TF Views

Selling newer retail toys on ebay IS STUPID,As you barely break even,Might be losing money,get nothing for your spare time,etc...
HONESTLY THE ONLY ONES MAKING ANY MONEY IS THE SHIPPING PROVIDER,EBAY,PAYPAL,Gasoline station & THE GOVERNMENT THRU SALES TAX.

A few current TF Ebay listings to illustrate my points:
http://www.ebay.com/sch/m.html?_odkw=&i ... &_from=R40
http://www.ebay.com/itm/TRANSFORMERS-PR ... 33825fbf7a
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Transformers-FA ... 2a2cf7fa11
http://www.ebay.com/itm/TRANSFORMERS-GE ... 257e25b92c
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Transformers-Ge ... 35c7d53c50

EVEN IF THAT FAN/SCALPER IS A RETAIL STORE EMPLOYEE THAT GETS A DISCOUNT. That employee discount is about 5% to 8% off purchases in the stores. this still is next to nothing,when ebay sellers need to factor in ebay final selling fees,paypal transactions service fees,gasoline fees,time wasted going to the post office & waiting in-line. since ebay sellers CAN'T charge buyers sales tax,ebay sellers don't get reimbursed for retail store sales tax. Credit card interest fees if your not buying the toys at stores with cash. More time wasted finding a shipping box,putting the item in the box,maybe applying a printed label. Taking pics of the toy to list on ebay. Spending more time typing up a listing on ebay.

Honestly if your barely getting $2 to $5 dollars in ebay selling profits,then your wasting your time. as it takes a few hours to hunt down & find all these newer TF toys in stores. getting a $2 to $5 profits for hours worth of work is 90% less than what the USA Government minimum wage per hour is.

WHY THE NEED FOR THIS THREAD PART 2,Because All I keep seeing on Ebay is newer TFP/BH/Generations USA retail TF toys being sold by ebay sellers who are either fellow TF fans or scalpers. Most of these sellers barely get $3 to 7 dollars in profits VIA ebay final ending prices-----> Getting barely $3 to $7 in ebay sales profits,after ebay takes its fee,paypal takes its fees,buyers don't pay sales tax,buyers don't pay gasoline driving around fees----> All of this eats/takes away from the $3 to $7 in profits. last I checked wasting hours worth time running around to stores barely getting $3 to $7 in profits is 85% less than what a USA citizen makes on a minimum wage hourly job.

WHY DO I CARE,NORMALLY I DON'T CARE ABOUT FELLOW FANS OR SCALPERS-----> BUT I care because I & other fans get thrown in as the "AFFECTED PARTIES". I honest consider these types of ebay sellers as TROLLS because all they all they really do is MAKE IT EXTRA HARD TO BUYERS TO FIND NEWER TF TOYS AT STORES.

If your a TF fan/scalper who buys newer TF toys at retail prices,pays store taxes,pays ebay fees,pays gasoline fees & barely get $1 to $3 profits for all your efforts----> Then your barely breaking even,might be losing money.

If your a TF fan/scalper that doesn't REALIZE EBAY & PAYPAL TAKES FEES,DON'T REALIZE GASOLINE & TAX CUTS INTO YOUR EBAY TF AUCTIONS PRICES,Then I fear these TF fans who do this need to seriously look at all the factors,do the research,total up all the paid out exspenses that ebay buyers don't pay & so forth.

If your a TF fan/scalper that DOESN'T USE CASH & USES A CREDIT CARD to buy all these newer retail TF toys in desperate hopes of getting rich from ebay VIA Ebay buyers. Then I fear you need to understand your losing more money re-sale/scalper profits as credit cards charge anywhere from 5% to 28% in interest fees. Paying these interest fees takes profits away from your ebay sales.

SADLY,I'M convinced most TF fans who sells newer bought Retail TF toys for a few bucks more than what they paid. Don't realize Ebay takes a few dollars in fees,Paypal takes a dollar or two in transactions service fees. since ebay sellers CAN'T CHARGE IT'S BUYERS SALES TAX the ebay sellers pay for tax at stores & don't get their sales tax reimbursed by buyers. With gasoline being over $3.50 per gallon,surely driving around from store to stores cuts/takes away from the ebay profits as buyers don't pay for gasoline driving around fees,sellers do.

Sometimes,I speculate if these types of ebay sellers are stealing the stuff from stores. because this is the only way I can see them making a worthwhile profit for all their efforts by listing newer in-store retail TF toys on ebay.

Or they're buying cases in bulk from hasbro or distributors, like other stores. The MSRP is marked up a bit from the price of a case of four figures. A lot of ebay sellers aren't your average joe but online stores who have deals with ebay which may also bring down things like shipping and taxes.

Almighty Unicron wrote:Or they're buying cases in bulk from hasbro or distributors, like other stores. The MSRP is marked up a bit from the price of a case of four figures.

HTS.com,BBTS,TFSource.com,Toys R US.com do not offer any discounts when buyers order only one assortment wave case or a few meager cases each month. Buyers pay the same amount as if they were to buy all those toys individually at the store. Examples: http://www.bigbadtoystore.com/bbts/prod ... ode=retail
http://www.bigbadtoystore.com/bbts/prod ... ode=retail

You must have a business account & maintain a certain high volume of ordering from Hasbro in order to receive any business discounts when you buy assortment cases. YOU CAN'T JUST PRETEND TO BE A BUSINESS,ORDER A FEW ASSORTMENT CASES PER YEAR & EXPECT TO GET DISCOUNTS,AS DISCOUNTS COME ACCORDING TO THE VOLUME YOU ORDER,YOU NEED TO KEEP MAINTAINING THIS VOLUME TO KEEP GETTING THIS DISCOUNT.

MOST ebay sellers live at home with their parents in the basement. they are shut ins/hermits,creepy individuals that lack the social skills to get a real job------> THESE guys do not have the money nor brains nor credit to get any type of business account from hasbro or it's competitors,then keep maintaining this business account ordering volume every month/cycle.

Like I stated above in my Thread,Most ebay sellers who sell brand new just bought retail toys are not intelligent enough to factor in things that eat away at their profits. like ebay selling fees,paypal transaction fees,retail store sales tax that buyers don't pay,gasoline doing toy hunts,cost of one's time. Credit card interest rates if they use credit cards & not cash to buy these items them list them for sale on ebay,etc...

Almighty Unicron wrote: A lot of ebay sellers aren't your average joe but online stores who have deals with ebay which may also bring down things like shipping and taxes.

Ebay sellers don't charge buyers tax,so whatever tax these ebay sellers pay for from buying the toys at retail stores or from on-line comes out oftheir own pocket. This sales tax is not reimbursed by the ebay buyer nor the ebay site.

Ebay doesn't report any tax from it's sellers to the government,this is the sellers responsibilty. so their are no tax breaks provided by ebay to the sellers.

Ebay is not affliated with nor do they work with any shipping provider to help keep cost down for ebay sellers. every ebay seller who uses the link to print up shipping labels from either USPS or fedex pays the same shipping fees rate. Ebay doesn't bend over backwards to create cheaper shipping links for sellers who sell higher volume.

Tigermegatron wrote:MOST ebay sellers live at home with their parents in the basement. they are shut ins/hermits,creepy individuals that lack the social skills to get a real job------> THESE guys do not have the money nor brains nor credit to get any type of business account from hasbro or it's competitors,then keep maintaining this business account ordering volume every month/cycle.

Do you work at a movie theater, bro? Because you're projecting.