Fees

[printer2112]

I sold an item for 435 dollars. Ebay took 67 dollars.  So the seller fee is 15.5 percent?  

[bashort]

---

@richard1rst wrote:

---

@printer2112 wrote:

I sold an item for 435 dollars. Ebay took 67 dollars.  So the seller fee is 15.5 percent?  

---

Lemme guess - part of that $67 was the cost of the shipping label. That money goes to the post office. That is NOT a seller fee.  A common misconception we see all the time.

So let's say that sales tax was added (could have been as much as 10% - $43.50) and your buyer was charged a shipping fee. $20 plus ???. So in fact your buyer may have paid a much as $500. $67 is 13.4% of $500 - not 15.5%.

---

the item sold for $435 + shipping  15.5% of the sale price in fees is very very normal

[tools*]

An example might be: $100 item + $10 shipping + $10 sales tax.

If the final value fee is 13% in your category, the total fee would be $15.60, and you would receive $84.40 from eBay.

[fern*wood]

---

@printer2112 wrote:

Years ago I used to sell quite a bit. Fees were never this high. No more selling for me. Not worth it. 

---

They aren't all that much more (unless you promote) than years ago.  Don't forget that prior to managed payments, we paid around 10% fee to ebay and 3% to paypal.  Now the fees are combined. 

[pastimpressions]

I am so glad that someone brought up this topic.

I have been wondering for a long time now & it has never come up.

Thanks a million! 😏

[monica-sells]

It is astonishing how many "returning" and "old-time sellers" are SHOCKED at the fees. This EFD (ebay fee syndrome) is treatable by simply pointing out that previous (pre-managed payments) consisted of 2 entries. ebay fee and paypal fee. In most categories this number was around 13% (some higher, some lower). Yes, Paypal charged their percentage on item + shipping, too. 

In conclusion, ebay TOTAL fees (taking inflation into account) are actually less than they were when the entities were separated. But, adding 1+1 does not always equal 2.

[richard1rst]

---

the item sold for $435 + shipping  15.5% of the sale price in fees is very very normal

---

But fees are based on he TOTAL price paid, not just the sale price. So, no, 15.5% is NOT normal IF you do the calculations correctly.

Sales price PLUS shipping PLUS sales tax = much more than the $435 the OP is stating.

[richard1rst]

---

@pastimpressions wrote:

I am so glad that someone brought up this topic.

I have been wondering for a long time now & it has never come up.

Thanks a million! 😏

---

Then you haven't been paying attention. This comes up every week. Sometimes several times a week and the poster always gets the math wrong.

[kibble-net]

---

@printer2112 wrote:

Years ago I used to sell quite a bit. Fees were never this high. No more selling for me. Not worth it. 

---

At the end of the day YOU must do what is best for YOU.

If that means selling on Amazon instead... GREAT!

If that means making your own website, paying for a merchant account, doing all your own marketing and advertising... GREAT!

Complaining about fees may feel good --- but it won't grow your business.

[michaelbuss123]

It has been several years since i sold an item but THIS is CRAZY i did not realize you were charged fees on the tax the buyer pays. 95 dollars just to sell a 650 dollar item.  how does anyone make money selling on ebay. looks like ebay is making all the money!

[theteamsetguy]

@michaelbuss123 ,

No different than when take your wife/girlfriend/boyfriend to a restaurant and you spend $100.00 for food and drinks. Sales tax is $7.00 and you tip $18.00 bringing the total to $125.00 paid by your American Express credit card. The owner of the restaurant will pay a roughly 4% fee on the whole transaction of $125.00. The restaurant owner only ends up with $95.00.

Since most people on eBay pay with their credit cards, around 3% of the 13.25% eBay FVF charges on the full transaction amount goes to Visa, MC, Amex, or Discover leaving eBay with roughly 10%.

Before when PayPal was the payment processor you paid a 10% FVF to eBay and 2.9% plus 30 cents to PayPal.

Paypal also charged their 2.9% on shipping and taxes. Also, years ago many states didn’t have a sales tax for online sales and shipping was a lot cheaper making the fees paid to eBay/Paypal less noticeable.

[redmodelt]

 This EFD (ebay fee syndrome) is treatable by simply pointing out that previous (pre-managed payments) consisted of 2 entries. ebay fee and paypal fee. 

And one of those was billed every 30 days so even a bigger disconnect to the sale you were paying the fees on. 

[slippinjimmy]

---

@michaelbuss123 wrote:

It has been several years since i sold an item but THIS is CRAZY i did not realize you were charged fees on the tax the buyer pays. 95 dollars just to sell a 650 dollar item.  how does anyone make money selling on ebay. looks like ebay is making all the money!

---

eBay making all the money? By your own calculations eBay got 15.5% and YOU got 84.5%.

[continentalcollectibles]

Your paying more than you think eBay does all kinds of back door charges for revenue enhancement.  your paying between 12.9 to 15 percent depending on what you sell. then your Paying that same percentage on money you never received. Tax and Shipping, the fee doesn't go to USPS or your State Tax Department that goes to eBay figure that out now its closer to 18 percent. Now if for any reason your items get stolen, Lost in transit, for any reason Late, depending on your ratio of Sales to these will add another 6 percent on top of all your sales, eBay feels it necessary to make you a victim twice. and enhance their revenue. there are others but every time I post on here I get attacked by others that don't want this posted. also my algorithm goes down to almost no views at all. last time I posted the information my post was flagged as SPAM, go figure and our sales dropped the next two days from 20k a month which we always hit down to 7-8k a month its yet to get fixed So for all the vendors who claim I'm wrong I'm not sorry this is fact!! so keep your shipping with the best carrier and make sure you don't tell the truth on here and you will be fine

[fm2000]

In all fairness, one thing that has changed that returning sellers may not be aware of is the "Wayfair decision" by the Supreme Court, and that eBay and other platforms are now required by law to collect sales tax for everyone living in a sales tax state, regardless of where a seller is located in the country. That one decision, albeit indirectly, impacted fees for everyone who sells online.

The Wayfair decision had an impact on almost every American that buys online, but at the same time it barely got 2 seconds of coverage in the media when it should have been front page news. It was shockingly easy to miss.

[soh.maryl]

If I point out to you that eBay's Final Value Fee is calculated on the total amount paid by the buyer to the seller, and that this figure includes not only the item price, but the shipping fee as well as the state sales tax, if applicable, and that this fee schedule has been in place for possibly 5 years or longer, will that make it easier to understand the final value fee that you, as the seller, are charged?