It happens. Once in a while, you’re just going to buy something you clearly shouldn’t have bought. It happens all the time.
These are the losers.
Now, the issue isn’t always that they didn’t sell – but that the time spent buying and then listing it just wasn’t worth it.
For example, take the little candy tin pictured here.
It’s a really nice little tin, and it was made in Holland. It only cost $1 at a yard sale, so what’s the harm?
It’s ok to take a chance for just a few pennies.
I really thought this would sell for at least $10. After all, people like that “Wedgewood” look, and I figured that this was a natural for eBay.
So, up it went on eBay where it sold for …. $5. Five whole dollars.
Well, someone was really pleased with it – and they got a great deal. But, let’s look at the break down here:
- Purchase price = $1.00
- Research on line to see where I should list it
- Take photo of item
- Type up the item listing
- Pay the listing fee
- Answer questions about how much to ship the item here or there (we offer international shipping on many of our items)
- Auction closes for $5.00
- eBay takes its Final Value Fee
- Send customer invoice
- Prepare paperwork/receipts and package the item
- Put item in mail
Now, once you add up the costs in time, materials, and effort, it is clearly easy to see how it would be tough to make a living on $5.00 items – unless your budget is only $200 – $500/week.
Unfortunately, I need much more than $200-$500/week to live (ah, the good ol’ days… I remember when my budget was only about $500 per MONTH!).
So, while the issue of spending the time and effort on an item that sells for $100 doesn’t feel too bad, it digs in pretty deep on a $5.00 item.
We posted an article that further discusses what to do about “the losers” here on the blog. Have a look here! => What About The Losers?
IN THE MEANTIME… Enjoy the following video that we made about this topic!
