Yeah, I grew up in retail/service business. When I was 16, my dad was at a crucial point and asked if I wanted to take it over in time. I said "hell no". He closed the business and went into teaching. I got my engineering degree. 30 years later, I took another shot at running a business (not retail) and eventually went broke. I simply shudder when I think about trying to run something like your auction sites with the margins I imagine. Designing airplanes is much less stressful.
business is and always has been a tough environment
people don't realize that in the first year, 50% of all new businesses fail. In 2 years it's 75%. In 5 years it's 90%
businesses that are open after 5 years are known as the cream of the crop.
Mail order is no different, but most people, who never do any kind of real 'bookkeeping' on how well they are doing, don't realize how poorly they are doing.
margins only get thinner, not bigger
there is no way to cut down the labor or materials costs and online competition is fierce.
while I am sympathetic to people buying online wanting to save money, your sympathy wears pretty thin as your prices realized goes down and fighting against Wal Mart selling at dollar store prices is another level of problem.
15 years ago, I charged $7 for packing/shipping and there was $2-3 there to pay for materials and labor. That margin for labor & materials has evaporated and at $12 for domestic mailing, I lose $2 on each package. In order to maintain the equation of 2002, I would have to charge $17 for the same service.
every dollar that a buyer/bidder's costs go up, the seller's price realizations goes down.
it's a no-win situation for sellers.
