SNIPE Posted January 6, 2012 Posted January 6, 2012 (edited) Hi, is this a good idea because they dont need to pay for much of the extra stuff lego charge such as packaging and their brand name etc I can make these things really good so pepole will like them How do i work out a good price too keeping in mind mybexpenses and profits Edited January 6, 2012 by SNIPE Quote
Paul Boratko Posted January 6, 2012 Posted January 6, 2012 It can be profitable if the creations that you sell are desirable... And if you believe that your work is really good,then you won't need to set a price, your work will price itself... However getting established is the first key in making money selling your custom stuff on Ebay... To be quite honest, you can make more money buying sets, parting them out and selling parts than you actually can with a large or even medium sized custom model... Here is a mock Ebay auction... Buyer wins(or uses buy it now) for $100 USD... Shipping is $10 USD... Buyer pays you $110 USD... Paypal takes around 3% for the transaction so -$3.30 and then you owe Ebay the listing fee + 9% up to $100, so that is another $10, now you are down to $87 or $86... You have to factor in what the parts cost you and your time... The bottom line is if you can design something good for around $10 and sell it for $30 consistently, then you are better off doing that... Just my 2 cents... Quote
Henchmen4Hire Posted January 6, 2012 Posted January 6, 2012 Some basic logic should help you out... cost of shipping to you (to get pieces to make the MOC) +cost of pieces +cost of shipping to buyer That would be the price to break even. Anything you charge over that is profit for you. Yeah, ebay/paypal charges fees, those are your responsibility, but I guess you can pass on that cost to the buyer. Quote
mostlytechnic Posted January 6, 2012 Posted January 6, 2012 Some basic logic should help you out... cost of shipping to you (to get pieces to make the MOC) +cost of pieces +cost of shipping to buyer That would be the price to break even. Anything you charge over that is profit for you. Yeah, ebay/paypal charges fees, those are your responsibility, but I guess you can pass on that cost to the buyer. Well, what you need to say is: cost of shipping to you (to get pieces to make the MOC) +cost of pieces +cost of shipping to buyer (don't forget cost of boxes, packing materials, plastic baggies, tape, shipping labels, etc) +fees (ebay/paypal) That would be the price to break even. (and you've spent a lot of time listing things, photographing, packing, shipping, etc on top of the building time, and you haven't gotten a penny for any of that yet) Anything you charge over that is profit for you. Also, keep in mind that your time selling things will add up quickly - probably take MORE time than building if you're not careful about it. I say that as someone who runs an online store. Selling on ebay is a massive time suck. Oh, and don't forget that EVERYTHING about ebay and paypal favors the customer. Be ready to spend significant time dealing with idiot buyers, no matter how clear you are in your listings. If they whine to ebay, ebay WILL rule in their favor, no matter how stupid they are. You'll run into more problems selling small, cheaper items (since they'll be bought by non-AFOLs) and less problems selling massive MOCs (since the AFOLs interested in something like that understand Lego and MOCs much better) So, not trying to turn you off, just saying you really need to understand what you're getting into. You might make a few bucks selling some, but see it all wiped out when a customer claims they never got what you shipped them, even though you've got Fedex tracking showing it was delivered to their door, if there's no signature, ebay/paypal WILL give the customer their money back and you're out the model AND the money. I've had it happen. Quote
Meatman Posted January 6, 2012 Posted January 6, 2012 Make sure that you don't build something that is so good that other people will steal your idea and design and sell it themsleves. Right Paul? Quote
SNIPE Posted January 6, 2012 Author Posted January 6, 2012 (edited) Hi, Thanks for the very good advice, I am a collector of lego too so the stuff was given to me as presents from my family, ive had them for almost all my life, my parents are not bothered if I have my lego or not so since the parts have devalued in cost anyway it means I can sell them I can sell the model for more than it is worth in parts because you have to include the price of desighning and building, P&P+delivery. The feedback thing can be changed so you can respond to pepole, so if I try hard enough then there should not be a problem with that I can include warnings about things in the descripion before they buy it too , they should hopefully spot that. For example I can put how the items are packaged in the description. Photos should not be a problem much as I can have 3 photos for each 'small' classification of my mocs, the bricklink URL of my moc gallery will be put into each description. Im starting off with a smallish model. The way I think of it is if they pay for it then hey can make a copy of it because it is not out of my expense as they will have to buy the parts so if they do then can sell it on ebay if they want. hopyfully the expirience gained after playing with lego for a long time will make pepole drawn towards my MOCs, I dont know. maybe it will be a rumor thing that such and such is better. (basically the image of the seller) Either that or I can put the html file onto a cd but watermark the file so it counts as proof they it was pirated, the html file is the instructions to the model. Taking photos, making them ,printing them is free, putting the first photo or first 3 photos are meant to be free (i fotget) Making the boxes should not cost very much at all., I have a loft full of empty boxes. p&p and delivery of the model is paid by the buyer, I will not have a buy it now option this time but if I did I could include the price of P&P ,etc in that cd's are quite cheap, I can borrow a one from my brother or whatever. Edited January 7, 2012 by SNIPE Quote
Henchmen4Hire Posted January 7, 2012 Posted January 7, 2012 (and you've spent a lot of time listing things, photographing, packing, shipping, etc on top of the building time, and you haven't gotten a penny for any of that yet) Are you saying you'd add to the price of the model to pay for your time taking pictures and listing things? That's nonsense, might as well charge for the time it took you to go poop and the toilet paper it took to wipe too. Quote
Ralph_S Posted January 7, 2012 Posted January 7, 2012 Are you saying you'd add to the price of the model to pay for your time taking pictures and listing things? That's nonsense, might as well charge for the time it took you to go poop and the toilet paper it took to wipe too. It's not nonsense at all. If you buy a product from a company, you pay for part of the advertising and yes, you also pay for time people at that company spend on the loo and their loo paper too. If you want to look at this thing as a way of making money, of course you have to factor in the time spent on the whole process. Cheers, Ralph Quote
mostlytechnic Posted January 7, 2012 Posted January 7, 2012 It's not nonsense at all. If you buy a product from a company, you pay for part of the advertising and yes, you also pay for time people at that company spend on the loo and their loo paper too. If you want to look at this thing as a way of making money, of course you have to factor in the time spent on the whole process. Cheers, Ralph Exactly. If you're building purely for fun and just want to get your money back by selling, well, you've still gotta account for fees, boxes, tape, etc in your selling price or you'll lose money. If you want to actually MAKE money doing it, yes, you have to factor a solid profit into your prices, which does indeed need to account for how much time it took you. If you sell a MOC for $100 shipped on ebay, you're looking at around $12.30 in ebay/paypal fees. Plus your cost of shipping ($10-15). Plus cost of parts (let's say $50 for argument's sake). Plus $2 for a box. So now you're at $35 "profit" - not bad, right? Well, if you spent a hour on ebay stuff (photographing, listing, dealing with questions, packing, shipping), 2 hours designing and building, you're only at around $10/hr pay. That's not that great. And those time estimates are low. I buy clearance toys and sell them online. My rule of thumb is I have to buy it for less than half of the current selling price or it's not worth it. And I've been doing it long enough and in enough volume to have automated stuff set up, deal with stuff in bulk, buy boxes in bulk so they're cheaper, etc. Quote
Meatman Posted January 7, 2012 Posted January 7, 2012 From what I have noticed, Custom Technic based models don't seem to sell very well on Ebay. Quote
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