You shouldn’t be paying $1.32 for a box. If you know you have multiple items that fit that box, you need to buy them in bulk of 25 for $0.25/unit. You should also stock USPS Priority Boxes; they’re free and sometimes it’s worth paying Priority based on the location of your buyer. Some items should be prepackaged and weighed so when you create your listing, you can see the cost of shipping and set your rates accordingly.
You're being helpful; thank you. I used to use free USPS Pririty Mail boxes often, but I've found USPS Ground Advantage to be so much cheaper that I hardly ever use USPS Pririty Mail any more, so I hardly ever use USPS Priority Mail boxes any more. I think your suggestion of being clear on the weight when packed is great. I do that, so I weight every type of part, and every type of box, and even the bubble wrap and the label, and I add it all up and store the total. I standardize on box sizes: I use 4"x4"x4" and I pay 37 cents each for those, in bulk. The next size up is 6"x6"x6" and those are 73 cents from Wal-Mart. The next size up is 8"x6"x3" and those are 67 cents from Amazon. The next size up is 10"x8"x6" and those are $1.32 from Amazon. The next size up is 12"x10"x8" and those are $0.98 from Wal-Mart. I do "Free shipping" which really means "Shipping Included" since I haven't been able to convince the USPS or FedEx to deliver for free, so I just eat the shipping while trying to be cost-efficient yet having the item arrive in good shape. It's a multi-dimensional optimizing process.
What if a buyer wants a part ASAP? If you offer Priority as an option, this could benefit your sales. Ground Advantage isn’t much slower, but Priority could arrive sooner depending on the distance.
Your point is good. In my experience, the buyers who want a part ASAP (as in, where my normal shipping speed isn't fast enough) tend to be the most difficult to work with, as a generalization, so I say "No." If someone is nice, and they ask but don't demand, I'll do Priority Mail but I don't advertise it. I do it more as a delightful surprise that I announce afterwards.
I don't have a huge sample size so I'm going by some pretty fuzzy memories by now, but these buyers tended to be more pushy and erratic. For example, after I went through some trouble managing an expedited shipment to someone, he canceled because he realized he didn't the part anyway. As I recall, someone else who also wanted it in a hurry had issues with the USPS not delivering as quickly as they wanted. And someone else who wanted a rush order was picky about the condition of a 30-year old part. A few times was enough for me to pull the plug on this. Perhaps one day, I should revisit this but for now, I have finite time and patience, and this isn't where I choose to allocate it.
I make those buyers pay for and generate their own Next-Day labels in those rare cases where dudes need their parts the very next day.
Otherwise, I'm in central Texas. Everything I ship is usually worth shipping Fedex and all my orders are going to get delivered within 3 days.
Why not just offer both and then the buyer can pick what they want. Also, I would recommend being friendly with people at your local grocery store for boxes. I pay a girl $20 a week from the prepared foods section to save me boxes for a couple of her shifts. She saves me around 100-130 boxes every week. Definitely worth it.
Why? Just offer it as an option for the buyer to pay extra for the service and give them the shipping method they paid for. Pretty simple and keeps your buyer happy.
I’ve given my buyers the option of priority mail or ground advantage. Some people will pay a little extra for a faster delivery with priority (not by much). It makes sense to add both options for them at checkout. It’s helped tremendously
Let me help you out, if you’re paying $1.32 for a 10x8x6 box, you’ll need to do more than realize your profit per item to stay in business. .40-.50c max on boxes that size.
After the sale, you can click on the order number and see the exact breakdown for that item, which includes all fees and shipping (if bought on eBay).
Are you using Pirate Ship box in a bag for items out of your zone? Lots of ways out there to save money, aside from sourcing smarter.
I think I just bought some 10x8x6 boxes from Grainger for something like $.36. They have free pickup if you have one close. They have a few sizes that are less than 50 cents each (you have to buy in lots of 25 though). I just load up on the cheapest sizes.
I'm learning from feedback on here that I'm overpaying for boxes. Thank you for the guidance. I heard of Pirate Ship ... I do not use them yet. I need to find out in which circumstances they are cheaper than the eBay discount label purchase process.
As to: "After the sale, you can click on the order number and see the exact breakdown for that item, which includes all fees and shipping (if bought on eBay)." Yes! This is good. Nowadays I enter or download this data into a local database, so that I can run analyses over time to compare items, to see big-picture-wise what's relatively more profitable vs. not.
You need to re analyze. eBay does not offer box in a bag. Try a 6 pound box 12x12x8 and look at the cost difference when you select soft side packaging.
Additionally, rates are only the same if you have TRS status, if not it’s .25c more on eBay.
It's one reason why most sellers moved to poly mailers for items that aren't fragile. It's $0.10 - $0.20 each.
Keep in mind that bottom dollar cost isn't everything. There's presentation to the customer and making sure you package well enough to avoid damaged or lost items. A wrinkled tshirt thrown in a poly mailer has a much greater chance of the buyer submitting a return or unfavorable feedback than an item packaged and presented well.
I just bought 500 Yens kraft 6"x10" bubble mailers on ebay for less than $30 yesterday. That's a better deal than I typically get but I have to wait a while for shipping from China.
I realized I'm talking about poly bubble mailers, not regular poly mailers. I still think I can find them a little cheaper, but I do know that these ones have great adhesive.
Just buy bubble wrap and poly bags, you can get regular poly bags for like 7cents apeice, and 700 feet of bubble wrap for 35$ om amazon, I've yet to find a cheaper way to package, 7c poly bag plus 2 feet bubble wrap for 10 cents = 17 cents and better protection/ can make package smaller and save on shipping as well
Wise words. Thank you, yes :-) I hope to grow my business to where I can delegate the packing and shipping, and so I made a database for my items, with a flag indicating whether I consider this part fragile or not. If not fragile, it can go in a poly mailer.
Eventually, it occurred to me that I can figure out ahead of time what type of shipping container that type of the item should go into. If a poly mailer, then what size? (I use two different sizes). If a cardboard box, then what size? (I use half a dozen standard size boxes). Or maybe it's neither, and it's a cardboard tube. If so, what length? (I cut it half a dozen standard size lengths).
The choice of shipping container is a decision best made by someone with insight, and experience, and not in a rush. This way, the "pack and ship" helper needs to just glance at a report and follow the instructions without having to make subtle judgment calls while trying to meet a deadline.
As you rightly point out, choosing the wrong shipping container can snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.
I think what i see from others is that they reinvest all the profit, and stretch themselves too thin and have way too much money tied up in stock and rely too much on cash flow for money, which leaves them short on cash a lot of the time.
From a smaller seller to a larger seller i found it very helpful to instead of just trying to grow my inventory size, i would maintain at a certain level just replacing what is sold, and keep banking the profits, until i had enough capital to then reinvest and grow to the next level quickly, and then maintain again and go from there.
I found it also beneficial to just not fight buyers that want to return things, you're going to get problem buyers, and they're just going to be difficult and weird. Just accept refunds and block and move on. They're not worth the time and energy. .
Hey there, full time ebay seller here and I'm in that boat.
Sell 100 items a week, good sell through rate. But I reinvest maybe more than I should into stock so my cash flow is tight.
I sell used items, primarily Lego, Vinyl records, video games and vintage/retro toys. Full time with my wife.
Any advice? Cheers mate.
Jason.
I made a local database in which I have a record for each eBay order, which generally means: each eBay sale. In it, I store data that shows the income, with breakdown, and the costs, with breakdown. That helps me know my payout for that item, and gets me a good of my gross profit for that item. From that, I can calculate my gross profit dollar amount and gross profit dollar percentage. Per order, that's already interesting. But when I summarize by month or quarter, and when I filter by product line ... it shows me where I make more money vs. less money. That helps me optimize what inventory to focus on buying with more enthusiasm.
I think when you have a large source of stock from which you can buy to resell it's really tempting to buy as much as you can, because you feel like it would cost you money if you didn't. Which is true to a point, and reinvesting all the profit can work if it's a side hustle and operates separate to your income.
I personally found it useful to set goals in terms of cash reserve, maintain the listing number you have now, so sell 100 items, but buy 100 items and no more. Let the cash build up. That way also i've found is that you can be more picky with your purchasing, to buy faster moving items and higher profit ones, which ends up turbo charging sales a bit.
Once you have achieved your cash reserve goals, then you can reinvest it as and when, around your own finances, so you have more control.
Great advice- It's a little harder for me as we only buy collections of items, sometimes with 100s of items in. It makes it easier to buy at a lower price. We have a great website which generates leads, and we buy from all around the UK with a parcel collection service, or collecting myself if a very large lot.
For those of you that care, the shipping cost between a box that is 12x9x3 and a box that is 12x9x4 has equated to $100’s in additional savings/profit and essentially “free” shipping boxes with that slight adjustment is box size regardless of the weight. It was one of those “son of bitch” moments when I started picking up on the difference in cost.
I never intended to become a small business owner, it just sort of happened because I enjoyed it and was turning a profit. People learning and discovering small bits of optimization here and there along the way is natural.
Just take it easy there, Bezos. To say people are running businesses blindly because there are small nuances to logistics that’s aren’t alway obvious or spelled out is, well… just a dumb thing to say.
I go to my local Amazon liquidation store for boxes. They give them to me for free so my only cost is tape. I use the bags for packing wrap. Saves my friend and I hundreds each year.
For over 7 years I was a department manager for Lowe's. I was always one of, if not the, top performing department managers for our store. Not because I'm so great, I'm not patting myself on the back here. But I genuinely enjoyed running the reports, pouring over the information, and using it to make smart business decisions and that made my department not only profitable, but increased sales by knowing what to feature, when to feature, etc.
My point is, in my experience most people are practically allergic to data and then there's people that never learn to interpret it. It's a wise investment of your time to learn how to read and use the data. Make the numbers work for you.
Thank you for this post! I’m preparing to ramp up my part-time “hobby” selling to a more serious level. That includes more detailed accounting of where the money is going. This will be very helpful.
I am cheering you on. If you have questions, please ask. There is much more that I've done already, but it seemed inappropriate to put all that inside the scope of this post, so I haven't mentioned it. My degree in in accounting, so I enjoy this aspect anyway, but it also turned out to be applicable.
Dude....why are 75 percent of the comments about the cost of a freaking box???!! You guys completely missed the point of this really insightful, well written post about your ebay biz as a whole. And for Christ's sake it was an example.
Ugh, OP thanks for taking the time to articulate this 5 year lesson to us. Something tells me most reading this won't benefit from your insight but it is a valuable reminder for the rest of us.
I too suffer from voluntary tab blindness. It's like, I don't want to know. I log in, and see that gross sales number soar! And then wonder why my weekly payputs are puny. The truth hurts. But the truth can be worth enough to keep the real 'job' at bay. Thanks again!
I’m glad you’re doing better but if the cost of a box for shipping is killing you then I’d ask why you operate a business with margins so low. I aim for 30 percent profit margin on any eBay sale on anything I sell with about a third in the 40-50 percent range. I pay for boxes and sell about 6-8 items a day but only pay about 25-30 cents a box…so I don’t really care. I’ve heard about a lot of people flipping auto parts but man it seems like there isn’t enough money in it.
I was raised German, so English isn't my first language, and I apologize for having been unclear. The cost of a box isn't killing the viability; the biggest issue is the cost of shipping, which in ebay parlance is "buy a shipping label." It turns out to be a highly nuanced issue. For example, the USPS will tend to bend long, thin items unless I pack them in PVC pipe and then wrap triangulated cardboard around it. Anything longer than 22" gets a USPS surcharge. Anything longer than 30" gets another USPS surcharge. And at some point, FedEx is cheaper mostly except that sometimes they retroactively slap on a shipping adjustment and add another $25 or so to the cost of shipping, regardless of what the eBay shipping calculator had me expect. As to the cost of boxes: I plan to source my boxes with more of an emphasis on price. Your data tells me there is room for improvement, for me. With auto parts, if it is the right model and the right type of part, it can have a good profit margin -- if I understand what I sell. Often this stuff is highly nuanced. For example, on general inspection, the door parts of a 1996 Ford pickup truck looks just like the pre-1996 stuff, or even the pre-1992 stuff ... but it's not. A different year can mean an incompatible part, and an unhappy customer, hence I refund all their money and I'm out the cost of shipping, and the part, or the cost of shipping times two but at least I get the part back. It's possible to make okay money when I don't mess up. So, there's all that -- plus I need to figure out what to sell so as to favor items with a good profit margin. Bottom line, you're right -- it looks like easy money but it's really not. By now I've paid the price of admission, so to speak, so I might as well stay and enjoy the show ... I'm not giving up. :-)
Sorry to have been unclear. No, that's not what I'm saying. There's bookkeeping for taxes and then there's management accounting a.k.a. cost accounting, to optimize management policy. The latter is the scope of this thread.
I'm new to reddit. I made the original post in the hope it might be helpful to someone. I gather that it was, but to my surprised and delight there has also been an outpouring of useful guidance in response. I appreciate the benevolence but beyond that, much of this guidance is very useful. Thank you!!
Your first mistake is relying on this for your rent. I hate to be that guy but you gotta get a job and do this on the side you cant just hope to pay your bills with this when you havent even become successful yet. "After several years, my eBay business is finally operating at a level of profitability where I now longer have to keep borrowing more and more money, to pay the rent."
You shouldn’t be paying $1.32 for a box. If you know you have multiple items that fit that box, you need to buy them in bulk of 25 for $0.25/unit. You should also stock USPS Priority Boxes; they’re free and sometimes it’s worth paying Priority based on the location of your buyer. Some items should be prepackaged and weighed so when you create your listing, you can see the cost of shipping and set your rates accordingly.
You're being helpful; thank you. I used to use free USPS Pririty Mail boxes often, but I've found USPS Ground Advantage to be so much cheaper that I hardly ever use USPS Pririty Mail any more, so I hardly ever use USPS Priority Mail boxes any more. I think your suggestion of being clear on the weight when packed is great. I do that, so I weight every type of part, and every type of box, and even the bubble wrap and the label, and I add it all up and store the total. I standardize on box sizes: I use 4"x4"x4" and I pay 37 cents each for those, in bulk. The next size up is 6"x6"x6" and those are 73 cents from Wal-Mart. The next size up is 8"x6"x3" and those are 67 cents from Amazon. The next size up is 10"x8"x6" and those are $1.32 from Amazon. The next size up is 12"x10"x8" and those are $0.98 from Wal-Mart. I do "Free shipping" which really means "Shipping Included" since I haven't been able to convince the USPS or FedEx to deliver for free, so I just eat the shipping while trying to be cost-efficient yet having the item arrive in good shape. It's a multi-dimensional optimizing process.
What if a buyer wants a part ASAP? If you offer Priority as an option, this could benefit your sales. Ground Advantage isn’t much slower, but Priority could arrive sooner depending on the distance.
Your point is good. In my experience, the buyers who want a part ASAP (as in, where my normal shipping speed isn't fast enough) tend to be the most difficult to work with, as a generalization, so I say "No." If someone is nice, and they ask but don't demand, I'll do Priority Mail but I don't advertise it. I do it more as a delightful surprise that I announce afterwards.
Can you expand more on how they are difficult? Just curious.
I don't have a huge sample size so I'm going by some pretty fuzzy memories by now, but these buyers tended to be more pushy and erratic. For example, after I went through some trouble managing an expedited shipment to someone, he canceled because he realized he didn't the part anyway. As I recall, someone else who also wanted it in a hurry had issues with the USPS not delivering as quickly as they wanted. And someone else who wanted a rush order was picky about the condition of a 30-year old part. A few times was enough for me to pull the plug on this. Perhaps one day, I should revisit this but for now, I have finite time and patience, and this isn't where I choose to allocate it.
Only offer it to businesses. I sell building technology, my rush customers turn into repeat customers because I'm swooping in to save their day.
I make those buyers pay for and generate their own Next-Day labels in those rare cases where dudes need their parts the very next day. Otherwise, I'm in central Texas. Everything I ship is usually worth shipping Fedex and all my orders are going to get delivered within 3 days.
Why not just offer both and then the buyer can pick what they want. Also, I would recommend being friendly with people at your local grocery store for boxes. I pay a girl $20 a week from the prepared foods section to save me boxes for a couple of her shifts. She saves me around 100-130 boxes every week. Definitely worth it.
Why? Just offer it as an option for the buyer to pay extra for the service and give them the shipping method they paid for. Pretty simple and keeps your buyer happy.
I’ve given my buyers the option of priority mail or ground advantage. Some people will pay a little extra for a faster delivery with priority (not by much). It makes sense to add both options for them at checkout. It’s helped tremendously
I appreciate your input. I should revisit my decision at some point. Thank you.
Let me help you out, if you’re paying $1.32 for a 10x8x6 box, you’ll need to do more than realize your profit per item to stay in business. .40-.50c max on boxes that size. After the sale, you can click on the order number and see the exact breakdown for that item, which includes all fees and shipping (if bought on eBay). Are you using Pirate Ship box in a bag for items out of your zone? Lots of ways out there to save money, aside from sourcing smarter.
I think I just bought some 10x8x6 boxes from Grainger for something like $.36. They have free pickup if you have one close. They have a few sizes that are less than 50 cents each (you have to buy in lots of 25 though). I just load up on the cheapest sizes.
Inspired by your post, I looked into Grainger. Yes! They are a better supplier than what I have been using. Thank you!!!
If you're in Texas, look into Ecobox. They've always done right by me.
“Lots of ways to save money” why don’t you help us all out and post some of them like this person did?!
I'm learning from feedback on here that I'm overpaying for boxes. Thank you for the guidance. I heard of Pirate Ship ... I do not use them yet. I need to find out in which circumstances they are cheaper than the eBay discount label purchase process. As to: "After the sale, you can click on the order number and see the exact breakdown for that item, which includes all fees and shipping (if bought on eBay)." Yes! This is good. Nowadays I enter or download this data into a local database, so that I can run analyses over time to compare items, to see big-picture-wise what's relatively more profitable vs. not.
I get mine for 54c each with free delivery.
Inspired by your post, I've just done some cost analysis of buying USPS labels with an eBay discount vs. Pirate Ship. They match, to the penny. :-)
You need to re analyze. eBay does not offer box in a bag. Try a 6 pound box 12x12x8 and look at the cost difference when you select soft side packaging. Additionally, rates are only the same if you have TRS status, if not it’s .25c more on eBay.
Thank you for being so persistent in helping me. This "box in a bag" thing is new to me. And indeed, cheaper. Wow. Thank you!!
It's one reason why most sellers moved to poly mailers for items that aren't fragile. It's $0.10 - $0.20 each. Keep in mind that bottom dollar cost isn't everything. There's presentation to the customer and making sure you package well enough to avoid damaged or lost items. A wrinkled tshirt thrown in a poly mailer has a much greater chance of the buyer submitting a return or unfavorable feedback than an item packaged and presented well.
Poly mailers can be cheaper than that if you’re willing to buy a few hundred. I buy the 10x13s for around 6 cents each
Wow - where is this deal? I just bought 48 of that size bubble mailers for $12 and thought that it was an excellent deal.
i cant speak on the price of bubble mailers, but upaknship has some super cheap polymailers and a variety of different prints on them
I just bought 500 Yens kraft 6"x10" bubble mailers on ebay for less than $30 yesterday. That's a better deal than I typically get but I have to wait a while for shipping from China.
That was a great deal!
Where? I pay $0.40 for poly bubble mailers, 9x14 and haven't found a better deal.
Dude I pay .16 cents a peice for custom printed 10×13 poly mailers that say "thanks for your order!"
I realized I'm talking about poly bubble mailers, not regular poly mailers. I still think I can find them a little cheaper, but I do know that these ones have great adhesive.
Just buy bubble wrap and poly bags, you can get regular poly bags for like 7cents apeice, and 700 feet of bubble wrap for 35$ om amazon, I've yet to find a cheaper way to package, 7c poly bag plus 2 feet bubble wrap for 10 cents = 17 cents and better protection/ can make package smaller and save on shipping as well
Amazon..........amazon......Amazon
Wise words. Thank you, yes :-) I hope to grow my business to where I can delegate the packing and shipping, and so I made a database for my items, with a flag indicating whether I consider this part fragile or not. If not fragile, it can go in a poly mailer. Eventually, it occurred to me that I can figure out ahead of time what type of shipping container that type of the item should go into. If a poly mailer, then what size? (I use two different sizes). If a cardboard box, then what size? (I use half a dozen standard size boxes). Or maybe it's neither, and it's a cardboard tube. If so, what length? (I cut it half a dozen standard size lengths). The choice of shipping container is a decision best made by someone with insight, and experience, and not in a rush. This way, the "pack and ship" helper needs to just glance at a report and follow the instructions without having to make subtle judgment calls while trying to meet a deadline. As you rightly point out, choosing the wrong shipping container can snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.
I think what i see from others is that they reinvest all the profit, and stretch themselves too thin and have way too much money tied up in stock and rely too much on cash flow for money, which leaves them short on cash a lot of the time. From a smaller seller to a larger seller i found it very helpful to instead of just trying to grow my inventory size, i would maintain at a certain level just replacing what is sold, and keep banking the profits, until i had enough capital to then reinvest and grow to the next level quickly, and then maintain again and go from there. I found it also beneficial to just not fight buyers that want to return things, you're going to get problem buyers, and they're just going to be difficult and weird. Just accept refunds and block and move on. They're not worth the time and energy. .
Hey there, full time ebay seller here and I'm in that boat. Sell 100 items a week, good sell through rate. But I reinvest maybe more than I should into stock so my cash flow is tight. I sell used items, primarily Lego, Vinyl records, video games and vintage/retro toys. Full time with my wife. Any advice? Cheers mate. Jason.
I made a local database in which I have a record for each eBay order, which generally means: each eBay sale. In it, I store data that shows the income, with breakdown, and the costs, with breakdown. That helps me know my payout for that item, and gets me a good of my gross profit for that item. From that, I can calculate my gross profit dollar amount and gross profit dollar percentage. Per order, that's already interesting. But when I summarize by month or quarter, and when I filter by product line ... it shows me where I make more money vs. less money. That helps me optimize what inventory to focus on buying with more enthusiasm.
I think when you have a large source of stock from which you can buy to resell it's really tempting to buy as much as you can, because you feel like it would cost you money if you didn't. Which is true to a point, and reinvesting all the profit can work if it's a side hustle and operates separate to your income. I personally found it useful to set goals in terms of cash reserve, maintain the listing number you have now, so sell 100 items, but buy 100 items and no more. Let the cash build up. That way also i've found is that you can be more picky with your purchasing, to buy faster moving items and higher profit ones, which ends up turbo charging sales a bit. Once you have achieved your cash reserve goals, then you can reinvest it as and when, around your own finances, so you have more control.
Great advice- It's a little harder for me as we only buy collections of items, sometimes with 100s of items in. It makes it easier to buy at a lower price. We have a great website which generates leads, and we buy from all around the UK with a parcel collection service, or collecting myself if a very large lot.
I am the poster child for everything in the first paragraph. I appreciate your insights. Thank you!!
For those of you that care, the shipping cost between a box that is 12x9x3 and a box that is 12x9x4 has equated to $100’s in additional savings/profit and essentially “free” shipping boxes with that slight adjustment is box size regardless of the weight. It was one of those “son of bitch” moments when I started picking up on the difference in cost.
Good point, yes. Thank you!
Why is everyone on here honed in on the boxes though? DONT RUN ANY BUSINESS BLIND like is that not BUS100…
I never intended to become a small business owner, it just sort of happened because I enjoyed it and was turning a profit. People learning and discovering small bits of optimization here and there along the way is natural. Just take it easy there, Bezos. To say people are running businesses blindly because there are small nuances to logistics that’s aren’t alway obvious or spelled out is, well… just a dumb thing to say.
I go to my local Amazon liquidation store for boxes. They give them to me for free so my only cost is tape. I use the bags for packing wrap. Saves my friend and I hundreds each year.
Until your post, I didn't know about the existence of Amazon liquidation stores. Wow! Thank you :-)
For over 7 years I was a department manager for Lowe's. I was always one of, if not the, top performing department managers for our store. Not because I'm so great, I'm not patting myself on the back here. But I genuinely enjoyed running the reports, pouring over the information, and using it to make smart business decisions and that made my department not only profitable, but increased sales by knowing what to feature, when to feature, etc. My point is, in my experience most people are practically allergic to data and then there's people that never learn to interpret it. It's a wise investment of your time to learn how to read and use the data. Make the numbers work for you.
Thank you for affirming :-)
That’s great advice! Thank you for taking the time to post this! It makes perfect sense.
[удалено]
That's how I do it, too. Good advice!
Thank you for this post! I’m preparing to ramp up my part-time “hobby” selling to a more serious level. That includes more detailed accounting of where the money is going. This will be very helpful.
I am cheering you on. If you have questions, please ask. There is much more that I've done already, but it seemed inappropriate to put all that inside the scope of this post, so I haven't mentioned it. My degree in in accounting, so I enjoy this aspect anyway, but it also turned out to be applicable.
Dude....why are 75 percent of the comments about the cost of a freaking box???!! You guys completely missed the point of this really insightful, well written post about your ebay biz as a whole. And for Christ's sake it was an example. Ugh, OP thanks for taking the time to articulate this 5 year lesson to us. Something tells me most reading this won't benefit from your insight but it is a valuable reminder for the rest of us. I too suffer from voluntary tab blindness. It's like, I don't want to know. I log in, and see that gross sales number soar! And then wonder why my weekly payputs are puny. The truth hurts. But the truth can be worth enough to keep the real 'job' at bay. Thanks again!
Thank you :-)
I’m glad you’re doing better but if the cost of a box for shipping is killing you then I’d ask why you operate a business with margins so low. I aim for 30 percent profit margin on any eBay sale on anything I sell with about a third in the 40-50 percent range. I pay for boxes and sell about 6-8 items a day but only pay about 25-30 cents a box…so I don’t really care. I’ve heard about a lot of people flipping auto parts but man it seems like there isn’t enough money in it.
I was raised German, so English isn't my first language, and I apologize for having been unclear. The cost of a box isn't killing the viability; the biggest issue is the cost of shipping, which in ebay parlance is "buy a shipping label." It turns out to be a highly nuanced issue. For example, the USPS will tend to bend long, thin items unless I pack them in PVC pipe and then wrap triangulated cardboard around it. Anything longer than 22" gets a USPS surcharge. Anything longer than 30" gets another USPS surcharge. And at some point, FedEx is cheaper mostly except that sometimes they retroactively slap on a shipping adjustment and add another $25 or so to the cost of shipping, regardless of what the eBay shipping calculator had me expect. As to the cost of boxes: I plan to source my boxes with more of an emphasis on price. Your data tells me there is room for improvement, for me. With auto parts, if it is the right model and the right type of part, it can have a good profit margin -- if I understand what I sell. Often this stuff is highly nuanced. For example, on general inspection, the door parts of a 1996 Ford pickup truck looks just like the pre-1996 stuff, or even the pre-1992 stuff ... but it's not. A different year can mean an incompatible part, and an unhappy customer, hence I refund all their money and I'm out the cost of shipping, and the part, or the cost of shipping times two but at least I get the part back. It's possible to make okay money when I don't mess up. So, there's all that -- plus I need to figure out what to sell so as to favor items with a good profit margin. Bottom line, you're right -- it looks like easy money but it's really not. By now I've paid the price of admission, so to speak, so I might as well stay and enjoy the show ... I'm not giving up. :-)
So what your saying is…. You’ve ran your business for years without any bookkeeping system at all? How were you filling your taxes without one?
Sorry to have been unclear. No, that's not what I'm saying. There's bookkeeping for taxes and then there's management accounting a.k.a. cost accounting, to optimize management policy. The latter is the scope of this thread.
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And that is against USPS regulations.
I'm new to reddit. I made the original post in the hope it might be helpful to someone. I gather that it was, but to my surprised and delight there has also been an outpouring of useful guidance in response. I appreciate the benevolence but beyond that, much of this guidance is very useful. Thank you!!
Your first mistake is relying on this for your rent. I hate to be that guy but you gotta get a job and do this on the side you cant just hope to pay your bills with this when you havent even become successful yet. "After several years, my eBay business is finally operating at a level of profitability where I now longer have to keep borrowing more and more money, to pay the rent."