Selling Fees (Final Value Fee)

[cellison078]

I needed some cash, so I did what I haven’t done in years, and sold a precious belonging on eBay. When I looked at the cost breakdown, I was in shock. The final value fee was INSANELY high. I’m very unhappy with eBay about this.

[1786davycrockett]

@cellison078 

You have been on eBay since September 2008, and you have sold over 100 items in those 16 years -- and this is the FIRST time that you've noticed the high FVF on some items?

How did THAT happen?!?

[714ricki]

If the ebay fees are always available for review by any seller, why are you unhappy with ebay? They have never hid the fees from the sellers. 

🤔 😎 🙏

[marnotom!]

eBay's fees are based on the total transaction value, as they were when you last sold, whenever that was.  The big difference between then and now is likely that this transaction value now includes applicable sales tax for the state to which the item is being shipped, so that can boost FVFs a fair bit.  If you're using an expensive shipping method, that adds to the transaction value and, thus, higher FVFs too.  (That doesn't directly apply in your case as your listing offered "free" shipping, which I assume is the shipping charge folded into the selling price of the knife.)

Also consider that you may be remembering a time when PayPal processed eBay payments.  eBay now does that (Do you have a checking account on file with eBay where your payment can be sent?) and that takes roughly 3% of the total FVF.  Some people don't seem to remember that there were PayPal fees back in the day and makes their memory of fees past look a little rosier than they were.

I'm guessing you were looking at somewhere between 65 and 70 bucks in FVF for the sale of the knife.  The way I look at it is: Would I consider that amount fair compensation if I were to list, sell, and ship that item on someone else's behalf and they took everything else they could from the sale?  I'd say in this case, it would be barely enough.  Why should eBay accept less than that?  There's lots of behind the scenes work that goes into this site that needs to be paid for, after all.  Whether or not a lot of that behind the scenes stuff is justified in the first place is debatable, of course, but that's not what I'm discussing.

[annadryl]

If your last sale was some years back it would have been through Paypal. There was always a fee there too but since they simply deducted it before your payout you might have missed it. Ignorance is bliss.

But the fees, in one way or the other, were always there. And they're roughly the same in total now as then.

[dhbookds]

What did you expect the fee to be?

[toysaver]

EBay is a bargain.   Before the internet if you wanted to sell an item the choice was usually consignment with a 50/50 split.   

[monica-sells]

Just to jog your memory a bit....

Here is a quick comparison from 5 years ago....

(for simplicity sake, tax exempt sale with customer pickup)

5 years ago:

Sale-$400.00

Less ebay  10% ($40.00)

Less Paypal 2.9% ($11.60)

Total Fees $51.60

Net Sale - $348.40

2024

Sale-$400.00

Less ebay 13.25% (53.00)

Per Order (.30)

Total Fees $53.30

Net Sale - $346.70

$1.70 More than 5 years ago...

[dbfolks166mt]

     You didn't provide any details but unless you promoted this item your FVF's should have been $53. As dhbookds asked what did you think it would be. EBay's fees are fully disclosed there should be no shock. 

[mtgraves7984]

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@cellison078 wrote:

I needed some cash, so I did what I haven’t done in years, and sold a precious belonging on eBay. When I looked at the cost breakdown, I was in shock. The final value fee was INSANELY high. I’m very unhappy with eBay about this.

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@cellison078 

Oh, yeah... the fees. Did you know that returning sellers have Payment Holds, too? >> Payments on hold | eBay

[broto_64]

Perhaps the last time you sold on ebay (before this) Paypal was the payment processor and you failed to realize the 3% that they took, many sellers casually omitted that fee in their calculations. As well the item you sold was through auction, not sure if those fees were any different from just having sold it as Buy-It-Now, especially with a high starting bid BIN may have made more sense.

[itemresa]

With the recent change to the set FVF announced in the Winter Seller Update ($0.30 on orders under $10.00/$0.40 on orders of $10.00 or more) the increase in the example you gave would be $1.80. I do agree that the increase in eBay fees over the last few years is negligible, far more damage has been done to seller's bottom lines by the ever increasing cost of shipping.

I'm not sure if the change to the set FVF has gone into effect yet, if it hasn't my bad.

[kensgiftshop]

Why are you unhappy with Ebay?

You should be unhappy with yourself for not checking what the fee's would be before listing.

[luckythewinner]

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@cellison078 wrote:

I needed some cash, so I did what I haven’t done in years, and sold a precious belonging on eBay. When I looked at the cost breakdown, I was in shock. The final value fee was INSANELY high. I’m very unhappy with eBay about this.

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IMHO you should be unhappy with yourself, since you chose to sell without bothering to check the fee schedule.

Generally speaking:

• In 2024 the eBay fees are 40 cents plus `13.25% of the buyer's total payment.
• In 2014 the eBay / PayPal's fees were 30 cents plus `12.9% of the buyer's total payment.

Even when you consider the total payment now includes sales tax, the fee difference on a $100 total sale would be $14.98 today vs. $13.20 a decade ago. It's higher, but IMHO it is not "insane".

[byrd69er]

Surprise surprise surprise  (Gomer Pyle)