How is it worth a seller's time to list things for $5-10 on eBay?

coffeewithmrsaturn

I was wondering about sellers who list items for under $10 shipped and how it could be worth someone's time to do so.  There are plenty of items listed for $6-8 shipped, which might only come out to $2-$4 after fees and shipping, and that's not counting how much the seller paid for the item (presumably low, but not zero).  I'm sure many sellers have a pretty efficient listing process, but with research, sourcing, cataloging/accounting, listing, and shipping an item, I think that even 10 minutes is a pretty conservative estimate of time spent.  For these low dollar items, that means the seller might be valuing their time around $12 an hour.  I know low-end wages can be around there, but this would be a job with little certainty and lots of work.  I don't understand the appeal.  Maybe I'm missing something obvious...explain?



 

MrWunderful

I guess it depends on how much you make at your "day job" and how easy it is to get said hours.



12/ hour is a decent living wage in a lot of areas. 



I personally turn down overtime almost every week because I want to spend time at home with my wife, and its significantly more than 12/hour.



When I was selling off my commons/low value games, I preferred to make less selling lots because selling individual games wasnt worth my time.

aguy

My eBay baseline is $5 profit, so if I pick up a game for $1-2 and can ship it under 4oz, I'll sell it for $9-10. Really, I think sellers are hoping for buyer to get a couple cheap games at a time to bundle up on shipping costs.

empire

You'd be amazed how cheap some people are. Also I guess if you had an active ebay store you could sell 10 things a day and make 1 trip to the post office instead of a trip for each item

Stooperzero

some of us a trip to the PO is a 20+ round trip.

pats1717

A $7 item would bring in around 3.50 to $4 after fees. A lot of items like that are acquired in lots and to me cost very little once the biggest stuff is sold. I can list an item with picture in under 20 seconds with my listing software from inkfrog

jonebone

The high volume sellers are going to be way more efficient than 10 minutes for a listing / packing / printing / etc. I also think that "sourcing / researching" are more hobby aspects and some may enjoy the thrill of the hunt. It's like saying time spent posting on a forum was researching / sourcing / etc. and you weren't paid for this post. Some of the hobby aspects are just done on your own good will.

quest4nes

Ebays search algorithm rewards constant posting

coffeewithmrsaturn

Originally posted by: pats1717



A $7 item would bring in around 3.50 to $4 after fees. A lot of items like that are acquired in lots and to me cost very little once the biggest stuff is sold. I can list an item with picture in under 20 seconds with my listing software from inkfrog

20 seconds...that's amazing.  I guess I was way overestimating how long the process takes.

 

skinnygrinny

It's worth it to me because not only do I make $2-$4 it helps combat the hoard.

rickrollcollector

I honestly hate listing stuff for $9.99 but I do it because it will sell, it would be around $5 profit and often times when put cheap things in lots it sell for way less than parting out those cheap items. A good example I have here I listed parts from Masters of the Universe figure called Multi-Bot. It has like 4 special parts among others. I had 15 of those parts accumulated over a year or something. Finally i decided to sell them and wanted at first list all 15 for $25. Then i decide to list 3 for $12.99, I sold all 5 lots in a month. $12.99 x 5 vs $25

JaxsBox

When I was actively selling on eBay it took about 5-10 minutes to picture, list, and package with larger items running around 20 minutes. Those items though had greater profit involved and demand the extra time. It was only worth selling off $10 items if it was done so in volume. This way the profits were compounding and justify the time.

themisfit138

It could also be that they just don't want the stuff taking up space in their house. Instead of throwing whatever away they just try to get the shipping and fees covered and maybe make a few bucks. I did it with a bunch of 80s and 90s comic books not too long ago.

SoleGooseProductions

I get the $10 game, I don't get the $.01 Amazon book with $3.99 shipping (or whatever the actual, but very low numbers are).

Andy_Bogomil

Just a grind like most jobs. They are at least making a few bucks per transaction or they wouldn't do it. I always laugh when those YT videos pop up for 'get rich quick' schemes on eBay. The people never account for time or cost of operation and almost always refer to the amount sold not net income - not to mention the taxes after all is said and done on ebay. There are some who are very good at it though and obviously make a good living doing it.

Krunch

For me I've just accumulated lots of low end stuff over the years, mostly manuals and thats in addition to good manuals mixed in, so its a case of having the means to sell it so why not sell it. The worst it can do is bring a little more traffic. Lowest I've got anything listed is (all in CAD mind you) $0.99 + shipping which I charge as little as $3.10 for if domestic and after everything I would keep $1.36 BUT those are cases where I'm just relisted old stuff and just clearing it out since the listings are already completed, and the US and international rates are adjusted such that I net more on those sales from those items. I would keep doing this with fresh inventory (maybe bumping it up a dollar or two but its flexible) with a program but I need some new tech first, and listing manually its still too slow even if you're quite fast. Obviously these arent priority packages and youre selling higher dollar stuff along with this too so it doesnt have to start eating up gas or whatever. Above that though I'll put stuff up for $5.99 and up + shipping all day. Those little micro sales add up fast, especially if you've factored your supply costs into your shipping price but you've already paid for all of them.



Now as for disc based stuff I have no idea what to do. I got maybe 300ish low end disc games and mostly undesirable ones at that, problem is in Canada the weight of the package sharply affects the shipping cost. So selling one by one doesnt work b/c no net gain. And selling even a package of 50 would be insanely heavy and would probably be at least $45 to ship domestic and I honestly guess its higher. Even if you got something like $90 for a lot that size youre clearing like $30.



Also as far as the time = value equation thats a YMMV situation but for me selling on eBay has become how I spend my leisure time in my collection room.

coffeewithmrsaturn

Yeah, I can see how as hobbyists it could be fine to do this once in awhile with stuff we don't want to throw away, but I guess without the infrastructure/setup of a high-volume seller, it seemed like a pretty atrocious way for me to spend 40 hours a week. I can tell now though that the people who do it full-time are really good at it, and the people who only do it part-time don't see it as a time = value situation.

Astor Reinhardt

They might be doing it to raise their number and feedback as a seller so they can sell high priced items for the going amount and actually get that amount.



As someone with a low number who's only sold a few things and bought many items...it's an easy way to raise that number.