20% Fees? A discouraging number.

[escuintla]

My new rant and ready for the scolding from the usual know it all seller.😁
I used to participate in these forums a lot but since I deal with media in a wholesale way (out there) I barely have time to list items and nonetheless come to this place to find out about the bad news, because with Ebay there's nothing good to see from but increases on this and decreasing on that. 🤐

Besides finding out about the increment of $0.21 in the media rate, I just sold an item worth $459.99 and to my dismay, again, not following the news, or seller's performance I got a $92 fee which makes it a 20% fee, more or less. 

I am sure that paying this much puts the brakes on my future sales in great numbers. I was going to list a huge ********** CD collection that is in the range of $60,000 so not knowing the specifics, again, my fault, I won't be selling it on this platform but on the outside because not only I lose 20% (fees) of the value but I will be dealing with a higher tax bracket. 

You guys take care. 

[mam98031]

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@escuintla wrote:

It seems that somebody said that it goes above 20% if you are below standard as a seller. 

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No.  

13.25% + 6% penalty = 19.25%

[dbfolks166mt]

I think that it is a viable alternative but not having a store puts you in a disadvantage in this market. I don't think they will "show you" to the buyers out there. Also, as I have learned, some stuff doesn't sell immediately as the sold item I put as an example. It's been there in my store for 3+ years. 

     Thank you for returning the additional information you provided helps clarify why your FVF's are at almost 20%. Being below standard results in eBay tacking on a 6% "penalty" to your FVF's so your being charged 19.25% FVF's on most sales. I agree with you I would also find that number to be discouraging especially if the reason you are below standard was beyond your control. Fortunately eBay evaluates your seller metrics on a monthly basis and it is possible to get back to "above standard" or "Top Rated". I am unsure why you are  below standard but you may want to scan through the following and see what you need to do to improve your current seller rating and get rid of that extra 6% penalty. None of us can see your seller metrics. 

https://www.ebay.com/help/selling/selling/monitor-improve-seller-performance?id=4785 

     I have never had a store simply because I am not a high enough of a volume seller to justify the additional cost so I am not familiar with the benefits of having one. However, I have never had a problem with sales although like your item I have had some things that took a long time to sell simply because despite all the potential buyers eBay has the items were rather unique and the demand was limited to a small pool. 

     Whichever direction you go in with regards to your selling efforts I wish you the best. 

[dbfolks166mt]

From $459.99 I got $92.84 deducted as fees. No shipping charges are involved since it's a local pick up. Taxes are paid for by the buyer. $367.15 will be a net profit. 

     Based on the additional information and the fact that you are currently below standard the $92.84 in FVF's. While the sales tax is paid by the buyer eBay does apply the FVF to the sales tax. It was good this was a local pickup and you did not have to pay for shipping.  

I am finding out because there's no sales as usual I am under the famous below standard. 

     Low sales do not cause you to fall below standard. I change from "above standard" to "top rated" all the time because I do not sell enough but there is no added FVF percentage penalty for that. The only thing that causes you to fall "below standard" is something in your seller metrics, which we cannot see, that may or may not be within your control. Take a look at your seller metrics, nobody on this forum can see those, and the link I sent in my other post and see if you can determine what it is or was that caused you to fall below standard. 

This is pushing me to sell more outside than here. 

     I can relate to that there are several things about eBay that forced me to diversify across multiple platforms and venues long ago. The pandemic resulted in an explosion in the ecommerce marketplace and there are LOTS of viable alternatives for sellers to utilize. Buyers are also taking advantage of that explosion and shopping elsewhere. Only about 20% of what I sell is sold through eBay, years ago that number was MUCH larger. 

Thanks for your amicable response. Quite welcome. 

[soh.maryl]

Presuming you are addressing me:

No, I am not getting paid to post this stuff.

What question has been laid out to me many times? The one where I ask for a screen shot? The reason for that question is that the OP either never responds  or it's discovered that the OP is including costs  that are not part of the process of determining the FVF.

But thank you for responding.  

[dbfolks166mt]

Presuming you are addressing me:

No, I am not getting paid to post this stuff.

What question has been laid out to me many times? The one where I ask for a screen shot? The reason for that question is that the OP either never responds  or it's discovered that the OP is including costs  that are not part of the process of determining the FVF.

But thank you for responding.  

     I have to agree with you 100% and it was refreshing to see the OP return and provide some additional information after which it was easy to figure out their situation. There are a LOT of posts where I ask the OP for additional information since without it a lot of assumptions are often made and a lot of those are often incorrect. 

     In the OP's case they are currently below standard and have the 6% additional FVF penalty so that is a lot of the reason for the almost 20% FVF. OP also noted that this was a local pickup, which was important information, so there was no shipping costs associated with the sale which was listed with free shipping. 

[gamersbaystore]

ebay charges me 15% FVF's for the categories I sell in. Once I factor in promoted listings that figure jumps to 20% to 25% on average. ebay does in fact charge sellers for visibility. Your listings will not show up anywhere on this platform other than organic search results unless you pay up.

[gamersbaystore]

I havent misrepresented anything. I pay 15% on every sale on ebay, and once I factor in promoted listings, my fees average 20 to 25% on average, and often eclipse the 30% mark. If I were to bid ebay's suggested ad rates, my fees would be over 30% easy on every sale.

You say the majority of sellers on ebay do not use promoted listings. Then they must not get any sales, because ebay will not show your listings anywhere on this platform other than organic search results unless you pay for promoted listings.

You dont pay for visibility, then ebay hides your listings, that is a fact. Your listings will not show up on other listing pages without promoted listings.

Simply put, the people claiming they dont use promoted listings are flat out lying.

[northern-tint]

Our sales take a huge drop if we don't use it.  I suppose it depends on what you're selling and the competition for similar items. 

[dbfolks166mt]

I havent misrepresented anything. I pay 15% on every sale on ebay, and once I factor in promoted listings, my fees average 20 to 25% on average, and often eclipse the 30% mark. If I were to bid ebay's suggested ad rates, my fees would be over 30% easy on every sale.

You say the majority of sellers on ebay do not use promoted listings. Then they must not get any sales, because ebay will not show your listings anywhere on this platform other than organic search results unless you pay for promoted listings.

     I have never had a problem with that and in fact there is no way to prove that the use of PL does anything to improve sales. I seldom buy on eBay these days because I can almost always find the item cheaper elsewhere. When I am looking for an item I always do a search and rack and stack the results by price + shipping lowest first. Based on the way I search I would never see your listings simply because your prices are higher I assume to cover your PL costs.

You dont pay for visibility, then ebay hides your listings, that is a fact. Your listings will not show up on other listing pages without promoted listings.

Simply put, the people claiming they dont use promoted listings are flat out lying.

     I resent being called a liar. I have never used PL and never will and I have no problem or issues with sales. My effective eBay FVF percentage has seldom exceeded 14%. However, I do appreciate those that do use PL since the revenue eBay generates from that has probably kept them from doing an across the board standard fee increase. 

[soh.maryl]

Thank you.  At the time I posted my response, the OP had not yet returned and clarified a few points.

[profitweb]

I'm finding AMZ is much cheaper to sell from, and they store and ship for me and items sell for significantly more.  We're now moving more that way.  They even have better customer service.

Pretty sad.  You'd think eBay could do better.  I paid over $44k, or 27%, in eBay fees alone (not including shipping) last year for terrible customer service and seller protections.  They aren't earning the fees they charge for their website use (and we are paying extra for marketing).

The only thing saving eBay is many sellers can't sell their wares on a place like AMZ, but AMZ is becoming a great place to sell "Used-Like New" for current products.

[profitweb]

@soh.maryl Not using Promoted Listings causes very low sales for most items, unless there are only a few for sale and there is demand. 

[profitweb]

Here is an example of what 27% eBay fees look like...

Sure, you can forgo many of these advertising and promotions but you're inventory turnover (sales rate) will be much lower too.

[adkhighker]

Sorry, but what I posted about how much the seller netted in the example I shared upstream is not "Nope."  Maybe this, with the numbers plugged into the ebay fees calculator that I linked to earlier will be of some help:

[stainlessenginecovers]

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@profitweb wrote:

Here is an example of what 27% eBay fees look like...

Sure, you can forgo many of these advertising and promotions but you're inventory turnover (sales rate) will be much lower too.

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SHIPPING labels are NOT a site (eBay) fee (which is 23k of that ballooned 27%). 

You are averaging 15% fees (33k into 216k)

You pay 20% with your OPTIONAL promotions (44k into 216k)