Jun 08
4
Sold more crap on eBay
Well, I cleared a little more room in my house last week by selling a bunch of crap on eBay. As much as I hate eBay, PayPal, and their virtual monopoly in the online auction space, I have to admit the results from this round were impressive. Here is the summary:
Receipts (net of Paypal fees and USPS shipments initiated through Paypal): $608.92
eBay Fees: $40.19
UPS shipping fees: $49.04
Net income: $519.69
A few notes about this round of listings:
- All of the items were listed as fixed price listings during eBay’s 50 cent max fixed price listing promotion.
- 14 of 18 items sold, all of which were paid for instantly with PayPal. The items that didn’t sell were a PS3 game left over from a bundle, a roll of Cubs wallpaper, and two flatscreen TV mounts. One of the mounts I ended early because my brother-in-law wanted it, so I really only had three unsold items.
- Surprisingly my shipping and handling charges were able to more than cover the Paypal and eBay fees as well as the shipping costs. The net after the fees and shipping charges was $519.69, and the final value of the items that sold was $486.34, meaning that I actually made an extra $33.35 on shipping and handling charges.
- I usually list items on Saturday or Sunday evenings, but because we were so busy over the weekend I didn’t get my stuff listed until Tuesday evening. However, most of the stuff still sold, most of it within 72 hours of the listing start.
- Packaging costs for virtually nil because the boxes, packing peanuts, and bubble wrap I used were leftover from shipments I had received and the bubble mailers I used were given to me by a family friend who works for a office supply store that was cleaning out their warehouse.
- Most of the stuff I listed was stuff I got free after rebates, so it was mostly pure profits. The only thing I actually put out money for was the cases of blank DVDs, which I paid $10 a case for last year by exploiting the Google Checkout new customer discount. Those cases I sold for $70 each.
I don’t normally list so many things at once, but I had put off listing stuff because of the recent increases in eBay fees and that dumba$$ Vikram Jhaveri that was harassing me and my customers late last year. This may prove to be my last stand on eBay, but I have to like an extra $500 for my useless crap.