Is Cheap Good, Or is cheap CHEAP?

I've been selling now for going on 46 years  and little has change since then, Except for the advent of the masses to selling on the net,Is that Good or Bad?

There are pluses and minuses in this new world of easy selling sites, The pluses are  anyone can set up shop with little or no experience in Selling or Marketing, One of the big problems in the market place today is the flooding of the marketplace with left overs or garage sale items. Some sellers just want to clean out the garage or kids room of stuff that is no longer need, That's great except for one thing, lot of us are full time sellers and purchase our inventories and spend countless hours working our business plans only to find items at give away price that no business man or women would dare think about doing unless they wanted to go out of business.

I've been thinking lately about leaning more towards a paid selling sight strictly because those type of seller list in that market place. Even though their price are low and I'm sure so are there sales. Most full time sellers are here for one main reason and that is to make a profit, Any one who has extremely low prices and ship at exact cost will at the end of the year realize that just because you make a couple dollars on an item, It does not mean at the end of the year you will show a profit. After you figure in all your hidden costs which are:

• Laptops, I Phones,Desktop, Cameras etc 
• Actual Postage
• Shipping labels (Plain Paper included)
• Packing tape
• Printer ink supplies
• Wear and tear on printer
• Packing supplies(Peanuts,Bubble wrap,Tape)
• Time preparing orders for shipping
• Not including time preparing listings(I like getting paid for my time)
• Not adding a handling charge will cost you when mistakes occur, Sometimes we error.
• If you take your order to the PO, You have time , Gas, Wear &Tear, Plus a higher cost to ship.
• Taxes which I doubt most sellers do not do
• Business license, Seller permits
• Don't forget the space needed to store products

The good news is if you are a ligitmate business, All the above stuff is tax deductible.Including a portion of your home used as your office, Store room and Auto expenses related to your business.

Ebay use to be the cream of the crop in online sales and may well still be King of the mountain, But cheap goods have caused them to rethink their bottom line, It is much more costly to sell there and that may not be a bad thing. It will for sure weed out those who should really have a yard sale once a year and dispose of unwanted items.

I'm all for free enterprise, But I do Believe that real sellers have overhead cost and have to be a bit smarter than others.I know I will get negative comments to this post, But if I can wake up one or two sellers to the fact that they are hurting everyone and themselves by low prices and exact cost shipping, Then I've done what I sought to do.

 Happy selling.