How not to lose money?!

janeke

I`m currently clearing parents` house and will have a lot of small items to sell.

I`m happy to start these as a 99p auction but is there an easy way to work out how much postage I should charge to ensure that I don`t end up out of pocket?
In the past I have weighed each item and then worked out how much the postage would be and what the ebay and paypal fees would be if I only got 99p for it - then bumped up the postage charge to make sure I will get something out of it. Is there an easier way?

mrcol1000

That is probably the best way. You may be better of choosing a price you are happy with and doing buy it now. Auctions are dying so you may end up selling items for 99p mostly.
Also you may get people moaning about postage costs if you add too much. If you have a set price you can add postage to the selling price and so do "free postage".

soolin

I think things have moved on and buyers do begrudge paying what they consider excessive amounts for postage and may well hit your stars. Personally I would keep the postage as actual plus 10% for the FVFs and load any excess onto the item start price. I see no point at all in 99p starts unless the item is guaranteed to attract lots of bids, for most items I always think it best to start at the minimum you are happy to accept.

However, do check completed listings before wasting time listing, general household tat and ornaments have a very limited appeal and might be easier to just charity shop.

DD265

I take the BIN approach. I take an educated guess at what the postage and fees will be, then add these to whatever I want for the item to set a BIN/best offer range I'm happy with. Then when I relist, I adjust the pricing accordingly.

There's just a few that I've relisted several times now and won't be putting back on; they'll go to charity, as I don't feel it's worth my while to reduce the prices any lower.

bartelbe

Auctions only really work for high demand items when you can guarantee people will bid. To be frank you are better off listing buy it now and getting a decent price for one or two items. Than selling loads at 99p with all the hassle of multiple trips to the Post Office.

If they won't get more than a few quid on ebay you're probably better off with something like a car boot sale later in the year.

cattie

Don't forget to also take into account the size of the actual wrapped item & not just weight. I've had a blonde moment a couple of times & just gone by weight, thinking item will go at large letter rate if under 1k, when in fact it's actually needed to go at small parcel rate. As the error has been mine I've needed to fork out the extra cost of postage, which has drastically reduced any profit.

hollydays

Can't help thinking you might be better to have a car boot sale . Is it worth your time packaging low value items?