 150 pounds + 10 pounds shipping. Let's say S/H cost 6 pounds.
Do you want to know what is your profit? It's 11.74 pounds
The Ebay final value fees would be included 18% VAT : £ 11.96
The PayPal fees: £ 6.44
The instertion fees: £ 0.30
The shipping fees: £ 6.00
Total fees: £ 18.26
So your selling price is £ 141.74. If you sold two PSP in one week your profit is 23,48 pounds. So let's think about the risk for selling high demand products it's not worth to sell for 20 pounds profit.
I thought this business would be good if you can get the items for 80-90 pounds each.
So why all people who want to start this business looking for these high demand products. Just notice how many sellers offering brokered wholesale deals because they affraid to order 100 units and so do i. The margin is so low that you must sell 100 units in one week to live good and we all know how it's difficult.
I think the main point is to get on the 'wave'. If you can get the good price then the item is new you can gain very good profit.
Let me hear your opinion about this.

P.S The English language is not my strong side so sorry about that.

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Old 21-01-2007, 04:07 PM   #2
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Ebay is extremely price competitive. In fact, it is price driven - not to mention all of the scam listings you have to compete with.

Selling Ipods, PSPs, Xboxes, mobile phones, etc. are not the best things to sell for a long-term business... you need to think niche marketing.

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Old 21-01-2007, 04:34 PM   #3
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Is making £20 not better than making nothing

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Old 21-01-2007, 09:01 PM   #4
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15% profit margin is actually not a lot considering all the hassle you have to go through to sell these items. From the scammers bidding on your auctions to finding a legitimate and consistant supplier (which, in my opinion, is impossible for Ipods and other popular items) to putting out a pretty good sum for inventory - I just think there are other products or niches that can be served where the profit margins are much better.

In my niche, my profit margins range from 40% to 150%. On most items I double my money, there are no scammers to deal with, the products are easy to source, some of my suppliers will dropship, and my customers keep on coming back because I solve their problems.

There are much better alternatives to selling Ipods, PSPs, Xboxes and those other products on Ebay.

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Old 21-01-2007, 09:17 PM   #5
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Quote:
Originally Posted by BillyA View Post
15% profit margin is actually not a lot considering all the hassle you have to go through to sell these items. From the scammers bidding on your auctions to finding a legitimate and consistant supplier (which, in my opinion, is impossible for Ipods and other popular items) to putting out a pretty good sum for inventory - I just think there are other products or niches that can be served where the profit margins are much better.

In my niche, my profit margins range from 40% to 150%. On most items I double my money, there are no scammers to deal with, the products are easy to source, some of my suppliers will dropship, and my customers keep on coming back because I solve their problems.

There are much better alternatives to selling Ipods, PSPs, Xboxes and those other products on Ebay.
So very true, if you are new to selling on ebay read this over and take it in you will not get better advice.

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Old 22-01-2007, 01:13 AM   #6
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If you used Google Checkout you wouldn't pay anything to process the payments.

Paypal has too much of a stranglehold on eBay

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Old 22-01-2007, 12:13 PM   #7
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Originally Posted by SwankDist View Post
If you used Google Checkout you wouldn't pay anything to process the payments.

Paypal has too much of a stranglehold on eBay
Google Checkout merchants must have a U.S. bank account and address, no use for UK sellers at the moment, believe its only free with a tie in to google adwords.

The stranglehold is probably because ebay owns paypal.

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Old 22-01-2007, 02:41 PM   #8
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£11.96 for a FVF is it really that much? I sell PSPs and I pay £4.98 FVF for a sale of £135. why the extra £6-£7 for an extra £20 in sale price?

If you not happy with making £20 on 2 items then I think you are being greedy. If you can make that £10 profit on say 5 PSPs a day that £50 tax free, which 7 days works out at £350 a week. Going on the basis of £10 per PSP at least. You could even up your PSP numbers to around 6-8 a day if you are sure you can get that £10 profit per PSP.

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Old 22-01-2007, 03:00 PM   #9
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Quote:
Originally Posted by YNWA View Post
If you not happy with making £20 on 2 items then I think you are being greedy. If you can make that £10 profit on say 5 PSPs a day that £50 tax free, which 7 days works out at £350 a week.
So I take it that you are not registered as self employed and keeping books then?

Your £50 should actually be once you have paid the tax man his cut, but that all depends on if you are declaring your earnings or not.

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Old 22-01-2007, 03:03 PM   #10
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So I take it that you are not registered as self employed and keeping books then?

Your £50 should actually be once you have paid the tax man his cut, but that all depends on if you are declaring your earnings or not.
I pay my cut, I am just guessing that for someone who hasnt started selling that they wont be declaring earnings just yet, and especially not on £20 a week on PSP sales.

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