How-to Use Eyore


Eyore will calculate your auction fees as you enter information into the data entry fields on the Fees tab.

Enter The Starting Price

To find out how much you will pay in fees if your item sells you need to fill out the START PRICE and SOLD FOR fields on the screen.

Fees and Net Profit

When you enter the starting price, the listing fee , total auction fee, and total Net income from the auction listing will be calculated.

Gross and Net Income, Expense, and Profit

When you enter the sold for amount, your income & gross income, the listing fee, closing fee, total auction fee, payment fee, and total Net income from the auction listing will be calculated.

Key Points In This Example

  • When the Sold For price is LESS THAN the Start Price, the assumption is made that the item did not sell.
  • When an item does not sell because the sold price is less than the starting price:
    • The start price field turns red.
    • The “closing fee” is labeled “not sold” and is set to zero.
    • The “payment fee” is set to zero.
  • When the Net income from the auction is negative, the “net” field turns red. When positive it turns green.

Fee Assistant

Eyore automatically flags listing fees that can be easily recovered by adjusting your starting price. Why give your money away to the auction site? Put those fees in your own pocket!

How It Works

When you enter a starting price that is near a new rate level, it will flag the listing fee with an exclamation point.

Put your cursor over the warning box (noted in the picture below) to see what Eyore thinks you should do to increase your net profits.

Click the warning box to accept the Eyore suggestion.

Example

You have entered a starting price of $10.00 for a new listing.

Eyore knows that eBay charges a $0.60 insertion fee for items starting at $10.00 or more.

Eyore suggests lowering your starting price by 1-cent to $9.99, saving you $0.20 in fees and increasing your chances for receiving a bid.

Clicking the warning box changes your starting price to $9.99, which increases your Net Profit by $0.20 if you sell at the same price (a good chance since you will probably receive more bids). Worst case, you now sell the item at $9.99 instead of $10.00 and pocket an additional 20-cents!

Breaking Even

Eyore will calculate the exact starting price needed in order to break even with your auction after all the expenses and fees are considered.

Enter Your Expenses

To use the Break Even feature you will only need to fill in your expenses and select the listing options for the auction.

  • Unit = How much the item being listed cost you including taxes, rebates received, and other purchase expenses.
  • Shipping = Your actual shipping cost charged by the shipping company (i.e. USPS, UPS, etc.). Be sure to include any special pickup or handling fees.
  • Packing = Your packing materials cost. Remember to add in your cost for packing peanuts, box, tape, etc. If you are not sure or if you use materials for more than one shipment then prorate the material based, for instance $1.00 for the box + $0.10 for packing peanuts + $0.14 for tape.

Click The Break Even Button

Click the Break Even button under the profit & loss column. Due to differences in fee structures, the break even point will change based on which auction site you select.

The Starting Price & Shipping Is Calculated

Once you press the Break Even button the Starting Price, Sold For amount, and Shipping Income are calculated based on your expenses. This tells you your MINIMUM starting price and shipping fees to charge in order to break even (no profit) on your item.

To increase your profit you can increase your starting price or shipping fees. Please note that over-inflating your shipping fees can cause your item to be de-listed by the auction site.

Note: If your start price is on the cusp of a new fee level you may negate your break even calculation, check the profit/loss section of the calculator for any warning indicators to ensure you are maximizing your profits. See the example below for an item that breaks even with a starting price of 9.99 but when we change it to $10.00 (to make $0.01 profit) we lose money.

Key Points In This Example

  • Sold For is set to the starting price
  • Shipping Income is set to your actual shipping expense
  • The Break Even button is now highlighted to indicate which auction site was selected.
  • To reset the button simply enter a new starting price.

Using Eyore Tabs

Fees

Click on the FEES tab to calculate the fees incurred in listing an auction and closing the sale. The FEES tab is where you will enter the details about your auction such as the starting price, reserve price, what the item sold for, and what expenses you incurred in processing the sale. Eyorewill calculate your gross profit, auction fees, payment processing fees, and net profit for the listing.

Settings

Click on the SETTINGS tab to set the program configuration settings. The settings made on this screen will effect how Eyore behaves. Enter your payment processing rates, user ID, or special discount rates provided by the auction sites.

Rate Schedule

Click on the RATE SCHEDULE tab to set custom starting rates for the auction sites. This allows for one time sales on insertion fees or new rate schedules when the auction sites change the fee structure.

See the Eyore Rate Schedules page for more details.

Websites

Click on the WEBSITES tab to visit relevant auction sites. Eyore will open the selected link in your default web browser.

Eyore Rate Schedules

Eyore allows you to edit the insertion fee rate schedule for the auction sites through the new “Rate Schedule Tab”. This feature is used when the auction site either permanently has changed the rate schedule or has a single-day listing fee sale.

Rate Schedule Tabs: eBay, Yahoo, Overstock

Within the rate schedule tab there are three sub-tabs, one for each auction site. This allows you to save fees for each site independently.

Starting Price Fees

The rate schedule is broken into 7 levels and defaults to the rate schedule in effect for the auction sites as of Decemer 1st, 2007. You enter the rate schedule using 2 parts, the “Start price” and the “Fee” sections.

You can enter up to 6 “Start price” levels and 7 insertion fees, the 7th fee is the default fee charged for all listings priced above the last entry on the Start price table.

You do not have to enter all boxes. Yahoo, for example, only has 4 starting fee levels as shown here.

One Day Sales – “All The Same”

You can quickly tell Eyore to base your calculations on a one-day sale rate by entering the sale rate insertion fee in the first “Insertion fee will be…” text box. Then press the “All The Same” button to make all insertion fees that same as what you entered in the first box. This is useful for free listing days, or 10-cent listing days that are common to many auction sites.

Option Fees (eBay only)

You can set fees for some of the more popular listing options. Eyore allows for a separate fee schedule for auction or store based listings.

Buy It Now Fees (eBay only)

Buy It Now (BIN) fees are additional fees that vary based on the buy it now price you set for your item. You can set up to 4 pricing levels for buy it now fees,similar to the Starting Price Fees rate system.

Closing Fees (eBay only)

You can set the closing fees based as a percentage of the selling price. Closing fees allow for a 3-tier percentage system. There is a different fee schedule for Auction and Listing items.

Reset Button

Click the reset button to set the rate schedule to the schedule that was in effect as of December 1st,2007.

Save Button

Click the save button to save the rate schedule for future Eyore sessions.

NOTE: The rate schedule and other program settings are automatically saved whenever you exit Eyore.