Hi everyone, I hope you are doing well. I recently had someone tell me they had to pay ebay more than they made last month. As you know, every month ebay sends you a bill for the auction fees you used through the month. But you should never have to give ebay more money than you made. You have to figure out every detail from shipping costs to final value fees. And then charge accordingly for each item you put up for auction.
Ebay’s auction fees have increased dramatically in the past 2 years. You have to cut corners and try and use as few amount of auction extras as possible. For instance bold print, highlighted print, subtitle are unneeded. Why pay extra for them when a gallery picture can bring the same results at a fraction of the price. I always use a gallery picture as the eye catcher to my auction. A catchy and original title along with a gallery picture will out sell any beefed up auction. Pictures sell your auctions the best, remember that.
Try and lower your price and raise the shipping price. Ebay frowns on this, but it is allowed. If you lower the starting price more people will likely bid on your auction. Just raise your shipping price accordingly. Ebay doesn’t charge fees for shipping. But they do charge by the price of your auction. So, if you lower your starting price and raise your shipping price; your ebay fees will be lower per auction. Customers will get the illusion that they are getting a better deal, so you will have better business. This is also a good way to compete with the competition’s lower prices. Just don’t raise your shipping price to a ridiculously high price.
Don’t forget to use the free listing feature if an item doesn’t sell. Did you even know ebay let’s you relist an item for free? That’s right, they let you relist the auction for free if it doesn’t sell. Just go to “my ebay” under unsold auctions. Then choose the relist item option. There are some basic conditions to relist the item. You can only relist it once for free(certain auction extras are not refunded). If it doesn’t sell the second time around, the auction fees for the second time around are not refunded. You can’t make the starting price higher on the second time around. It has to be a single item, no multiple auctions. This relist option can save you hundreds or thousands of dollars in ebay fees by the end of the month.
There are ebay and paypal fee calculators all over the internet. Knowing exactly how much each auction will cost you in fees; will help you know what you have to set for shipping, starting, buy it now, etc., prices. Ebay fees can be very tricky if you think they are not costing you anything. Even one dollar is a lot of money to list an auction. What if the auction doesn’t sell? It all adds up over a month’s time. You have to count everything. Here are some great tools I have used for a long time now. They are pretty reliable I have listed them before. Here is a great ebay fees calculator. Here is a great paypal fees calculator. They are both free to use as much as you want. I recommend using them if you want to save some dough through the month.
There are tons of little things you can do to save a buck when listing an auction. Just think of ways you can use other options that will work as good for a lower auction fee. Drop any unnecessary auction options. There are tons of ebay options to choose from. I say keep it simple and basic. Simple and basic options seem to be the things that have sold best through my ebay years. You don’t need all the auction bells and whistles to sell an item. Ebay counts on people to pick all kinds of auction options. Those are the things that make them money, all the extras. Use your brain when you list an auction. Everyone learns their own little tricks to save a buck. These are just a few tips you can use to save some money on ebay. By trying new things you can learn some money saving tricks on your own. Just don’t over-do it. Or you can get some tips from this blog and use them to your advantage.
If anyone has questions, don’t hesitate to ask me. Thanks for reading, see you all tomorrow.
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