EBAY and PAYPAL Fees too high

[mcclainsworld]

Thinking very seriously about cancelling my account.:-(

[uncle_thrifty]

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@prowl66 wrote:

I'm not following.  I haven't sold in a long time because of the fees going up.....and with the addition of Paypal.  I remember it being around 7% or so and was climing with little changes.  I just started to forego selling since I son't steal the stuff I sell  or the such....  I just decided/curious about selling something for 37.99 with s/h fee of 6.99 and my total fees come out to about 6.65.  Now this is about 17%.  Do I really want to do that.  and this is lower than consignment stores or other sources?.  WEll, haven't been in one of those for awhile.     I guess if I got stuff for pretty much nothing, like at garage sales, who cares what I make after 15-20% is taken right back.  I now have more respect for those selling on Ebay....for I buy most/many things there after comparing with Amazon and a few other sites.

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As an example, the consignment auction center in my community charges 40% now, and they get it because they draw a big enough crowd that bidding usually goes in a frenzy.  It seems crazy, but they do a TON of antiques and I guess many of those antique dealers make a big margin if they can afford to do that.  Even the consignment clothing stores here charge 30-35%, so yeah, by traditional standards, ebay is cheap.  Not saying it doesn't cost a good bit to sell here because it does, but considering the size of audience you get on eBay, it's actually a bit of a bargain.  It's not the best venue for everything, though, that's for sure.  I don't list nearly as much as I used to list, and with eBay saying they're going to force everyone into the hassle-free returns program and force sellers to always pay return shipping on returns, many of us will go elsewhere by the end of 2015... I think you will see a high percentage of sellers go elsewhere.

[finative]

You're making assumptions about my post because of the language I used. I never said I was unaware of seller fees. You see, normally I sell items at auction that go for $5.00 - $40.00. When you're selling a pricer item (such as an xbox one) those fees seem more significant. Hence my vernacular use,  "suddenly I don't want to list my items on ebay, but would rather sell them on craigslist" comment.

[slocode111]

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@finative wrote:

You're making assumptions about my post because of the language I used. I never said I was unaware of seller fees. You see, normally I sell items at auction that go for $5.00 - $40.00. When you're selling a pricer item (such as an xbox one) those fees seem more significant. Hence my vernacular use,  "suddenly I don't want to list my items on ebay, but would rather sell them on craigslist" comment.

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I understand it now! You did sound like someone who has been selling here for a while so I was surprised. Thanks for clearing that up!

[azriel1357]

The difference between Ebay, though, and an auction house is that you only tend to enter rather high value items in an auction where you are going to attract people who REALLY want that item because it is rare and people want it more than something that is pretty common.  So yeah you pay 40% to the auction house, but the venue was able to fetch top dollar for your high value item that you otherwise would not be able to achieve on your own.  Now with ebay, if I am selling a fairly common vintage videogame, I'm not getting a big bidding frenzy over it because its not very rare.  I'm just reaching a broader audience which does not bid up the price, but only makes it sell faster than if I tried selling locally.  Now because it is a video game, ebay charges even more commission than with other items (last I checked 13% but could be higher now).  So take 13% plus 6 or 7% paypal fee and you have 20% right there, but wait!  I'm also paying shipping on the item which is a cost I don't incur by bringing it to an auction house.  If I sell a game and ship it across the country I can expect to pay about $3.50 shipping which represents over 40% of the sale price.  So add it all up and I wind up paying 60% which is far above an auction house.  And even 40% is rather high for an auction house and consignment stores I am familiar with charge MUCH less and it's on a sliding scale so high value items are more like 15% commission.

So bottom line, its not worth my **bleep**ing time to even package everything up and print out shipping labels and packing slips and drop it off at the post office for $4 or less, and that is considering that I got the item for free to begin with.  If you have anything into the item then with these current fees you are often breaking even or losing money.

[ms.barbie81]

Can I sell my items on Craiglists? Because I didnt know Ebay takes to many fees out of what you made and I think that is harsh, and wrong. I would never sell another item on Ebay. I would rather throw it in the trash.

[loveyourimagination49]

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@ms.barbie81 wrote:

Can I sell my items on Craiglists? Because I didnt know Ebay takes to many fees out of what you made and I think that is harsh, and wrong. I would never sell another item on Ebay. I would rather throw it in the trash.

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You can google eBay Vs Craiglist and get some info. If I remember correctly Ebay owns some of Craiglist.

Haven't sold there, so not sure how well dvds do. 

Ebay has a larger audience then them. Thats what you are paying for.

@ms.barbie81 If you have any other questions, feel free to come back here. Try starting a new thread, some of these are long and noone looks at them.

[dazampic-0]

yes amen I sold speakers for 750.... cost 197 to ship....and eBay charge me $97 in fees and PayPal $25.. I lost money 

[ziggybowie1964]

OUTRAGEOUS - SOLD $370 WORTH OF MERCHANDISE AND RECEIVED A $40 INVOICE FROM EBAY.  Done with Ebay!!!  Crooks.

[rastamon42]

They told you what they charge, you said 'OK!' and listed the item. It sold, and when they charge you EXACTLY what they said they would, they're crooks? LOL.

[exsurferchick]

But they are not very upfront about their fees. In fact, I can't find a fee schedule anywhere on the site. The invoice I received doesn't give all the info either. Just one flat charge even though I sold 7 different items. They are obviously deliberately trying to obfuscate the fact that they charge 10% for final selling price.

[loveyourimagination49]

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@exsurferchick wrote:
But they are not very upfront about their fees. In fact, I can't find a fee schedule anywhere on the site. The invoice I received doesn't give all the info either. Just one flat charge even though I sold 7 different items. They are obviously deliberately trying to obfuscate the fact that they charge 10% for final selling price.

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http://pages.ebay.com/sellerinformation/ebay-fee-structure/index.html

http://pages.ebay.com/sellerinformation/howtosell/invoiceenhancements.html

@exsurferchick

[exsurferchick]

And what magic does one have to perform to get an itemized invoice like that? The invoice I received looks nothing like the one shown in the link. It just has one mysterious number.

[loveyourimagination49]

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@exsurferchick wrote:
And what magic does one have to perform to get an itemized invoice like that? The invoice I received looks nothing like the one shown in the link. It just has one mysterious number.

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http://cgi3.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewAccountActivity

[dstrand25]

I will definitely think twice about ever using EBAY again, after just being hit with the 10% final value fee and $1 shipping fee, after already paying the listing fees and paying through the nose to ship USPS priority tracking.  The total percentage taken by EBAY seems to be around 15%.  This is far too greedy, IMO.  Paypal is also too greedy.  I am going back to Craigslist!

[abhi_anch]

agreed! ebay is ripping people off.