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eBay Fees - Holy crap!


Albert

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So, I've put a few games on eBay in the last two weeks. Today I looked at my account and was absolutely SHOCKED to see how much I owed eBay for the items I sold. I mean, the Final Value fee for a $60 items is $7.00! Plus there's a seprate Final Value Fee on the shipping (!!!). And of course the insertion fee as well. I cannot believe eBay gets away with a Final Value Fee on shipping. When the heck did this change?

 

This severely sours my enthusiasm for selling anything on eBay. These fees are just ridiculous, and of course that doesn't include PayPal's ~3% cut of the sale.

 

Lame.

 

..Al

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I know what you mean. I'm not a big seller, but usually a few things per year.

 

I think the final value fee on shipping was because people were listing things for $1 plus $44.95 shipping (for something light) to dodge the final value fees.

 

But it is very expensive to sell on Ebay. They're raking in money hand-over-fist for maintaining a server farm, while sellers do all the heavy lifting.

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I think the final value fee on shipping was because people were listing things for $1 plus $44.95 shipping (for something light) to dodge the final value fees.

 

Yeah, that's what I figured, but they should just go after those sellers. Of course, it's easier for them to just put a fee on shipping and make even more money! I wonder if you still get that fee with calculated shipping?

 

But it is very expensive to sell on Ebay. They're raking in money hand-over-fist for maintaining a server farm, while sellers do all the heavy lifting.

 

I know, it's such a racket, you couldn't ask for a better business model. eBay's been around quite a while now and the site hasn't changed significantly. Yeah, they roll out new features and layouts periodically, and there are a million options when listing an auction (I'm glad I use a third-party app), but like you said, it's a big server farm and a whole bunch of web and software guys.

 

..Al

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I sold a couple of $80 - $100 items a couple of months ago, and man.. Never again. Like you mentioned, you have the eBay percentage fee, then the insertion fee, then the PayPal fee (3%).. And if you want to look good and provide free shipping while still offering a good price, then, well.. you're screwed (or technically, you're still screwed even if you do charge shipping, thanks to that fee). It's really only worth it if you can buy something extremely cheap, and manage to sell really, really high.

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Their fees are based on the total for the sale with the shipping.Obviously due to the ones who were doing the buy low,pay thru the nose shipping

They encourage the "free" shipping,but theres no such thing.If your shipping free,your either building it into your starting price,or your going to lose your ass.Oh,Ebay will put one of those "free shipping" flags on your auction-big deal

And lets not overlook if you have a store.And if you use the "run until sold" options.

I would hate to tell you how much a month I pay them and PP

But,I have not found another outlet that gives the exposure either,and I suppose they know that.So,I view them as my silent partner,in profits only

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Are you all paying for insertion fees? When eBay began to charge Final Value Fees on shipping (2011?), it tried to make up for it by waiving insertion fees for the first 50 items you list per month. For me, it's kind of a wash. FVF for shipping is about $0.30 for a $3.50 shipping charge, but the insertion fee would have been $0.50-$0.75. eBay also stopped charging extra for Buy It Now.

 

However, these new savings are described as "promotions," which means they can be taken away at any time, and I doubt that eBay's FVF on shipping is promotional. If there's any good news associated with the end of free insertions, it is that we won't see any more "fishing" Make an Offer listings (e.g. homebrews for $900).

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Ebay is actually pretty cheap compared to what a traditional auction house charges. What about Game Gavel?

 

I looked at my fees and between eBay and PayPal I'm paying over 20% per auction. I highly doubt most auction houses take that much. In fact, I just looked at American Amusements Auctions and their fees are 13.9% with a $13 entry fee per item, maximum of $100 cap per item. On a $500 item this works out to 15.6%. On a $1,000 item, only 13%.

 

I don't think comparing eBay to a regular auction house is fair at all. Auction houses are generally used for selling items in a very low volume, and they tend to be higher value items. eBay is accessible by everyone and has millions of auctions running at any given time. Their cost per item listed is absolutely minimal compared to a "traditional" auction house. The fees they are charging are ridiculous.

 

I can't believe that after all this time, nobody has posed a serious challenge to them. There is an incredible amount of money to be made if someone can dethrone eBay. I keep hoping Google will come out with some alternative, but it hasn't happened after all this time.

 

..Al

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I work at an Auction house and am very familiar with them. They take 20%-30%

 

I still don't think it's fair to compare eBay to a traditional auction house.

 

You don't like eBay, well heck don't use them. If you do, figure it into the cost. Or just piss and moan about something that won't ever change, that's the American way :)

 

I'm sure it will change at some point--not everything lasts forever. There are enough people who don't like eBay that someone will eventually come along and make a serious effort to supplant them. Right now eBay doesn't have serious competition, which is why they can keep raising their fees. I've gone for years without using eBay to sell, and now that I'm more aware of just how much their fees have gone up since last time I used them, I will certainly take that into account when I list future items (especially BINs). And, as you suggested to "don't use them", I will only do so sparingly.

 

..Al

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No eBay does next to nothing compared to a traditional auction house. But....... It's still the only real option to reach millions of people with your products.

 

So as with everything, you have to count the cost and determine if it's worth it to sell your product online. If not, try to sell it at a flea market or yard sale. See what you get there and then go running back to eBay. lol

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But....... It's still the only real option to reach millions of people with your products.

 

Agreed as far as an online auction venue goes.

 

So as with everything, you have to count the cost and determine if it's worth it to sell your product online. If not, try to sell it at a flea market or yard sale. See what you get there and then go running back to eBay. lol

 

I have an online store that works well, but eBay is a good tool to draw more attention to AtariAge, so I"ll use it somewhat sparingly for that. If the fees weren't so high, I'd probably list quite a bit more on eBay.

 

..Al

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Ebay is crazy expensive but its a place items are pretty much guaranteed to sell in a fast time frame. My ebay fees for 2012 total $4692.44 thats a lot but I also sold a lot and typically do sell around 60-80 items a month.

 

Ebay typically runs promotions where they don't charge insertion fees on items with buy it now which I typically use so I just keep an eye out on that few days a month to list my items.

 

You could try Amazon market place there fees are no where as bad as ebay's but it typically takes longer. From my experience something I can sell in 2-3 days on ebay takes weeks

 

As for the shiping fee's I think its bull shit myself. They capped a lot of categories with MAX shipping prices unless its calculated shipping or flat rate boxes. For example Game consoles they cap at $15 granted most consoles I sell cost more than $15 to ship and wont fit in a flat rate box so I have to take the time to prebox the item to get the weight and size just so I don't get screwed over by ebay. Plus still 9 times out of 10 ebay charges the buyer less than what it actually cost to ship by around 5-10% on average.

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eBay is becoming like TicketMaster - I recently bought tickets to a sporting event:

 

Ticket face value $16

Convenience Fee - $6 a ticket

Facility Fee - $5 a ticket

Processing Fee - $6

 

They used to have a 'Parking Fee' a long time ago even though 90% of the venues had no parking available - the Feds finally told them they couldnt charge for Parking when they didnt provide it hence the 'Convenience Fee'

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eBay caps shipping prices for those who choose not to use the "calculated shipping" option. So, if you choose not to weigh your parcel or don't have a scale, you may have to use the "fixed shipping price" option and therefore lose money on shipping costs. But the "calculated shipping" option should be your first choice for anything that ships Standard Post or Priority Mail. The prices that eBay quotes are exactly what the PO charges (I don't use UPS). For consoles and such, I just put what I want to sell on the scale, then add two pounds for the box and packing material. If I end up overestimating the weight, I refund the seller the difference.

 

Last year, I wrote a blog article about "backing in" to Top Rated Seller status (link in signature below). This status makes selling on eBay a lot more tolerable. Some of you who sell a decent amount on eBay may be close to TRS status and not know it. The perks are pretty good, the two main ones being 20% off your Final Value Fees, and access to "Commerical Plus" Priority Mail pricing from the USPS (about 20% less than what you would pay at the counter). With these discounts, I end up paying about 10% in commission to eBay AND Paypal combined. And this isn't taking into consideration the free Priority Mail boxes that are delivered to my door and the parcels picked up at my door by my letter carrier.

Edited by boxpressed
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Ebay has gotten pretty bad but for me It's still a better option than selling locally or on gaming sites. I only do BIN's as I can get more for stuff that way. Fees are not that bad in reality if you sell bulks. After $50 the fee's get less. I do pay like $.15 insertion fees for BIN's because it's a better option.

 

The problem w/selling locally is time and gas. People want everything for nothing and factor in my time driving and meeting and messages and phone calls and..... yada yada yada it's not really worth trying.

 

Same as the gaming sites. People have this strange idea that they will be doing you such a big favor by buying from you for less so you don't have to pay fees. But they somehow think ebay fees are like $20 on a $50 game and thats not true. Even for $50 game fees are only going to be $6.50 ffv plus $.15 listing fee. Shipping is still going to cost the same and so are PP fees because people make a big deal about gifting.

 

It literally takes me maybe 5 minutes to make an ebay auction. The rest taking pics, shipping, pp and the rest are going to be involved regardless of the venue you use to sell. I wish people wuld just understand that.

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Can you put 'BUY CHEAPER AT ATARIAGE.COM' in your ad? :)

 

No, eBay will end your auction if it contains a link to an external website that has a store. I used to have a link to AtariAge.com in my auctions, but had to take it out when they started ending them. I know you used to be allowed to have an email link so people can ask questions directly (bypassing eBay's restrictive message system that tries to prevent you from talking about selling outside of eBay), and that may stil be allowed as I've recently seen auctions with such links..

 

However, I can include whatever the heck I want inside my packages!

 

..Al

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Video Game Final Fees are one of the highest next to jewelry and Cars, I used to sell Old School car audio amplifiers and the final fees were very low.

 

I agree that the fees in general are getting out of hand accross the board, I miss the old days of eBay!

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Are you all paying for insertion fees? When eBay began to charge Final Value Fees on shipping (2011?), it tried to make up for it by waiving insertion fees for the first 50 items you list per month. For me, it's kind of a wash. FVF for shipping is about $0.30 for a $3.50 shipping charge, but the insertion fee would have been $0.50-$0.75. eBay also stopped charging extra for Buy It Now.

 

However, these new savings are described as "promotions," which means they can be taken away at any time, and I doubt that eBay's FVF on shipping is promotional. If there's any good news associated with the end of free insertions, it is that we won't see any more "fishing" Make an Offer listings (e.g. homebrews for $900).

This right here. I literally have not paid for an insertion fee in like 5 years, and I have listed more than 50 items a month the last three months.

 

If you find the item on ebay when you sell it and "classify" it the way they want, they don't charge a fee, if you don't they charge you. and yeah the free adding of Buy It Now has helped out greatly too.

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Once they started to charge a percentage on shipping I decided I was out. The only thing I sold on ebay in the last year was a couple of GBA games and the only reason was that they were so cheap to ship because of their size that it didn't really hurt my profit.

 

If you think US to US shipping costs are bad, shipping from Canada to the US is insane and makes ebay a very costly service to use.

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