Fees on books

[sheller1980]

I do not understand why fees are do high on books. I got into selling them when covid forced people to stay in. It was a game changer for me,but is hard to make any money when you have to pay 14% fees for selling a used book. Now it is going up. Why is it higher than all other categories? I think Ebay is taking advantage of this category and the sheer number that is being sold. Needs to be in line with other categories. 

[bonjourami]

Yes the fees are high for books,movies,music, and dvd's.

[slippinjimmy]

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@sheller1980 wrote:

I do not understand why fees are do high on books. I got into selling them when covid forced people to stay in. It was a game changer for me,but is hard to make any money when you have to pay 14% fees for selling a used book. Now it is going up. Why is it higher than all other categories? I think Ebay is taking advantage of this category and the sheer number that is being sold. Needs to be in line with other categories. 

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The reason is simple, other Marketplaces have raised rates on Books and eBay follows.

This first became apparent a few years ago when Amazon increased their book rate substantially, eBay followed about 6 months later. Even with this new increase by eBay their fees are still lower than Amazon which is the prime (no pun intended) competition in that category.

[ms.rodriguez*]

Just raise your prices. Postal rates just went up last week so don't forget to adjust your shipping fees. The fees in the other categories should be the same as they are.  For some reason, certain categories are higher. I am thinking that those are categories where buyers are willing to spend a bit more.  So raise your prices a bit more.

[bonjourami]

I really think Ebay does this to encourage book and music sellers to open a store..would that work for you?

[slippinjimmy]

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@bonjourami wrote:

I really think Ebay does this to encourage book and music sellers to open a store..would that work for you?

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I don't think that is true given that the FVF percentage is exactly the same in Media if you have a Store or not.

[m60driver]

Another possible reason is that books tend to be very slow sellers and there are a whole lot of them listed.  The high fees also make up for the lower shipping costs calculated to the fvf fee and I don't believe Ebay gets much of a cut from media mail rates like they do from other rates.

[coolections]

Because now that Ebay doubled the charge by charging sellers fees on shipping, they cannot make enough money on book and record sellers. Those are the only things you can ship "cheap" through USPS (media).

[lets_talk_kjb]

I feel you.  I sell brand new books, and, now 14.95% makes it impossible to make money.

This is a huge category for eBay and they are taking advantage of us...there is not a lot we can do...we can leave eBay...or pay the fees and maybe add products from other categories to compensate.

No easy answers my friend. Good luck to you and other book sellers. 

[evelyb30]

Book sellers now feel the pain jewelry sellers have had for two years.   All jewelry sellers got dinged to pay for "authentication" that can only be used by a small  percentage of sellers for a selection of Fine jewelry.    The shareholders shall feel no pain; they don't care about sellers. (just in case anyone hasn't figured that out) Fees only go up, not down.  

[tobaccocardyahoo]

If you cannot make money because of the Ebay fees, it is because no one cares enough to pay a price which allows you to make money.

If you cannot make money, you should not be trying to sell any item.

I would not waste my time on $2, 3, 4 or $5 books because I would not make even the minimum wage for my time.