eBay Profit Calculation

[gman88667733]

Hi, probably a daft question... I've started selling bits on eBay and I have been using online profit calculator that are up to date with eBay fees etc to calculate how much I'm getting from each item.

The first item has stumped me a bit (probably just being stupid).

So the item cost me £55 + £5.30 p&p. It sold for £69.96 + £6.00 p&p.

Running that through the calculator website, I should be just over £5 in profit. But I can't quite work that out...

So I paid £60 for the item and after fees have got £65.93 back from it (item cost + postage paid - 12.8% eBay fee + 30p per item)

The postage I purchased cost £4.74, so how does that work that I make £5? Surely I am only about £1 in profit?

Could someone explain?


(p.s. This was a test item I was originally going to keep, so wasn't out to make money on it..!!)

[Paddymcc]

gman88667733 said:

Hi, probably a daft question... I've started selling bits on eBay and I have been using online profit calculator that are up to date with eBay fees etc to calculate how much I'm getting from each item.

The first item has stumped me a bit (probably just being stupid).

So the item cost me £55 + £5.30 p&p. It sold for £69.96 + £6.00 p&p.

Running that through the calculator website, I should be just over £5 in profit. But I can't quite work that out...

So I paid £60 for the item and after fees have got £65.93 back from it (item cost + postage paid - 12.8% eBay fee + 30p per item)

The postage I purchased cost £4.74, so how does that work that I make £5? Surely I am only about £1 in profit?

Could someone explain?


(p.s. This was a test item I was originally going to keep, so wasn't out to make money on it..!!)

Go to the item you sold and select view payment details and it will tell you exactly how much ebay removed as fees from the payment you received and then you can work it out accurately.

[gman88667733]

I did, so eBay pay me £65.93 in total. I paid £60.30 for the item originally (including postage) and then have to pay £4.74 to post it out, so I have made £1.19 from it in total?

I just can't understand why every 'eBay profit + fee calculator' I have used all said I would overall have £5.93 or whatever exactly it was?

I am not annoyed about the amount, I am just trying to get my head around it all..!

I think I have been making the mistake of misinterpreting these calculators. I have gone through and properly done it (including my purchase postage in the purchase price of item) and get a more accurate figure. Slightly lowered my expectations of some of the items I have bought, but that is life.

Cheers

Edited by gman88667733 on Friday 21st January 12:21

[mick987]

I have been selling on Ebay full time for over 8 years, I sell second hand Lights and Tools and if I cant make at least 100% profit on my purchase price I won't sell it. It only take one return / lost parcel and you can lose a lot of money(Have 2 returns in all the time I have been selling).
Basically I think your margins are too small and you will lose money in the long term ( unless you are selling 100s of the same item).

[liner33]

gman88667733 said:

I did, so eBay pay me £65.93 in total. I paid £60.30 for the item originally (including postage) and then have to pay £4.74 to post it out, so I have made £1.19 from it in total?

I just can't understand why every 'eBay profit + fee calculator' I have used all said I would overall have £5.93 or whatever exactly it was?

I am not annoyed about the amount, I am just trying to get my head around it all..!

I think I have been making the mistake of misinterpreting these calculators. I have gone through and properly done it (including my purchase postage in the purchase price of item) and get a more accurate figure. Slightly lowered my expectations of some of the items I have bought, but that is life.

Cheers

Edited by gman88667733 on Friday 21st January 12:21

As you say the final value fee is calculated as 12.8% of the total amount of the sale (which includes the item price, postage, taxes and any other applicable fees), plus a fixed charge of 30p per order

You sold it for £75.96 . 12/8% of £75.96 is £9.72 plus 30 p £10.02

The calculator site you used is wrong

[gman88667733]

As I said, the item in question was just a tester really, was originally for me but decided against it, so sold it on. Figures from that are irrelevant.

I'm aiming for 30-40% minimum. I stick more to jackets/fleeces. That sort of thing. It would be almost impossible to get 100%+ back on every item. This is really just a bit on the side for me as I enjoy selling. (I work full time too)

Thanks.



(The calculator site did correctly get the fees at £10.02, but I think in the cost of item box, I didn't add in the postage I paid for it as well, so that skewed the figures. Sorted now)

[gman88667733]

mick987 said:

I have been selling on Ebay full time for over 8 years, I sell second hand Lights and Tools and if I cant make at least 100% profit on my purchase price I won't sell it. It only take one return / lost parcel and you can lose a lot of money(Have 2 returns in all the time I have been selling).
Basically I think your margins are too small and you will lose money in the long term ( unless you are selling 100s of the same item).

I would be interested in doing more things, I just tend to stick to what I know currently...
Where do you get your stock, out of interest?

[Paddymcc]

if you're not registered as a business seller and are still using a private seller account wait until the final value fee discount weekends when you can list things and pay only 10% of what you would usually pay to sell something.

[zedx19]

Don't forget about the cut the HMRC will want as well.

[mick987]

gman88667733 said:

mick987 said:

I have been selling on Ebay full time for over 8 years, I sell second hand Lights and Tools and if I cant make at least 100% profit on my purchase price I won't sell it. It only take one return / lost parcel and you can lose a lot of money(Have 2 returns in all the time I have been selling).
Basically I think your margins are too small and you will lose money in the long term ( unless you are selling 100s of the same item).

I would be interested in doing more things, I just tend to stick to what I know currently...
Where do you get your stock, out of interest?

Auctions, Car boots and Facebook are were I get most of my stuff.

[gman88667733]

zedx19 said:

Don't forget about the cut the HMRC will want as well.

As a hobby selling a few jackets? Seems unlikely.


Edit - I see now that this makes me sound like a plank - apologies..!

Edited by gman88667733 on Saturday 22 January 13:09

[ApexCult]

gman88667733 said:

zedx19 said:

Don't forget about the cut the HMRC will want as well.

As a hobby selling a few jackets? Seems unlikely.

lol

[gman88667733]

ApexCult said:

lol

:-)

My current tally is 3, so really is a few

[Salted_Peanut]

mick987 said:

I have been selling on Ebay full time for over 8 years

How and why did you become a full-time eBayer? What’s it like?

[gman88667733]

As above I'd be interested to know more. I know that realistically if I want to do more, I need to get my head around declaring the earnings for it. Just trying to work out if it is worth it. My average item would get me about £15-£30 profit after everything. I need to research what HMRC's cut would be after the £1000 yearly threshold. (New to this, clearly...)

[mick987]

Salted_Peanut said:

mick987 said:

I have been selling on Ebay full time for over 8 years

How and why did you become a full-time eBayer? What’s it like?

Started off clearing out my Dads sheds and he had a load of old tilly lamps and was just going to throw them in a skip but stuck a few off them on eBay just to see what they were worth and they all sold, some for over £100.
I then started going to boot sales buying what I could and also started buy Coughtrie Lights and plumbing tools (Bahco spanners mostly for £1-2 and they sell all day on Ebay for £10 plus).
I got made redundant at 50 after working for the same company since school and started going to auction full time, was going to 10-15 auctions a week plus boot sales ( pre covid ). At the moment I buy a lot of my stuff from Facebook just starting to get back to going to auctions again.
Pre Covid I was selling between 30-40 items a week, last year I averaged 7 items a week.
Any advice I would give is to trade in things you have an interest in. If you sell clothing or car parts you want to be making multiplies of what they cost as the return rate on them is threw the roof.

[Salted_Peanut]

Interesting, thanks

mick987 said:

Any advice I would give is to trade in things you have an interest in.

Good advice!

[gman88667733]

mick987 said:

Any advice I would give is to trade in things you have an interest in. If you sell clothing or car parts you want to be making multiplies of what they cost as the return rate on them is threw the roof.

I appreciate that, it is tricky though. Do you mean the profit needs to be multiple times the purchase price? Or just the listing price? For example, I've got 3 things listed currently. 1 is listed at 2.5 times the amount I paid for it. The other just sold for, 50% more than I paid, the final one also just sold for just over twice what I paid.

Is this about right?

I follow an lot of full time sellers and most seem to dabble with everything for sheer volume, but I do like to stick to what I know/am interested in. Helps writing descriptions too!

[mick987]

gman88667733 said:

mick987 said:

Any advice I would give is to trade in things you have an interest in. If you sell clothing or car parts you want to be making multiplies of what they cost as the return rate on them is threw the roof.

I appreciate that, it is tricky though. Do you mean the profit needs to be multiple times the purchase price? Or just the listing price? For example, I've got 3 things listed currently. 1 is listed at 2.5 times the amount I paid for it. The other just sold for, 50% more than I paid, the final one also just sold for just over twice what I paid.

Is this about right?

I follow an lot of full time sellers and most seem to dabble with everything for sheer volume, but I do like to stick to what I know/am interested in. Helps writing descriptions too!

I work of my purchase price and total sellling costs
If I buy something for £1, posted costs £3 and Ebay cost of £2 I have to sell it for multiple of £6, I would listed it at around £20

[gman88667733]

Wow, that's high margins!

It helps if your stuff you're buying in person. I have been buying online, so an extra postage fee.

Just seeing how it goes.