So you decide to sell a $ 25 coin........

Peaceman

Let’s REALLY look at all of the costs.....

1) You look for your digital camera that’s just got done recharging from the night before. You just spend .03 to charge it...

2) You grab your tripod and mount the camera to it and start taking photos.... and more photos... and then some more because you just don’t have the right lighting or angle.... after 20 times.... BINGO... you have it... You just spent 10 minutes of your time...

3) Now you bring your camera over to your computer which has been on for over an hour .... electricity is powering your monitor... hard drive... sound system... printer.... etc.... you spend another .08.

4) You now take the next 5-10 minutes editing your photos because... well... you want them to look their best... YOU don’t sell garbage...

5) Your photos are finally done... it’s time to put everything on ebay to strike it rich... but... you never sold one of these coins before so you have to make up a new description.... another 10 minutes of your time....

6) You finally get everything done and hit “SUBMIT” (I call it the “PAY ME” button) You get hit for:

Insertion fee: 1.20
Extra picture: .15
Extra picture: .15
Supersize: .75
Gallery: .25
10-day: .20

7) You’ve finally accomplished your goal of putting your $ 25 coin up on ebay... Let’s review:

Total costs thus far: $ 2.81
Your time: 20 minutes (conservative)

8) During the next 10 days you receive 5 emails from people wanting to know more about your “precious” so you spend about 10 minutes of your time to answer all of those beautiful people who ask you the dumbest stuff...... o, let’s not forget you checking your auction every other day or so.... 15 minutes total..

9) On the last day you find that one bidder bought your coin for $ 25.... thank god we don’t have to relist it.....

10) The moment it was sold... ebay’s computer took $ 1.31 from your credit card account that you’re paying 18% on...

11) The buyer emails you and tells you that they will pay via paypal.... You receive their email, you check your paypal account and send them a thank you response all of which took you 5 minutes to do.

12) Paypal now takes their cut of $ 1.03... thank you very much.... have a nice day...

13) You now decide to mail your "once" precious out to the new owner.... “thank god THEY paid for shipping...hehe...” Now you do the following....

You buy the envelop to put it in: $ .40
You used some tape and paper: $ .10
You burn gas going to the post office: .46 (5 miles)

Ooooo that only took 15 minutes....

You finally get home, sit in your favorite chair and ponder the 75% true return you had on your coin..... after about 2 minutes, you feel your time was absolutely worth nothing and that you actually MADE money selling that coin.....

Dave99B

God bless eBay!

stman

You forgot the wear and tear on your tires. It's all about choices.

1234567890

You should have just given it to me... you would have saved a bundle...

Peaceman

Robgetty

Try doing it with $5 coins; you REALLY start looking at the bottom line.

I picked up a group of 50 PCGS slabbed dimes from Wondercoin for $250,
happily went through and added missing dimes to my collection, and then
sold the other 30-35 coins on Ebay. Other than 1 that got bid over $20
(I still have no idea why) it was definately a case of having something bid
to $6.49 and wondering if I was making money or losing it.

1234567890

Just another example about how you will save money be sending me your coins people...

relayer

You better not be charging more than $1 for S/H.

Trying to rip off the nice people on eBay. Shame on you

ElectricEye

you forgot something
numbers 1 thru 8 go down as stated...

9) the high bidder never sends payment

10) you get a refund on the final value fee

11) the high bidder gives you a negative and calls you unreasonable to work with

12) you relist the coin

13) the high bid at the end is even less

14) you buy a beer with the money left over after fees and postage

LucyBop

Get real....

I'll sell some $10 - $20 coins mixed in with some pricey items....

it serves several purposes....

it makes more people aware of my auctions..... and the little money it generates goes towards all the fees.....

I have to go to the Post office anyways...

and some of those buyers of the $10 - $20 coins, have made more purchase aside from Ebay and all the fees...

They tend to ask, what else do you have......

ARCO

Contrast it with selling to a dealer.

You drive to dealers shop 10 min. away (if you are lucky). Gas, wear and tear on car and time. Dealer offers you $16.00 for coin. You accept knowing that if you decline you only have Ebay and all the expenses and time you just mentioned.

While in dealers shop a raw MS 64 Seated half looks so inviting and you are drawn to it. You know that raw coins are trouble and are probably raw for a reason...but it looks so beautiful, so clean, so pristine, you are truly spellbound.

You buy raw MS64 common date Seated half for $1800.00, get home enjoy it for a few days, and then submitt it to PCGS for grading. Coin returns after some 60 days in a PCGS AU58 holder.

True cost NOT to use Ebay = about $1500 and some change.

Now can you see how important Ebay is to collectors? LOL

Tyler

coppercoins

How about selling the coins on a store you developed on the internet as school work for a grade that's on a server which is completely paid for by other sites you are hosting, learn the camera and get decent lighting so you can photo 25 coins an hour, charge cost for packaging and shipping so it costs you nothing, have a rural postal carrier who handles all the driving and even brings extra supplies when you run low, and sell the items for $3 to $5 each after having paid no more than 10 cents each for them.

What's Ebay??

Neptune

Back in the olden eBay days you could sell lower priced items, but these days it isn't worth it.

prooflike

I think the beer made it worth the efforts!

cladking

The average cost of car ownership in this country exceeds $1 per mile. If you make
a special trip to the post office then you really should count most of this.

paigowjohnny

And by golly...I as the buyer am gonna be PI$$ED that I paid 1 cent above bid

Merc

What? It doesn't cost $1 a mile to drive! I have a car with 96,000 miles on it. There is no way I spent $96,000.

baccaruda

I would respond but it would cost me a fortune in time, not to mention wear and tear on my fingertips and retinas.

I guess the bottom line really is - it's a hobby, if you don't get anything out of it besides hopes of monetary gain then you shouldn't be doing it.

baccaruda

Merc - did you forget to include the wear and tear on the balls of your toes from pushing on the accelerator?

wayneme

you need to look at selling higher end coins you time is way to costly

cladking

<< <i>What? It doesn't cost $1 a mile to drive! I have a car with 96,000 miles on it. There is no way I spent $96,000. >>



My first car cost me $.03 / mi. This one should be under $.40

National average was about $1.02 a couple years back. Your results may vary.

Peaceman

I'm glad some of you got a kick out of it... (my intentions...) some took it seriously.....