Single items sales under $15.00 no longer viable on Ebay (unless you sell hundreds)

[shallow_karl]

If you have a single item for $15.00 or under and it fails to sell in six months, you've racked up around $3.00 in fees.  Once the sales charges of various types are calculated, you end up with around $9.60 which could be ok, but more likely wiped out any profit above your cost.  On the other side of the equation, there is simply too much competition, especially now from dealers and dealers abroad who have government subsidized shipping.  Though things may improved once tariffs are levied against foreign sellers who export to the U.S.

[38e_avenue]

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@shallow_karl wrote:

If you have a single item for $15.00 or under and it fails to sell in six months, you've racked up around $3.00 in fees.  

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Open a store.  The basic store has 1.000 free listings inluded, and premium store has free 10.000 + 50.000 in select categories. 

[mrdutch1001]

"If you have a single item for $15.00 or under and it fails to sell in six months, you've racked up around $3.00 in fees..."

That depends on the seller and it depends on the item/product and it depends on the initial investment costs.

I have been selling in some categories for 15 years with items that are priced under $15.00,many priced less than $10.00....the best part is these are items for which I may have initially paid anywhere from 25c to $2.00, depending on the item...so any profit even small profit is till better than $0. I have the time,I can put in the effort and any profit still covers the initial investment. And the fees incurred are if and when the item sells., whether that takes 6 weeks or 6 months or 6 years...no other fees incurred as I am allotted 250 free listings per month and I do not use any listing upgrades.

It is the responsibility of a seller, of any seller to decide what is viable for them...there is no right or wrong, there is no blanket answer....

[reallynicestamps]

If you have a single item for $15.00 or under and it fails to sell in six months, you've racked up around $0.00 in fees.

And you have 249 other listings available for you as well also  free, gratis, for nothing.

If it sells and has Free Shipping included in the price, on average you will pay as little as $1.99 in fees (at the usual 13..25% fee).

If the buyer's province charges 13% sales tax, you will have another 26c in fees.

If you charge $10 for shipping the $15 item, you will pay another $1.33 in fees.

That's a total of $3.58 in fees, but only if it sells  and only if you charge shipping separately, and only if the buyer is charged sales taxes.

If you have 251 items listed the 251st will cost you 35c a month for listing.

But the first 250 are free listings.

Your premise is flawed.

[brettjet38]

"If you have a single item for $15.00 or under and it fails to sell in six months, you've racked up around $3.00 in fees."

@shallow_karl 

I have many items that I sell for 2-3$ & nice little profit makers they are, costs included. Some are listed for years, feeless until a sale...

I guess you do not understand the "business" model for online selling or the fee structure for the site you are selling on...

[intimewithmusic]

Hi. Welcome to eBay Canada's forum which, unfortunately includes it's share of badgers .

On a quick review of your items I agree totally with @38e_avenue . Avoid extraneous fees with a store subscription (approx $20/mnth..)  You will easily absorb it by increasing your listings to at least 500 from 229. The fastest  way to do that would be to tap into your obvious expertise and knowledge of electronics and vaccuum tubes and sell ephemera (manuals, product brochures and catalogs etc)   We both know their history, their manufacturing stories and contribution to today's technology.  It's very relevant because the early tube driven electronics encompass's todays politics. We wouldn't have a submarine if not for tubes. that stuff will sell mostly to the USA via easy peasy Tracked packet for $10 to $15 tracked. 

Suggestion #1: List as much ephemera (originals, no photocopies) as you can.  Cover 1980's computers too if you have a handle on that. Most of the vintage manuals and sales brochures for those items sell for a good portion of the value of the items themselves.  

Suggestion #2: Direct your ephemera specifically to the United States and European markets.  Ephemera is easy to ship via Tracked Paket in between your normal expedited packages. (Some ships tracked for under $10cad)

Suggestion #3: Ignore the Forum "badgers" who don't understand your niche. Obviously what you sell is more important than most of the regurgitated thrifts found on eBay. Your stuff represents the technological evoltion and is vital to the health of eBay. You simply need more of it and to supplement the heavy stuff with easy mailers that will bring $15 to $50 a pop. I'm personally glad you reached out.

IT 

[intimewithmusic]

Frankly, @brettjet38 I have had enough of  your ridiculing innocent eBay sellers with these GIFs and negativities. 

It's gone on long enough here in the forum. Your ridicule of sellers asking questions has gone on  for years. No one has objected. Well I do.

Over the last year this eBay CANADA  forum has dropped its postings by 35 %. There are others that ridicule, bully and demean other sellers who post rants or questions.  That has to stop. None of them add bully demeaning GIFs like yours in this post.

The saddest part is, due to dwindling numbers of boardies on eBay, some remaining are attaching "likes" to this rubbish. It stops now. 

 Help all posters in earnest, without discrimination, or just get off of the bus or this complaint goes to San Jose. They can notify Bigler.

  All I ask of you and the other badgers who attack and ridicule posters is to be nice,supportive, and, if possible, helpful. Other than that there is no other reason to squawk.

IT

[intimewithmusic]

After taking steps to move my complaint forward I'm notified Rob has moved on so this request to make our forum welcome to all eBay Canada sellers if necessary will be passed on to Garry Thaniel the current Ebay Canada GM. 

[brettjet38]

Good luck with your crusades, but nothing will change on the boards, it has not in decades other than be used less and less.

And, Most of the "Badges" as you call them have been here way longer than you, and know this site way better than most eBay employees, lol

And when you have sold over 18K items on a single account you can call yourself an "expert" until then....

Enjoy your day!

[brettjet38]

@intimewithmusic If you are triggered so easily by people's posts maybe you should find a safe space to go play.

Sarcasm and humor are not illegal here in CANADA nor on these boards and my post contains nothing other than FACTS/ POLICY and rye humor which made/make/incite you to melt!

And BTW if a member has been on the site since Jun 13, 2002 which this OP has.

And if after SELLING 3.2K items on their account they still do not understand the BASICS of FEES/ POLICY, then that is the ISSUE!

They came here to RANT not get help!

[murphcrud]

Hello MrDutch,

Please excuse me for honing in on this post, but I read that you say that you have 250 free listings per month.  Is that NEW listings in addition to your existing listings?  Please confirm.

[reallynicestamps]

A Basic Store has 1000 Fixed Price listings included in the subscription price of $25.

https://www.ebay.ca/help/selling/selling-fees/store-selling-fees-managed-payments-sellers?id=4809

Sellers without Stores can only list 250 items before being charged for each additional item.

If you list over 300 items having a Store subscription is more economical.

[brettjet38]

@reallynicestamps  "If you list over 300 items having a Store subscription is more economical."

And if you have items that sell slowly/sporadically it is also the best way to list as you can let them hang around, I have multi-item listings that have been running for years and still sell seasonally. Buttons/beads things that are small light items easy to ship and store in a closet or spare room.

Also. the longer a listing stays listed you can update, tweak, and refine them over time as you adjust to the markets.

[shallow_karl]

Actually, no.  Here is a real example:  fee/tax prices along with running total

sold for $5.82    plus $10.00 shipping

final value fee:  $1.89  -  $3.93

International fee:  $0.06 -  $3.87

Final value fee (per order fixed amount): $0.40  - $3.47

GST/HST (Tax):  $0.40  -  $3.07

TOTAL FEES:  $2.75 = 47% of gross sale

Listing fees (six months):  $2.40

Total realized on product:  $0.35  NOT including your COST.  The only solution is to charge something more on shipping than it costs to eke out some level of gain.  Even then, you can't in good conscience charge more than 20% above the actual shipping rate. 

[mrdutch1001]

You state that over a 6-month period, insertion fees incurred>$2.40?why? I can list/re-list an item (using my free allottment of 250 listings per month) @ZERO cost for weeks, months,years...I pay 0 insertion fees UNLESS I list more than the allottment of 250 free listings...

[38e_avenue]

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@murphcrud wrote:

Hello MrDutch,

Please excuse me for honing in on this post, but I read that you say that you have 250 free listings per month.  Is that NEW listings in addition to your existing listings?  Please confirm.

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Nope, they do not accumulate. You can have only 250 items listed, and they relist every month for free. If you sold 20 of them, you can add 20 new items for free.  

[mrdutch1001]

Total allottment per month is 250...I use auction style listigs moreso than fixed price as I have found over the years that the 30 day fixed price does not work for my items....after about 10 days rarely any further views...yes 30 day fixed price listings can be purchased immediately, but there is no sense of urgency from a buyer's perspective...I find there are more views on my auction style than fixed price...I do have buy it now option for all my auction style listings...

Most sellers will swear by the use of fixed price duration, but sellers also need to list with whatever method works best for their items, not what works best for other sellers...

If you keep tabs on that "Used/Left:" in Seller Hub "Promotional Offers" section, you will know exactly how many listings of the 250 FREE allottment that you have used and how many listings are left and still available for use.

 

[pjcdn2005]

You're listing on .com so you could also list another 250 on .ca if you don't want to pay insertion or store fees.

It gets a little complicated since you have to list in 2 currencies but some sellers do it.

[mrdutch1001]

Indeed! and with the current CDN exchange rate it is still quite doable even after the fees for the conversion from USD to CDN...

[brettjet38]

A real example for one of your items, which you sold for  $5.82  plus $10.00 shipping

Which tells us nothing as we do not know what the item was, the size, the weight, the cost...