Not really. Try selling something at a consignment auction or in a consignment shop... ebay is CHEAP by comparison. Most consignments charge 30% or more. It's nothing more than the cost of doing business. Try running a brick and mortar store in this business environment. With competing against Amazon and other mail orders, your cost of doing business is going to be WAY more, percentage-wise, of every sale you make. Ebay is again, cheap by comparison. Business has ALWAYS been this way, there's an inherent cost of doing it, and if you aren't willing to pay that cost, maybe selling isn't your thing and you should look at a different means of making a living. Not trying to be snarky, just being realistic. I work at a mom and pop music instrument store. The margins these days are SO slim that if we didn't offer repairs we probably couldn't stay open. Many manufacturers sell direct, against their dealers... Fender for example. Used to you could make GOOD money on Fender guitars. Now, it costs about $50 to get a guitar shipped from Fender California to your door, and your average guitar that sells for, say $900.00, a couple years ago would have cost you about $650... NOW it costs you $750 PLUS shipping, so you make about a hundred dollars on a $900 sale. You have to pay rent, and lights, and other utilities, and insurance, and taxes, and payroll out of that. Running an ebay business out of your home is CAKE compared to that. Don't tell me eBay is expensive that's simply not true. I'm not saying it's cheap, mind you, but compared to doing business about any other way, it IS cheap.
