If you have been selling on eBay for any length of time, you will quickly become accustomed to fee changes and / or increases. Unfortunately, the price of your inventory won’t decrease, so you will need to take proactive steps to keep your profits from falling as fees increase. The answer isn’t always to raise your prices. Here are some suggestions for reducing other expenses that you may incur as you operate your eBay home business.

Pay close attention to eBay Insertion Fees and the tiered pricing. For example, pricing an auction item between $1 and $9.99 costs 35 cents. Pricing an item between $10 and $24.99 will cost 55 cents. Study the costs and decide if it is more cost effective to set your starting price in the lower tier to get the lower insertion fee. Assuming your item sells, pricing the item at $9.99 will cost less in fees than pricing it at $10.

Watch your packaging. Make sure you aren’t overpackaging your item and adding unnecessary weight by using too much packing material. One extra ounce and boost your shipping fee into the next tier, and add up $2 or more per package. If you ship 100 packages a month, and you are paying $2 for unnecessary packaging, that’s $200 in shipping fees you are paying for no reason! (Especially if you are shipping clothing, adding tissue and ribbon is going to add weight. Do you really need it?) Experiment with different packaging options and packing materials to determine the least expensive option without sacrificing quality. Click here for more ways to reduce shipping costs on your eBay orders. Click here for ways to get free shipping supplies!

Pay your eBay fees with a credit card that offers cash back. If your fees are $1,000 a month, and you pay them with a credit card that offers a 1% cash back program, that is $10 a month you can save – or $120 a year.

Use paper and clear tape instead of labels for shipping. Labels can get very expensive.

Reduce Paypal fees by applying for a merchant account. Furthermore, if you use a Paypal debit card as a credit card at POS terminals, you can earn 1% cash back.

Do whatever you can to increase your DSRs so that your items will be placed higher in Best Match, thus increasing your sales.

Click here to learn more ways to increase your profit margin on eBay without increasing the prices of your items.

[Image Source: Flickr]

Post from: EveryJoe

How to Squeeze More Profit From eBay Sales

Part of running a business is knowing your expenses, so that you can then track your profit. Do you really know how much you make per item per sale? eBay and Paypal fees are always changing, so you must take these factors into consideration when calculating your profit.

If you look at the numbers regularly, you can make educated business decisions about pricing adjustments and when it is time to stop selling an item and move on. I came across this free spreadsheet on the eBay Groups board. eBay member unclejoeadamson has it all figured out based on listing type, insertion fees, add-ons, promos, and Paypal fees. If you currently are not tracking your expenses and costs, or want to try a new system, download this spreadsheet for free and give it a try. The spreadsheet is in Excel, so it is very easy to work with.

[Image Source: Flickr]

Post from: EveryJoe

Free Spreadsheet for Tracking eBay Profits

If you receive more than $3,000 a month through your Paypal account, then you can apply for a lower fee rate. You must apply for the rate, it is not automatically applied to your account. The normal fees for monthly sales (incoming funds) to Paypal are:

$0.00 USD – $3,000.00 USD 2.9% + $0.30 (per transaction) USD

If your sales (incoming funds) are $3,000.01 USD – $10,000.00 USD, the fees are 2.5% + $0.30 (per transaction) USD. If your incoming funds are $10,000+, the rate drops to 2.2% + $0.30 per transaction.

To apply for the lower rate, visit this link, sign into your Paypal account, and complete the questions. Once you apply, you will receive a confirmation email from Paypal explaining your rate and the necessary criteria to keep that rate.

[Image Source: Flickr]

Post from: EveryJoe

Lower Your Paypal Fees – Apply for Merchant Rate

As a continuation of my post titled, “How to Reduce eBay Shipping Costs,” let’s look at some other ways to reduce eBay costs and increase our profit margin. You may have to do some analysis, but you can find ways to trim your expenses and therefore increase your profits.

1) Use caution with listing upgrades such as bold, highlight, gallery plus, and photo enhancements. Do your own research to determine if these upgrades affect your sales. Upgrades are expensive – do you really need them?

2) Pay attention to eBay Insertion Fees and the tiered pricing. Pricing an auction item between $1 and $9.99 costs 35 cents in listing fees. Pricing an item between $10 and $24.99 costs 55 cents. Study the insertion fee costs and decide if it is more cost effective to set your starting price in the lower tier to save money on your insertion fees. So, assume your item sells for $10. You have just paid 20 cents to make a penny. Doesn’t make much sense, right?

3) When shipping USPS Priority Mail, consider using the Tyvek envelopes instead of a box. The envelopes weigh less, and you will pay less for shipping. (This isn’t always possible if you are shipping fragile or breakable items, but something to think about.)

4) Use generic or recycled printer cartridges. eBay sellers print a lot of shipping labels and invoices. Consider trimming this expense by investigating recycled printer cartridges.

5) Take advantage of relisting credits. From the eBay Help Index, ” if your listing ends without a winning buyer or ends with an Unpaid Item (UPI), you may qualify for a credit by relisting the item. If the item sells the second time, eBay will refund the Insertion Fee for relisting.”

Read a complete list of 12 suggestions for increasing your profit margin on eBay. A small leak can sink a large ship. Pay attention to the little things, they can add up in a hurry.

[Image Source: Flickr]

Post from: EveryJoe

A Small Leak Can Sink a Great Ship – Reduce Your eBay Expenses

Has this happened to you yet? Have you received an email from an eBay buyer like this?

“I bought this by mistake. I don’t want the item. You need to void the transaction.”

This scenario is rather absurd because the buyer has to complete several checkout screens before the purchase is complete. What happened is that he changed his mind. You will still be charged the final value fees unless you take action to recover them.

You can react in several ways.

1) Do nothing, ignore the sale, and move on. Your final value fees won’t be refunded.

2) File an upaid item dispute after 7 days and your fees will be credited back to your account if the customer ultimately does not pay for the item.

3) File a mutual withdrawal. The customer must agree to this, but it is a more friendly resolution if the buyer made an honest mistake. Follow these steps:

a) Log on to your eBay seller page.

b) Click “Dispute Console.”

c) Enter the item number.

d) Under “Why are you reporting this item?” Click, “We have both agreed not to complete this transaction.” Answer the following question with details of the situation.

e) Buyer will receive an email from eBay asking if he/she wants to complete the withdrawal.

f) If the buyer completes the request and agrees to the withdrawal, fees are refunded immediately. You will receive an email with this information.

As long as the buyer agrees to this resolution, it is a much more amicable way to resolve the situation when a buyer decides he doesn’t want the item, or has made a resonable error during the purchase. Click here for complete details regarding filing a mutual withdrawal from eBay’s Help Index.

[Image Source: Flickr]

Post from: EveryJoe

What to do When Your eBay Buyer Backs Out of the Transaction

Calculating shipping for an item is not as complicated as you may think. If you plan to start selling regularly on eBay, you will want to invest in a digital scale. You can find them for $10 or less at office supply stores, or my favorite place – eBay!

To calculate the shipping fee, weigh your item. Let’s say you are selling men’s polo shirts. The weight will be around 10 ounces. Go to USPS.com and determine the shipping cost for an item weighing 10 ounces.

Next, check what the competition is doing. Do a search on eBay for Men’s polo shirts, and randomly choose about 10 listings. Record the shipping fee for each. (Be sure to study the sellers’ DSR rating for “shipping fees” and determine if their customers feel the shipping cost is too high. You can then gauge how to set your shipping fees.) Take an average so that you will be in line with the competition.

Your shipping fee should be slightly more than the actual shipping charge since you will be using supplies such as bubble wrap or other cushioning material, your own poly mailers if you aren’t using USPS Priority supplies, and of course, your time.

Shipping is a popular topic and future posts will address all of the specifics of shipping including:

Where to purchase supplies at the lowest cost

How to ship internationally

Excessive shipping fees in relation to circumventing eBay fees

Online shipping services

How to make the shipping process faster and more efficient

Post from: EveryJoe

eBay FAQ #5 – How Much Should I Charge to Ship an Item Sold on eBay?