To put things into perspective (Stores)

[buckhysen]

Just to put things into perspective I had a spare few minutes yesterday and worked out exactly what it would cost me to run a store on Eb*y compared to Ebid, with the 1500+ items I currently have in my Ebid store.

Ebid costs me.....£0 per month + 2% of my final value fees

To list the exact same 1500 items in an Eb*y store would cost me... £315 per month + 10% final value fees.

I still sell a few auction items on Eb*y each day but only because the site is so much bigger and I get more sales, but with only listing 10-20 items a day my fees last month were....
Eb*y - £140
Ebid - Less than £1

Despite more sales on Eb*y, the profit margin is so small that I probably make more profit from Ebid sales and I expect most sellers find the same thing.

I mainly only use Eb*y now more to promote my own website and Ebid store with flyers, etc rather than to make money, as I believe the days of making any serious profit with Eb*y has long gone.
If you run a small business or sell low cost items like I do, I think it is almost impossible now to run your business through Eb*y, because you simply don't make enough profit as it all goes back to Eb*y.
An Ebid store is certainly the way to go and I can see Eb*y losing a ton of stores and sellers if Ebid really does kick off and starts to grow bigger..... Fingers crossed!

[TonyBridger]

Despite more sales on Eb*y, the profit margin is so small that I probably make more profit from Ebid sales and I expect most sellers find the same thing.

It always surprises me that people work out exactly how much it costs to sell on a auction site but only guess about the profit they are making from the various sites.

[astral276]

It always surprises me that people work out exactly how much it costs to sell on a auction site but only guess about the profit they are making from the various sites.

For most it is easy to work out what it costs but not so easy the profit.

If you are a trader buying in stock at a known price and selling it on at a known price then profit calculation is easy. If you are not trading but simply selling on unwanted goods (like wot I do) then how do you calculate profit margins? The items have no fixed value to work from. I can see whether at the end of the day I am on a loser but not a profit level.

[KW379]

Just to put things into perspective I had a spare few minutes yesterday and worked out exactly what it would cost me to run a store on Eb*y compared to Ebid, with the 1500+ items I currently have in my Ebid store.

Ebid costs me.....£0 per month + 2% of my final value fees

To list the exact same 1500 items in an Eb*y store would cost me... £315 per month + 10% final value fees.

I still sell a few auction items on Eb*y each day but only because the site is so much bigger and I get more sales, but with only listing 10-20 items a day my fees last month were....
Eb*y - £140
Ebid - Less than £1

Despite more sales on Eb*y, the profit margin is so small that I probably make more profit from Ebid sales and I expect most sellers find the same thing.

I mainly only use Eb*y now more to promote my own website and Ebid store with flyers, etc rather than to make money, as I believe the days of making any serious profit with Eb*y has long gone.
If you run a small business or sell low cost items like I do, I think it is almost impossible now to run your business through Eb*y, because you simply don't make enough profit as it all goes back to Eb*y.
An Ebid store is certainly the way to go and I can see Eb*y losing a ton of stores and sellers if Ebid really does kick off and starts to grow bigger..... Fingers crossed!

I have just been in my Eb*y as I have 11 VHS films to sell and started to list Bravehart, I can not compete with starting bids of 1 penny, so I have jumped ship to here, with the things I now sell, I have pulled everything to Ebid

Kev

[buckhysen]

It always surprises me that people work out exactly how much it costs to sell on a auction site but only guess about the profit they are making from the various sites.

That was a bit of a misquote, I should have left out 'probably'. I know exactly how much profit I make.

[somersethedge]

That was a bit of a misquote, I should have left out 'probably'. I know exactly how much profit I make.

.... but it's amazing how many dont know how much profit they make :-)

I have to admit I am one of them when it comes to a single item.... but I know how much profit I make at the end of the year... but there again I dont buy/make single items, I buy by the box load and sell by the single item

[MagnetsAndHangers]

I totally disagree with the figures in the ops post - as have discussed with friends on facebook.

Cant put them in here tho - would be removed.

Edit - figures may be correct for op - but certainly not to all.

[Juliebabe25]

Yes OP

If you did the maths on a certain number of sales per month, then you may get different results.

That said ebid gets me lots of item views.

[buckhysen]

Just to clarify. I only worked out the Eb*y store price above on the basic store. i.e. Monthly fee + 15p per item + FVF.

[buckhysen]

That's very true. A very good friend of mine was once buying and selling bulk items online, thought he was making a good profit, but we sat and worked out his figures after a few months and by the time he took into account fees, postage, etc he was actually losing money every month, so he gave it up.

I'm the same as you, I sell online and offline so make different profits on each item I sell, depending on whether I need to post it, auction fees, etc.
So work out my profits at the end of each month rather than on each item or day by day.