SOME BUGS in orders page

Hello,
I have just noticed some other bugs.

  1. The profit amount is totally wrong. I sold 1 items for 35 € and found that profit is 43,05 :neutral_face:

  2. The image of sold item is wrong, but title correct.

  3. Shipping is wrong. I checked from web and from listing template and it is 1,60 €, not 11,60 (it is insurance + postage, but actually insurance is facultative and should not be added… besides shipping fee is not an income).

See the picture

I really hope you could help me. You see, it is… a little mess :expressionless:

Thank you
Federico

  1. The profit amount is totally wrong. I sold 1 items for 35 € and found that profit is 43,05 :neutral_face:

Profit calculation works like this: ‘Sold Price’ + ‘Shipping Fee’ - “eBay Fees” - “Actual Shipping” - “Item Cost”

It’s true that there’s a problem with the insurance (see 3)) but is 0,50€ the price you had to pay for the item?

  1. The image of sold item is wrong, but title correct.

Hmm. If you go back to that listing, does the correct listing show there?

I see. We have to check if how we can determine if the insurance option was actually used. Also, you need to put something into the “Actual Shipping” field. If you leave that field empty, GarageSale thinks you were able to send the item for free, and counts the whole shipping fee as profit.

Hello Ilja,
I took some time before replying to you since you focused on a new feature I did not know (or I should say I did not understand how to use), the “actual shipping”. Well, I spent some time studying it and to be really honest with you I don’t think it is very useful. I try to explain you my doubts. It is quite complicated, so if you need any further explanation just ask me and I will try to do my best.

  1. First, I have to say that for all listing I use custom shipping profile set on eBay so I save much time, I just choose the one I need from the scrolling bar and that’s it. However these are pre-made profiles on eBay and I cannot set before the actual shipping cost, so I have to put it in each listing. It seems to be quite long if I have to sale lots of different items. This is a problem for those seller who use shipping profiles

  2. Second, you told me that Profit calculation works like this: ‘Sold Price’ + ‘Shipping Fee’ - “eBay Fees [it includes also Paypal fees which are above sold price + shipping fee]” - “Actual Shipping” - “Item Cost”. If you say ‘Shipping Fee’ - “Actual Shipping” = “profit” it means that you earn something above shipping fee which is dishonest for customers and I guess also forbidden by eBay. Anyway I understood your idea (almost all people do it): if ‘Shipping Fee’ > “Actual Shipping” there is a gap, but… what you earn above shipping is not simply ‘Shipping Fee’ - “Actual Shipping”.

2.1 First you have to consider that you pay 3,4 % also above shipping fee, so it should be

‘Shipping Fee’ - “Actual Shipping” - “Paypal fee above shipping fee” = net profit above shipping.

However, I think it works right, API takes all Paypal fee which includes also “Paypal fee above shipping fee”. This is not the problem

2.2 BUT the real problem (and in my opinion you did not consider it) is that Shipping fee is higher than actual shipping since you have to cover the price of parcels and packaging (which are not always easy to estimate) and the difference between ‘Shipping Fee’ and “Actual Shipping” is not a net profit since it includes again packaging costs. So it should be

‘Shipping Fee’ - “Actual Shipping” - [“Paypal fee above shipping fee”] - packaging = net profit above shipping.

This is why I don’t think that using calculation as ‘Sold Price’ + ‘Shipping Fee’ - “eBay Fees [+ Paypal fees]” - “Actual Shipping” - “Item Cost” is really correct to calculate the net profit for a specific transaction. The idea to obtain the gap you earn above shipping is half correct and half not since you forgot there are also packaging costs (mails, bubble sheets, labels, petrol if you don’t leave near post office, parcels and so on). It should require another field but don’t do it! It would become too complicated. My advice is just to keep in mind that what you obtain is not a pure profit so excluding that ‘Shipping Fee’ - “Actual Shipping” from profit calculations would solve the matter (well, then if you really earn something above shipping without any guilt… you should keep it in your mind as I do with VAT that API does not include in calculation of eBay fee).

Just tell me if I am wrong, I hope so but looking my reports I am afraid I am not.

Concerning the other bug (The image of sold item is wrong, but title correct), if in orders section I right click above it I go to the wrong listing (the one of image, not title). Besides I noticed that this wrong listing is marked with green and not the one I really sold. Uhm… what about it :fearful: ?

When a new eBay order comes, we could fill in the actual shipping cost field with the shipping fee we get from eBay for this order. Would this help?

If you are offering calculated shipping, eBay is calculating the shipping rate for your (that feature is not available in Italy). But if you are shipping a lot of items, you might get offered discounts by the shipping company eBay doesn’t know about. That’s mainly we we added this field.

You could just add the cost for your packaging materials to the actual shipping field. :wink:

I don’t get the part with 3.4%. Can you explain? Is this something specific to Italy?

Hello,
thank you again for this clear reply.
Now I see, so you did it for these orders sent with specific fees given by eBay. Well, I don’t use them since I rarely dispatch with couriers and I am quit sure that almost all sellers who work in my field don’t use couriers. Your idea is of course correct, but if you really want to make your app versatile you should make it useful both for seller who don’t use couriers and this who do. In my own opinion (and I don’t say this for me but thinking to all sellers like me) it would be better if you did something like this:

  • Actual shipping field is empty —> ‘Sold Price’ - “eBay Fees” - “Item Cost” = PROFIT

  • Actual shipping field is not empty –> ‘Sold Price’ + ‘Shipping Fee’ - “eBay Fees” - “Actual Shipping” - “Item Cost” = PROFIT

What do you think about this?
Adding shipping fee when a new eBay order comes would solve the problem, but to be really honest with you I don’t think it could be workable if you have many orders, it would take too time. Tell me if you think this is wrong…

Concerning the matter of 3,4 % above shipping fee, well, I REALLY hope it is not just in Italy !!! It means that Paypal keeps his percentage on the whole amount you receive, and so also above shipping fee (while eBay does it only above sold price). Anyway don’t pay attention to this, I noticed that API takes all Paypal fees (so 3,4 above sold cost + 3,4 above shipping fee) and it works fine.

I’m confused. If you don’t use shipping services, what do you use instead? Are you offering local pickup?

Hello,
sorry if my words were not so clear :sweat: I mean that I don’t use couriers offered by eBay but I set manually prices of Poste Italiane, it’s a bit different since prices do not change for differences of 1 or more kg but only for a few grams (a mail of 20 g costs differently from another one of 21 and different again from a mail of 51 g… and so on). I created eBay shipping profiles divided into weights and so I used them from GS… tell me if now it sounds better :grin: