Can you make a profit on Ebay?

**junkerjake** · 03-11-2018, 07:26 PM

I have been selling on eBay for 19 years and have learned a lot mostly from my mistakes. I limit my sales to what I know about or can learn from sold examples, and stay mostly in the industrial categories. I don't sell electronics, clothing, or glassware. 95% of the items are shipped USPS and anything over $150 gets signature conformation. Anything too big to ship USPS, FedEx, or UPS, I offer pick up only. I take very good pictures especially of any flaws. Describe the item pointing out all flaws in detail and sell it as is. The only returns I have had are when I make a mistake and I offer a full refund. If the customer makes a mistake I suggest that they resell it on eBay or return it and I charge a 10% restocking fee. I only purchase my items from auctions, factories, laboratories, and scrap yards never from individuals. That way I have a paper trail encase someone thinks it is stolen. I do accept electronics from computer stores and schools. Last year I sold around 12K on eBay with a low of 70% profit margin over what I paid for the item. It would have been higher, but I got burnt out and took a little vacation from selling. The downside is I have more stuff than I could list in 10 years and pay $800 a month storage on it (10,000+ sq ft). It would be very hard to start over again with the new eBay rules. My most memorable sales on eBay are some items that were used as props in movies.

**auminer** · 03-18-2018, 07:37 AM

A quick story to put a 'yes' answer to the title question, and also some numbers to show why it's still very profitable even though it seems someone's always draining you when you sell on Ebay.

About a year ago, I won an auction lot from the municipality just north of me. Six bucks bought me a whole shelving unit full of junk. Most of it was old clipboards, desk junk like staplers & things, a couple of big plastic potted plants... and (what this post is about) ...a box of 50 P/S2 corded mice still in the original manufacturer's shipping box.

Now... when I first started scrapping, I was very scrap-happy, and I cost myself a whole buncha money by just cutting up things and never researching their resale value. I have no doubt that me from 5-6 years ago would've cut the cords off of these things & tossed the rest. So, maybe 3 pounds of LGC which wouldn't even amount to one dollar.

So instead of chopping these up, I researched their resale value on ebay. Seeing as how I had a box of 50 of them, of course I decided to sell it as one lot. I saw that they sell anywhere from $5 apiece on up. Knowing that whoever was going to buy 50 at a chunk would likely be a reseller, I knew I had to leave them enough meat on the bone to make it worth their while, so I listed the box at $250.

No takers. A couple months later I dropped it to 220. No takers. A couple more months 200. No takers. Yesterday I dropped it to 180 and one of the watchers snapped it within 5 minutes of the price change. **YAY**

So.... I got another $180 to spend? Ummmmm... no.

I just looked, paypal took $5.52. So I got 174.48 to spend? Ummmm...no.

I donate 10% of all my ebay sales to Victory Junction Gang Camp , so they got $18. So I got $156.48 to spend? Ummm...no.

Ebay takes 10% of the sale value after the charity donation, so they got $16.20. So I got $140.48 to spend? Still... NO!

Before I listed this item I knew shipping that big heavy box was going to be a booger. I measured & weighed it, and sure enough: $45 and change.

So between charity & ebay & paypal & USPS all dipping into my wallet I'm left with about 95 bucks.

Which is $94 more than I would've got in scrap.

So, yes you can make money on ebay... but don't focus on the SALE price, focus on the NET.