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How do they do it?
 

I have been looking at pay as you go sim cards on ebay, sellers are selling it for 99 p but the postage charges alone is 79 p then on top of that ebay 10% fee and paypal 3.4% plus 20p per transaction.

expenses on 99 p sale

79 p postage
9 p ebay
23 p paypal
111 p

so the cost alone is 111 p? so where do the make money?

Re: How do they do it?
 

Different ebays and PP have different fees, e.g. Top rated gets discount on final value

Also, you can get sims for free in many places.

Re: How do they do it?
 

They are not making much or any money. There is a lot of reasons to sell certain items at little profit or even a loss.

Re: How do they do it?
 

Does anyone remember the name of the massive UK eBay seller who, a few years ago, was sending out 1000+ parcels daily with Royal Mail but was only paying postage for something like half of them?

It's unlikely that's what is going on here but it's possible. Back when that seller was running his mail fraud scheme, other UK sellers he was competing against were furious because they couldn't figure out how he was selling so low while remaining profitable. Turns out it was because he was sending a ton of parcels without paying for postage.

They sold blank media and batteries primarily.. DVD-R's, CD-R's, cases, etc.. Anyone remember them?

Re: How do they do it?
 

Was researching this for the hell of it - can't find the info but I did read about that scam

Re: How do they do it?
 

yes I remember it, it made the national news. It was discussed on forum at the time too.

Re: How do they do it?
 

Yes I remember it was Babz Media. I used to order from them all the time they were much cheaper than all the competition often by 50% or more. I always wondered how the hell they could make a profit when they sold things like 50 Paper CD Sleeves for 99p with free postage. They were cheaper than Chinese sellers ffs.

I used to use them to Dropship on ebay they were cheap enough to do this and make a profit. It was tricky tho cos they were crap at keeping up to date stock info and crap at dispatching things on time.

Now we know why they wer cheap. Anyone know how they did it I could do with saving on postage these days ;)

Re: How do they do it?
 

Re: How do they do it?
 

I read into it at the time. Apparently they were romancing their RM representative by taking him out to dinner and giving him nice stuff. The national mail works way differently in UK compared to USA (RM vs USPS) so this is where it gets dicey for me. Over here we'd have to print and pay for a label for every shipment before it's picked up. But apparently over there, babz was able to schedule pickups with numbers way lower than what was actually being picked up, and they were only paying postage on the amount they scheduled to be picked up.

I wouldn't recommend trying it, lol. RM got pissed and banned him/them.

Re: How do they do it?
 

You can get them for a penny on Amazon including delivery. Only the ones with data are really worth anything.

Re: How do they do it?
 

The SIM cards would go as a standard letter so it would only be 60p for 2nd class. They could even be reusing unfranked used stamps which are around 35p each

Re: How do they do it?
 

PAYG sim cards are free, ISPs provide them for free.

Re: How do they do it?
 

ISPs provide them for free? Doesn't add up

Re: How do they do it?
 

They're pay as you go so the ISP or cell network would make their investment back later, I assume.

Re: How do they do it?
 

You can apply for microtransactions via paypal merchant rate which is 5%+5p i think.
But, the guys that sell the sim cards are probably building up stealth accounts.
I used to do that too, make very little but wasnt bothered.

Re: How do they do it?
 

They do, but they are sent to your address, some don't like that.
i buy mine from supermarkets or petrol stations.

Re: How do they do it?
 

That's true - for the feedback

Re: How do they do it?
 

Sim card distributers get commission on top ups anything from £1.50 sometimes for the first 3 top ups plus some give you points if you hit target connections which can be exchanged for vouchers gifts etc

Re: How do they do it?
 

sorry, I know it's an old post but what do you mean by the ones with data?