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Monday, April 14, 2008

Ebay Results

Ebay results. I have sold 1 of the VHS tapes on Ebay. However, I actually lost money, since I did free shipping to entice more bidders. Problem is, I only got one bid, for the $1.99 starting price. It cost me $2.13 for postage alone. IE: that didn't include the cost of the padded envelope, ebay listing fees or Ebay final selling fees.

I did get a couple bids on the brand new DVD that sold for a final price of $6.66. That basically paid for most of the cost to buy the 6 (8x11) padded envelopes that would hold either of the VHS or DVD. Finally a friend of mine had me list a used DVD (Surface TV series) set that for him and that went for a buy it now price of $20. After subtracting all the expenses for selling that DVD for him he received $8 and I pocketed $6.

All in all, my Ebay has been a total wash. I still have items for sell (with no bids), but really should I list anything more? The idea is to sell items so that I can pay off my debts.


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go ahead share your thoughts with me now.






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Posted by Kevin Surbaugh at 4/14/2008 06:41:00 PM
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7 comments:

  1. Don't offer free shipping. ( At least for things people want to buy) If anything you make money on shipping.

    Also for lower priced similar items ( tapes, dvds,etc) you might consider selling in lots.

    Though a lot of things do not sell on eBay well.
    ReplyDelete
  2. Kevin, how is the job search going? It is a terrible time to change your situation and I admire you for trying. Have you considered sitting down with current management and discussing what it would take to move up in rank,letting them know your accomplishments and what extra things you could do for the company. Does someone need to travel around to various stores and ride herd on the management, and would you be willing to do this?There may be other interesting jobs that grab you. In a previous post, you said you would be comfortable staying with the company until retirement, if I remember correctly. Do you have any idea of what, say, the executive VP earns? Not that you're gunning for his/her job, but this could give you an idea if you will ever earn enough with your current company, with the thought that if you got his/her salary, would this be a living wage for you? Good luck.
    ReplyDelete
  3. Try half.com for movies and books, its a lot better than ebay and you can use your ebay information to log in. All shipments are sent media mail which is cheaper.
    ReplyDelete
  4. John -
    It appears a growing number of buyers are getting fed up with sellers who charge more for shipping then shipping actually costs. The attitude of getting your profits from the shipping is annoying to many buyers. For that reason, I tried to price items to get more bidders, but also to get the low bid to exceed all my costs and still put money in my pockets (or should I say the pockets of those that I owe.


    Anonymous -
    The job search is still going. I have been called for a few interviews. However, in the past week, there has been a family owned company that has been in the store 3 times. With that the one person over me in the store knows that I need a raise and desire a promotion and while he says it will happen, I realize that corporate probably won't do anything. It will have to be the new owner, who ever that may be. Once everything becomes official, I expect something to happen.
    ReplyDelete
  5. anonymous -

    I use media mail, but it isn't always cheaper. Depending on the weight 1st class may be cheaper. For example, the VHS and Surface DVD set (4 dvd's) both were cheaper to ship media, but Rush Hour 3 DVD (single) was cheaper to ship 1st class.

    Thankfully my local postal clerks are polite enough to tell me when another shipment method is cheaper then the one I ask for.
    ReplyDelete
  6. Even if you had sold for 50$ worth of DVD that will not help you much in paying out debt. The main issue I see is your income... Way too low. Ever thougth about getting a 2nd job, going to college to increase your earning potential or some "bigger" ways to boost your income. It just seems that selling few things and pinching pennies won't do the trick.
    ReplyDelete
  7. Kevin,
    I am not talking about gouging shipping. I am talking about market rate/reasonable shipping costs. I don't know about you but my time and materials are not free and no one should expect me to work for free.

    I have a fairly large eBay bookstore and I do a lot of business- sometimes more than I would like. I ship Media Mail and all of my shipping rates are a decent amount over the actual shipping fees. There is material cost, handling, and time.

    I was offered a job working as a shipping clerk for a company and they offered a decent amount of money ( double digits per hour). Having someone ship things costs money, whether you pay someone or do it yourself. Making a dollar or two per shipment is reasonable, especially when you consider you dont actually profit from it when all is said and done.

    I just know from experience that people expect to pay for something, at least the people worth dealing with. In 8 years I have never once had a complaint about shipping costs.

    On a related note is something that keeps coming up:

    You seem to undervalue your time/labor. Whether its selling things for free or working peanuts. As others have mentioned your earnings are the big issue, not your frugality or ability to yard sale ( eBay) your old stuff for a few bucks. If you are willing to work for free, many people will be glad to let you.
    ReplyDelete

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