Did eBay raise their fees?

[gegeomc.9d1ixjpvb]

Hi,

I sold 2 lots of books - the same number of books, the same type of books for the same price about a week apart.  The ebay fees should have been exactly the same, but they weren't.  I don't see any messages from eBay that they raised their fees.  

Does anybody know if they did?  If not, I don't understand the discrepancy.  Thank you.

[nobody*s_perfect]

They did raise some fees around the first of this month: "starting April 1, 2021 we’ll increase final value fees 0.2% in select selling categories."

https://pages.ebay.com/seller-center/seller-updates/2021-spring/financials.html

Also, final value fees are based on total payment  including shipping cost and sales tax which in turn depends on the buyer's location.  So if your buyer paid more in sales tax, the fee would be  a bit higher. Also, if the books weren't listed in the same category, that could change the FVF percentage rate.

[slippinjimmy]

Was there Sales Tax involved? Were the sales to different States with different  tax rates?

How much of a difference in fees?

Fees on Books went up last year but there have not been any recent changes.

[gegeomc.9d1ixjpvb]

Thank you very much.  It's their raised fees that did it. Sigh. The books were listed in the same category. Nothing at all was different. 

Thanks again.  I will go over the information carefully.  I really appreciate your help.  🙂

[gwens*4saleitems*]

You also pay FEES on the shipping that you charge and the buyer pays.

For instance: I sell something to Michigan (my home state) shipping would be about $8.00. 

I sell the same item to California (farthest point from MI) shipping will run about $10.00 - $11.00

Higher shipping charged/paid = higher fees.

[luckythewinner]

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@gegeomc.9d1ixjpvb wrote:

I sold 2 lots of books - the same number of books, the same type of books for the same price about a week apart.  The ebay fees should have been exactly the same, but they weren't.

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You appear to be in Managed Payments. 

In Managed Payments, the fees are calculated based on the total that the buyer pays, including any sales tax  that eBay collects and remits to the buyer's state. 

So even though two two items have the same price and the same shipping, the eBay fees will differ based on the sales tax rate of the state to which you are shipping the book. 

[coolections]

Actually unless you shipped both items to the same state there was a difference. Ebay charges the TOTAL payment which includes tax.

[gegeomc.9d1ixjpvb]

You guys are so helpful!   I greatly appreciate all this fantastic information.  I didn't know about the total payment so thank you very much!

[m*v*t]

The new fees are 27% of the listing value!

[philspiderman]

How do they justify taking a bigger cut just because you are paying more to ship something a longer distance? That just seems like **bleep**.  

[lepke1979]

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@philspiderman wrote:

How do they justify taking a bigger cut just because you are paying more to ship something a longer distance? That just seems like **bleep**.  

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Because people two decades or ago were charging $0.01 for an item with $100 shipping to get around the fees.

Don't know when they changed it, but it's been this way at least 10 years. It's the norm with other sites too.

[nobody*s_perfect]

The policy of charging FVF on the buyer's total payment was phased-in during 2011.

https://community.ebay.com/t5/Announcements/2011-Spring-Seller-Update-Fee-Update-to-Encourage-Low-co...

[soh.maryl]

They "justify" it because final value fees are based on the item price, the shipping cost and the state sales tax, if any.

[peter_heyden]

Yes, they did raise. I just had my first "managed payments" sale, and got paid quite instantly.

And indeed there are no PayPal fees involved anymore, but eBay invented many other ways to squeeze sellers: 30 cents per sale, additional fees for international shipment, large "hidden" fees for currency exchange (I sell in $ but get paid in €).

All and all, the total amount I received was about 77% of the total sale+shipping amount. Or: 23% on fees and taxes!

[slippinjimmy]

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@peter_heyden wrote:

Yes, they did raise. I just had my first "managed payments" sale, and got paid quite instantly.

And indeed there are no PayPal fees involved anymore, but eBay invented many other ways to squeeze sellers: 30 cents per sale, additional fees for international shipment, large "hidden" fees for currency exchange (I sell in $ but get paid in €).

All and all, the total amount I received was about 77% of the total sale+shipping amount. Or: 23% on fees and taxes!

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Yeah eBay invented these things WHEN THEY OWNED PayPal!

All those "inventions" you refer to were also charged by PayPal since....forever.