Why we don’t sell on sites such as eBay, Etsy, and Gumroad

When we set up this website, we thought of using sites such as Etsy, eBay, and Gumroad to promote the books but we decided not to. Notwithstanding the convenience and huge traffic that comes with it, now all of you are wondering why we didn’t do so.

The fees associating with each platform
Each site has its own fees such as insertion fees, selling fees, final value fees, etc.

Now think, after all that, you have to include Paypal or Stripe fees in your final display price, which already takes 4.4% + 30 cents from your sale.

eBay
For books, they charge a flat rate of 12% of your sale.

e.g. I have a book retailing at $20. The base cost of the book is $10. After deducting 12% off, 4.4% + 30 cents Paypal/Stripe fee, and packing material fee, which equates to $4.58, my net book sale would be $15.42. I would only make a net profit of $5.42.

Some books are retailing at almost 4 times the original amount due to their rarity.

Etsy
They charge a listing fee of 20 cents per item and a 5% transaction fee

e.g. I have a book retailing for $20. The base cost of the book is $10. After deducting the 20 cent listing fee, 5% transaction fee, 4.4% + 30 cents Paypal/Stripe fee, and packing material fee which equates to $3.38, my gross book sale would be $16.62. I would only make a gross profit of $6.62.

Gumroad
For the ‘Getting Started’ package, they charge a flat 5% fee.

e.g. I have a book retailing for $20. The base cost of the book is $10. After deducting the 5% fee, 4.4% + 30 cents Paypal/Stripe fee, and packing material fee which equates to $3.18, my gross book sale would be $16.82. I would only make a gross profit of $6.82.

Each website has its own pros and cons so that is why we decided to build our own website so as to maximize our cash flow and creators’ consignment salary.