At the risk of sounding defensive before this thread even begins, I must give a disclaimer.
This thread contains the sales data from someone (me) who has for the past 8 months bought Wiis in stores and sold them on ebay. Now some of you fundamentally disagree with what I'm doing, and I respect that, but I don't need this thread cluttered with posts calling me names. If you still wish to do so, I'll be happy to delete read them in a PM.
With that being said, let's begin
The following table is the sales data for all the Wiis I've sold on ebay for the last eight months. Everything from the "A" series was from 4-2 weeks from Christmas this last December. The "B" category was an auction that ended Christmas week, and the "C" series was one that ended last Friday (7/18/08). Let's take a look, shall we?
| Number | Starting Price | Final Price w/ship | Ebay Fees | Paypal Fees | Shipping | Total Profit |
| A2 | $240.00 | $394.95 | $17.04 | $11.75 | $7.64 | $88.02 |
| A3 | $260.00 | $419.00 | $17.85 | $12.45 | $7.64 | $110.56 |
| A4 (H) | $240.00 | $479.00 | $19.80 | $14.19 | $7.69 | $166.82 |
| A5 | $240.00 | $459.00 | $19.15 | $13.61 | $7.69 | $148.05 |
| A6 | $220.00 | $639.00 | $44.90 | $18.83 | $10.16 | $248.51 |
| A7 | $220.00 | $401.21 | $37.14 | $11.94 | $8.21 | $73.42 |
| A8 | $220.00 | $599.95 | $45.71 | $17.70 | $10.31 | $205.73 |
| A9 | $220.00 | $389.00 | $38.85 | $11.58 | $12.47 | $55.60 |
| A10 | $220.00 | $449.00 | $40.80 | $13.32 | $8.36 | $66.02 |
| B3 | $220.00 | $354.00 | $37.72 | $10.57 | $25.58 | $9.64 |
| C1 | $220.00 | $336.00 | $36.67 | $10.04 | $16.89 | -$44.10 |
Now looking at the "A" series, you can tell that in the weeks leading up to Christmas, the selling price was highest. Knowing this and a little bit about supply and demand, one can infer that demand was at its highest during this time. The week of Christmas I found a couple more Wiis, but only decided to sell one, and that bet paid off in the form of not wasting my time (People being done with their Christmas shopping?).
What I found interesting is that this last week, I found a Wii and decided to try my hand again. As you can see from the data, it did not pay off as I lost a total of about $44 from it. I don't mind losing this money, I think learning how the market works is far more valuable than any amount of money I make/lose from this.
So what does this mean, that I lost money on this last one? Is demand slowing down? Is supply catching up? What's the deal? Well a couple of thoughts here; First, it's not Christmas! There's no sense of entitlement (aside from the norm) from the rich kids during this time of the year. Perhaps they don't push as hard to get one right now. Perhaps I just had it end at a bad time (6 PM on a Friday) Stuff like that usually can swing the price of an item (+- 10%).
I don't think that was my error though, I think I just paid a $44 lesson to learn that it's not as profitable to sell things like the Wii when it's not the holiday season.
Of course this is all anecdotal, and of course there are people/companies out there making money off of this while I sit here and eat this loss.
I just thought I'd share some of my thoughts as well as my data. Any thoughts or comments? Questions?
EDIT!! - If the numbers don't seem to add up completely, the Wii in my area is $270 with tax, and a couple of these had Wii Play bundled with it
Currently playing: Civ 6
