10 percent shipping fee

[tacticaltracey1013]

Funny how e-bay charges sellers 10% on shipping costs. Many sellers will fix this 10% fee into what they charge for shipping. The buyer ends up paying more for shipping because of this.

Funny

Also what is funny is how the seller can receive low feedback ratings on their SHIPPING & HANDLING CHARGES (because of either not using free shipping or high shipping charges) in their seller dashboard.

Funny

By the way I am sure I am not the first or the last one to discover this.

[bookpoundbooks]

eBay began doing this because sellers were abusing the shipping system to avoid final value fees.

In the early days of eBay you could by a camcorder for $1.99 + $99 for shipping. (slight exaggeration, but you get the point).

Sellers can avoid negative feedback by adding the extra shiiping fees into the product price and not the shipping price.

[etvideo1ataol]

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@bookpoundbooks wrote:

eBay began doing this because sellers were abusing the shipping system to avoid final value fees.

In the early days of eBay you could by a camcorder for $1.99 + $99 for shipping. (slight exaggeration, but you get the point).

Sellers can avoid negative feedback by adding the extra shiiping fees into the product price and not the shipping price.

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Yes, and eBay had a choice.  It could go after those that abused the system, or they could screw over all sellers by including the shipping costs in the FVF.

Guess which eBay chose.

[fuzzface50]

'Yes, and eBay had a choice.  It could go after those that abused the system, or they could screw over all sellers by including the shipping costs in the FVF.

Guess which eBay chose."

what everyone forgets is at the same time they changed the listing fee. it used to be tiered based  on your starting bid. my fees actually went down after they started the 10% on shipping because it was offset by the lower listing fee and it leveled the playing field for the honest seller that didn't list their $100 item for .01 with $99.99 shipping on it.

[etvideo1ataol]

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@fuzzface50 wrote:

'Yes, and eBay had a choice.  It could go after those that abused the system, or they could screw over all sellers by including the shipping costs in the FVF.

Guess which eBay chose."

what everyone forgets is at the same time they changed the listing fee. it used to be tiered based  on your starting bid. my fees actually went down after they started the 10% on shipping because it was offset by the lower listing fee and it leveled the playing field for the honest seller that didn't list their $100 item for .01 with $99.99 shipping on it.

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All sellers see is that the shipping cost is included in the FVF and that is a RIP-OFF.  What other ENDLESSLY CHANGING fees are doesn't matter.

Just another reason that people no longer recommend selling on eBay.  When you "FEEL" cheated, nothing else matters.

[the*dog*ate*my*tablecloth]

The FVF is based on the total amount of the sale, the same way Paypal charges, the same way Amazon charges.

Ebay has a certain amount they want to get for fees. The only thing they can change is how they distribute those fees. Using total sale is the most fair way. It treats sellers who have free shipping, those who charge actual shipping and those who have a handling fee the same way if the total is the same.

Ebay could roll back to FVF on item price only but then they would have to raise the percentage. Most sellers again would be a wash. Except for the unethical sellers who hide all their profit in shipping, they would benefit. Oh, and the sellers who offer free shipping which is something Ebay recommends, they would be penalized.

Ebay charges the fees they charge. If the item isn't worth selling with this fee structure then you need to find another item to sell.

[dhbookds]

I hav never figured out how else Ebay could have handled the problem.........

let bots figure out what was "fair" shipping for each item?  How many would like that? 

Reduce the cost to the buyer by applying only the shipping charge that the seller pays to ship (of course, not everyone uses Ebay shipping so how could that work?) and could entail credits to the buyers, debits to the seller....

As far as endlessly changing fees, actually the FVF have been pretty stable for the last couple of years..........if you want to see endlessly changing prices .......visit a grocery store.......

As far as "feelings" go........if you are going to base a business on "feelings", instead of facts and figures.....probably not going to work out well..........

[posting*master]

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@dhbookds wrote:

I hav never figured out how else Ebay could have handled the problem.........

let bots figure out what was "fair" shipping for each item?  ...

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We already have two examples of how difficult it is for eBay to estimate an appropriate shipping cost:  The maximums that are set for many media-related categories, and the estimated shipping costs that eBay comes up with when sellers use the Quick version of the listing form and allow the default option of "Select shipping for me."  

The Media limits were established in 2008, which was a year of many basic changes, and I have always wondered whether that was a test preliminary step towards setting maximums for all categories. Nothing has been changed since 2008 except a small increase in the maximum allowed amounts, so apparently they decided not to expand it.

[etvideo1ataol]

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@dhbookds wrote:

I hav never figured out how else Ebay could have handled the problem.........

let bots figure out what was "fair" shipping for each item?  How many would like that? 

Reduce the cost to the buyer by applying only the shipping charge that the seller pays to ship (of course, not everyone uses Ebay shipping so how could that work?) and could entail credits to the buyers, debits to the seller....

As far as endlessly changing fees, actually the FVF have been pretty stable for the last couple of years..........if you want to see endlessly changing prices .......visit a grocery store.......

As far as "feelings" go........if you are going to base a business on "feelings", instead of facts and figures.....probably not going to work out well..........

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This may come as a shock, but a lot of seller here are NOT A BUSINESS, they are just people trying to make a few extra dollars in a rotten economy, or are on a fixed income and desperately trying to pay the bills.  Having to pay a kind of TAX on the shipping costs is just pure evil.

As for eBay setting the cost of shipping, in some cases they do.  If you try to make the shipping cost to ship a VHS tape above what they allow, you can't list it and in some cases, they specify the shipping method (media rate).

[apache.falls]

you can always sell elsewhere where it will cost you more or you'll get less customer coverage

[18704d]

This may come as a shock, but a lot of seller here are NOT A BUSINESS, they are just people trying to make a few extra dollars in a rotten economy, or are on a fixed income and desperately trying to pay the bills.  Having to pay a kind of TAX on the shipping costs is just pure evil.

---------

If you're cleaning out your closets, downsizing by selling here, and then you're done selling on eBay,

you're not a business.

If you're trying to make "a few extra dollars" or a full time income,

then you Are a business, and you better start applying sound business practices to your selling philosophy.

fwiw,

Lynn

[posting*master]

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@etvideo1ataol wrote:

... As for eBay setting the cost of shipping, in some cases they do.  If you try to make the shipping cost to ship a VHS tape above what they allow, you can't list it and in some cases, they specify the shipping method (media rate)....

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The limits on shipping cost  in selected media-related categories apply only if you list with a flat price for shipping. If you use calculated shipping, then anything goes.

eBay probably suggests Media Mail if you try to list a single VHS tape with an excessive shipping cost in case you weren't aware of that option; they never require a specific shipping method.  You can list your tape with nothing but (calculated) Priority Express Mail is you choose.

[dhbookds]

Yep, I'm aware of the limits on media stuff.....and how some sellers gripe about that.....  I don't see how they could set limits on a glass or set of glasses........4,6,8 items, 3 ounce to 16 oz, etc. 

Of course they could just do it arbitarily and then we would have to figure out the extra shipping cost and add it into the sale price....a real hassle on every single tiem...........and have to adjust THAT sale price everytime shipping goes up.....

And ET.......I would think those that "needed" money from ebay sales, would be the first ones to not let their feelings hinder their selling.

[uncseniorsportsfan]

The only reason this is an issue is because it shows as a separate invoice line item.    Amazon does the same thing but rolls all their fees into one big fee based on the total purchase including the shipping.    Many times you can add ebay's listing fee, FVF, shipping fee, and paypal fee - and find you actually paid less in fees than you would have selling the same item on Amazon. 

Amazon gives a bookseller a $3.99 credit for shipping but takes back 15% of that - so shipping allowed is only $3.39.   That covers media mail shipping on books weighing up to 2 lbs. 

[pacebicyclehaven]

Including paypal it's more like 13%, but who's counting?

Since that percentage is not going away, the best way to deal with it, for me, has been to offer "free" shipping, with the actual cost factored into every BIN price or starting bid.

"Free" shipping has a few advantages:

#1, it's a proven psychological incentive to buy--which is surely why ebay wants us to do it--so much that they give us 2 additional reasons:

#2  automatic '5 star' rating on shipping cost

#3 discount for TRS on the total amount, including shipping

#4 You also don't have to discount for multiple purchases--unless you really, really want to (because, how much cheaper can you get than "free"?)

And -- you also get a substantial shipping discount --usually, enough to offset that 13%-- by using ebay's label printing.