Need Advice on Selling Efficiently and Safely Through Ebay with all the New Rules and Pricing
DeutscherGeist
Posts: 2,990 ✭✭✭✭
I am new to selling on eBay (been buying since 1999) and would like to get some advice from the more experienced sellers on here.
I recently sold a BIN item for $180.63 ($170 + $10.63 tax). The eBay fee was $23.30 + $0.30 (for each order) and $14.00 for the shipping (USPS priority medium box). Deposited to my account was $132.40.
I purchased a medium size box priority label from eBay itself. It's an easy process, but I am not sure if it's the most efficient way to do things. Besides selling at a good price, I think shipping is an area that needs to be carefully thought out in order to have. reduced overhead.
- How can I purchase insurance if I decide to not go with USPS priority from eBay?
- What if I do not want a priority label, will tracking be included when purchasing first class mail from eBay?
- What is the efficient way to send something with insurance and tracking that is not heavy?
I know I should package items promptly and professionally using good materials and do a neat job, include packing slip inside the package, a thank you message on the packing slip, have tracking, respond quickly to any inquires, have good pictures up and disclose the condition including the flaws so no one is misled.
BST: Tennessebanker, Downtown1974, LarkinCollector, nendee
Comments
There's a lot here. What are you selling? Did it really need a priority box?
You can buy insurance on 1st class or other tiers. Personally, I never buy insurance on items under $500.
If you are going to be selling a fair bit, you should get a store. The fees are less than 9% for coins.
1st class mail does include tracking at no extra charge.
For light objects (under 1 lb) over $20, 1st class is definitely the way to go. Under $20, eBay standard shipping. You can see the relative costs of all options when you are going to print the label on eBay.
You could get private insurance or use a reinsurance. They are generally cheaper. Given how few packages get lost, I still think self insurance on inexpensive items is the most efficient way. Otherwise you will end up spending thousands in insurance to make hundreds in claims.
I will add separately that you need to decide what constitutes "safely". If I lose a package or pay out of pocket once or twice per year (2000 transactions), I consider that "safe". Other people flip out over a single problem. But insuring "safety" can be very expensive.
You can set up shipping options when you post your items. I personally usually offer first class and priority. Priority is expensive but fast. Almost exclusively people will choose first class cause it's cheaper.
As for shipping costs it is cheaper to buy labels from eBay. If you want to add insurance, I usually skip it for anything less than $200. And yes tracking is auto included.
Now how do you charge for insurance? You will have to figure out through usps.com what the insurance cost is and add it to 'handling charges' when setting up your shipping options at the posting stage. This way you can offer calculated shipping with insurance cause the insurance cost is based on price. Then, when you order the shipping label from eBay you have to look closely to add the usps insurance to the label. It will not add it automatically. You can add less insurance but you cannot add more than the sale price.
It took me a bit to figure it out but if you look closely you should be able to figure it out.
As far as the overhead of shipping, yes you have to watch out for that and take that into account otherwise they will eat your profit. You also have to take into account ebay fees. What I do that seems to work out most of the time is multiply the final sale price (no taxes or shipping just the sale price) by 0.9 and I usually get pretty close to what I will net (this also depends on the category of the sale too... Some categories have higher fees than others). If I am offering free shipping I have to know in advance what that's going to cost so I take that into account too.
Hope this helps. If you need direct help feel free to message and I'll help the best I can.
Good luck!
https://www.the4thcoin.com
https://www.ebay.com/str/thefourthcoin
It's good to be aware of your expenses but buyers aren't going to pay more because of them. Your buyer was willing to spend $170 + tax, if your terms had included an additional $14 for shipping, he'd likely not be willing to pay more than $155.
I sold an item last week for the first time in several years. Fees right at 15% using BIN with make an offer. Last time I am ever doing that. It is a Spanish coin in PCGS-64 for $350.
I have a number of low-priced (less than $300) world coins I 'd like to get rid of where next time, I think I will take my chances on the sale price with GC. This is also yet another reason I won't be buying coins I used to buy or any "impulse purchases. (Primary reason is to spend it on my primary series.)
If you don't have a store, eBay final value fees are 12.9% for sales under $7500. It's 8.8% for sales under $4000 if you have a store.
Thanks to jmlanzaf, spyglassdesign, MasonG and WCC for your advice, suggestions and tips.
It makes sense that not every item needs to be insured. Just package it really well, ensure tracking and send it off if its below $200-$500 (depending on my comfort zone). Insuring every package would be more expensive in the long run than just eating the once in a blue moon loss of a package (whether it really gets lost, or is simply damaged).
Opening an eBay Store can save me on my fees? Well, I intend to be selling year round, so if its free to set up a store, that sounds like a good fit for me.
jmlanzaf, the specific item I sold was a factory sealed baseball card box with 24 packs inside. It weighed 1.6 pounds. I do not remember if that was the best deal, on my shipping options, but being that it was my first time, I selected it since I knew the box would be new and would get to the buyer fast. I will be more selective this time with all the advice I got today. By the way, what is "eBay standard shipping"? I did not see that wording as an option.
I am glad tracking will be included with USPS 1st class shipping. That was a big concern of mine. One does not need insurance, but without tracking, it leaves the seller very vulnerable.
I am putting all my items as free shipping as I think buyers like it that way and simplifies the process for them. It also seems to be good advertisement. Buyers know exactly how much they are paying by just looking at the listing.
For the next item, I am selling a Sony Light for a Sony Handycam video camera. The shipping options I have for a 10 ounce weight (light and box together) in a 6"X6"X12" box are below. USPS 1st class mail seems to be the cheapest. Should it not be one of the economy choices?
BST: Tennessebanker, Downtown1974, LarkinCollector, nendee
Over 1 pound, priority is usually the better option. There is also Parcel Select as well as UPS and FedEx. Who is cheaper really depends on where it is going and what the size is.
Stores are not free to set-up. That's why I mentioned doing a lot of selling. If you sell one item every so often, it isn't worth it. The minimum store cost to get the discount is $21.95 per month if you have an annual plan. You actually sort of get 4 months free because you get a $25 quarterly coupon for eBay shipping supplies. But it saves you about 4% on the eBay fees on every transaction. So, if you do the math, $550 per month in sales is roughly the break even amount on fees. But you also get other perks like extra free listings as well as the aforementioned shipping supply coupon.
Here's the eBay info page.
https://www.ebay.com/help/selling/fees-credits-invoices/store-selling-fees?id=4809
Bullion sales are only charged at 7% with a store.
Generally a store, by the month, is worthwhile if you sell $600 per month. A little less if you sell bullion.
Bullion, including 90% silver, is VERY strong right now.
Welcome to the wonderful world of eBay selling. YMMV.
jmlanzaf and vplite99,
I will be selling all kinds of collectibles, not just coins, such as sports cards, antiques, and useful items too. I won't have the numbers at this time to make a store worthwhile, but we will see in the future. I think the trick is to get a lot of items listed first.
BST: Tennessebanker, Downtown1974, LarkinCollector, nendee
I netted $301 on the $350 sale. I presume the difference with the 12.9% is the charge for eBay's payment service but haven't checked as I have no intention (now or previously) of regular selling.
From around 2006-2010, I was a somewhat regular seller (eBay records somewhat over 200 sales for me with most in this timeframe) where I acquired a noticeable proportion at very low cost which I sold at a high mark-up but current "market value". (Most were South Africa Union and ZAR to South African based buyers.)
If sellers can consistently sell at big mark-ups, fee increase isn't important. But most coin sellers are presumably just disposing of coins in their collection where they are already losing money.
It depends upon what you have to sell. For most coins which aren't even bought by many members here, it's probably either eBay or a local B&M. In my example which is a high quality above average scarce but illiquid coin, I "priced the coin to move"; what I considered a fair price as opposed to the inflated prices I see for practically everything I search.
From a business standpoint, 12.9% or 9% isn't high. Rememcer, it includes payment processing which used to be a separate 2 9% (now 3.5%) PayPal charge. EBay fees have actually gone down in the last 3 years.
Other than direct sales on BST or FB, there really isn't a cheaper way to go. That is why some things are better off sold directly to dealers as the bid/ask spread on many coins is less than 10%.
For $100 items, ebay is the cheapest route. The major houses (including GC) are significantly more expensive if they would even take them.
I agree, from a business standpoint.
That's fine for dealers.
It's also fine for (relatively) low budget collectors treating it as an alternative consumption expense. I don't think most collectors see this as ok generally though once their collection becomes "financially meaningful", whatever that is to them. Most aren't buying coins they can sell for that type of spread or at least I don't think so.
I agree with this too.
It's also why I will no longer buy this type of coin in the future hardly at all. This is aside from my intense dislike of the administrative requirements.
I don't collect for financial reasons and never did. I also have made money (in the aggregate) in my collecting. Concurrently, I'm not about to spend multiple thousands (or more) buying what are actually overwhelmingly mostly ordinary coins most collectors buy (over 99%) and lose money on it later. Most coins aren't interesting enough to do that at any "meaningful" outlay.
So, what I am telling you is that is that if most collectors don't really like what they collect that much (which I definitely don't think they do) to lose any "noticeable" amount on it at resale, it's going to be a problem for the hobby later.
They're retail prices to buyers. Oh, sellers often feel like they sold to a wholesaler, with the middle man (eBay) involved. That's we-bay for ya.
How many hobbies are there, where you can get back most of the money you've spent on it when you decide you don't want to participate anymore?
WCC - what criteria do you use to define an ordinary coin? Price? If so, what range to become extraordinary? Modern vrs. non-modern? Other criteria?
Thanks.
It's a function of two things.
First, the attitude of the buyer toward collecting.
Second, the amount spent.
Most other hobbies are purely recreational or at least the financial component is a lot smaller. Comparisons to most hobbies (such as golf which has been used here as an example in the past) have no relevance to coin collecting whatsoever. Where the hobby has a social component which accounts for most of the cost, that's the "return".
It's subjective.
To me, it's one where most of the price is the result of post 70's or at least post TPG (1986) collecting culture; the financialization of "collecting". One where most of the value is actually because it's in a TPG holder due to the TPG label or a sticker.
To me, if a coin sold for a "nominal" price pre-TPG and pre-70's before money took over collecting, it's usually an "ordinary" coin. By "ordinary", one which virtually no one would ever pay the current price without the expectation of getting most, all, or more than they paid back. One where the price is (completely) disproportionate to the merits of the coin as a collectible.
Most of these are low priced common coins but by my definition, many are not.
I suppose, if you define "hobby" narrowly enough to dismiss the ones you don't want to consider.
Yeah I forgot to mention I have a store set up for $21.95/mo. That's how I get the 90 percent. Without a store it is higher.
https://www.the4thcoin.com
https://www.ebay.com/str/thefourthcoin
Having an ebay basic store (27.95 per month) would have changed the above final fee to 16.20 (8.8%). If sold in a bullion category it would have been only 12.94 (8.8%). Free insertion fees for 250 to 1000 listings depending on category. Your monthly volume should dictate if the store fee is worth it. Keep in mind your ebay fee includes the processing of your funds and you no longer have to pay the current 3.5% to PP. Your 1088K tax form will come from ebay whether you have a store or not. Having ebay receive, process and payout (automatically weekly to your bank) is so much easier and smoother.
I use USPS and ebay shipping labels exclusively, so my comments pertain to that,
For high dollar items there is the option of a private carrier. For these I prefer registered USPS which includes insurance. Registered is cheaper than other USPS options and more secure when shipping items over $800. I recently sent a $2000 registered shipment with insurance for around $35. Sending the same item USPS non-registered first class or priority insured would cost much more. For heavy weight and high dollar value you can take advantage of priority flat rate boxes and fees (in addition to your registered fee) and ship registered. Registered mail must be presented in person to the USPS counter and fee includes tracking. However if you want to meet the ebay requirement of proof of signature request the additional, very cheap "Electronic delivery" at the counter, no extra form required. This will provide you the additional feature of viewing and receiving a PDF of the signature if needed in a non-delivered dispute.
Ebay offers USPS insurance option when purchasing an ebay shipping label. I self insure items that are $400 or less and take the hit when lost or damaged (only once in past five years).
For items that sell for $20 or less (flat items such as cards and coins, excluding bullion category) Ebay now offers a USPS standard envelope fee and label for $.57-1.05 if packaged item is 3 oz. or less. Otherwise first class (less than 16 oz) will be sent "first class package" and must have a packaged minimum thickness of 3/4". Normally I use #00 bubble envelopes and throw in a couple of foam peanuts if necessary to meet min. thickness. First class fee normally starts around $3.50 and includes tracking. Optional insurance or "signature required" will add to the cost.
Purchasing shipping labels from ebay provides a discount from the normal price. Each time you purchase a label it will show you your savings. I have found ebay USPS labels to be the cheapest and easiest way to ship. I recently purchased a 4x6" MFLable printer and it is so much more efficient than laser printing labels.
yes, including the cheap "standard envelope."
USPS first class package.
Good sellers have good sales. Customer first, dollars second.
I printed a shipping label yesterday through eBay and purchased USPS insurance. Looking at the Shipcover terms, I'm not sure I'd want to try to file a claim for a loss when shipping coins.
Agree about shipcover insurance. Just checked now I have USPS ins. again. weird. original post corrected. thanks.