Selling For Less Than Shipping

Was browsing FDCs on ebay and noticed a number for sale at $0.25 each with free shipping. Price seemed about right but how do you do free shipping and make money or even break even? Or is this like the car dealers who lose on every sale but make it up on volume?

I hazard a guess that there are enough who bid higher to justify the cost. At any rate I would think the seller would certainly be busy.

It is a way to build feedback.

Have used a single, cheap item to start a new ebay store. Put it into motion and over a couple of years later had a store with 1,000 positive feedbacks. But I did not loose money in the transaction's.

Seller probably has a lot of old postage that they are using. I am still using stamps from box lots I bought years ago.

I've seen items like this and wondered the same thing.

But also as I think of the tons of low value stuff that I have of my own and what I'll ultimately do with it, the thought did occur to me of putting it up on there at a very low price and just seeing if I could break even on the shipping -- sort of like "free to a good home..." Not trying to make any money, just making sure the material survives.

Just like those sellers discussed in threads here who over-price ... every seller has the right to offer their wares at whatever price they choose. Buyers also have the option to buy/bid or not. Why should we worry about the seller's profit/loss? Life is too short to worry about someone else's business model.

I encountered this a few weeks ago.

I bid on 30 or so stamps at 15c each
(I assumed they would combined postage)
I was outbid on 28, so I paid $1.50 postage +30c buy
=$1.80 for 2 low value stamps.

Never again.

I can swap 400 stamps for $13.50 postage =3c a stamp

I'm not able to find the lots which the OP is describing. When I search for FDC (both auction & BIN), I get 932,949 results, sorted by "Price + Shipping: Lowest First", first (lowest price) lot is $1.49 BIN (with free shipping), shortly thereafter are auctions starting at $0.01 but with $2.00 shipping.

tsmatx
Try artcraft fdc still some there.

Just now, was at $0.01 when I landed on it.

1¢ WONDERS ~ US FLUEGEL FDC #1024 FUTURE FARMERS AMERICA 25TH ANNIVERSARY~C619
Condition:
--not specified
"SCAN IS THE SAME ITEM YOU WILL RECEIVE. PLEASE VIEW SCAN FOR IMPERFECTIONS, IF ANY. YOU WILL RECIEVE "... Read moreRead more about condition
Time left:Time left:6d 06h | Sunday, 8:53PM
Current bid:
US $0.11
Bid Amount
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Enter US $0.16 or more
[ 2 bids ]
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Located in: Braymer, Missouri, United States

There are other reasons to do this ....... If you got a negative feedback it will lower your ratings on ebay , so by making a big jump in positive feedback you improve your ratings . Everybody knows the better your rating is the more places your stuff will show up or it will move you up the list for eyeballs on what your selling .

That item I had bid on above for $0.06 is now bid up to $9.00. That seller is doing a great job of attracting bids.

Chipshot
Looks like yours sold for $14.50. No idea what the ones I looked at sold for, don't expect ArtCraft to be as popular as Fluegl.