Sellers nightmares continued.This can't possibly be right 😢

[jardy]

I love ebay.I love supporting the local Charity Shops,buying,selling,packaging -the lot.It's been a rewarding hobby for me.I suffer terrible anxiety and I am hopeless at figures but a few months ago I started meticulously saving every receipt and keeping a folder every month ready for my tax return which kind mumsnetters helped me with. However it seems absolutely bizarre that I appear to make a huge loss each month.Here is May's example.
Expenses
£624 ( this includes post £126,Paypal fees £134.66,ebay fees £172.12
Profit: Sales : £362.13
Loss:£261.87
I registered as a Business Seller because I thought you had to if buying stuff for profit.I can't go on like this as I am sinking into debt.What am I doing so badly wrong? No flaming please,I am extremely sensitive and bear in mind I do support my local charity shops .
Thank you so much if you can throw light on this situation.Perhaps you are similar and can show me what you do.I would be extremely grateful.

Honestly - unless you like doing this as a fairly expensive hobby, I would just stop

You need to have a minimum price that is:

Cost + postage + packaging + ebay fees + PayPal fees + £1

Are you including the actual cost of P & P in the listings? If not, you need to work that out beforehand and ensure the P & P price you're listing is accurate.

Something isn’t right with your calculations OP.

Fees:Ebay: £137
Paypal: £171
Sales:£515

Ebay fees are 10% of the sale price and PayPal fees are 3%.

So what are your PayPal fees so high?

Try listing items at the weekend when it's apparently free. You will cut those costs immediately.

But agree with others, you need to factor in all your costs when you price your item. Otherwise you need to stop.

From £515 sales your eBay fees should be apx £51.50 and PayPal fees £15.45, that’s a total of £66.95

There’s a BIG difference between that and the £308 you claim to have paid?

eBay and PayPal fees are ridiculous now. You would have better luck with Facebook selling pages

How are you listing the items? Are you paying extra for more photos or different listing extras?

What do you charge for postage? If you charge cost, then it’s an instant loss. I charge £3.30 for 2nd class, and lose slightly when factoring in PayPal, but cover the eBay 10% and actual cost plus a bag.

If you’re a business seller on eBay, do you have a business account on PayPal? Think they get slightly better fee rates.

Could also be worth doing buy it now or best offer, that way you have some control over what you’re going to get for an item. I’m not a business seller, but have noticed that cool patterned clothing sells well, even primary stuff will sell extraordinarily well if it looks good.

I find that charity shops price items quite high in general so unless it’s a real find or well under priced you’re going to struggle to make any money.

I think charity shops have caught onto people reselling.

Perhaps you would be better off looking in car boot sales where you can haggle on the price or maybe buying bin bag bundles and splitting into smaller lots.

You need to take your buying cost. Work out the estimated maximum selling price, calculate the eBay fee and Paypal fee on that and the p&p. Deduct those costs from your expected income - that figure needs to be more than the cost price by a reasonable margin. And remember you do need to factor in any extra travel bus fare parking etc taking to the post office and the odd refunds.

Also don’t mix your figures between the stuff you’ve owned and used with stuff you’re buying just to sell.
For your own things you have had the benefit of the use of it, whereas stuff you’re buying to sell on must make a flat profit or it’s just not worth it.

You need to focus really hard on your sums if you want this to make money.

If you sold a tent for £300 then your other sales in June came to ...(bloody app, can't scroll up)

...£215 so deducting costs of...

£306 gives a loss of £91 not £400?

But it's still a loss.

I don’t think it is a loss...... there’s no way those fees are correct, as per my post above.

Thank you everyone.My husband saw the figures with his own eyes so I am not exaggerating.Yes I am registered as a Business Seller.I charge £2.95 for postage.Therefore I advertise a Top for £2.99 plus postage £2.95. I don't add it onto the selling price and I think that is what sellers do in general.Otherwise it would be £5.96 plus postage.I struggle to sell even £1.99 clothes so adding the £2.95 for postage and charging again wouldn't be right,not fair to the Buyer either.I accept I need to be decerning and charge more.I do photo,and write descriptions during the weekend and pay 11p schedule fee for a Sunday finish at 9pm.I am a Business Seller because I thought if you were buying things to sell on it was compulsory.Something is clearly very wrong and I am going to contact both eBay and PayPal and query these massive figures.I will let you know what happens.Thank you very much indeed for your concern,advice and replying.

Lottie-you are right.I am going to get onto them.My DH has confirmed something is very wrong.How can both Ebay and Paypal be wrong? It seems too much of a coincidence and strange.I will get onto them .

If you’re charging £2.95 for postage you’ve got to pay eBay and pay pall fees ontop of this, so you’re making a loss on the postage. Which isn’t too bad if it’s an expensive item but not good if you’re only selling something for a few pounds.

Don’t pay a scheduled fee, save the item as a draft and then list one night at the time you want the auction to finish.

It sounds as though you are maybe buying things for the sake of it. You need to be aware of what sells well and only buy what you are confident of making a decent profit on.

OP I don't think you're including the money buyers pay for postage. The sales figure total on your eBay selling page will only be the amount items have sold for. You need to add on the postage amounts that you've received.

Thank you for the helpful kind replies.I've got onto paypal and ebay but it's just an automated reply service.Not satisfactory.I do see that I make about £300 a month,that's not bad it's just that the fees are so expensive.I've gone crazy buying and need to calm down and be discerning.I've developed a habit of going into a Charity Shop and buying perhaps too indiscriminately.I need to really really slow down.
I' m not sure about giving up scheduling as I like the control of it setting off automatically at 9 on a Sunday instead of eating into my relax time .Your advice has really made me think and will have a positive effect on how I now proceed.Thank you

Something definitely not right as those PayPal fees are for around £5k of sales. I don’t know anything about eBay fees as I don’t sell on eBay anymore but again, they seem high for only £500 of sales.

I’d step away from “pound day sales”. Charity shops that do this do not have stock of items which will fetch a decent amount on eBay. Forget Wallis and other high street brands. If you’re selling on eBay you want high end brands. Go to a lot of different charity shops on different days and whilst in the shop, search for the brand on eBay and see what comes up and for how much. That’ll tell you if it’s worth buying I’d have thought.

I've been on the MN Ebay boards for > 10 yrs & I've don't recall anyone say they make £2-£3k/month. Maybe 19Lottie? most of us are just selling old stuff we had anyway, trying to recoup some of what we paid.

Try using Buy it Now or best offer, instead of the auctions. Factor in your postage costs and add these to the sale price, then FOC the postage on the listing.

Try and list similar items at the same time as well. I upload in categories, so I'll do a week when I do clothes, another week kids clothes, then maybe camping stuff for example.

Your figures seem off somehow though.

You shouldn't be losing anything for postage, the buyer pays that.
Do you keep a note of how much each charity shop item costs you and start the bidding at a higher price, taking into consideration fees?
We sell charity shop finds on eBay but stick to sought after vintage items that the charity shop have priced too low.

Oh, and you can set the scheduling ages in advance so it doesn't go live immediately, but on sunday go through and change it to list immediately

Yes, OP, are you subtracting postage from what you make? If you are, then you're not taking into account that the buyer pays for postage on top of the final item price.