eBay

petencharlie · ‎10-02-2021

I recently had two nice chats with some representatives and they each tried to walk me through listing item, where I usually pair an item via auction with the Buy It Now option. The problem is, it charges me 10 cents an item.

When I first started on eBay in the late 2000's, I recall doing a similar tactic. Thankfully, the only fees i have to pay is when we go over a certain number of items per month and when we earn sales. I get that.

Once I go to the relisting page, the only check mark I see is under Best Offer.

When I hit the Submit button, my screen freezes and instead I get this message:

"To require immediate payment, you must specify a Buy It Now price."

I do this for relisting unsold items, but I think the check mark can be ticked off for Buy It Now when you list anything new.

I also bring this up since eBay no longer uses PayPal to serve as a buffer to pay fees, and it is very sad.

The last thing I would want to do is give up eBay for selling, but I still have plenty of great feedback mostly from buying--especially things I cannot find in brick-and-mortar stores (pre-pandemic times.)

I have two questions:

1) What steps can I take to make sure I don't pay a 10 cent fee per item that I relist?

2) Does it work on any unsold item, or does it have to be a new item for it to be considered as an auction only vs. having a Best Offer?

I look forward to reading some responses to this. Thanks in advance.

crazystuff4sale · ‎10-02-2021

I list up to 50 Buy It Now listings for free every month and don't pay anything unless it sells.

petencharlie · ‎10-03-2021

That is under the option if you don't have a subscription to any store.
But thank you for bringing that point up.

pjcdn2005 · ‎10-03-2021

I haven't run an auction in a while but I'm fairly sure that there is no fee for a buy it now with an auction for stores or non stores. Are you scheduling your auctions to start later on? There is a .10 fee for that when you have a store.

popblox · ‎10-03-2021

"1) What steps can I take to make sure I don't pay a 10 cent fee per item that I relist?"

Hi, you're charged a $0.10 fee to add BIN to auction style listings. To avoid this fee, don't add BIN to your auctions.

"2) Does it work on any unsold item, or does it have to be a new item for it to be considered as an auction only vs. having a Best Offer?"

You're not charged the $0.10 fee for fixed price listings, which are always BIN. There is no fee for adding best offer to auction or fixed price listings. If you add BIN to an auction style listing, you will be charged the $0.10 fee for that item, every time that item relists.

mrdutch1001 · ‎10-03-2021

There is indeed a fee for store owners for adding buy it now option to auction listings:

https://www.ebay.com/help/fees-invoices/feesinvoices-fees-selling/store-fees?id=4122#section4

www.ebay.com/help/selling/fees-credits-invoices/store-fees?id=4809

clemowbooks · ‎10-03-2021

I think there is some confusion here between Buy It Now and Fixed Price.

Auctions are short term and the opening price is set by the seller. The selling price is set by the buyers.

If the seller decides to circumvent this, she can add Buy It Now, and any buyer can end the Auction by purchasing before the Auction ends.

Fixed Price listings are long term (30 days and automatically renewed) and the opening price is set by the seller. The seller can also add Immediate Payment Required, which means that if some one attempts to purchase but does not immediately pay, the listing remains viewable and can be purchased by another buyer who actually pays.

Don't confuse the two (and eBay often does ) BIN is a subset of Auction. Fixed Price is a different form of listing.

Neither require having a Store subscription.

Sellers can list up to 200 items* without a Store.

https://www.ebay.com/help/selling/fees-credits-invoices/store-selling-fees?id=4122

But you will pay for upgrades (most of which are useless)

https://www.ebay.com/help/selling/fees-credits-invoices/selling-fees?id=4822

*Although confusingly, I just peeked at this account which does not have a Store, and it says I have 450 listings available and makes no difference between Auction and Fixed Price.

fern*wood · ‎10-03-2021

I know of no way around that fee on auctions unless you drop the store. In looking at your listings, I would list them as fixed price to avoid the problem.

pjcdn2005 · ‎10-03-2021

Well heck, I did look at that fees before I posted but I didn't scroll down far enough. Thanks for correcting me.

I don't remember that being the case in the past. Is it just for store owners? If so.....it doesn't make sense to me that store owners pay for buy it now on auctions and pay for scheduled listings when non store owners don't pay extra.

nobody*s_perfect · ‎10-03-2021

That's a good summary, but two points need clarification:

"If the seller decides to circumvent this, she can add Buy It Now, and any buyer can end the Auction by purchasing before the Auction ends."

The "Buy it now" option disappears when the first bid is placed, and after that the auction proceds as if the BIN option had never been there. (In 4 categories, the BIN price remains available until the bidding reaches 50% of the BIN price, but usually the opening bid is more than that anyway.)

"Fixed Price listings are long term (30 days and automatically renewed).... The seller can also add Immediate Payment Required"

Fixed price listings roll over each month on the same date that they were originally listed: A listing that begins today will roll over on November 3, December 3, January 3, etc.

The seller can check off "Immediate payment required" (IPR) on an auction-format listing if they have added a BIN price, but the IPR will apply only to a BIN purchase.

mrdutch1001 · ‎10-03-2021

Just for store owners...and I have never understood the reasoning for that...

I have not had a store on eBay in the past 15 years, but as a non-store seller, I have used auction format with buy it now option for many many years now>NO fee.

nobody*s_perfect · ‎10-03-2021

@mrdutch1001 wrote:
Just for store owners...
I have not had a store on eBay in the past 15 years, but as a non-store seller, I have used auction format with buy it now option for many many years now>NO fee.

Adding a "Buy it now" option on an auction-format listing is free for sellers who do not have a Store but there is a fee if you have a Store subscription:

Originally ,eBay charged everyone this fee. Then about 10 years ago there was a fee increase which was especially painful for non-stores; eBay compensated for this by removing the fees both for the BIN option and for the Schedule option for non-store sellers.

popblox · ‎10-03-2021

@pjcdn2005 wrote:
Well heck, I did look at that fees before I posted but I didn't scroll down far enough. Thanks for correcting me.

I don't remember that being the case in the past. Is it just for store owners? If so.....it doesn't make sense to me that store owners pay for buy it now on auctions and pay for scheduled listings when non store owners don't pay extra.

I know, I didn't realize this either until I opened a store and started getting charged for scheduled listings and BIN on auctions. I called eBay about it at the time and they told me it was "just a glitch" and credited back the charges.

As soon as I hung up, I started getting charged again. That was the day I started realizing that eBay CS was unreliable.

petencharlie · ‎10-03-2021

I recall paying fees when I first signed up. After a few years, I would say around 2009, 2010--somewhere around that time...the fees were waived for listings involving Auction/Buy It Now.

I wonder why they are going back to this.

whitewaterford · ‎10-03-2021

@petencharlie wrote:
I have two questions:
1) What steps can I take to make sure I don't pay a 10 cent fee per item that I relist?
2) Does it work on any unsold item, or does it have to be a new item for it to be considered as an auction only vs. having a Best Offer?

I look forward to reading some responses to this. Thanks in advance.
Before I had a store, most of the offers I got for additional listings for auctions included free "buy it now" for them, so I wasn't used to paying for it either.

When I upgraded to having a store a couple years ago, I noticed that for auctions, buy it now was no longer free. But, fortunately, I only used auctions occasionally, so that wasn't a huge issue. (Not related, but I also noticed that scheduling a listing for a future date/time was no longer free and I view that as a take-away, too!)

Any way, I agree with @popblox ...

1) You won't have to pay a 10 cent fee (actually it depends on the buy it now price) for an auction if you don't list any buy it now price. If you are really wanting potential buyers to have an option for the buyer not to wait until auction ends, enable the "best offer" option for free. Then you can negotiate an appropriate price. Or, you can do as I sometimes do ... I have a second seller account without a store and I can use the "buy it now" for free for those listings.

2) Whether you get charged for buy it now doesn't matter if it is a relist or an initial listing.