Has anyone else calculated the true cost of selling on ebay?

[jrpteach]

It's been awhile since I listed on Ebay and now I remember why I stopped in the first place.  While it's great to be able to reach a national and international audience, I just calculated how much it cost for me to sell two items and what used to be 20% total cost to me is now 50%!!!  By the time you pay the fee on shipping (what the heck??), the final fee, the paypal fee, and shipping you end up with 50% of what you took in.  And that's ONLY if you calculate shipping carefully.  That doesn't include the cost of packing materials or your time to list and ship the item.  That doesn't account for the low amount of protection a seller has if a buyer complains.  Basically if you don't refund someone, you are going to receive a low review and there is no way to explain that on Ebay anymore or post negative for bad buyers.  If you've ever sold Avon or Amway or any of those products that basically use YOUR unpaid labor to promote their profits you will be reminded of that now if you try to sell on Ebay.  I guess they are just counting on us to be dumb enough to keep using them.  it's really too bad, because the concept of Ebay was a great one ) :

[na-6695]

I struggle with accepting the figures you presented, but then again, it helps if you use a fee calculator to help set your selling price. The one I use is a FREE one that has proven to be about as accurate as can be. It even allows you to select whether or not you have an eBay store (not the least expensive store - FVF is still 10% for that one) and you can select whether or not you're a 'Top Rated Seller' which provides for FVF discounts. Here is the link:

eBay PayPal Fee Calculator | Calculate your eBay/PayPal Profits  https://finalfeecalc.com/

It's pretty straight forward and I sure do wish more sellers would use it. I sell items from a popular drop shipper and the competition is fierce. When I plug in the numbers it shows how some of the other sellers are actually losing money and it leaves me scratching my head as to why they would sell at a price where they are losing money or even just so low that eBay makes more money than they do. It kinda takes the fun out of trying to make money on eBay. Then again, playing the "penny game" is a whole other topic for discussion - continually pricing lower and lower just to grab a sale and in the end only eBay, PayPal, and the product supplier make money.

Yes, I'm posting with an incognito user ID on purpose. I've actually been around eBay for over 20 years.

[oldcrowsstuff]

I sell full time on ebay..averaging over 500 items that range from 10 bucks to 1500....now they give you a monthly report and my fees are right at 25% of my monthly gross...they even charge a percentage now on your shipping cost so one must up your cost to cover their fees....I wish truly there was another selling site as I would drop ebay in a second...their new payment process center sytem is a joke..taking 5 days to get money for an item...even tho they get it instantly...they suck when it comes to problemsfor the seller..the buyer has all the rights and the seller has 0.....