ProfBay Tracks How Profitable Your EBay Sales Are
If you’re a regular lister on eBay, you know how much your items are selling for, but maybe not the hard margins on your best stuff. Free (in beta) web tracker ProfBay aims to help.
ProfBay can’t read tea leaves to know how much it cost you to acquire or prep an item for sale, but it does do the hard math on your shipping, eBay’s insertion and listing fees, and PayPal take-outs to determine how much you’re in the black after sending your item out. The charts and graphs don’t appear to be the prettiest things we’ve seen around the web, but having a digital, never-forgets accountant tracking your side business (or main business) can’t help but make you a smarter seller and give you a better idea of what’s worth listing on the world’s biggest bid site. Free to use while it’s in beta; site’s owners state they may charge a “small subscription fee” in the future. ProfBay.com [via The Red Ferret Journal]
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Comments (AU Comments | US Comments)
You can still make money on Ebay? Who would have thought that after all the fees they added?
econobiker
@econobiker: I don't even want to know how much I lose on every item I sell on eBay... it's probably too embarrassing. I only bother to sell about 10 items a year, usually all at once... but once all of the rules started getting outrageous, and fees ridiculous, I won't be selling stuff online anymore. Yard Sales are much better.
Well...it's a bit buggy and very slow, but the concept is very nice. I also wish the site had a better 2.0 feel.
That said, geesh! I'm making FAR less than what I thought I was. I recently bought some headphones at Target on clearance and was selling them for $40--$15 more than what I paid. But by the time I calculate in sales tax, ebay fees, PayPal fees and shipping, I'm making less than $5 each! Not even worth my time! Ugh...what a reality check.
@JuryDuty, that's exactly the kind of information we wanted to get when we designed ProfBay. I'm glad it is useful for you. For those selling professionally on eBay, this kind of information is the difference between healthy profits, or continued losses. Many selling on eBay rely on on spreadsheets that are clumsy and hat to keep up-to-date. Re: a bit buggy and slow, sorry about that, we're working on it. Thanks for the feedback, much appreciated.
ToniaThalia
Become an Ebay affiliate, and get a cut off the back end of other sellers auctions.
UbertoDownie
I do this with a spreadsheet and I'm working on my own ajax version to integrate with my (sorry, private) auction creating site. It truly puts a stop to many of my whim decisions to pick up cheap stuff for resale. Honestly, the only way to come out ahead on eBay is to have a HUGE profit margin to cover fees and shipping costs, or to sell in large volume. It's still a great place to offload stuff you don't need any more, but just not the profit center it used to be.
cisengineer