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MoonwishesStore
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Posts: 17389
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 Posted: Sun Sep 07, 2014 6:09 am Post subject: |
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| Quote: | | Now in terms of this sweater. We are selling it here & on the auction site for $13.99. Wost case scenario priority shipping because it weighs 14 ounces would be around $7.00. After shipping profit is $6.99. Subtract 97¢ sales tax to Ga residents and the profit is now $6.02. We have branched into online sales because the profit is better than the in store sales providing us with more at the end of the month to donate. |
Don't forget that if it sells through the ecrater marketplace there will be a 41 cent fee and then the PayPal or Stripe fee of another 41 cents. So $6.02 - .41 - .41 = $5.20. Unless you can cram it into a flat rate padded Priority envelope, the cheapest I could see it shipping for was $6.51 and you would have to supply your own packing materials. If the weight you gave included the weight of packaging, that would work, but if the packaged weight was 1 pound and a fraction of an ounce it has to go as a 2 pound package and then you are looking at $11+ for the shipping unless you can use e/postage and then it is around $10. At that point your profit is $2.20 and that doesn’t include the minor costs like packing tape, postage labels, printer cost for labels, packing slips (paper and printer costs again). I just ran a quick calculation on another garment up for sale and it would also only make about a $2 ‘profit’ depending on the fees you have to pay.
One of the things that concerns me in particular, and remember I'm only trying to help you to make more money for your charity, is that to really get things to sell on line you are really going to have to take time to do more photos (you are allowed 10 for free) and for this particular sweater it does need more photos as you can't tell from the photo that it buttons in the front since the front black area blends right into the inside black area. You need better lighting, photos of clean, pressed clothing on the correct size hangers or display piece. Also you really need better titles and descriptions. And as I think we have mentioned, on ecrater you have to self promote your store. All these things will be taking up time to sell one sweater. After you get a listing system down pat it will go faster, and you may be thinking you are volunteering your time so the time it takes doesn't matter, but it does. It sounds like you go through a lot of work to get items up on the shelves, plus trying to do on line sales you just might end up totally exhausted. Unless your brick and mortar shop is close to free for rent and utilities, I can’t imagine that you are making enough to have much in the way of donations after those bills are paid. Don’t forget that many people that sell on line do so because they have the money and it is more convenient to shop that way. There is no need to provide thrift store prices on line. None of us can understand why you feel you have to pitch in the cost of GA sales tax when needed. For all you know you are selling to someone that is making $100K/year and can well afford to pay the sales tax themselves. |
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handmedownheaven
Posts: 4
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| Posted: Sun Sep 07, 2014 10:05 pm Post subject: |
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Good morning all. After having a discussion with my board of directors, there might be a good possibility we will be dropping this experiment and remaining with our eBay store.
Main reason is this is too much hassle when you only have 1 of each item while the $49 a month store we have is easy enough for all the volunteers to post to. $49 a month is a low price to pay for the ease, worldwide marketing and we pay no listing fees or final value fees being an approved non profit. If we sell here we lose our non profit discount with paypal because that too is through eBay. As a non profit we pay 1.4% of sale to paypal with no 29¢ per transaction fee.
With this site we would be limited to USA sales. Foreign sales would require having to deal with customs and international shipping. By being part of their global shipping program our item is advertised world wide, we ship to the shipping center in Tennessee and don't worry about it. Thank you to the many who have offered help and advise. If we do take it down we'll let everyone know.[/img] |
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theartsandlettersofmaggiethecat
Posts: 2099
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| Posted: Mon Sep 08, 2014 12:31 am Post subject: |
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I'm a long time buyer from and donor to charity shops. Those I frequent most are staffed by volunteers and mostly have only rent and utilities as overhead. Something I have discovered which surprised me is that the people who shop in them are for the most part not poor....rather they are careful with their money. What this means is....
If they see an unworn sweater with the store tags still attached they don't expect to buy it for $3. That is for the used sweater that has some pilling and maybe a pull or two. I don't think people begrudge you the extra money you would charge because the item was such good value. You do realize don't you that the person who buys your sweater for $3 in your store is probably going to resell it for $20 or more, don't you? And that profit is not going to feed the hungry outside their immediate family.
Hate to see you give up on eCRATER before you give it a chance. It costs you nothing to have your items listed for sale. You also don't have to pay commission unless the sale comes via the marketplace and not all do. You don't have to have the items on both sites. If something hasn't sold on eBay in a while, move it to eCRATER. There is no minimum nor maximum number of items you must keep here to have a shop open. |
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