E bay fees for watches

[johninnc2000]

I think E-bay has priced themselves out of the solid gold wristwatches or pocket watches. I have been on E-bay for over 20 years and hate to see this happen. I buy solid gold watches from several gold refiners I hate to see them scraped. Here is my example I recently bought a very nice 1967 wristwatch for $630.00 which was the scrap gold value of the watch. The best offer I had was $900.00, after fees this would net me $754.00. that is $124.00 gross profit I just can't sell for that low of a margin. I have to shop my watches to local jewelers that handle vintage watches. I was able to sell this watch for $900.00 cash. My point is E-bay is losing money and I can't afford to sell my gold watches on E-bay any longer. If E-bay would go back to 10% it seems to me they would make more profit and I could sell more expensive items. 

[inhawaii]

I wish ebay would lower their fees too.

[fredoniacoinandtreasure]

I would sure prefer that too, sold a 100 oz silver bar on ebay and their profit was actually higher than mine. But, you know, I made more than I would have selling locally.

[rosszonebricks]

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@johninnc2000 wrote:

... If E-bay would go back to 10% ...

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Worth noting that 'when eBay was 10%' you had to pay Paypal 2.9%+0.30/0.45.  (Paypal's fees have gone up since then too.)  So eBay's ~13.5% is about the same fee.

(Yes, I get the intricacies of fee on sales tax and shipping with eBay Managed Payments vs Paypal, but it's not that much different than the 'when eBay was 10%') 

[tobaccocardyahoo]

I sympathize with your desire to preserve what is a thing of beauty, but many things of beauty are not worth more than the scrap value of the metal.

That there is any profit after Ebay fees may be a miracle.

It may be that you have to accept the personal satisfaction of finding a good home for the item as part of your profit.

[luckythewinner]

I think E-bay has priced themselves out of the solid gold wristwatches or pocket watches. I

The best offer you got on eBay was $900.

The best cash offer you got outside eBay was also $900.

So even if eBay fees were zero, you would still have chosen to sell it locally because it was the same money and there would be no risk of buyer fraud or an INAD. 

So in this case, you could argue that the eBay fees were not really a factor.

[coolections]

So you invested $630 and made a profit of $124 on your investment. That is very good. Congratualtions !!!!

[monroe67]

"Worth noting that 'when eBay was 10%' you had to pay Paypal 2.9%+0.30/0.45.  (Paypal's fees have gone up since then too.)  So eBay's ~13.5% is about the same fee."

FYI -- eBay's current Final Value Fee on watches, when the total amount of the sale is $5,000 or less, 
is 15% of that total amount of the sale, plus 30 cents per order.  

[idealgems1]

We run into the same problem while liquidating the old inventory of our jewelry store.  We lower the price every month that an item doesn't sell, but at some point we reach a terminal price that we just can't lower any more because after eBay fees and postage we're at a scrap price.  We hate to scrap beautiful, brand new jewelry, but at that point that's what the market dictates that this jewelry is worth.

[danstnt]

A thing of beauty would be all of us getting more money for the effort we put in. Or go start all over somewhere else we All know there's plenty of different niche sites cheaper. 

Better yet maybe Ebay should be less dependent on a computer running there company.  

[ebeths_eclectic_collectibles]

And they have been remelting and remaking gold jewelry for a few thousand year now