These increased Final Value fees are a serious problem

[toadscollectibles]

This is making it seriously difficult to generate a profit margin on eBay. It is also driving many sellers out of eBay because of this fact. It is also driving many buyers out of eBay, as the sellers who stay must increase the price of their goods to reconcile the fee increases, thus making eBay less competitive. eBay is a company that produces a net income margin of 20-30% which is fantastic for a large company like eBay. Is it really that hard to understand. If eBay would lower fees, they would drive more revenue because it would become more profitable to sell on eBay, thus making up for the lesser margin and creating a better environment for buyers and sellers. This is a great platform compared to it's competition but seeing eBay just screw the seller over year over year is making me want to leave this site. Especially add to the fact that eBay will now have to report our income to the IRS, making a profit extremely difficult to pull through on this site. Mercari offers a flat 12.9% +.30 fee which is sadly starting to become more competitive to eBay. God forbid you sell books or media on this website because your fee is now 14.55%+.30 cents. Please respond to this post, because eBay seriously needs to have a discussion with it's seller on this final value fees, because they have got to drastically lower.

[powell-memorabilia]

@toadscollectibles 
Seriously, you won’t get a lot of sympathy if one of your main complaints is that eBay is making it harder to underreport income.  

[hurryagain]

Not including media items, my fees have not gone up.  The 12.9% + .30 fee is what I pay here.  We no longer have PayPal fees because it is now under MP which is all inclusive so it seems like we are paying more but we are not.

Also, in your gross sales are your shipping fees and the taxes that the BUYER has paid.  Those taxes are also deducted (of course) and goes to the appropriate state...some of these states have an almost 10% sales tax so that looks like another 10% is being taken away from your gross sales but in fact it is not...it is the sales tax that your buyer has paid (not you the seller)... so again, when you go from gross to net sales, this makes it look like a huge chunk is being taken from you but it is not the case.  Also the shipping fee being taken out from gross to net...

I took a while for me to get adjusted to how these things are reported to us.  At first, it gave me sticker shock but when you actually sit and do the math, you will see it.

The only bummer part of this is that we are levied the 10% FVF on the ENTIRE amount of the sale which also includes the buyer's state tax...I wish that it would be changed to exclude the sales tax but you know that is not gonna happen...😁

@toadscollectibles 

[toadscollectibles]

eBay in the recent seller update is increasing final value fees from 12.35 + .30 to 12.55 + .30 for all categories so you are gonna start paying more in april. The .30 is really taxing for people who sell low priced goods, especially books, because they already get fee'd at a higher. I guess we just gotta raise prices 🤷‍♂️.

[releasethekraken_1]

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@toadscollectibles wrote:

Especially add to the fact that eBay will now have to report our income to the IRS, making a profit extremely difficult to pull through on this site.

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How is eBay reporting income any different from you reporting it since you signed up in 2011?

Oh, you weren't reporting it? That's an interesting thing to blurt out in a public forum. Your profits have ALWAYS been taxable.

[hurryagain]

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@toadscollectibles wrote:

eBay in the recent seller update is increasing final value fees from 12.35 + .30 to 12.55 + .30 for all categories so you are gonna start paying more in april. The .30 is really taxing for people who sell low priced goods, especially books, because they already get fee'd at a higher. I guess we just gotta raise prices 🤷‍♂️.

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@toadscollectibles 

Yes, it is a bummer for the media group and yes, you are just gonna have to raise your prices to cover this.

Prices have been increasing EVERYWHERE.  Go to the supermarkets, the Walmarts, the Targets and you will see that there has been an increase in prices of most goods so why can't you increase the price of yours...I don't think that you are going to scare away very many buyers b/c prices have been on the increase everywhere for some months now PLUS with the closure of bookstores (we had some close in our area ☹️) people are going to be happy to get the items that you are selling.

Keep a positive attitude here...don't cross bridges that you haven't gotten to yet.

I think that you are going to do just fine.

[toadscollectibles]

You might be right that it's a general inflation thing. Sucks we got inflation but hey, whatcha going to do about it.

[toadscollectibles]

all the goods I sell before recently were sold below the price I purchased them as to clear up space so no, I don't have to report it because there isn't a profit.

[yuzuha]

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@toadscollectibles wrote:

This is making it seriously difficult to generate a profit margin on eBay. It is also driving many sellers out of eBay because of this fact.

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That's not an eBay problem, that's a "you paid too much for your inventory" problem. I won't even look at purchasing something for resale that I can't at least double the price on when I sell it, and I prefer to be able to triple the price if I can.

[1st-oliveoyl]

Honestly I don’t see how it’s legal for ebay to charge us fees on the shipping and even the TAX that the buyer pays. It’s sorta like double taxation and YES it DOES cause sellers to pay a greater chunk, thereby lowering our profit. 

[usmediamass]

@toadscollectibles 

Every ebay increase in cost of doing business means less sales for sellers.

Don't worry about the monsters in the open form.

Many posters don't understand short margins for online sales.

That is why amazon grew and ebay did not.

ebay does not care anymore.  ebay makes money from people listing, not from people selling.

[toadscollectibles]

I believe the reasoning for the tax on the shipping is because people would do .99 cent listings but with let's say 20$ shipping to avoid the fee so now they fee the whole thing but the fee on the tax is ridiculous.

[wrong66]

The increase amounts to 20 cents on a $100 sale. If someone can't absorb that, they probably should consider doing something else.

[sundowner]

You're correct. eBay includes the shipping in the commission fee calculation because people were cheating them out of a fair commission by listing for a dollar then adding a $20 shipping cost, which was bogus. 

However, since that time, eBay now often handles the shipping for me, so they can see I'm not up to shenanigans; both the auction the shipping are legit and eBay can see the whole thing since I'm buying the shipping through them now. So while I can understand why they changed the commission to include shipping as a response to the cheaters, I think times have changed and if I buy my shipping through eBay, they don't need to do that anymore. But I'm not holding my breath expecting that policy to change, and to mitigate the bite there, eBay does often offer me a slight discount on the shipping which can sometimes offset the commission portion derived from the shipping cost. 

Agree with you on the commission now including tax in the calculation. It doesn't feel right. But I'm sure they justify it by saying that they have to put effort into collecting, processing, and paying the government. 

And what are we going to do? There are few better sites for the number of eyeballs you want to reach if selling collectibles than eBay. 

[theteamsetguy]

Not from me. I zero listing fees and have over 6000 unique items on eBay.