One thing that I will point out is that you cannot expect you get close to retail prices when you sell on eBay.
eBay is largely a wholesale marketplace now, and buyers go there looking for a bargain and do not expect to pay the RRP.
$9 per sale is really good! If you can up your volume of sales, you could do very well.
Life as an eBay seller can be tough - a new seller with no processes in place or software tools to help them could easily spend 1.5 hours earning that $9.
For this reason, we recommend two things to all our SaleHoo members:
1. Find a niche item or items to sell (jeans are quite competitive), something less popular should pull better margins
2. Try different marketplaces such as Bonanza and Addoway or others that timelinegoods recommended (www.boocoo.com, www.yardsellr.com, www.mondro.com ). Yes, these have less buyers than eBay coming to the sites everyday, but they also have a lot less sellers so your profits will be better (most "eBay alternative marketplaces" are fee-free or have very low fees which also helps your bottom line).
Many SaleHoo members have found that implementing these two things is a recipe for success.
Bonanza and Addoway have importers so that you can easily import your items from eBay without spending time listing them.
Addoway is a fee-free marketplace and on Bonanza, you only pay if you sell an item. And even then, the fees are very low.
You can also accept other payment forms on these sites, so you might be able to skip the PayPal fees too - bonus!