How eBay can make you LOSE money on coins/bills

Well thank you guys for sharing that I was going to list 50,000 wheats on there

 

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When this type of thread comes around I always ask - Why don't more people list
what they have for sale right here on Coin Talk? At least try it here first before paying the greedy eBay monopoly.

 

I need to make a for sale post... Thank you for the reminder!

 

Exposure. There is no place cheaper to sell that will get your items as many views as ebay.

 

eBay takes 10%, paypal takes 2.9% +30 cents.

They are owned by the same company, so they take 12.9% +30cent of each sale. 87.1% is what you are left with, before your actual shipping bill.

Yeah, in small listings the shipping gets you, on top of the fees. In larger ones, it's the ebay fees that hit you hard.
I would never sell an item in the 10$ range. That would hardly ever work out unless you have a shop like Lehigh.

 

Unfortunately this is very true

 

Good thread. Should open the eyes of some bidders who constantly try to squeeze every last cent out of sellers.

 

How did you lose money on a coin with that much intrinsic value?

 

I also wondered this. Unless the shipping was $8 for a single coin...

Or maybe he meant he bought it then sold it at a loss, as the person I described in the original post?

 

If you use the formula I gave, you can use that as a starting price for auctions. Or you can use it to guide your decision in a BIN price.
I have been using to make sure I don't lose money when unloading unwanted things. If you're not gaining, you're losing.

 

Selling on ebay is not so bad. If you really want to make it work for you, you can make it happen. But if you're a casual seller, it might not be your best option.

If I'm buying items to sell, I always keep what my selling costs will be.

If you are a high volume seller, losing money here and there is no big deal. Sometimes you'll make a bad purchase or just need to get rid of stale merchandise and get something with more promise. I lost $24 on a BIN listing today. That's called a clearance sale.

If a loss will bother you, then don't list auction-style. If you cannot sell for a profit, don't rush to blame ebay; you might have paid too much.

 

Another thing to keep in mind is that if you're going to lose money selling on eBay, you would probably lose money selling the same coin anywhere else. You're certainly not going to get more from a dealer or B&M coin shop. You might be able to sell it to more to another collector in a forum like this, but the buying traffic on online communities like this can't even come close to eBay.

 

My main point was to show that selling an item for more than you paid for it =/= making a profit. If you buy something for $10, and it costs $4 to ship...

($10+$4)/.871 +$0.30 = $16.38 to break even.

I see people losing money on ebay every day, just don't let it be you!

 

********Years ago the intrinsic value wasn't that much. I ended up losing 50 cents on the Franklin half dollar after all expenses [fees and shipping]. In other words I paid 50 cents more for the coin than I got for it after expenses.
Anyway if I want to sell something now, I bring it to a coin show. Of course you have to know who to go to.
I have sold coins right here on Coin Talk too.
For a small seller with low volume and no big ticket items, I'd stay away from eBay.

 

Losing money on coins is not uncommon no matter where you sell them. If you sat in a coin shop, you would probably see people losing money on their coins all day long.

Also, if you are really trying to use ebay profitably then losing money on a coin is no big deal. It's part of the business.

 

Amen. Any dealer that will let you break even or make a profit won't be in business very long. Atleast on ebay, casual sellers have a fighting chance to walk away whole when selling peer to peer.

 

I always make a little money when I sell on ebay, until the fees take a big bite out of me.

 

I feel this pain