MSE News: eBay sellers beware - its fees now eat into postage costs

MillieMoodle

yes, I should have said start at 99p but if you start it there better be happy selling it there - it is a good possibility. Also, as I said for many we're not making much money from this - so it is a penalisation to small time or new starters.

soolin

MillieMoodle wrote: »

yes, I should have said start at 99p but if you start it there better be happy selling it there - it is a good possibility. Also, as I said for many we're not making much money from this - so it is a penalisation to small time or new starters.

I don't understand this point. All sellers are able to start at a price they want , small sellers, big sellers, business or private. eBay can recommend a 99p start all they want and any seller can ignore the 'advice'.

In fact private sellers have an advantage over business sellers, as business sellers are charged to list.

RFW

MillieMoodle wrote: »

yes, I should have said start at 99p but if you start it there better be happy selling it there - it is a good possibility. Also, as I said for many we're not making much money from this - so it is a penalisation to small time or new starters.

It's only a 'penalisation' if you use it. A 99p start Iphone won't sell for that. A start up business would take into account any fees before starting, I'd quite like a shop on Oxford Street, London but the rents are out of my price range by a few hundred thousand a week.

MillieMoodle

Well - ok this was the situation I had. I came to possess some lights. I used some for my purposes and decided to sell the others. I was able to sell 3 of them for 10 pounds. Great, right? But then I get a fee for selling - which is fair. Ebay has given me the platform to sell but then I also get a fee for shipping them. They're big items so postage is high so their proportional fee is also high. Now you may say well you still came out ahead but as I spent days cleaning them of paint, refurbishing them, making sure they worked, packing them carefully - it seems then not a good balance. I also like to make jewelry, my time in making it, buying the stuff to make it, to sell it for little but then to pay more for the expense I take on for shipping, becomes prohibitive. If I am just starting out, I don't have the reputation to put high amounts on my items. I have to start small so I encourage buyers to even look twice at me but I suspect with my time and fees on the small amount of profit and then fees on my expenses - well this is a hard place to start out from. So when I was asking where to go, I was literally saying for someone with little ability to have all the cogs greased, a lot of time and expense, it isn't helping the small time people get started and it is penalising them for the wrongs of those in the past (who charged too much for postage).

theonlywayisup

MillieMoodle wrote: »

Well - ok this was the situation I had. I came to possess some lights. I used some for my purposes and decided to sell the others. I was able to sell 3 of them for 10 pounds. Great, right? But then I get a fee for selling - which is fair. Ebay has given me the platform to sell but then I also get a fee for shipping them. They're big items so postage is high so their proportional fee is also high. Now you may say well you still came out ahead but as I spent days cleaning them of paint, refurbishing them, making sure they worked, packing them carefully - it seems then not a good balance. I also like to make jewelry, my time in making it, buying the stuff to make it, to sell it for little but then to pay more for the expense I take on for shipping, becomes prohibitive. If I am just starting out, I don't have the reputation to put high amounts on my items. I have to start small so I encourage buyers to even look twice at me but I suspect with my time and fees on the small amount of profit and then fees on my expenses - well this is a hard place to start out from. So when I was asking where to go, I was literally saying for someone with little ability to have all the cogs greased, a lot of time and expense, it isn't helping the small time people get started and it is penalising them for the wrongs of those in the past (who charged too much for postage).

Even with your edit, your post makes little sense.

soolin

MillieMoodle wrote: »

Well - ok this was the situation I had. I came to possess some lights. I used some for my purposes and decided to sell the others. I was able to sell 3 of them for 10 pounds. Great, right? But then I get a fee for selling - which is fair. Ebay has given me the platform to sell but then I also get a fee for shipping them. They're big items so postage is high so their proportional fee is also high. Now you may say well you still came out ahead but as I spent days cleaning them of paint, refurbishing them, making sure they worked, packing them carefully - it seems then not a good balance. I also like to make jewelry, my time in making it, buying the stuff to make it, to sell it for little but then to pay more for the expense I take on for shipping, becomes prohibitive. If I am just starting out, I don't have the reputation to put high amounts on my items. I have to start small so I encourage buyers to even look twice at me but I suspect with my time and fees on the small amount of profit and then fees on my expenses - well this is a hard place to start out from. So when I was asking where to go, I was literally saying for someone with little ability to have all the cogs greased, a lot of time and expense, it isn't helping the small time people get started and it is penalising them for the wrongs of those in the past (who charged too much for postage).

Incidentally, selling hand made jewellery makes you a business. Anecdotally people seem happier to buy from businesses, with all the protection that gives them, so maybe consider registering properly and presenting yourself properly as a business.

As a business you will struggle to use preloved as you have to tick to confirm that you are not selling in the course of a business.

Jewellery though is notoriously difficult, everybody and their dog set up hand made jewellery businesses in the past few years- there a endless threads in the 'up your income board' about how difficult it is to get people to buy.

RFW

MillieMoodle wrote: »

Well - ok this was the situation I had. I came to possess some lights. I used some for my purposes and decided to sell the others. I was able to sell 3 of them for 10 pounds. Great, right? But then I get a fee for selling - which is fair. Ebay has given me the platform to sell but then I also get a fee for shipping them. They're big items so postage is high so their proportional fee is also high. Now you may say well you still came out ahead but as I spent days cleaning them of paint, refurbishing them, making sure they worked, packing them carefully - it seems then not a good balance. I also like to make jewelry, my time in making it, buying the stuff to make it, to sell it for little but then to pay more for the expense I take on for shipping, becomes prohibitive. If I am just starting out, I don't have the reputation to put high amounts on my items. I have to start small so I encourage buyers to even look twice at me but I suspect with my time and fees on the small amount of profit and then fees on my expenses - well this is a hard place to start out from. So when I was asking where to go, I was literally saying for someone with little ability to have all the cogs greased, a lot of time and expense, it isn't helping the small time people get started and it is penalising them for the wrongs of those in the past (who charged too much for postage).

Oh. It's an unfair world sometimes. If you're trying to start a business there are lots of sales venues, products, etc that you have to dismiss before settling on something profitable. Ebay are in it for the money, not to help people start a business.
Amazon actually offer some relatively good incentives for start ups, Ebay never have. Google offer some Adwords discounts for start ups if you're planning your own website or other promotions. There are also Facebook pages worth looking at.

MillieMoodle

Well I've not sold anything - yet (only make stuff for friends/family as gifts) - I hope to but know that I can't charge anything premium when I have no reputation to stand on. So I'd have to go low to start, hope for good feedback and move from there. Jewelry is difficult I know since it is littered with people doing it but I'd like to move from job to something I enjoy and I enjoy jewelry...and hope I can be good at it. But I only buy supplies from British sources and haven't done any wholesale stuff so probably paying over the odds in not going wholesale but I am not up to that quite yet.

MillieMoodle

I thought about doing other stuff (even the lights after my initial success high! but postage to send that out all the time is way too high!)

As for ebay wanting their share and not caring about start ups seems a bad logic, if they can help sellers get started, then they'll have more sellers and therefore more profit. They can either charge everyone lots of fees and the big sellers will pay them and the small ones will die away or charge reasonable fees, which promote more sellers and without knowing the maths, would seem they'd do pretty well with that logic and maintain a good rep too. I see lots of people up in arms about this new fee.

MillieMoodle

whatever...to TheOnlyWayIsUP. If you've nothing good to say, then...