Minimum Purchase Order
Hi Stampers
I am sure this request has been asked all ready, but I cannot find it. I list my stamps at 30% of SG Catalogue with a minimum of £ 0.15 (GBPounds) recently I have had some sales of single stamps at £0.15 this is not cost effective. To be able to have a minimum purchase order of maybe 3 or 4 Pound or which ever currency you use would be really good. SG have a minimum of £1.00 not sure how that would work.!!
I am sure this request has been asked all ready, but I cannot find it. I list my stamps at 30% of SG Catalogue with a minimum of £ 0.15 (GBPounds) recently I have had some sales of single stamps at £0.15 this is not cost effective. To be able to have a minimum purchase order of maybe 3 or 4 Pound or which ever currency you use would be really good. SG have a minimum of £1.00 not sure how that would work.!!
Comments
That way they can see the time and care with which orders are filled. If they are happy with your service they may well come back...just like I used to do when I was just a lad, I would walk into the local gas station and buy a pack of gum. When I got my first car, I bought my gas there.
Also, I second George DeKornfeld and Wayne Camolli's comments. I've had plenty of buyers who purchase one or two very low-priced stamps, and in some instances, they've come back for more. Even if they don't come back, I was able to pass along an inexpensive stamp that was of very little value to me to someone who saw more value in it, either financial or otherwise.
It should be noted that I'm in a position in life where these endeavors aren't what puts food on my table, so I'm able to pursue this without worrying about valuing the time I put into it. I know this isn't the case for others, so my approach likely doesn't make sense in all circumstances. If offering single stamps at very low prices as part of your overall offerings doesn't make financial sense, a different possibility would be to group stamps together until you hit a minimum threshold that does make sense.
It is not permissible to instruct buyers that they must meet any minimum or maximum purchase requirements.
I get many single stamp purchases, and I provide the same service as to someone who buys many. A sale is a sale, and a sale professionally handled by a seller can mean more sales from those buyers.
Purchase 15 cents, plus $2.50 S&H = $2.65 which is what buyers pay.
$2.65 - 23 cents HipStamp fee to me = $2.42
$2.42 - 38 cents PayPal fee to me = $2.04
$2.04 - 55 cents postage stamp = $1.49
$1.49 - 25 cents for paper, envelope, printing ink = $1.24
$1.24 - $1.50 for the gas driving to the post office and back = -26 cents
These purchases cost me at least 26 cents, and I never mentioned the time and effort to list the item for sale, and the time for processing the sale.
I have alot of these 15 cent sales, and now that my evaluation shows that I am losing alot of money when adding all the 15 cent sales, I had to adjust my S&H accordingly. I still charge a flat rate fee, and free shipping is offered on all purchases over $30.00. Also, since buyers outside the United States keep insisting that I ship at letter rate without a customs form, I no longer ship outside of the United States, and that decision is now permanent.
https://www.hipstamp.com/store/michaels-covers
However, my point was to show buyers who think all it takes to send a stamp they buy is a 55 cent stamp to mail it to them, that they are not taking all of the factors involved in retail activity into consideration.
Michael, there are more costs besides the envelopes, paper and inks. Buying discount postage also helps reduce costs a little. Other costs include glassines/approval cards, tape, and more. Again, my example was just illustrative showing costs that while not exact, are pretty close estimates.
The bottom line is that unless all you sell are $5.00 and up stamps, you are either making next to nothing, or losing money (giving it all away), if you don't charge correct shipping fees. If you factor every little cent of costs, including time, then you'd probably have to sell each stamp at a minimum $10 to start making a profit. That is why so many dealers, especially the remaining brick and mortar dealers, only sell $10 and up single stamps and sets, and collections at a quick turn around (buy low and sell at a small mark up) to generate a constant revenue stream.
My point on it was that on some things you can cut the costs down a bit with a few minor tweeks. And depending on your volume of sales you can save some major bucks over time. Tape,envelopes and other office supplies costs can be reduced if you can use volume break points. Also if you are shipping multiple orders in a day your cost to get it to the PO is reduced per each order. (For example,yesterday I shipped about 25 packages so using your figure per order comes to 6 cents per shipment to drive it to the PO as opposed to the $1.50 you need for the single shipment.) If you can get the number of orders per day up it changes those dynamics and the actual cost to get those orders out. That all comes out on how one is viewing these things.
On your second statement that's not quite true. I have been doing this full time for over 15 years and I don't sell ONLY $5 and above stamps. It can not be done if your mix of items are selling are mostly minimum value items. Proper and efficient
use of your time is the biggest factor on what your average order has to be in order to make a profit.
Most sellers do not understand what making a profit is. Many just do this for something to do to take up their time.
Many years ago I learned that time is money and you are absolutely correct that it does not pay to sell an item under $5.00 and 50 years ago or so that was only 50 cents and everything else went into the bargain box where you could pick what you want for 2 to 5 cents apiece which is now into today's dollars is 20 to 50 cents a piece.
Many sellers just want to make people happy so they can get their enjoyment filling in the spaces in their albums.
Francois
https://www.hipstamp.com/store/stampboutique
Bob