eBay Fees on a buyer's shipping and tax
I'm not happy about eBay's charging a fee that includes the buyer's cost of shipping and their tax. I don't mind paying a fee on the price of the item I'm selling, but it really seems unfair and exorbitant to include the cost of shipping and tax in the fee. Plus, those fees continue to climb each year. I understand I can increase the sale price of my item to include those costs, but I don't know what those amounts are until a buyer buys the item as tax and shipping rates are different depending on where the buyer lives. It's difficult to be competitive when I have to raise the cost of my items to cover these fees. eBay isn't as lucrative for sellers anymore, especially low ticket items. Thoughts, anyone?
10 comments
monica-sells
·1 year agonearly impossible to put parameters on shipping charges
(logistical nightmare and near impossible to determine what it costs to send "non-conforming" items)
that being said, not picking on you individually, but, based on your last 90 days sales on this account, you paid approximately a whopping 2.65 extra in FVF on sales tax (based on 8% average)....
inhawaii
·1 year agoYou are not alone.
The rest of us don't "like" paying fees on the tax either.
Fortunately we are not forced to.
We have a choice.
Pay the fees and sell here -or- don't pay the fee and don't sell here.
ryry-jj
·1 year agoIf you knew what all went into filing sales tax, the % ebay charges is cheap. No way I want to file quarterlies in every jurisdiction in the county I sell into. Although, if our own, most likely we wouldnt even have nexus in many states, but that fact we all fall under ebays umbrella the tax must be collected and again, I'm glad Im not the one filing. So as much I hate fees, ebay is doing a service on the taxes, like it or not
bonjourami
·1 year ago'Plus, those fees continue to climb each year"
Ebays last fee hike was Feb of 2023.
monroe67
·1 year ago" 'Plus, those fees continue to climb each year'
Ebays last fee hike was Feb of 2023."
Ah-ah-ah! That was the percentage portions of the Final Value Fee (FVF) !!
You forgot about the fee hike from earlier this year !!
eBay raised the "per-order" portion of the FVF mid-March of 2024.
It used to be $0.30 (thirty cents) per order. Now it is $0.40 (forty cents) per order.
That was an increase of roughly 33.333333333% in that one fee.
eBay recognized how oppressive this 33 1/3% fee increase could be for sellers of low-value items, and decided that
the per-order fee would remain at $0.30 (thirty cents) when the total sale, including postage and taxes, was $10.00 or less.
soh.maryl
·1 year agoeBay's fee schedule is not hidden from anyone. When/if a seller reads it, and decides to sell on eBay, he is agreeing that he will pay the fees. He's not saying that he's delighted to do so.
There are many sellers here who've decided not to sell low ticket items because of the fees.
mtgraves7984
·1 year agoeBay isn't as lucrative for sellers anymore, especially low ticket items. Thoughts, anyone?
@shephe_69
I concur.
redlinear
·1 year agoI agree on the tax thing.
But the shipping is fine. I keeps everybody from circumventing the fees by selling items for $1.00 plus $25.00 shipping
shephe_69
OP1 year agoGood point redlinear. It would be great if eBay could put some type of "guardrail" on that practice, for example not allowing the price of shipping to be more than 10% of what it should be.
chapeau-noir
·1 year agoThis subject has been kind of done to death, but this comment does need some history. eBay did try that - it drove everyone nuts because eBay took on the impossible task of trying to create a shipping matrix for the myriad items (in the millions) that sold here (including combined sales, etc.), gave up and simply averaged all items for a certain category and came up with a range.
So if one was selling a car top bike rack, for instance, their category would have shipping limitations calculated with everything from small nuts and bolts packages, to the full-on (heavy) deal - it was completely unrealistic. There was a $3 limit on books - but any heavy book went for $4 - they diddled around with that for months trying to fix it. The calculation for multiple items never worked very well.
The effort was finally abandoned as simply unworkable and we got the fees on shipping.