So, I'm watching this infomercial

Does your ad say you've had one of them on?

Ok, I looked...

I don't get an insertion fee.
The selling fee of ebay is 9% of what the item sold for, including shipping charged to the buyer.
Paypals fee is 2.9% + 30 cents.

So, if something cost me $8.50, and I sell it for $17 plus $3 shipping, I get charged by ebay $1.80 on my gross sale of $20. I get charged by paypay .88
Total fees of $2.68 off a gross sale of $20.

The net profit would be $5.82, or 34.42% net profit.

Since I'm selling 2, that's a net profit of $11.64 for 15 minutes, or over $46 an hour.

If I sell them for $20 each, instead of $17, I will net 42.32% profit, or $16.92.

Sooooo.....if I were to sell 40 of these items, it would be a total of 5 hours work (I'm sure it would be less), and I'd make a net between $232.80 and $338.40.

No.

For the same reason I don't ask the sales person in the lingerie dept at macy if anyone else tried on a bra before I did. I assume that at least 5 other people, who may not be as fastidious as I am, had on the piece before me. So, I don't feel the slighted qualm in selling it as new, never worn.

It was not worn, I was fresh out of the shower. The manner in which the material touched me was less than if I carried it in my hand, or draped over my arm. Total amount of time touching clean skin was 10 seconds or less. I'm very aware of that sort of thing.

So sue me.

I wouldn't worry about it - what kind of infections can you get from a boob, anyway? And you're right, we try on bathing suits and bras all the time in stores where there are likely WAY more people trying them on or otherwise touching them, so ... big deal.

Some what related...I once bought this beautiful sweater at Laura Ashley. After wearing it a couple of times, the sweater began to "ball up".

Laura Ahsley ain't cheap and is supposed to be high quality so I brought it back - I didn't have the receipt as I had worn it a couple of times and liked it until I found it was low quality. I did have my credit card statement that had the charge and all I asked for was a store credit. They refused as I did not have a receipt.

Then a little bit later, a co-worker mentioned to me, that a friend worked for Laura Ashley - he contacted her and she emailed me saying that Laura Ashley takes pride in their product so they will give me a full refund, just bring this email.

So I went back to the store and without question, they refunded my money (no store credit). I then watched with horror as they made a tag for the item to be put back on display to sell. I had told them before I had worn the item and it was defective. I reminded the woman I had worn the item (and it should have been obvious with the balling and like - but she proceeded to put it on the rack to re-sell.

So I wouldn't worry at all.

mame/linkat

I know I went overboard with my answer, because I thought the question could turn into one of those "how could you sell used goods as new" things.

Trying something on, it it being worn, are 2 different things.

You can list something as "new with tags" or "new without tags"
Everyone lists this particular item as "new without tags" because, well it doesn't come with a price tag on it.

When people list something as "new with tags" sometimes they say something like "never been worn" in their description.

I doubt anyone assumes that means the item has never been on someone's body.

heh.

The items just sold, and I netted 107% from what I put into this, cost, fees postage, etc.


More than doubled my money.

I'm gonna put another set up for auction later this evening. Already have the posting, so I just click "sell another like this" No work at all.

if you advertised them as worn and stinky, I bet you'd get even more moolah...

I know.
Have you ever searched for well worn flip flops on ebay?

good gravy.

PQ had a thread about that, remember?

I think I'll stick with the above board stuff.

I had to quit participating in that thread.

it made my palms sweaty...

Well, I've sold ten of them so far, netting a $12 profit a piece.

Not bad. $120.

I've got 8 of them up on the auction block right now, they sell every Sunday night.
Got about 20 more of them waiting to go up after that.

I need to figure out what my next product will be.

Christmas is coming.

Sometimes you're a genius, Chai. I can't figure out why you aren't a tycoon yet.

Hey Chai - do you know if there is some where I can go to help my mom get started on ebay? She has alot of free time and inherited about a million dolls of all values - she can't keep them all just selected a few and some to give out. She thought she may be able to sell them on ebay.

Oh, and I just "won" an auction on ebay. My daughter really wanted an American Girl doll that is retired now. We went on and got her for $50 - granted she was naked and used, but in good condition. Where else could you get an American Girl Doll for $50?

It's like not wearing underwear.

Most people are more comfortable with the support that underwear provides.

Thanks for keeping us all abreast on this crucial matter.

Hey, did YOU just clear $120 for practically no work?

Wow.
I don't know anything about dolls, but I looked at the American Girl website and see they Start at $100!

Good deal!

Does your mother live near you? It'd be best if she and you set it up together, if she's not computer savy.

Actually, you could set it up for her. Use ask her what she wants to use as her user ID, her password, her email address (It will be best if she sets up a separate email account just for ebay, so everythings in one place. If you have her bank information, you can do the same thing to set up her paypal account.

On ebay there's an entire section with instructions/lessons on how to set things up. It isn't hard, just takes a while to get it done. I open mine quite awhile back, with no definate idea what I was really going to do with it, but for this project it made it that much easier to just jump in, post my auction and and there you go.

In a nutshell, here is what your mom needs...

An email address for her ebay and paypal accounts (like a yahoo email address)
An ebay account
A paypal account
A bank account to link her paypal to
A digital camera, or camera phone.
Boxes to ship the dolls
A postage scale
Postage (or you can print your postage right off ebay, so she'd need adhesive stickers.

It's best to set your auction to last a full 7 days, and to END in the evening, live 9 or 10 o'clock your time (EST)
You can set up the auction anytime, and for a dime per article you set it up to start at 9 o'clock on Sunday, so it end 7 days later.

If you're going to buy something, the best thing is to look for something ending in the middle of the week, in the middle of the day.

If you have any questions linkat, PM me.

I wasn't being critical - just a bit of levity.

Personally, I have to put up an ad on Ebay for selling some great ties and men's dress suits. Your info has served me well.

Oh!

Jocularities, jocularities as Fr. Mulcaddy says.