Anybody sell on ebay/amazon

I have a small farm that I grow fruits in. Over the last 5 years, I have gotten lots of production and have been supplying some local grocery stores and mom and pop stores - more as a hobby and side hustle 

friend suggested selling on amazon/ eBay. I have never done it before 

1) do I need LLC to sell on those sites? 

2) how do you charge shipping ? Should I open business account for fed ex/ups or do local post office ?

3) do the companies collect sales tax or do I collect and pay state ? 

4) the product I want to sell - there are already sellers on amazon - charging WAY more than what I can charge - Since I am direct grower. However lots of these guys doing free shipping and prime. 

As a new seller I imagine I can’t be prime - don’t even know how that works 

appreciate any help / information to get starrted

I sell on eBay. I used to sell on Amazon a little. Amazon is more complicated to sell on, but I'll address your questions from an eBay perspective:

1) No, you can sell as an individual.

2) You do not need your own accounts for selling on eBay. They have FedEx and USPS tied into their selling platform and it gives you some decent discounts. You put in how big the package is and how much it weighs when listing the item and it will calculate shipping for you and charge the buyer based on that. For some reason what you pay never quite lines up with what they charged the buyer despite them having all the info they need for it. Be careful offering free shipping - it always costs more than you expect and it can wipe out lots of your sales.

3) If you are doing this as a business you need to get a vendor's license and charge sales tax. When listing the items on eBay, you put in your tax rate and whether or not it applies to shipping. They'll charge the buyers and pass it on to you. I do not think you need to charge sales tax for any out of state buyers.

4) Don't worry about overpricing - worry about underpricing. If you can get $50 for an item or $30 for an item, it's the same amount of work either way. Always go for the higher price. It's also easier to cut your prices later versus raising them later. Be reasonable on what you expect to get but also don't negotiate against yourself and end up undercharging.

Keep fees in mind. eBay charges 10% right off the bat, even on your shipping costs, and PayPal charges around 3%. So just remember that when working out your pricing.

I sell on both, Amazon is a HUGE pain once you get into volume sales. 

Here is one of the best things for eBay pricing. 

http://finalfeecalc.com/

Professor_Brap said:

I sell on both, Amazon is a HUGE pain once you get into volume sales. 

Here is one of the best things for eBay pricing. 

http://finalfeecalc.com/

Thank you kindly. I will look through that. I have currently 100 boxes I want to start with, and see where it goes. Since you sell on Amazon, do you give everything to them, and they ship out, or do you ship out individually ?

I do both, If you send into Amazon factor in double shipping prices, and a wait time, and lost items. 

dculberson said:

I sell on eBay. I used to sell on Amazon a little. Amazon is more complicated to sell on, but I'll address your questions from an eBay perspective:

1) No, you can sell as an individual.

2) You do not need your own accounts for selling on eBay. They have FedEx and USPS tied into their selling platform and it gives you some decent discounts. You put in how big the package is and how much it weighs when listing the item and it will calculate shipping for you and charge the buyer based on that. For some reason what you pay never quite lines up with what they charged the buyer despite them having all the info they need for it. Be careful offering free shipping - it always costs more than you expect and it can wipe out lots of your sales.

3) If you are doing this as a business you need to get a vendor's license and charge sales tax. When listing the items on eBay, you put in your tax rate and whether or not it applies to shipping. They'll charge the buyers and pass it on to you. I do not think you need to charge sales tax for any out of state buyers.

4) Don't worry about overpricing - worry about underpricing. If you can get $50 for an item or $30 for an item, it's the same amount of work either way. Always go for the higher price. It's also easier to cut your prices later versus raising them later. Be reasonable on what you expect to get but also don't negotiate against yourself and end up undercharging.

Keep fees in mind. eBay charges 10% right off the bat, even on your shipping costs, and PayPal charges around 3%. So just remember that when working out your pricing.

My package are all done in 2lb and 5 lb boxes. I have them all boxed and ready.  Is the vendors license you speak of a state license, or is there EBAy/Amazon vendors license? To give you an idea 2lb costs about $8. 5lb costs about $13.  People are doing more than double on those prices. 

Professor_Brap said:

I do both, If you send into Amazon factor in double shipping prices, and a wait time, and lost items. 

What is your recommendation?  If I send into Amazon, what is the benefit?  Prime people get it right away?  Also if you order 1 box, do I send 1 box to amazon? Or do I send them 50 boxes, and they keep and ship?

I have no problem shipping myself. THere is a UPS store right here, so I can drop it there few times a day if needed. 

Appreciate your recommendation, since you do both.

Check if the UPS store charges retail shipping prices only ,

The one near me also charges for package drop offs , UPS store are privately owned,

How much shelf life does your fruit have ?

mr2s2000elise said:

My package are all done in 2lb and 5 lb boxes. I have them all boxed and ready.  Is the vendors license you speak of a state license, or is there EBAy/Amazon vendors license? To give you an idea 2lb costs about $8. 5lb costs about $13.  People are doing more than double on those prices. 

The vendors license I mentioned is a state license. I'm not familiar with the California process, being from Ohio, but I got mine from the state department of taxation. You only need it if selling to California people and even then I wouldn't bother unless you volume got pretty high.

What kind of fruit do you sell? My family and I eat a ton of fruit and I'd love to buy some of yours to try it.

In reply to mr2s2000elise :

You said you are supplying mom and pop stores as a hobby and a side hustle. 

Assuming you are selling, that’s a business. You still have a tax liability, and a requirement to have a business license. 

If you scale up (like Amazon or EBay), you may also have a lot of food regulations to deal with. 

You need some business advice from a decent accountant or lawyer (or both) before you scale up. 

You are asking questions about how to sell and ship before you ask questions about how to run your business legally. 

californiamilleghia said:

Check if the UPS store charges retail shipping prices only ,

The one near me also charges for package drop offs , UPS store are privately owned,

How much shelf life does your fruit have ?

 

 

shelf life - if not cooled is 2.5 weeks. 

Have you attempted to ship the fruit in the past with good results?  I would be concerned about perishability - bruising in transit, spoilage if the package doesn't get to your buyer as quickly as you expect, etc. My wife worked for a time for a berry farm local to me - the berries bruised if the van driver took a turn too aggressively on the way to the farmers' market, I can't even begin to imagine the carnage that would have resulted with trying to ship through the mail. 

SVreX said:

In reply to mr2s2000elise :

You said you are supplying mom and pop stores as a hobby and a side hustle. 

Assuming you are selling, that’s a business. You still have a tax liability, and a requirement to have a business license. 

If you scale up (like Amazon or EBay), you may also have a lot of food regulations to deal with. 

You need some business advice from a decent accountant or lawyer (or both) before you scale up. 

You are asking questions about how to sell and ship before you ask questions about how to run your business legally. 

Yes, I have a CA business license when I sell to the grocery storey. Thus I didn't know if that is the license that was required as Vendor, or the Amazon/Ebay has a vendor license on its own. Thank you kindly.

I really doubt selling a food product is as simple as sticking it in a box and shipping it to someone. 

Food labeling, health department, prep area inspections... the list goes on and on. 

szeis4cookie said:

Have you attempted to ship the fruit in the past with good results?  I would be concerned about perishability - bruising in transit, spoilage if the package doesn't get to your buyer as quickly as you expect, etc. My wife worked for a time for a berry farm local to me - the berries bruised if the van driver took a turn too aggressively on the way to the farmers' market, I can't even begin to imagine the carnage that would have resulted with trying to ship through the mail. 

I have been shipping to two stores in NYC for the last 2 years, with no issues. I basically have them picked and packaged this week. I have 10,000lbs. 8,000lbs were sold locally and done today. 1,500lbs were shipped to NYC.  I have 500lbs left, which I wanted to test amazon/ebay with . 

In reply to mr2s2000elise :

That’s good. 

2.5 weeks of shelf life time seems limited. I’ll bet there are guidelines within Amazon or EBay for shipping food products.

Here's some Amazon guidelines:

Food and beverage

Food rules discussion

Removing perishable items from inventory 50 days before the expiration date looks like a problem.

Here's an Ebay article:

How to sell food on Ebay

BTW, UPS, FedEX, and USPS also all have regulations regarding shipping food products.

A lawyer familiar with agricultural business would be a real asset.  If you get a shipment that goes bad (sits in a hot truck too long, stuck in a snowstorm, whatever), those NYC businesses won't hesitate to hang you out to dry if one of their customers has an issue.

SVreX said:

In reply to mr2s2000elise :

That’s good. 

2.5 weeks of shelf life time seems limited. I’ll bet there are guidelines within Amazon or EBay for shipping food products.

Yes, if not in cooler, that is the shelf life. If in cooler, shelf life is over 60 weeks. Apprecaite the links, I will read through them. 

In California there is no sales tax on food unless it prepared, 

So most food  stuff at Safeway is free of sales tax , 

And most stuff at McDonald's had sales tax 

californiamilleghia said:

In California there is no sales tax on food unless it prepared, 

So most food  stuff at Safeway is free of sales tax , 

And most stuff at McDonald's had sales tax 

Thank you

ebay draft ad is done 

amazon $38 paid 

sent in application for two local harvest Sunday markets - let’s see what happens 

I am still trying to figure out what it is you're selling.

SVreX is giving you good advice. I'd forget the Ebay/Amazon thing for now and get your house in order to do things legally.

I would go pedal the other 500 lbs to other local markets or farmers markets (if you have a certified producers certificate for CA). Then go to your county agricultural commissioner's website and look around. After that contact your local ag extension service office when the government gets back to work and ask about the possibility of legally selling your produce to stores in CA and possibly out of state. If you get caught doing things you don't have the proper licenses, certificates, inspections, etc. to do the cost of legal fees will be much more than your profit has been.

Shipping agricultural produce over state lines without proper paperwork is a huge liability. Quarantine certificates, phytosanitary certificates, export inspections are not unusual and I see no mention of them in this thread. It's getting to the point we're gonna need phytosanitary certificates just to ship seeds for ordinary ornamental plants within the USA so with the fruit fly issues and other things CA has I'm pretty sure there's some hoops you should be jumping through to ship to NYC.

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