Having it Both Ways (Dealer Gripe)

[savedfrommyspokes]

Originally Posted by bnorth

. The average guy on eBay has no overhead and does not pay taxes(the thing that pays for all the stuff we take for granted).

As a seller on ebay, once all of the fees, expenses, paypal costs, etc are added up, the total accounts for almost 28% of my income. When I set up at shows, my expenses were about an equal percent of my income.

Breaking down my income by percent, COG=42%, Expenses=28% and profit =30%.

You may ask about why that 28% is so high when ebay FVF=10% and paypal is FVF is 3%. Here are several things to consider....with the total fees I paid to paypal, over a third of the total amount paid to paypal are the 30 cent transaction fees. The 10% in FVFs paid to ebay does not include the cost of the monthly store fee. Part of my expenses are my s/h costs....10% of my total income goes to cover s/h costs. If you back out my s/h income/expenses, my ebay/pp fees are 18% of my income.

As far as taxes, due to the number of transactions I complete , I receive a 1099K from paypal, so after my accountant figures in all of my deductions, I have an effective tax rate of 17-18% of my profit.

When I sold at shows, all of my income was cash....no taxes paid.

After spending some time on a "tri state" show circuit in my area, I much prefer selling online from home, but my expenses are far greater selling from home.


While most sellers do not sell enough to receive a 1099k, my guess is most ebay sellers have a similar percent breakdown of total income(before taxes) on their expense portion.