It is amazing how many people selling products on ebay and, for that matter, other venues that have no clue if they are making or losing money. Many say its fun, but too complex with all the fees to keep track and determine if they make or lose money. If you are an ebay seller, here is how find out if your ebaying is making you money or just making ebay money.
Do the Math! Its really not that hard! Its just basic addition and subtraction. Add these numbers together:
- 1. The initial cost of the item you are selling on Ebay
- 2. Your insertion fee
- 3. Your photo hosting fee if any
- 4. Aany extra fees, (multiple category, gallery, subtitle fees, featured listing fees, etc. if there are any)
- 5. Relisting fees if item doess’t sell
- 6. When your item sells, add your final value fees
- 7. Paypal fees
The formula will look something like this:
Selling price-(insertion fee + (multiple category fees + sub title fees + any relisting + final value fees + paypal fees)= Profit or loss.
Right? Nope. Thats just part of the story. Now you need to account for the cost of aquiring the item.
The cost of acquisition includes the time you spent acquiring the item plus any other related expenses such as vehicle expense and food and lodging expense, if any. And thats not all!!
Now add the time for taking photos, cost of a photo setting such as dividers and props, if any. The time to crop and size the photo and the time to write the item description and do the actual listing at minimum wage must also be added.
Now your formula looks something like this:
Selling price-(insertion fee + (multiple category fees + sub title fees + any relisting + final value fees + paypal fees) + expense to acquire item (gas and time) + photo preparation + description writing + listing (time)
= Profit or loss.
Do you have anything left? If you do, that’s what you are making on eBay. If not, you are losing your shirt. Find something else to sell!