Promoted Listing Fee Calculation is Evil

Question

The way ebay is calculating the fees on promoted listings are evil, ebay is just letting sellers with the lowest possible profit, this is not fair for sellers and buyers, ebay's greed is worst every year.While they should be calculating the promoted listing fee only to the base price of the item, they go beyond that and calculate it to the final price including taxes and shipping costs, that's amazing seeing how they take advantage on everything only for their own benefit. sellers and buyers are...

meme6253 · Accepted Answer

You sell Very Specific items which allows you to ignore the whole PL thing, But if you were in over saturated categories you might have to think differently.

kh-tuna · Answer

Hi everyone, Due to the age of this thread, it has been closed to further replies. Please feel free to start a new thread if you wish to continue to discuss this topic. Thank you for understanding.

gurlcat · Answer

OLD THREAD 🤣 For a second I was so happy to see the return of @fbusoni , but alas ..... no.

bashort · Answer

I absolutely refuse to voluntarily pay more , they can take their promoted listings and.................

stainlessenginecovers · Answer

@geek-quest wrote:
The way ebay is calculating the fees on promoted listings are evil, ebay is just letting sellers with the lowest possible profit, this is not fair for sellers and buyers, ebay's greed is worst every year.
While they should be calculating the promoted listing fee only to the base price of the item, they go beyond that and calculate it to the final price including taxes and shipping costs,

The way this site calculates is the SAME whether you 'opt' to give more (promotions) or not- ALL items sold are charged a Final Value Fee and it is CLEARLY shown BEFORE you decide to list.

Like complaining about the Final Bill at a restaurant even though EVERY price is CLEARLY shown on the Menu, but you just don't want to be bothered to do some math BEFORE you order.

kibble-net · Answer

Promoted listings is a tool in your toolbox, just because you have the tool doesn't always mean it is appropriate for the job.

Would you blame Google if you overspent on pay per click ads for your website? No, it's your personal responsibility to manage your advertising budget.

tipsy-cat-artifacts · Answer

I'm afraid your right, the amount charged for promoted listings is beyond ridiculous. I recently had a sale that was charged over 30.00 promoted listing fee??? Really Ebay?? You pay enough to just have a listing here to begin with. You would think Ebay would be doing everything possible to help you sell your items... but I guess that was the old Ebay. The new Ebay way, twist your t*t until they can't squeeze out a drop more.

aeparts1 · Answer

If you sell items that you need to use PL in order to try & sell them, due to the category being super saturated, you probably should give up selling that type of item.

I've never used PL & never will.

jerseyboymusic · Answer

Promoted listings are optional. No one is forcing anyone else to use them

luckythewinner · Answer

so we hardly can expect to get decent profit margin at the same time we're competing against amazon and walmart, so we hardly can expect to get decent profit margin

Not all sellers here are choosing to sell products that compete with Walmart and Amazon.

Honestly I do not see a good future to ebay market

Countless people have predicted eBay's demise on this board over the past 25 years.

ebay is making their own business disappear

There are approximately 1.5 billion items listed here, and GMV has shown modest YoY growth every quarter for the past couple years.

squinkercat59 · Answer

I would agree, Meme. if you have unusual, vintage or hard-to-find items, there's no need for promoted listings. I believe they are only good for if you are selling something there are already a dozen, or a hundred, or five hundred (or more!) of. Even then, they could get lost among all the others. When buying, I don't pay attention to promoted listings either. I do my searches starting from least expensive, and go from there (checking feedback, shipping time, etc.) I don't buy from sellers that consistently have a history of items being ruined from bad packaging, undisclosed damage etc. It doesn't matter if they promote or not.

chevymontecarlo88 · Answer

@geek-quest wrote:
The way ebay is calculating the fees on promoted listings are evil, ebay is just letting sellers with the lowest possible profit, this is not fair for sellers and buyers, ebay's greed is worst every year.
While they should be calculating the promoted listing fee only to the base price of the item, they go beyond that and calculate it to the final price including taxes and shipping costs, that's amazing seeing how they take advantage on everything only for their own benefit. sellers and buyers are struggling to offer and get better prices, at the same time we're competing against amazon and walmart, so we hardly can expect to get decent profit margins.
Honestly I do not see a good future to ebay market, ebay is making their own business disappear, maybe they're squeezing the last drops from what years ago, was a great business.

I think a big part of the problem with PL is how many eBayers have no idea how it works and when it makes sense to use. It is advertising and can be useful if used properly. PL does not equal/guarantee sales.

It does feel predatory, but the responsibility (understanding of policies/procedures) should fully fall on the shoulders of the sellers.

fbusoni · Answer

@geek-quest wrote:
The way ebay is calculating the fees on promoted listings are evil,

@geek-quest

I'd rephrase that thusly:

Promoted listings are evil.

But they will not make eBay's own business disappear... not by a long shot.

As long as sellers are paralyzed by a fear of missing out, they will remain psychologically vulnerable to the appeal of software from the cloud that no one really understands but which is rumored to provide some sort of advantage insofar as sales are concerned.

And that's ok with me, because the hundreds of millions of dollars PLs generate and which are pouring into eBay coffers means that ordinary fees for sellers like me -- who would not touch PLs with a ten foot pole --do not change much over time.

gator08041971 · Answer

@geek-quest

Their fees have been the same for the most part for a while now. I haven't seen any "yearly" increases as you suggested.

And if they didn't access a fee for the entire sale, what's to stop a seller from selling an item for 1 dollar and 100 for shipping?

If you don't use any promotions, that saves too. I have always found their fees to be exactly as listed.