Ebay take too much

[TonyBridger]

Hi all, although this post is slightly off the original topic it does have some relevance. I would like to ask how many people know or think they know whether a stallholder on a market gets paid by the market for attending that market or whether they have to pay for their pitch?
I do know the answer having been a market trader and shopkeeper for a number of years. I am just curious to know.if you are, or have been a market trader you will obviously know the answer. I will reveal why am asking in a few days time.

i wish they had paid me for attending, nothing worst than paying £50, or more, for a day that pours with rain all day long.

Wonder how many people know that regular traders often have to pay for their pitch on the days they don't turn up (holidays etc)

[emmily121]

i wish they had paid me for attending, nothing worst than paying £50, or more, for a day that pours with rain all day long.

Wonder how many people know that regular traders often have to pay for their pitch on the days they don't turn up (holidays etc)

Ah, but at least the regular trader is guaranteed their regular pitch when they want to use it, where as the casual trader may be turned away if there is no space available, and that includes the regular traders reserved pitch even if it is not being used, or at least that's what it used to be like on my local (small) market.

Does the question mean there is a market somewhere paying stall holders to be there, if so, it sounds desperate...

[squern]

From what I've calculated, Ebay will usually make the same, if not more than the seller.

If you buy an item for £10 and auction it for £20, you would think you'd make more than Ebay with such a crazy mark up, but in most cases you won't.

For example: The item will have to be sent recorded, so that's around £6 plus packaging costs, so lets call it £7.

Total cost for the buyer £27.

- Ebay Fee 10% = £2.70 + £0.35 = £3.05

PayPal Fee One 3.5% (of £27) = £0.95 + PayPal Fee Two £0.20 = £1.15

Total Ebay Fee = £4.20


Cost of item £10

P+P £7

Total £17

£27 - Ebay Fee (£4.20) = £22.80
- Item cost and P+P(£17) = £5.80 (less 50% TAX) = £2.90

The item cost £10 and sold for £20 (huge mark up). The profit was £10.

Ebay's £4.20 from £10 = 42% of your profits.

These costings and assumptions seem a bit odd to me:

Why does the item need to be sent Recorded Delivery?
Isn't £1.00 rather excessive for packing?

100% is not really much of a mark-up. (Would you sell an item for 2p that you had bought for 1p - I suggest you would sell it at what the market would bear).

A better business plan would be to work the other way round:

If the market price is £20, and overheads (P&P, listing fees, and payment fees) are £5, you must buy the item at something like £3 or less, to make it worth doing. That gives you a profit of £12, or 400%, and takes account of your time, and would give you the ability to absorb more than one listing fee.

It would also ensure that you made more out of the transaction than eBay, a minimum of twice as much.

Or you could sell on eBid, and make even more!!!

[HobbyHabitat]

Hi all, although this post is slightly off the original topic it does have some relevance. I would like to ask how many people know or think they know whether a stallholder on a market gets paid by the market for attending that market or whether they have to pay for their pitch?
I do know the answer having been a market trader and shopkeeper for a number of years. I am just curious to know.if you are, or have been a market trader you will obviously know the answer. I will reveal why am asking in a few days time.

thank you to the 2 people that answered my question. as market traders you obviously knew the answer. i asked because more that a few times as a market trader I was asked how much I was paid (usually on a council run market) for standing each day. the nearest I have come to being paid to be there was being offered a free pitch for 1 of my 2 stalls when I told them it would be my last week. this was because that pitch attracted a lot of customers to the market.
we tried a lot of markets in London and east Anglia, some were very good, some were for us a waste of time and money, possibly because we were selling goods that were not wanted in that area. generally speaking, the more expensive the pitch, the more the footfall, so the better the trade. this brings me back to the original posting, some trades on all sites will do better than others, a good example for ebid is stamps and postcards. this is possibly because the sellers of these lines have in the past (and still do) put a lot of effort into their listings, deanosaurus being a good example.
we hear time and again that tos have made changes in one way and another and that sellers will come flocking to ebid. this has never happened yet and I do not wish to be a killjoy, but its a fact that the number of listings on this site have been dropping steadily, as have the number of stores!. we have been selling on tos longer than we have here and have seen many changes on that site. we have adapted to the changes and in most cases have come out better off for them. it is not always what you do, its the way you do it. I agree costing your goods is very important, but there are some things you have no control over eg. postal charges. so what do most of us do, obviously put up your p&p.
same goes for online sites, we charge more on tos than we do here, sadly we still sell more on the other side.
we are getting a bit long in the tooth now but enjoy seeing new sellers arriving on this site, some have bright new ideas and the encouragement from the established sellers is to be commended.
to finish (if you hav,nt fallen asleep yet) its all very well giving the example in original posting, but buying and selling and % markup will depend on more than percentage profit. we wish you all success in the future