Thrifty Thursday: Ebay Selling Learned the Hard Way

We have sold a few things over the years on Craigslist.  I go through phases where I get lots of things posted and it goes my way where I get lots of people interested and then other times aren't as great.  We have sold our old television, couches and more.  I kept a spreadsheet of all of the things that we have sold over the years most were done in 2008 before we had a child but there were a bunch through 2009 and 2010.  There are a few things missing that I know we sold later like some tickets to the Kennedy Center when we couldn't go to a show that we had tickets because we all got sick.  Overall, we have made over $1,100.00 through Craiglist.

In the last few years, we have done garage sales and only made a few hundred dollars but gotten rid of a lot of other small stuff but had to do more bargain pricing to assure that things were moved.  I feel like it is a lot of work and doesn't always get to the right audience to sell the products at the best price.  Don't get me wrong, I will probably do at least one more garage sale next year to get rid of more stuff but I highly recommend trying Craigslist first to see if you can make a little more money on the items.

I just started selling on Ebay!!!  I have never done it before but my husband used to sell computer parts because we have tons of them around the house.  He made lots and it funded buying stuff for himself and Christmas gifts.  It was nice to be able to get things that he wanted without having to spend any money out of pocket.  It all fell apart when we had our little man and haven't gotten back to it yet.  This all changed the other day when I set up my own account!!!

I am learning through trial and error how to sell on Ebay and all the cost that comes with doing it.  They now allow you to have 50 free listings a month and set a buy price and not just auction pricing.  There are different options on the postage and you can set fixed pricing to pay for the postage or whatever you want.  My first few sales all went through the buy now option so I made a lot more money then through the auction process on my coupons.

I just want to share something with you that if you haven't done ebay and pay pal, you might not know. 

* You pay 10% to ebay of the sale price and the shipping so whether you set a higher price or include certain money for shipping, you will pay ebay for the priviledge to use their platform.

* You pay $0.30 and 3% to pay pal for the total of the transaction

Here is an example of one of my transactions:

The coupons sell on auction for $0.99.  The ebay user pays for the order through pay pal and they take out a $0.33 so I have $0.66 left to work with.  I check back on my ebay account and see that they have charged me $0.10 for the transaction (which they bill once monthly).  The stamp costs $0.46 so I am down to $0.10 profit (plus I still have to pay for envelope)!!

I just want to make sure that people properly calculate the costs because it is really easy that you could end up going into the negative just by trying to make a little money.  Ebay is a great way to make a little money as long as you calculate what it will cost you.  Overall with my transactions so far, I have paid about half of my profits into fees so if you think that you are going to make it rich, it does take twice as much work as you think it is going to take.