Selling on Amazon?

[Quacs]

I am in the infancy stages of building an investment portfolio of Lego sets, and my wife asked me last night if I had a plan for selling these sets once I decide to sell. The obvious response was "Ebay", but then I started poking around the Amazon site, and noticed they had a program for sellers that sell fewer than 40 items in a month. The cost on the front page said ".99 + other seller costs". Can anyone tell me from experience what the other "seller costs" are, and how they compare to Ebay's seller costs?

[comicblast]

I did a little digging and here is what I found:

In addition to that "$0.99" per listing, there is a 15% portion that Amazon takes from the final price.

Just because of this, it discourages many sellers to only do eBay or Craigslist or whatever, but Amazon gets much more views which would lead to faster sales. Assuming you get a very hefty discount, I would go for it. If you get only around a 20% discount, I would stick to eBay.

As a starting seller, I would stick to eBay, purely because it is much easier to use for starting sellers.

Hope this helped!

PS. Here is the link I used to get the above info on Amazon Fees + Pricing: http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=1161240

[Studebricker]

I believe Amazon charges a flat 15% -- with Ebay you have their fees, whatever they are, plus paypal fees, so it may or may not be much of a difference in total cost. Honestly I don't like Ebay charging quite a large fee for an auction if/when your item doesn't sell.

[RunMan3]

I believe Amazon charges a flat 15% -- with Ebay you have their fees, whatever they are, plus paypal fees, so it may or may not be much of a difference in total cost. Honestly I don't like Ebay charging quite a large fee for an auction if/when your item doesn't sell.

I may be wrong but it's my understanding EBay only charges a listing fee (which the first 50 are free each month) for items not sold. The selling fee and Paypal only apply when and item is sold.

Please let me know if I'm wrong.

[comicblast]

Yes, I think that RunMan3 is right. I don't remember being charged extra for auctions that no one won. Usually the listing fee is only $0.50 if you list more than 50 per month, which I haven't gotten to yet. :)

[stephen_rockefeller]

Correct......I have never been charged for a item that did not sell.

[Darth Lego]

Yes, I think that RunMan3 is right. I don't remember being charged extra for auctions that no one won. Usually the listing fee is only $0.50 if you list more than 50 per month, which I haven't gotten to yet.

I never get charged for items I didn't sell either...

[kerrmando]

The thing I like about Amazon is how high some sets have sold for on there. I've seen a lot of the larger sets sell for considerably more on amazon then on ebay..

[Quacs]

Is there a time limit for posting a sale on Amazon? How about Ebay?

[comicblast]

Is there a time limit for posting a sale on Amazon? How about Ebay?

I am not sure about Amazon, but I assume that it is as long as you don't remove it, it is fine. For eBay, when you create your listing, you also select a time limit which can be any of the following: 1 Day, 5 Days, 7 Days, 10 Days, 30 Days, and "Good 'til Cancelled" which is basically infinite unless you decide to cancel it. Good 'til Cancelled costs $0.50 to list, I believe.

[tigereyes5811]

Well for an Auction Listing on EBay, the first 50 are free each month... After that they charge you anywhere from .15 cents to .75 cents depending on the amount of the item or if you have a "Buy It Now" option with your listing. If you don't sell anything you don't get charged, but if you do sell an item you get charged 9% for the item and 9% for shipping fees. Now for the Fixed Price Listing on EBay, you have all different days you can end the listing and its .50 cent off the bat to set a buy it now price. You have maximum 30 days, or you have a Good til canceled option which is .50 cent every 30 days. After your 30 days are up it will automatically post it up again for another 30 days but ebay will charge you .50 again and it keeps doing it til you cancel the item. And they charge 9% on item and shipping also when item sells. That's standard for them.