How do you sell Bullion on Ebay

oldstandard

How are all the big companies selling Bullion on Ebay with such small margins? I have seen two companies that are selling cheaper on Ebay then they are selling on their own company websites. I contacted one company and asked them why or how I could buy silver from them on ebay cheaper when I have to use PayPal and their website I have to mail in my payment. I did get one reply they said not sure we would love to earn your business and send me a link for 10 oz of silver at spot. I am really just curious as to how they do it our local coin shop said they would lose major money even if they listed bullion at normal prices and I see 100 oz bars listed as low as .28 cents over spot on silver. Even if they could sell for free with Paypal and shipping how would you profit and on their buy back prices listed on their company website they are less then .50 cents back of spot unless this is inventory they have had means how silver has ran up quick in the last month.

Hemispherical

With a very large inventory you can manipulate prices on said inventory. And a 50 cent profit times several thousand transactions becomes substantial.

With a lot of $$ you can negotiate very good deals on various selling platforms.

Baley

Volume.

Very tough for an individual to compete with Economies of Scale

Pokermandude

They pay little to no fees to Ebay for those listings.

CoinPhysicist

I'm sure they have deals with eBay and paypal to lower the fees by a lot more than you and I could do.

As a small time seller of double eagles and 1 ounce gold coins, I know I'm not comfortable selling on eBay. I feel like there is a huge risk of getting bad buyer to fleece you.

Bochiman

This question has been asked, and attempted to have been answered, many times on these forums over the last few years.
Flatly, I believe it comes down to 3 things:

• They get very nice prices on their bullion, to start with, and still make money when they sell
• They get super nice deals from ebay on their fee structure and do HUGE volume for ebay, so ebay gives them a great deal
• They balance the lower prices on ebay, internally, by allocating marketing funds for customer acquisition. Ie....they use ebay to gain potential website customers.

ricko

@Bochiman....You nailed it.... and they play the market well... buy low then sell for profit as melt goes up...Cheers, RickO

TwoSides2aCoin

How do "I" sell bullion on eBay ? By the ounce. The metric tonnage is cost prohibitive , to ship.

topstuf

@ricko said:
@Bochiman....You nailed it.... and they play the market well... buy low then sell for profit as melt goes up...Cheers, RickO

If that's true, I did everything wrong. I stayed "flat" on inventory and kept the markup the same all the time.
If I sold, I replaced. If I bought, I wholesaled.

I deviated on this when gold hit 252. Then I just held all buys and replaced all sells.

It seemed to work.

oldstandard

@Bochiman said:
This question has been asked, and attempted to have been answered, many times on these forums over the last few years.
Flatly, I believe it comes down to 3 things:

• They get very nice prices on their bullion, to start with, and still make money when they sell
• They get super nice deals from ebay on their fee structure and do HUGE volume for ebay, so ebay gives them a great deal
• They balance the lower prices on ebay, internally, by allocating marketing funds for customer acquisition. Ie....they use ebay to gain potential website customers.

When I was looking at some of the companies that where selling on ebay they where selling their bullion cheaper on ebay then they where selling on their direct website. When I buy through ebay I have to pay through paypal on their direct company website I have 10 days to mail a check so I was wonder why or how it would be cheaper to sell through ebay. I contacted one that is selling silver for .50 cents over spot on ebay and on their website the same product was $1.25 over spot it does seem backwards I would think a direct sale would be cheaper unless being paid to sell.

MsMorrisine

they won't tell you why.
I think the customer service reps don't know why anyway
they get breaks on fees
as already mentioned, perhaps these are hits taken to acquire customers

coinpalice

this is the same person who said gold was going down to a 1,000/ounce

oldstandard

@coinpalice said:
this is the same person who said gold was going down to a 1,000/ounce

What would gold going down to 1000 do with the pricing on ebay, I truly think Gold will test the December 2015 low In 2008 gold took a 36% hit when the problems became mainstream attention or affected the main population. I truly believe this will be the biggest reset in American history and I am living what I believe I sold all four of my brick and motor stores because they will not survive this time and moved out of a populated area ( freedom from humans it is awesome). I hold a very large position in silver and some gold either way no matter what is does with my price averages I am in an outstanding position if it does fall to the lower levels when reality hits I will buy more we are closing on our last business this month.

thefinn

Also it's a loss leader to drive business to their websites.

BAJJERFAN

At a loss unless you got it dirt cheap. You're better off to go to a LCS and walk out with cash or a check if they're paying anywhere close to spot.