Selling non-profit making products to gain feedback
Discussion
I know nobody wants to give away their business secrets, but any advice would be appreciated.
I've just lost my ebay top rated status, but I've worked out if I can put in ~1000 transactions without any problems then I can make it back up. Does anyone have any ideas for products I could sell to make the numbers up. I don't need to make a profit, I'd be happy to break even, or even a small loss.
Would prefer small large-letter postage sized items costing £1-£3.
I've just lost my ebay top rated status, but I've worked out if I can put in ~1000 transactions without any problems then I can make it back up. Does anyone have any ideas for products I could sell to make the numbers up. I don't need to make a profit, I'd be happy to break even, or even a small loss.
Would prefer small large-letter postage sized items costing £1-£3.
Op I've just done this for a guy with the same issue.
Item has to be cheap
Never faulty
Small
Preferably branded
Light & cheap to post
Letter box size
Sold to mature people (innit)
We sold 500 and sorted his TRS out within a check cycle.
You will make a small loss but overall it's worth it and you can roll out the same strategy / item each time your in danger
PM me and I'll tell you what it is you can source it from Costco if in stock at the time.
Item has to be cheap
Never faulty
Small
Preferably branded
Light & cheap to post
Letter box size
Sold to mature people (innit)
We sold 500 and sorted his TRS out within a check cycle.
You will make a small loss but overall it's worth it and you can roll out the same strategy / item each time your in danger
PM me and I'll tell you what it is you can source it from Costco if in stock at the time.
I don't mind revealing what I tried. It worked as far as I took it but I didn't really work at it. I didn't use stock photos so stood out from the crowd a bit more.
Phone Sims, quite a large niche so you'll need to work at it. They're given away free by the phone companies and sellers on ebay usually get 99p for them with free postage. So by my reckoning you make a 25p loss per sim (Standard second class postage 54p, paypal fee 23.5p, envelope 10p?, ebay fee 34p) although you might get envelopes and postage cheaper depending on what deals you have in place with Royal Mail and if you bulk buy your envelopes. You make money when the sim is activated and the phone co pay you a commission. I was with the O2 star trader program.
https://www.o2startrader.co.uk/
I'm sure there are similar deals available from other phone companies.
Alternatively you could sell postcards and other paper ephemera to collectors but that's a bit more hit and miss.
Phone Sims, quite a large niche so you'll need to work at it. They're given away free by the phone companies and sellers on ebay usually get 99p for them with free postage. So by my reckoning you make a 25p loss per sim (Standard second class postage 54p, paypal fee 23.5p, envelope 10p?, ebay fee 34p) although you might get envelopes and postage cheaper depending on what deals you have in place with Royal Mail and if you bulk buy your envelopes. You make money when the sim is activated and the phone co pay you a commission. I was with the O2 star trader program.
https://www.o2startrader.co.uk/
I'm sure there are similar deals available from other phone companies.
Alternatively you could sell postcards and other paper ephemera to collectors but that's a bit more hit and miss.
951TSE said:
I don't mind revealing what I tried. It worked as far as I took it but I didn't really work at it. I didn't use stock photos so stood out from the crowd a bit more.
Phone Sims, quite a large niche so you'll need to work at it. They're given away free by the phone companies and sellers on ebay usually get 99p for them with free postage. So by my reckoning you make a 25p loss per sim (Standard second class postage 54p, paypal fee 23.5p, envelope 10p?, ebay fee 34p) although you might get envelopes and postage cheaper depending on what deals you have in place with Royal Mail and if you bulk buy your envelopes. You make money when the sim is activated and the phone co pay you a commission. I was with the O2 star trader program.
https://www.o2startrader.co.uk/
I'm sure there are similar deals available from other phone companies.
Alternatively you could sell postcards and other paper ephemera to collectors but that's a bit more hit and miss.
That's an interesting concept. I bet it's getting harder and harder to make money from it.Phone Sims, quite a large niche so you'll need to work at it. They're given away free by the phone companies and sellers on ebay usually get 99p for them with free postage. So by my reckoning you make a 25p loss per sim (Standard second class postage 54p, paypal fee 23.5p, envelope 10p?, ebay fee 34p) although you might get envelopes and postage cheaper depending on what deals you have in place with Royal Mail and if you bulk buy your envelopes. You make money when the sim is activated and the phone co pay you a commission. I was with the O2 star trader program.
https://www.o2startrader.co.uk/
I'm sure there are similar deals available from other phone companies.
Alternatively you could sell postcards and other paper ephemera to collectors but that's a bit more hit and miss.
AB said:
951TSE said:
I don't mind revealing what I tried. It worked as far as I took it but I didn't really work at it. I didn't use stock photos so stood out from the crowd a bit more.
Phone Sims, quite a large niche so you'll need to work at it. They're given away free by the phone companies and sellers on ebay usually get 99p for them with free postage. So by my reckoning you make a 25p loss per sim (Standard second class postage 54p, paypal fee 23.5p, envelope 10p?, ebay fee 34p) although you might get envelopes and postage cheaper depending on what deals you have in place with Royal Mail and if you bulk buy your envelopes. You make money when the sim is activated and the phone co pay you a commission. I was with the O2 star trader program.
https://www.o2startrader.co.uk/
I'm sure there are similar deals available from other phone companies.
Alternatively you could sell postcards and other paper ephemera to collectors but that's a bit more hit and miss.
That's an interesting concept. I bet it's getting harder and harder to make money from it.Phone Sims, quite a large niche so you'll need to work at it. They're given away free by the phone companies and sellers on ebay usually get 99p for them with free postage. So by my reckoning you make a 25p loss per sim (Standard second class postage 54p, paypal fee 23.5p, envelope 10p?, ebay fee 34p) although you might get envelopes and postage cheaper depending on what deals you have in place with Royal Mail and if you bulk buy your envelopes. You make money when the sim is activated and the phone co pay you a commission. I was with the O2 star trader program.
https://www.o2startrader.co.uk/
I'm sure there are similar deals available from other phone companies.
Alternatively you could sell postcards and other paper ephemera to collectors but that's a bit more hit and miss.
EmmaJ said:
Surely some sort of eBook / digital content has to be better. No postage costs, or product costs beyond the outlay for acquiring the content in the first place 
You mean apart fromDesign
Editing
Copywrighting
Listing costs
Content Delivery costs (minimal but still costs)
Marketing
Promotion
It ramps up very quickly.
I know you will take offence to this but that is an idiotic strategy.
If you really are as good at business as you think you are then you should be able to get your TRS status back WITHOUT dropping price or selling items at a loss.
What is the point of such a strategy? so you can gain it then lose it again in a few months?
You have long term changes to make.
Personally businesses who start using such a pricing strategy I find don't stay around for long and again I know this sounds offensive but it shows a true lack of being a good businessman/women.
I lost my TRS last month, getting it back within the month and I put some of my prices up making more profit to take into account the new stupid divided tax!
think of a different strategy and further to this I don't think TRS is as important as some people think. Made no difference to our sales at all, and I know others mention this quit a bit on forums too.
If you really are as good at business as you think you are then you should be able to get your TRS status back WITHOUT dropping price or selling items at a loss.
What is the point of such a strategy? so you can gain it then lose it again in a few months?
You have long term changes to make.
Personally businesses who start using such a pricing strategy I find don't stay around for long and again I know this sounds offensive but it shows a true lack of being a good businessman/women.
I lost my TRS last month, getting it back within the month and I put some of my prices up making more profit to take into account the new stupid divided tax!
think of a different strategy and further to this I don't think TRS is as important as some people think. Made no difference to our sales at all, and I know others mention this quit a bit on forums too.
Edited by IATM on Saturday 12th March 13:23
TRS gets you a discount on fees though - a volume seller needs this?
The chap I just helped lost his TRS because the courier he used had "an issue" at a hub and a days orders were significantly delayed or lost, not his fault and nothing he can rectify as its one of those things - we got it back and it cost approx £240 in loss leader sales.
The chap I just helped lost his TRS because the courier he used had "an issue" at a hub and a days orders were significantly delayed or lost, not his fault and nothing he can rectify as its one of those things - we got it back and it cost approx £240 in loss leader sales.
DSLiverpool said:
TRS gets you a discount on fees though - a volume seller needs this?
The chap I just helped lost his TRS because the courier he used had "an issue" at a hub and a days orders were significantly delayed or lost, not his fault and nothing he can rectify as its one of those things - we got it back and it cost approx £240 in loss leader sales.
What is the discount you get then being a TSR these days ? The chap I just helped lost his TRS because the courier he used had "an issue" at a hub and a days orders were significantly delayed or lost, not his fault and nothing he can rectify as its one of those things - we got it back and it cost approx £240 in loss leader sales.
chippy348 said:
DSLiverpool said:
TRS gets you a discount on fees though - a volume seller needs this?
The chap I just helped lost his TRS because the courier he used had "an issue" at a hub and a days orders were significantly delayed or lost, not his fault and nothing he can rectify as its one of those things - we got it back and it cost approx £240 in loss leader sales.
What is the discount you get then being a TSR these days ? The chap I just helped lost his TRS because the courier he used had "an issue" at a hub and a days orders were significantly delayed or lost, not his fault and nothing he can rectify as its one of those things - we got it back and it cost approx £240 in loss leader sales.
I agree about sales volume making no difference if TRS or not though.
DSLiverpool said:
chippy348 said:
DSLiverpool said:
TRS gets you a discount on fees though - a volume seller needs this?
The chap I just helped lost his TRS because the courier he used had "an issue" at a hub and a days orders were significantly delayed or lost, not his fault and nothing he can rectify as its one of those things - we got it back and it cost approx £240 in loss leader sales.
What is the discount you get then being a TSR these days ? The chap I just helped lost his TRS because the courier he used had "an issue" at a hub and a days orders were significantly delayed or lost, not his fault and nothing he can rectify as its one of those things - we got it back and it cost approx £240 in loss leader sales.
I agree about sales volume making no difference if TRS or not though.
chippy348 said:
To be honest i am not getting this, loose £240 to get 10% off your fees by my maths you you would have to have eBay fees of £2,400 to break even.
Have you sold on eBay recently?Your fees are monthly, one would aim not to drop out again and reap the benefit for months to come.
If your business model relies on eBay then £240 won't matter in the case I advised it was a very small amount in relation to nett profit.
Furthermore if you slip further down from "standard" you get severe sanctions that make it very hard to come back from.
eBay has changed so much so quickly that Amazon is looking more attractive (but less flexible). Personally I have dug out an old eBay account last used commercially 4 years ago and it was restricted to a 10 item limit, I was shocked and called them and after giving my new vat number and inc number and a few questions about what I'm selling and how much they lifted the items but put a £6k month cap on sales fir 45 days which I am happy with. Very reasonable and efficient I thought.
I have and do sell on ebay but have our own successful ecom site so i have not looked/ up-dated our ebay shop for over 18 months.
However
Yes i know you get billed monthly and being a Top rated seller you get 10% discount off your Ebay fees.
My point is your guy has spent £240 and some time to get is TSR status back only to get the 10% off his fees and he would have to have fees of over £2,400 to break even.
Well if he is doing that much turnover a month on Ebay and is paying £2,500 + in fees then i can sort of see the point, but still a strange way to do business.
However
Yes i know you get billed monthly and being a Top rated seller you get 10% discount off your Ebay fees.
My point is your guy has spent £240 and some time to get is TSR status back only to get the 10% off his fees and he would have to have fees of over £2,400 to break even.
Well if he is doing that much turnover a month on Ebay and is paying £2,500 + in fees then i can sort of see the point, but still a strange way to do business.
"Furthermore if you slip further down from "standard" you get severe sanctions that make it very hard to come back from."
This chap does 2000 orders a day on ebay, its 85% of his business, its crucial to maintain ebay status hence the small expenditure.
When I sold on ebay the average order value was £75 we normally paid £1200 + a month in fees and we were small fry.
This chap does 2000 orders a day on ebay, its 85% of his business, its crucial to maintain ebay status hence the small expenditure.
When I sold on ebay the average order value was £75 we normally paid £1200 + a month in fees and we were small fry.
IATM said:
I know you will take offence to this but that is an idiotic strategy.
If you really are as good at business as you think you are then you should be able to get your TRS status back WITHOUT dropping price or selling items at a loss.
What is the point of such a strategy? so you can gain it then lose it again in a few months?
You have long term changes to make.
Personally businesses who start using such a pricing strategy I find don't stay around for long and again I know this sounds offensive but it shows a true lack of being a good businessman/women.
I lost my TRS last month, getting it back within the month and I put some of my prices up making more profit to take into account the new stupid divided tax!
think of a different strategy and further to this I don't think TRS is as important as some people think. Made no difference to our sales at all, and I know others mention this quit a bit on forums too.
Not at all, you're making comments based on assumptions - we've lost TRS because of mistakes made by somebody else. Now want to get back up to TRS and stay there. Makes a significant difference to our sales. I think this is completely dependent on products.If you really are as good at business as you think you are then you should be able to get your TRS status back WITHOUT dropping price or selling items at a loss.
What is the point of such a strategy? so you can gain it then lose it again in a few months?
You have long term changes to make.
Personally businesses who start using such a pricing strategy I find don't stay around for long and again I know this sounds offensive but it shows a true lack of being a good businessman/women.
I lost my TRS last month, getting it back within the month and I put some of my prices up making more profit to take into account the new stupid divided tax!
think of a different strategy and further to this I don't think TRS is as important as some people think. Made no difference to our sales at all, and I know others mention this quit a bit on forums too.
Edited by IATM on Saturday 12th March 13:23
Anyway, I'm definitely up for discussion, but didn't post for business 'advice' from somebody purely guessing.
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