Selling $1 cards on eBay: does free shipping ever make sense?

The math on a $1 card

Every order pays eBay's final value fee (13.25% of the total, including shipping and sales tax) and a per-order fee of $0.30 on orders of $10 or less. Add a $0.78 Standard Envelope label and about $0.30 of sleeve, toploader and envelope, and here's what you keep:

Before what you paid for the card. Sales tax at 7%; five cards fit in one 1 oz envelope.

A $0.99 card with free shipping loses money on every sale. It takes about $1.61 with free shipping just to break even, and that's before the card's own cost.

When free shipping on cheap cards can make sense

• You're clearing cards you'd otherwise throw away. If the cards are worth nothing to you, a small loss per sale can be worth the space. Price at $1.61 or more, though, not $0.99.
• Nearly every buyer takes several. A store where buyers routinely fill a five-card envelope, pushed by a multi-buy discount, spreads one label over five cards. Free shipping on the first card then works as a hook, but only if your sales data shows buyers really do add more.
• You're building feedback on a new account. A few loss-making sales for early feedback can be a deliberate cost. Keep it to a few.

What works better for cheap cards

• Charge $0.99 to $1.25 shipping and combine it. The buyer covers the label, and a combined shipping rule means the second to fifth cards ship for little or nothing. Most card buyers expect this.
• Add a multi-buy discount. "Buy 3, get 10% off" turns one-card orders into envelopes worth sending. See eBay coupons and discounts for card sellers.
• Sell lots. Group commons by player, team or set. A 25-card team lot at $7.99 is one order, one fee and one label instead of 25.
• Use "pick your card" listings. One multi-variation listing for a set's singles keeps your store tidy and makes combined orders easy.

Check any price with the fee calculator, which counts the per-order fee, the label and supplies.