Ebay, Where we get Stuff from and What we Sell it For

As promised we will continue to hit you with the realness. There is no bull being sold here just tips to help us all make money. We are almost like the magician who reveals the tricks behind the tricks (I hate that guy) but it’s like revealing them to other magicians, because we are all here for the same reason.

It's deep into July and we have a bunch of blogs in full swing, working Traffic Wave, launched our first CPA project (there will be more on that weather it’s successful or fails miserably ) and now it’s time to get back to something that we actually do quite well….sell on eBay.

THE ANATOMY OF AQUIRING INVENTORY
There ‘s no magic button here, just brute force, discipline and a little luck (I like to think we make our own luck).

Let's Go!
Every morning I check a dozen sites as part of my daily routine. One such site is Woot. Woot is a site that has one product for sale per day at a super low price (sometimes).
They sell one item until it is sold out or until 11:59pm central time when it is replaced . Each item they sell is in stock and typically ships within 2-3 business days.
So the last week during my daily check I noticed they had Kodak Digital Cameras! Yes! Now according to the Woot rules, you are only allowed to purchase 3 of any one item, however we have two accounts so if the item is good enough, and these cameras were, we buy 6!
The other benefit to Woot, is that no matter what you.....(READ MORE)
 buy, and I mean no matter what, or how many it’s only $5.00 to ship! Seriously, one time they had a Washer and Dryer and it was only $5.00 to ship.

Now even though it’s cheap, 6 12 MP Kodak digital cameras are going to add up, and you are going to be out of that money until they sell, which could be months or never! Don’t worry they will still make a great Christmas gift. How much money are we talking about? Good question. Let’s talk details:
Kodak 12 Megapixel Digital Camera with 5x Optical Zoom $49.99 Each X 6 = $299.94
Shipping $5.00 X 2 orders = $10.00
Total = $309.94
We now have $300 bones at risk, but not totally at risk because we have 6 Kodaks. A Good name brand, a solid camera and a good standing eBay account.
From past experience we know that it’s hard to move any camera under 12MP these days. There is way too much competition with the 10 MP because every electronic store is trying to purge their inventory of old technology. They might sell but it would be a slow sell, and we are out $309.94 so the clock is ticking. Note these camera’s are $50 because they are reconditioned but we have moved plenty of reconditioned items before. So the confidence is there. (Note the reciept shown is for 3, we did that twice).
With a 100% positive feedback rating, Powerseller eBay status and a solid selling history we can charge slightly more and still make a sale over our competitors. Pricing isn’t everything but it’s a lot of things.
Now we determine our listing price. To do so we use our trusty homemade Excel Sheet for pricing. Remember we have inflated the Paypal fees and Ebay fees so we can be confident in our profit calculations.

It looks like this:
Each Unit Total Cost $51.66 ((Purchase Price + Total Shipping) / 6)
Ebay Listing Fee: $.20
Pay Pal Selling Fee (aprox 7%) $5.28
Estimated Actual Shipping Cost: 7.50
Estimated eBay Fee (aprox. 11%): $7.92
So to sell this item on Ebay we have to clear $63.64 Just to break even!! This is how people get burnt. They don’t realize that you need to mark up a $50 item by at least $13.00 to break even. That’s a 27% mark-up!

So we will set our sell price for $65.99. It looks like we will only clear $2.35 but now we get to charge our buyers shipping!! Which will be $8.65 for shipping. That will have us clear $10.00 per sale. So we should make a total of $60 when we sell all 6. Now because we used $7.50 as an average shipping estimate that will vary depending on actual shipping cost by location.
$60 is a 20% gain on our money! You can’t beat that. Right now it’s all speculation. The cameras have arrived today (July 14, 2010) and will be posted this weekend. Let’s see if we can make our 20%.

God I love this!

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