Plenty of the people bidding on Biddurs are not buying for themselves. They buy returns, overstock and consignment lots to resell, and most of them resell on eBay. The question they ask before every bid is the same: what will this actually fetch?
This guide is how to answer that in a few minutes, with the sums that matter.
Start with sold listings, not asking prices
Asking prices on eBay tell you what sellers hope for. Sold listings tell you what buyers paid. Search for the item on eBay, then filter the results to sold or completed items. Look at the last few sales in the same condition as the lot you are considering. Ignore the one outlier at the top and the one at the bottom and you have a realistic middle.
Condition is the whole game with returns stock. A boxed item with all its accessories sells for one price. The same item opened, with a scuff and no charger, sells for a different one. Match your comparison to the condition described in the lot, and read our guide to what to expect from returns pallets if you are new to grading.
Take the eBay fees off before you get excited
The sold price is not the money that lands in your account. eBay currently charges private sellers no selling fees on most domestic UK sales. Business sellers pay a final value fee that varies by category, plus a small per order charge. Then there is postage and packaging on every sale, and eBay ad fees if you promote the listing.
Work out the net figure for the way you sell, not the headline price.
Take the Biddurs costs off too
Your winning bid is not your total either. Biddurs adds a buyer's premium to the hammer price, VAT is charged on the hammer price plus the premium, and delivery is on top. We spell the whole calculation out in what you actually pay: buyer's premium and VAT, and the lot page shows the estimated total before you place a bid.
So the real sum is:
eBay net (after fees and postage) minus your Biddurs total (bid, premium, VAT, delivery) = your margin.
If that number is thin at the price you are about to bid, set a lower max bid and let the auction go if it climbs past it. Our guide to max bids and anti snipe explains why a fixed max is the calmest way to bid.
Doing this in seconds instead of minutes
Doing the sold listing search and the fee maths by hand is fine for one lot. It gets old fast when you are checking twenty lots in an event, or standing in a shop with an item in your hand.
That is why we built ScanJunki, a free eBay barcode scanner. Point your phone camera at a barcode and it shows the current eBay price for that product, the exact eBay fees for its category and marketplace, and your profit once you type in what you would pay. It is completely free, with no card and no subscription, and it runs on iOS, Android and in a web browser.
For a Biddurs lot, scan the barcode in the lot photos or type the product name into ScanJunki's search, and you have your ceiling before the clock gets anywhere near zero.
Check our own sold prices as well
Every lot that closes on Biddurs is published on our sold prices page. If the same product has sold here before, that tells you what other bidders were willing to pay for it in this condition, which is a useful second number next to the eBay figure.
The short version
- Search eBay sold listings in the same condition.
- Subtract eBay fees and postage for the way you sell.
- Subtract your full Biddurs total, not just the bid.
- Set a max bid where the margin still works, and stick to it.
- Use ScanJunki to do steps one and two in a couple of seconds.