Fees

[vacs_for_less]

I've been selling on ebay for many years but am becoming discouraged with it.  When I see how much they take, (13+%)  I am ok with that, but charging us the same percentage for the shipping and tax amount paid by buyer is a bit much!  We don't see that money.  I understand why they do it, it makes them more money but I don't understand how they can do it.

[hartungcards]

In what universe don't you see "that shipping money?"

[tobaccocardyahoo]

Ebay's fee schedule is competitive with other high traffic internet marketplaces.

If you cannot profit with their fee schedule, you can try some of the free marketplaces where you can exchange cash for your goods locally or try another marketplace with an even worse search and lower traffic.

[redmodelt]

Your choice to sell here, no one is forcing you. All the fees are spelled out and you chose to list and sell on eBay's platform. 

[monroe67]

"When I see how much they take, (13+%)  I am ok with that, but charging us the same percentage for the shipping and tax amount paid by buyer is a bit much!"

Well -- shipping a vacuum cleaner is more expensive than shipping, oh, say, a pair of shoes or a couple of sewing patterns or a set of coffee mugs.  

All eBay sellers pay a Final Value Fee (FVF) to eBay which, as defined and described by eBay, is a percentage of the total amount paid by the buyer.  

eBay's playing field, eBay's rules.  

[sammiea1460]

" We don't see that money.  I understand why they do it, it makes them more money but I don't understand how they can do it. "

You are correct. We don't receive that money from those charges, but we do  receive benefits.

There are many reasons FVF are charged on shipping. The primary reason is fee avoidance. I was around when a television was $1.00 and shipping was $199.00. I wonder how long ebay would have stayed in iness if they had not corrected that?

Taxes, taxes. Ebay collects and remits sales taxes for all states (48??) at the proper time. I suspect some state have additional taxes that need to be collected. I am not in a position to retain a bookkeeper/ accountant to do that job for me.

Many years ago I had a small business. I had to file sales tax every quarter. Large companies had to file at least monthly.

[redlinear]

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@redmodelt wrote:

Your choice to sell here, no one is forcing you. All the fees are spelled out and you chose to list and sell on eBay's platform. 

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OR....you agree to every new change / increase because you already have $50,000+ labor tied up in listings.
But I would agree to fees on shipping costs anyway.
Fees on tax?  I agree with that as well.  For the main reason I don't have to deal with that headache, eBay deals with it for me.
  But, there are other changes over the years that I wouldn't have stuck around for, had I not already been in too deep to get out

[soh.maryl]

You've been selling on eBay for quite awhile.  The current FVF of a little over 13% is not new.  Has been around for at least 5 years.  What made you just now notice how much you are paying?  

[inhawaii]

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@vacs_for_less wrote:
I understand why they do it, it makes them more money but I don't understand how they can do it.

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How can they do it?

Easy.

It's legal -and- it's what they want to do -and- you agree to it when you sell here.

[soh.maryl]

When you state that you "don't understand how they can do it", do you mean you think it might not be legal?

Don't you imagine that eBay has a few (hundred?) attorneys on staff who've indeed determined that this fee schedule is legal? 

[chapeau-noir]

Payment processors take a percentage of the entire transaction amount - this includes taxes and shipping. eBay does the same. It's just that their 13.5% fees levied on all of it makes it a lot harder to swallow. 

[squinkercat59]

There are over 13,000 separate tax districts in the United States. Ebay takes care of that for me.  The small percentage it costs me, to have them do that, is more than worth it. I can't devote full time to filling out separate tax payments every month to every tax district I sell to.

[janet9988]

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@vacs_for_less wrote:

I've been selling on ebay for many years but am becoming discouraged with it.  When I see how much they take, (13+%)  I am ok with that, but charging us the same percentage for the shipping and tax amount paid by buyer is a bit much!  We don't see that money.  I understand why they do it, it makes them more money but I don't understand how they can do it.

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You mean you never noticed that PayPal did the EXACT  same thing for many years????

[bgt_masters_of_tiki_d]

Ebay charges (depending on if you promote or not) 4x as much as paypal did. It is getting to the point where some items I sell are no longer worth selling because I charge exact shipping (have to because shipping can vary from $30-$115 depending on where the item is going). Since ebay keeps 15% of that, it really eats into any profit on certain items.

[johnrj1226]

Selling  fees on  separate shipping/handing has been around since 2011  to level our playing field  for all sellers and those that offered  "free shipping".  Some  seller  had a very small item selling price but a  very large shipping fee to avoid any fees on that..  Guess you wouldn't be happy with that  EH?  Me either.  But  you  should  have known that a you  became an eBay member in 2008, same a me but didn't  sell any thing 'til 2010.

 Right now eBay distributes the  sales taxes collected to the buyers state, county, city to those buyer  that have often changing  sales taxes every quarter of the year.  Guess sellers could  do that for "free"???