The joys of Ebay.
Ive been a buyer on ebay for awhile, but I only recently made the jump to seller. Boy, I dont know how soon I want to do that again….The fees that are charged are seeminly reasonable, however, if your item doesnt sell, you get to pay them AGAIN. And AGAIN. Not only that, you pay for each little perk, like extra photos, large size photos, custom “store”, “priority listing” service and on and on. So, if you have, say, 20 items to sell (like I did) you are looking at approximately $30-$50 dollars AT LEAST!!! Just for the LISTING!!!!!
I did my research, I knew how much a NWT/NWOT (new with tags/new without tags) item sold for…I discounted my items several times, and all I can figure is that the lean times are making folks even more penurious. The sad thing is, Im expected to estimate correct shipping, and that is actually more costly than you might think. For example, an ankle length dress (NWOT) actually cost about $7-$8 to ship MINIMUM! Thats almost as much as I was asking for the Dress!!!! Of course, heavier items cost more. Even if you use the “flat rate” option, you still pay thru the nose in my opinion.
There are so many other considerations, such as what payment methods you’ll accept, whether or not to require insurance, how long to list (the cost is more for longer listing) whether to offer “buy it now” and what starting price to use. That last bit is crucial. I always use the least amount Im willing to accept. For example, for a NWT dress, I asked for approx $10 to start. I ended up going a little lower a second time around, which chapped my hide because when I priced the dress on the site where I originally bought it, they were selling for quite a bit more! Keep in mind, this is a NEVER WORN item. Still had the TAG! and I ended up taking a LOSS! add in the postage, and I definitely took a bath…..over and over again.
Ah well…….I learned my lesson. If it dont sell the first time, give it to charity, and cut yer losses. Its back to buying for me 🙂
Its ALL Blarney!! 
Welcome to the joys of eBay.
My parents (well, dad) sells on there. That is his job. His sales, so he said, have gone through the roof this past month. Which isn’t saying much for how bad it’s been lately, but is a good thing.
Fees are high, yes. They rip you off. However, I think there’s some way around the higher fees…I think. Something like that. I don’t know.
However, postage is hell, yes. Have to keep up on price increases and whatnot with that – good scales come in handy.
Sorry for your troubles, it takes time to learn.
Gotta learn the ropes and all. Andandand…research what others sell the same stuff for on eBay…It helps, honest. Don’t just go by what stores sell it for.
trust me, I waited a long time before becoming a seller. for just these reasons….and I really felt I had a good handle on what the market would bear (so to speak). Im not greedy, but I’d at least like to make a smidge of a profit over and above what the postage cost….at any rate, I about broke even, and at least I got good feedback so it wasnt an entire loss…