The cost of doing business n Ebay
i just shake my head. Sold this item a few minutes ago.
What your buyer paid
Item subtotal
$100.00
Shipping
$0.00
Sales tax*
$7.75
Order total**
$107.75
What you earned
Order total
$107.75
eBay collected from buyer
Sales tax
-$7.75
Selling costs
Transaction fees
-$13.01
Shipping label
-$4.36
Ad Fee Standard
-$18.10
Order earnings
$64.53
42 comments
soh.maryl
·2 years agoAren't all fees clearly explained somewhere on eBay?
And aren't you an experienced seller?
So why was this a surprise?
laststopgeneralstore
·2 years agoWhy on earth would you promote at 16.8%? You don't need to promote your items in order to get sales. If you are going to promote your items, that's all on you, not eBay. I hope your looking in the mirror as you shake your head so you know not to make the same mistake again.
luckythewinner
·2 years agomam98031
·2 years agoreallynicestamps
·2 years agoWhile I use Promoted Listings I'm happy with using the 2% minimum fee, and not on all my items.
I find PL brings the punters to my Stores, but that they are as likely to buy the unpromoted items, perhaps even more so.
You can't complain if you chose to pay for PL.
It was your choice to give eBay that money.
kabilab
·2 years agoBill,
I was in direct sales for 29 yrs., then switched to retailing 32 yrs. ago. While I certainly have not always agreed with the conditions of being an e-Bay seller, with but a single exception, I have always respected the platform. For my reason to be here, it is the best deal in town. As others have stated, your decision to ante-up a high promo percentage was voluntary. My foremost compliment to e-Bay is that all fees are up front. If they are unacceptable, one has simply to not avail oneself of the opportunity to vend.
bill.purvis2012
OP2 years agoSee, I agree with you. Best market available for me. Been doing it for years. I don't like the fact that the economy is slow and it takes effort and expense to get the sale. But, I appreciate the Ebay Marketplace.
gamersbaystore
·2 years agoNot voluntary! ebay forces you to promote your listings at a certain percentage, if you should refuse, then no traffic for you!
I have no choice but to bid 10% or higher to get a single view on a DVD, and that's on top of the 15% fees I'm already charged, for a total of 25% or better of the sale.
This fleecing of sellers is completely by design.
If you don't promote, then your listings are wiped off the face of this platform outside of organic search results. Promoted listings eat up the bulk of those organic search results too.
mam98031
·2 years agoI'm sorry this is what you feel you have experienced. The majority of sellers don't even used PL, so by your description most sellers would not have their listing seen. Which of course is not true.
Because you sell in a category that has tons of listings, it makes it very hard to be seen. But that doesn't hold true for all categories. That of course doesn't help you. Sorry.
While you FEEL forced to use PL, Ebay doesn't force any seller to use it in any category. But because you have so much competition it very well may be the best way to get your items seen.
monroe67
·2 years ago"Not voluntary! ebay forces you to promote your listings at a certain percentage, if you should refuse, then no traffic for you!"
Not true. False.
My selling ID tried promoting a couple listings at least a year ago, just to try it out.
What happened: Nothing. No watchers, no offers, no sales.
So she doesn't use promoted listings at all now, in any percentage.
"This fleecing of sellers is completely by design."
Maybe. But a lot of sheep are voluntarily lining up for the shears.
chariot_badges
·2 years ago@monroe67
Yup. And I'm one of em
I have tested, and tested and tested. For about the last year.
I tested keywords, including keyword placement. (I wrote about that test here.)
I tested ending and selling similar.
I tested PL at 2%, 5%, 10%.
Every store is different.
Every inventory is different.
Every buyer demographic for specific products are different.
Every owner is different.
FOR ME, I will continue to use ANY advertising medium that returns 10x.
And FOR ME, PL does that.
I spend $100 and get $1000 in direct sales as a result of PL.
The only wild card is that I did all the other testing and changes first.
I really think (hope) that the combination of all those tweaks is the cause.
In a couple months I will reduce my PL back down to 2% just to see
what happens.
10:1 is my return.
I'm in line.
I don't care how much eBay makes. I hope they make a million ...
because that means I'm making ten million.
Fair deal.
chariot_badges
·2 years agoyuzuha
·2 years agoNope. I don't promote a single thing. Never have.
Amazingly, somehow my stuff still sells.
chariot_badges
·2 years agoJust imagine ... go ahead, drift off and ... you know, imagine.
<start dream sequence>
IF you could spend a hundred dollars and make a thousand?
What a dream, eh?
Would you sell me your ten dollar bills for a hundred dollars?
No?
mam98031
·2 years agoYou haven't told us. Which part is giving you a bit of heart burn?
caldreamer
·2 years agoYou should review percentage that you are paying for "promotions". That is what is eating up all your profits.
toysaver
·2 years agoEverything is relevant. Your earnings will be the price of the item deducted from the 64.53. You likely won't answer but how much did you pay for the item? If it's under ten bucks that's a decent profit.
bill.purvis2012
OP2 years agoI buy in bulk. Less than $5. I know the profit margin is good.
ed8108
·2 years agoPlace a dollar value on the time you invest in selling.
What is controlling, what you realize in profit for yourself, per hour of time invested in the selling of items.
$5 per hr ?
$10. " ?
$20. " ?
$50. " ?
worldcoinauctions
·2 years agoI get it, sure seems like a lot. Of course I also rent a storefront so every month I pay my rent, Internet, security, phone, electric, insurance, I run adds in 4 publications on a regular basis so that fee, of course stock too... I'm probably forgetting something. Not to mention fees to set up in shows (1-2 per month) and some cases I rent at an antique mall. I have to average above $100 in profit a day (365 days a year) to pay overhead. Still seems to work for me.
iamalwaysright
·2 years agoFrom everything you just said, $100 a day in overhead for all that sounds like a good deal to me. Depending on what city you're in I guess.
gloryglorygifts
·2 years agoEven if people are selling out of their homes, they should always consider their overhead costs.....
tobaccocardyahoo
·2 years agoYou are selling jewelry on Ebay.
If there is one type of seller who is more likely to start a thread on how rotten sales are, it is jewelry sellers.
You pay a big ad fee, and managed to sell some of your jewelry.
I have no clue whether that is higher than it need be, but even if it is a complaint about high fees, it is a welcome change from the jewelry sellers who are telling us their sales are in the toilet.
There are a great many jewelry sellers, with a great many listings. Way more than jewelry buyers want to buy, or can afford to buy.
chariot_badges
·2 years ago@tobaccocardyahoo
I don't mind admitting that I pay a large ad fee.
Last month, it cost me $110 to generate $1200 in sales.
It's ok with me.
But ... that's me.
chapeau-noir
·2 years agoThat's not that bad for what it is - roughly...what...8.5%? Poshmark has instituted promotionals and were bragging that for every $1 spent one can get $5 in sales. That's 20% - we already pay 20% selling fees. Of course I tried it (I'll try almost anything once) to see if I could beat the odds and found it prohibitively expensive - even worse than their scenario. I have not not found it so here.
iamalwaysright
·2 years agoFile a cancellation for out of stock and I believe you'll get all your fees back. 😀
There probably will be repercussions but at least your head will stop shaking.
inhawaii
·2 years agoI'm shaking my head that you're shaking your head.
Didn't you know these things when you listed your item?
chariot_badges
·2 years ago@bill.purvis2012
So you made 65% on your sale?
That is not all that bad.
In fact, it is about normal. Hopefully your COGS isn't high . . . but that's up to you.
I aim for one third for overhead (fixed and variable) and two thirds for me.
Don't always hit it -- but, I keep a close eye on it and adjust prices as necessary.
redlinear
·2 years agoBig promotional fee you chose.
Even so, what would it have brought at a local garage sale?
fern*wood
·2 years agoDid you feel it wouldn't sell unless you offered to pay those optional additional final value fees? Is that why you are shaking your head? Otherwise you would have cleared around $82. dollars.
trainup027
·2 years agoThere's also the expense of the product to consider. I find it helpful to write these out and learn from them. It might have been a great deal to get a sale with a high ad fee, because it sold fast. Or it might have been a mistake if it was an item that would sell well anyway. These are some of the nuances of selling on ebay. What really matters in the end is, are you making a profit you're happy with? Or getting rid of an item you wanted out of the house and getting your money back. Or whatever you situation entails.
monica-sells
·2 years agoexactly....
all we know is it's a $100.00 item
if the acquisition cost was $5.00, you had a lot of room for promotion
if the acquisition cost was $50.00, well...not so much
yuzuha
·2 years agoActually, if it had free shipping, then it WASN'T a $100 item, it was whatever the total amount was minus whatever it cost to ship.
monica-sells
·2 years ago...insert smiley face....
you are correct...the 'sale' was 100
dbfolks166mt
·2 years agoActually, if it had free shipping, then it WASN'T a $100 item, it was whatever the total amount was minus whatever it cost to ship.
It all depends on your perspective I guess. Personally I don't care about what costs are baked into the total price. If I pay $20,000.00 for a new car and that cost includes taxes, title, destination charges, shipping/transport.......... then I still consider/say I paid $20K for the car. I don't deduct all the extraneous costs and say I paid $15,524.00 for the car.
From the dealers perspective they collected $20,000.00 for the car, what they used or didn't use that money or is their business.
bill.purvis2012
OP2 years agoI buy cheap. So, more like $5.
monica-sells
·2 years agoWithout knowing the item and the competition it has you can't make a judgement
If that's what it takes to sell that item, you made the right decision....
it is the cost of doing business.......
anywhere
if you just arbitrarily assigned that high of a placement fee and it did not need it....well....
wastingtime101
·2 years agoAre you shaking your head because you chose to use such a high ad fee?
gloryglorygifts
·2 years agoThat ad fee is brutal........ Didn't you set it?
bill.purvis2012
OP2 years agoi didn't think I had set that high a Promo. I thought it was capped at 12%. I'll have to investigate.
mam98031
·2 years agoYour first clue that isn't correct is you paid more in Promo fees than you did in regular FVFs.
With that said it had to be closer to about 17% promo fee. But 12% or 17%, either one is pretty darn high.
gloryglorygifts
·2 years agoThat's too bad, Bill. Live and learn I guess. Sorry that it was a painful experience.