I'm new to selling on ebay, and I'm wondering if there is anyway around this rule that I can only sell up to $1,000 a month, or 10 sales. On another note, do you have any secrets to saving money on packaging? I have a whole bunch of small value coins that I am wanting to sell, and am trying to keep my packaging costs down. Any other advice would be great. If you don't want to advertise your secrets, but still want to share please PM me. TYVM ~Jason:yes:
I think they limit newcomers to ween out any possible fraudulent sellers, etc. Once you establish yourself, I'd imagine they allow you to sell more items at once and a higher value in sales per month. Perhaps it's in their FAQ or help center that outlines their rules. I only buy occassionally. I can't stand eBay or Paypal for the most part, they have horrible customer service.
A quick search found this in their support section: http://pages.ebay.com/help/sell/sellinglimits.html
Hi Jason, I'm not sure about the selling limits, but I do have some suggestions on shipping. Most importantly, use Delivery Confirmation on everything. That is the only way to help protect yourself from fraudulent claims through Paypal Buyer Protection. It still doesn't cover you if your item gets lost in the mail, Paypal always sides with the buyer, but if it is delivered the buyer can't use the "I never got it" scam. Second, buy your supplies in bulk. I hunt ebay for the cheapest deals on bubble mailers, and with a little patience you can score a full box of them really cheap. When I first started selling, I would just buy what I needed at the time. As sales increased, that became a major hassle and a big expense, so going bulk made the most sense. Lastly, with small value items I like to try to group them into lots when possible. That reduces the listing fee totals and you can send them in one package. Hope this helps. Joe
I'd say, go as far as even insuring the item as well, including the shipping costs. If it is lost, you lost the actual item but you break even in actual cost as well.
Try out a few auctions with "free shipping" in your posting. Your auctions will be more favorable to bites and will get more bids as a result. I use it all the time for the small single coins and bank notes.
Yeah, I've bought a few coins I knew the 1.95 or more shipping was craziness but wanted them anyways. But then to see it come in a regular envelope with a 50 cent stamp, then I get a little irritated but soon get over it as I'm inspecting my new coin. If it's gonna cost you under a buck to ship, it should always be free shipping I say. I can only understand if you got to actually add a little bit of packing material that costs money to pad the shipping costs a bit, maybe a little bit more for travel time and gas to ship as well.
For cheap stuff, like under $10, don't even bother with delivery confirmation. Stick them in a reular envelope inside one of those cardboard coin sleeves and stick a stamp or two on it. And insurance, well it's a debate on whether you spend more money by buying insurance. Some people "self insure" and end up saving a chunk of change (as long as you don't lose too many items).
I currently have and ebay account and sell coins, Since july, And I have always had $3000 or 100 items a month limit.. And stick the coins in a 2 by 2 slip, stick in regular 4 by 6 onvelope, and ship. 44 cent shipping.
Trying to skimp and use letter rate shipping for coins is not worth it, If you ship me a expensive coin that way your going to see it in the feed back. Search eBay for eco>lite they make a bubble mailer that I buy by the box of 200. It costs about $2.00 Postage and the mailer to ship your items and make sure they get there and "Yes" put Delivery Confirmation on everything up to $250.00 after that Signature Service is required by PayPal for their seller protection. As for those small value coins sell them in groups as under $50.00 eBay takes 11% and PayPal takes another 3%. So your better off selling items or groups of item that are at least $100.00 or more to save on shipping and fees. Oh and don't worry about those limits when you join us in the Power seller group they go away. Oh slight plug I just hit 200 listings live a few minutes ago. Another thing to think about is if your going to list a lot of items get a eBay store the basic store front costs about $16.00 per month. The best thing about the store front type of listing is that it cost 20¢ per fixed price listing and you can put up twelve images per each listing at that rate.
remember if you hit $20,000 in sales and 200 transaction in a year you will receive a 1099 from paypal .
On that topic, don't you have to pay capital gains for any profits from your coin sales and it is taxed at 28% bracket?
Technically yes. But only if you choose to claim it. If you fall under the $20k and 200 transaction limit, then you have a choice. Over that you don't have much of a choice. Also, any taxable income the IRS knows about and you don't pay, they will wait a couple years until it builds up a bunch of interest and hit you up for a larger amount.
if you are a dealer or sell coins for profit then any gain should technically be reported. but if you are just trading coins. (for example you buy coins then get tired of them then decide to sell them and purchase other coins) you might not have any capital gain after all your deductions. but it's best to ask a cpa . I'm just a collector and I trade a lot . but have not reached 20k. because my thing is if I buy a coin for 1k sell it for 1k buy another for 1k and so on and so on. I would have several transaction showing a lot of sells but it's just the same 1k coming and going.with no profit.
It is only a capital gain if the item has been held for more than a year. Also if you are buying and selling regularly you can establish yourself as a business (Schedule C) and then you treat it as regular income. Plus as a business you can write off expenses and write off losses if needed. For a hobby losses can be used to offset gains but can not exceed them. For a business they can and can be carried over to a following year(s).
