FEES ON POSTAGE
I know that if I ask the buyer to pay me say $25 for postage, that E-bay will take about 13% of that in fees along with the item sale price. But if I spend the $25 buying the postage THROUGH E-bay, were they can see the $25 is not profit for me, will they still take away a 13% fee from that $25 I spent for postage????
17 comments
soh.maryl
·1 year agoeBay's final value fee is calculated on the item price, the shipping and the state sales tax, if applicable. In other words, the FVF is calculated on the total amount paid to the seller by the buyer regardless of whether or not the postage is purchased through eBay.
femmefan1946
·1 year agoEBay has discounted prices for many shipping services.
Some sellers buy discounted postage stamps here on eBay. Discounts on mint never hinged postage ranges from 20% to 50% . Be aware that discounts over 50% are likely to be Chinese counterfeits.
Discounted postage is also available from some large big box stores like CostCo.
You can use postage stamps to send tracked mail.
If you are using Flat Rate Shipping, you will be making a little on shipping to nearby destinations, and losing of distant destinations. The eBay fee on the Flat Rate, whether too high, too low, or just right, will be 13.25% (usually).
On $25 Flat Rate that would be $3.32.
If your actual cost is $20, you make $1.68 one shipping after fees.
If your actual cost is $25, you lose $3.32 after fees.
If you use Calculated Shipping, your buyer will see and you will charge the exact amount the shipper does.
You can add a (flat) Handling Fee to cover that eBay fee.
The Calculated amount the buyer pays may be higher than the discounted eBay shipping label.
nobody*s_perfect
·1 year agoSellers can choose to set up their listings to charge buyers either the retail rate or the discounted eBay postage rate.
If they choose the latter, then the cost of the postage label will always be less than what the buyer paid, except for Media Mail which costs the same. Many sellers choose to set up their listings to charge the retail rate, so that the difference between retail and eBay prices serves as a built-in handling fee.
johnrj1226
·1 year agoNo where is it written that seller have to pay there actual cost of the shipping label. Always sold at the full price of USPS postage and added a bit for handling costs. Always made certain all my selling costs and my expecte profit margin were paid by the buyer. Never did the "free shipping" routine.
inhawaii
·1 year agoAnswer: Yes.
dbfolks166mt
·1 year agoYes they will still charge the 13.25% on the amount of postage the buyer paid you it does not matter what you actually pay for the label. If you are paying the same amount for the actual label that the buyer paid you then your seller settings may be set to pass the discounted shipping rate along to the buyer. EBay made this unilateral change sometime back in June I believe. It's a money looser for the seller unless you are covering the FVF's on the postage in some other way.
carlmarxx
·1 year agoEbay started charging fee's on shipping since 2009 under former Ceo John Donahue be we sellers would not do free shipping on all listings . when you are dealing with carriers that charge by shipping zone and parcel size and surcharges it doesn't make since to charge all buyers the same . majored sellers are second market private none retail . And ebay doesn't have Wearhouse's like the other online sites in every buyers location , because it isn't in the business model .
redmodelt
·1 year ago"be we sellers would not do free shipping on all listings" Fees charged on shipping was because too many people were selling things for a dime and charging $99 for shipping and only paying fees on the dime.
carlmarxx
·1 year agoYes the sellers that did the fee avoidance was given reason for the fee's . I had talked with a Coo for seller relations by chance at the San Jose Ca. office by phone, about several days after eBay start charging fee's on shipping and I was told fee's where started because none of seller's did 100% free shipping on all items ,that the Ceo at the time wanted. and that the Fee avoidance reason was just a cover story.
nobody*s_perfect
·1 year agoeBay claimed that the new FVF structure was all about wanting to encourage sellers to offer free shipping, by eliminating the penalty implicit in adding shipping to their asking price; the Spring 2011 explained, "Final Value Fees updated to reward low-cost shipping for all sellers."
https://pages.ebay.com.sg/sellerinformation/2011news/FirstSellerUpdate2011.html
In an associated video, "Todd Lutwak, VP of Selling Experience for eBay, sat down to discuss the latest release and explain the free auction listings and new Final Value Fee structure to eBay Ink readers. He attributes buyer expectations – particularly with regard to free or low-cost shipping – as a primary reason for the change".
https://www.ebayinc.com/stories/news/video-post-ebay-seller-release-spring-2011-ebaynews-ebaysr11/
I'd be willing to consider the possibility that the truth is the other way around -- eBay claimed that they wanted to encourage free shipping, but what they really wanted was to stop losing fees from sellers who charged inflated shipping.
johnrj1226
·1 year agoeBays FVF on a separate shipping/handling started in mid year 2011. Sold my first item Jan 2010.(started buying Dec. 2008
BTW If a seller had free shipping and the embedded the S/H cost in the item price they were paying the eBay FVF on it. So eBay killed two birds with one stone by eliminating the sellers that had a down and dirty item price with a great big S/H charged and leveled the playing field for those that opted for "free shipping" for their items. Seems fair from here
shado-x
·1 year agoeBays FVF on a separate shipping/handling started in mid year 2011.
When Jon Donahue was CEO of eBay, recently fired from Nike as CEO. Just want everyone to remember where the FVF came from and who did it.
theteamsetguy
·1 year ago@shado-x ,
Per CNBC,
Nike CEO John Donahoe will retire from the company in October. He will be succeeded by company veteran Elliott Hill.
johnrj1226
·1 year agoNot a concern who did it - but your time of implementation was off by ~3 years - heck I'm a 44 models and I can recall that- and because it happened 13 years+ ago - this phrase from a Peter and Gordon song applies - "That was yesterday and yesterday Is gone." - no one can change that.
redmodelt
·1 year agoYes, you pay the fee on the total amount received from the buyer, but that $25 was never profit in the first place. It is money given to you as part of the payment to buy postage. Buying postage thru eBay, the discount helps cover the difference after paying fees.
dbfolks166mt
·1 year agoYes. As @fern*wood noted the FVF is charged on the entire amount of the order. I looked at a couple of your items and a few are shipping USPS Priority mail but I am not sure why you would use that class of mail as opposed to ground advantage.
You also appear to have a flat rate shipping cost on most of your items which has a number of issues due to the cost of shipping to different zones. You may want to look at your shipping settings on your listings and make some adjustments to make the items more attractive to the east coast and mid-west buyer base.
fern*wood
·1 year agoEbay charges the fee on your total payment including item price, postage & tax (if applicable). That is the same regardless of where you buy your label.