Are You Brave Enough to Calculate Your Real Profit?

It's fun to sell things on okay, and pack them up, and ship them off to their new owners. But sometimes when you take a look at the bottom line, and see everything you've spent to sell that item, it can take the wind out of your sail (no pun intended).Let's say your item sells for $10."That's great," you say. "I only paid $5 for it."Okay, so you made $5? Well, here's a breakdown of what that sale cost you.okay fees if you started the listing at $1.00 = 88 centsPayPal fees if you use that service = 59 centsSo now your profit is down to $3.53 and there isn't much you can do to change that. Well, if you started your listing at 99 cents you'd save 5 cents on the listing fee and raise your profit to $3.58.But let's think about that. Where did you get the item you sold? If it was a garage sale or thrift store, did you spend any gas to get there? How much time did you spend shopping? If you bought it on okay, what did you pay on shipping to get the item to you? If you had the item drop shipped, was there a dropshipping fee?So let's assume it's just something you had around the house. Did you have a box that fit it or did you have to go to Office Depot to buy one. If you bought one, you're talking a couple dollars considering tax. Of course there's gas too. Did you have packing tape and styrofoam to wrap the item?And if your packing supplies were just around the house, didn't you pay for them at one time?That makes the profits look a little dismal. So here are some money saving tips I've picked up in my seven years on okay.Save packing supplies, including boxes and bubble wrap, so you can recycle and reuse them.Use USPS Priority shipping and they'll deliver several sizes of boxes to your door for free (check out USPS.ge). You can also use okay's branded Priority Mail boxes which are also delivered free.Use okay's fee chart when determining your starting bid, lowering your price by one penny can sometimes cut your fees drastically.Try to buy items for resale in bulk or plan your buying trips so you get several items. This will save on gas.Use technology to save time on listing and monitoring auctions; your time is worth money too.Consider adding a fair handling fee to your shipping charges, even if you get free boxes there are costs of printing labels and packing the item. These costs add up.In short, it's important to take a hard look at what your real expenses are. Once you've faced that reality you're in a better position to make good business decisions and turn a real profit.If you found this guide helpful, please be sure to vote below.Have fun!