Prices on Ebay

[manic]

Hi, we don't sell mugs on Ebay, come to think of it we don't sell anything on there anymore butI am wondering how people can profit from selling subli printed mugs for £5 and that includes shipping, standard shipping for these is £2.95 and then theres the cost of the smashproof box.
Unless they are getting everything for next to nothing then how can the profit from this?
Just wondering if I am missing anything.

Thanks.

[Customprintwales]

if you sell in quantity you can get royal mail shipping for about £2 for small parcel. THen there's buying mugs in bulk at about 50p a mug

It's all about quantity. I expect them to still be making about £2 gross profit per mug and if you are shifting 1,000 a week then investment in a conveyor oven makes sense.

[Customprintwales]

unless of course you are on the dole, in social housing recieving full housing benefits and doing it on the side.

In which case if you sell 20 mugs at 50p profit each you've just bought a 6 pack of lager or a pack of ciggies.

[pw66]

Some are volume sellers, some are on the dole and some are doing it as a hobby business of an evening.

Ebay and Amazon have become a nightmare.

[manic]

if you sell in quantity you can get royal mail shipping for about £2 for small parcel. THen there's buying mugs in bulk at about 50p a mug

It's all about quantity. I expect them to still be making about £2 gross profit per mug and if you are shifting 1,000 a week then investment in a conveyor oven makes sense.

They still have ebay and paypal fees to pay so all in all I would doubt they would even get close to £2 profit - a lot have feedback of no more than a few hundred so the volume seller thing is out of the window, I enquired about volume shipping with the royal mail last year as we were doing around 3 to 4 hundred mugs a week on the run up to christmas, they said there was nothing they could do so we got a franking machine and ended up saving about 15p per package.

[webtrekker]

It's a MUG'S game!

Sometimes you can get a bit of an edge with a nice personalised design though. I find people are prepared to shell out for personalisation. However, it just adds more work so maybe the profit still isn't there. I've given up with mugs now anyway and going on to other things.

Let's say you sell on ebay for £5 a mug. Postage is £2.95, ebay fees are about 50p, paypal fees about 25p. That's £3.70 to come off the price before you even consider the price of the mug, packaging, ink, paper, and ............ dare I say it ............... your time and labour! Take that lot out of the remaining £1.30 and what's left is your profit!

[TQfan]

i've not seen any for £5, cheapest was £7.95. been a while since i looked, though.

often wonder how sellers make any profit when they sell items for 99p (buy it now) with free postage!!

[pw66]

I have a friend who has a fishing tackle shop. Three quarters of his sales come from ebay. To get the sale he has to limit himself to a 30% markup which gives him a 23% margin before fees, paypal and postage. He is lucky to earn 10% on ebay sales after he has taken into account a few refunds. Ebay accounts for 75% of his sales but only about 1/3rd of his profits. He hates the whole ebay/customer/seller dynamic but without it his shop wouldn't be viable.

We are all becoming busy fools paying middle men a high percentage for access to the online customers.

Even the guy in the Chinese takeaway over the road now has to pay Just Eat 10% to sell to the same customers who have been phoning him up for home delivery for the last 20 years.

[Lofty]

Even the guy in the Chinese takeaway over the road now has to pay Just Eat 10% to sell to the same customers who have been phoning him up for home delivery for the last 20 years.

Now thats interesting, I've just checked our local takeaway and the prices from its website / menu card and those from Just Eat are the same.

As the buyer, going through J.E. makes it easy and a variety available, so does going directly to the vendor help preserve his profit margin or does he have to pass over 10% on all sales to J.E. anyway?

[webtrekker]

Now thats interesting, I've just checked our local takeaway and the prices from its website / menu card and those from Just Eat are the same.

As the buyer, going through J.E. makes it easy and a variety available, so does going directly to the vendor help preserve his profit margin or does he have to pass over 10% on all sales to J.E. anyway?

Here are the Terms for Just Eat ...

• JCT Provision, Installation & Connection Fee : £699 + VAT
  • Upfront Payment : £699 + VAT paid by Electronic card payment
    Charges by JE to Restaurant ("Restaurant Charges")
• JE will charge the Restaurant:
  • a 14% commission per Order (charged on Gross Order Value) + VAT
  • a £0.50 admin charge per Order paid for online + VAT
• "Gross Order Value" means:
  • the total amount charged by the Restaurant to the Customer for an Order, including the value of the goods plus the Restaurant’s delivery charges (if any) plus the Customer Admin Charge (if any) plus applicable taxes
  • Charges by Restaurant to Customer (“Customer Admin Charge”)
• JE will, on behalf of the Restaurant, charge the Customer:
  • a £0.50 admin charge per Order paid for online
• Term
  • This Agreement is valid from signature for an initial period of 12 months

Now, the Indian takeaway I used to deliver for never used Just Eat, many don't, and didn't even accept cards, it was strictly 'cash only' and they had a thriving business.