# Questioning E-Bay Opportunities



## tn_junk (Nov 28, 2006)

Just finished the Quarterly report on my E-Bay business. It is costing me (E-Bay and PayPal) 22.6% of my gross sales in Fees. 42.6% of my auction listings during this time period sold. 96.9% of my sales during this period were auction, as I only got my Store started on 3/15/09. 
By the time I figure in my COGS and other costs, I am making only about 26% Net Profit on my Total Sales. That sounds like a very nice Net Profit %, but I would need to sell about $10,000 per month to make any kind of living at this. 
I am starting to believe there is no way I can depend on E-Bay to be my basic source of income, as I see no way to get $10,000 worth of quality merchandise to sell each month.
Anybody got any input on this?

alan

ps: What method/software are you using for your Cost Accounting. I am used to Big Corporate Business where I could get the exact percentage, out to 4 decimal places, on what the item cost to make/buy and what type of profit margin I was seeing on each and every item. Am I overdoing my Cost Accounting efforts? I spent about 7-1/2 hours on summarizing my first quarter $.


----------



## bluemoonluck (Oct 28, 2008)

The vast majority of people who sell on ebay (myself included) do it part time. From what I understand, it is very difficult to make a "full-time wage" by selling on ebay. The exception seems to be for those people who need very little monthly income to begin with, and who also have items that sell consistently with a high mark-up.

OTOH, when you consider how much it would cost for you to open up a brick-and-mortar store to sell your wares, ebay's not such a bad deal.....


----------



## clovis (May 13, 2002)

I am not getting rich on ebay, and sales are down this year. On the other hand, I cannot complain too much about the amount I sell every day.

I have a friend that hits commercial auctions, and does *very, very* well reselling on ebay. He is very smart, and knows alot about alot of different items. He also works very hard buying and selling. 

For him, working hard and smart earns him great wages. He hits at least 4 auctions a week, and works at least 8 hours a day.

The same thing holds true for me too. I make my best money at commercial auctions.

FWIW, I think it could be your product mix. Since tools are way down, have you focused on anything else? Garden tractor parts? Toy trains? Sewing machine parts? 

I have found at auctions that most resellers are focusing on the very well known items, like Lionel trains, Snap-On tools, Coca Cola items, old fishing lures, etc. I tend to focus on items that others are not looking for. Most folks don't know the difference between an All American canner and a Mirro brand, but both do well on ebay typically. For instance, I was at an auction that had great trains that went sky-high. I didn't buy a single train because the ebayers and collectors were already on them. One engine brought $100, and re-sold on ebay for $130. Instead, I bought a box of kitchen items that had 3 identical canning items in it for $2. I sold the 3 small items for $15 each in one ad on ebay, and they all sold in one day. I flea marketed the rest of the box for $20. I made more money than the guy that bought the train, but had less risk. And no one knew why I bought the box of kitchen items. 

I also flea market, and you might be surprised how well a person can do on common every day items that are marked reasonably.

The flea market helps make the days that I spend at auctions more profitable. For example, I might not win the Snap-On tool chest, but I can pick up office chairs for $5 and flip them for $25 each. 

Just some ideas.
Clove


----------



## tn_junk (Nov 28, 2006)

Clovis and all:
Thanks for the input. I also do auctions and flea markets, both buying and selling. And I do, *really do*, need to know more than I do about many things. I need to learn about canners/cooking stuff, collectable glass, vintage anything. Ya'll are totally correct about my product mix. 
As far as working, I am putting in about 50 hours a week right now between buying and selling. Could cut that in half, but I am doing all my E-Bay listings using dial-up: no T1, Cable or other "fast" internet services available. 
Thanks for the info. 
alan


----------



## clovis (May 13, 2002)

Alan,

One of the best things my ebay friend recommended was to spend some time looking at completed auctions on ebay.

For many months, I would spend 15 minutes to an hour a day just looking at completed categories. It won't make you an expert in anything, but it seemed to expand my knowledge of things. It will give you an understanding of what others are specializing in. You probably already knew that some folks buy old riding mowers and part them out, down to the last nut and bolt. Others are doing the exact same thing with sewing machines. I had no idea that people were doing this before I studied categories. 

Another thing that I do, and I am sure that you are doing it too, is to look up absolutely everthing you buy at auctions.

I hope these ideas help; I don't mean to insult your intelligence.

I am on slow dial-up too.

Clove


----------



## sisterpine (May 9, 2004)

I agree with a long visit to the completed auctions site. Not only does it help with pricing and finding out how often items like yours sell it also is a way to watch how sales go up and down and how other popular sellers deal with these issues. sis


----------



## NostalgicGranny (Aug 22, 2007)

I used to do eBay all the time. Then they pretty well fee'd me out of existence, and we moved to the country where I just didn't have access to get the products I had developed a rep for. 

I can say one of the smartest things I ever did was open an eBay store. Within 2 weeks I had doubled my profits. If a particular item doesn't sell after you have listed it twice, park it in your store. List companion items or goes well together items in your regular auctions.

Another thing I did was research my customers bidding habits. If they bought a pink towel from me, and my research shows they are bidding only on pink items then I list all of the pink stuff I have on hand.

I used excel to keep track of the auctions. With a single click of the mouse you can see which items sell for the highest dollar amount, or which items sell the most, etc.


----------



## Ken Scharabok (May 11, 2002)

I typically use auctions as a teaser to send people to my store. In January I did $3,824 in sales. eBay cost me $424 - or 11% of gross and PayPal another 4.6% of gross, for 15.6% of gross for the month. While I can somewhat justify the eBay charges, those for PayPal seem VERY high since it is essentially electronic banking. (Also, now eBay essentially forces you to use PayPal.)

It is a nice side income, but certainly not something I could live on if it was my only source.


----------

