My experience - so how long does it take me to sell 1 ebay item?

[ricarmic]

I've for a long time operated under the belief that it takes me half an hour's work to sell an item.

I said a few weeks ago I'd do this, I've finally gotten around to documenting what all I do.

Here are my estimates regarding how long it takes me to sell one ebay item:

  Pre Sale

5 minutes picturing the item (I spread them out and take usually about 5 pictures)

1 minute transferring the pictures/numbers to the computer,webhosting site,backup, & writing on item itself

5 minutes to list using turbolister

1 minute putting item number on the item after listed

1 minute filing the item so I can find it again when it sells (I run about 1,500 items)

  Post Sale

1 minute to send personalized communication after item sells

1 minute to leave feedback

2 minutes to create receipt

1 minute to pull item

4 minutes to package item to be ready for stamping

1 minute to stamp (my buyers are stamp collectors and expect nice stamps on the package)

3 minutes to take to PO

1 minute to mark item as shipped (I do this manually)

  Pre and Post sale

3 minutes for customer questions and various communications before/during/after sale

==========

30 minutes

Notes

-I erred on the side of a minimum of 1 minute, some will usually take less, sometimes more

-however some others are very hard to estimate an average number and the estimate could be low

-the numbers above are for my smaller $12-$50 sized lots, larger lots take more time 

-using 17c a minute means I need $4.93 profit on the item to make minimum wage

-apparently my 30 minute estimate was pretty good

-this is why I try not to list items worth less than $15

[rose-dee]

I think it's as good an exercise to break down where your time goes as breaking down where the money goes, and this is an interesting comparison for other sellers.  

For me, the big time loss where garments is concerned is in the picture-taking and all the picture-related fiddling afterward (cropping, adjusting lighting and colour to as close to the actual item as possible, uploading photos, etc. etc.), measuring the garments, and writing listings. Packaging garments also takes care = time.  However my selling price on those items is high enough to justify the time.

On the other end of the spectrum, I make up time on the multiple-quantity items I sell.  These rarely require any changes and are GTC listings until the quantity is sold out, then relisted - 5 minutes for a new group of 5 or 10 items and it's done.  Packing these is quick and simple.  In the end, the time-savers balance out the time-eaters.  

I think time efficiency is an area where many sellers could probably benefit from doing an analysis like yours.  They may find that some items just aren't cost effective to sell if they care how much time they put into their businesses.  

I agree with you, that after taking into account time (at minimum wage/hr.) and the various fees involved, a $10 to $15 item price is probably the break-even level unless a seller can somehow find ways to reduce the time and/or cost input for that item or be willing to ignore the value of his/her own time.  

[recped]

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@rose-dee wrote: or be willing to ignore the value of his/her own time.  

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Why not? Everyone else ignores the value of my time!

[i*m-still-here]

I remember watching someone knit a pair of socks.

She was at it for weeks and it was a complicated skill.

To make it profitable she would have had to sell those socks for $1,000.  It was a labor of love.

So how do people go on eBay and sell socks they've painstakingly knit by hand for $14.99?

That kind of thing always makes me wonder.

[mr.elmwood]

Femme has calcualted that our time is worth 17¢ per minute. As a corollary, a friend of mine said:

Interests are free
Hobbies cost money
Business makes money

[brandeentertainment]

Ya at an hrly rates ebay for me is no where clkose to my actual job but what I do enjoy is making money when I am sleeping or at the park with my kids or just watching a movie with my wife and kids...

If I counted my time and compared it to profit as an hrly rate I would have stopped using ebay a long time ago.. My most profitable day to date was just shy of $600 and my average profit a day is about $60 ... So I can work 12hrs on my store and only Make $60 for the day or I can go to my job and be gauranteed to make $600 in a day butttttttttttttttttttttttt I am away from my family when I am at work ...

I look at ebay is my way of not having to work overtime at my job...

[i*m-still-here]

brandeentertainment:  

You make $75/hour at your day job, and then go home and work the rest of the night for $6/hour at your eBay job which you find stressful according your posts.

You have a family and you say that your wife wants you to spend more time with them.

I'm not being nasty........... but I am curious?  :  What's wrong with this picture?