Final Value Fees Are Far More Than Stated 10%

[relicanthology63]

I am fairly new to Ebay as a seller, but I am finding that the fees are far more than stated in Selling Fees in Customer Service page of eBay. I have one item that was 23% in fees and that was before the PayPal fee (35% after that was taken). Now this was a low cost item and I thought, wow, since I made less than $3 on that sale, I need to check my fee percentages. It looks like they are running 12% on most items that I checked. The article on eBay Selling Fees states 10% maximum. 

Wondering what is up with the difference and yes I included the  Final Value Fee on shipping in my cost. 

I realize everyone is here to make money, but after the cost of item, handling cost (a lot more than people think!) and the fees, there is not much incentive. I mean you have a lot of competition and you have to price to sell.  Thank you for any help on this and for keeping it classy. 

[ted_200]

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@coolections wrote:

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@ted_200 wrote:

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The only problem is, whether the seller did $5.50 + 7.20 s/h, or did $12.70 + Free s/h, eBay should only charge fees on the $5.50 part.

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If the OP charged $12.70 to the buyer (which he did because that is what the buyer paid), how would Ebay be able to only charge fees from a made up cost of $5.50 ?

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Refund the FVF on the cost of the shipping label.  As an added bonus, eBay could force more items into their profitable side business of selling us labels in order to get the fee removed.

[luckythewinner]

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@relicanthology63 wrote:

The article on eBay Selling Fees states 10% maximum

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Can you give us a link to "the article on eBay selling fees"? 

Because unfortunately most people read that the fee is 10% and do not bother to finish the sentence that tells them what that percentage is applied to. 

If you read it the information on the eBay site, it is pretty clear that the final value fee is on the total amount. For instance, this page:  

"Final value fees are calculated as a percentage of the total amount the buyer pays, including shipping and handling"

https://www.ebay.com/help/selling/fees-credits-invoices/selling-fees?id=4364

[femmefan1946]

To complicate matters, the FVF of 10% on shipping is not on the actual shipping.

It's on the First Listed Domestic Rate.

So if you ship domestically as Free Shipping (by including the actual cost of shipping in your asking price)

BUT

you are actually shipping to me here is beautiful Victoria BC or my cousin in Victoria Australia, you will be charge $0.00 shipping FVF.

Even if you charge me $5 for shipping to Canada and my cousin $50 for shipping to Australia.

First Listed Domestic Rate.

Hmm. I think that means you could offer Free Shipping at Media Mail rates (as apppropriate) which is cheap and slow, and include that rate in your asking price.

Then offer UltraZippySuper Fast On Your Doorstep In 45 Minutes Mail for $100

And your shipping FVF would be $0.00.

I'm a little vague on the operations of the USPS.

[apluscarddealer]

the charges that Ebay takes per item sold is a **bleep** joke.. it says they charge u for the total amount earned on the sale...well shipping isn't a total amount earned its part of the cost of doing business. Then pay pal (which is owned by ebay) dose the exact same thing but they charge u before Ebay dose instead of what's left after these vultures take what little was made. An item I sold for $7.50 and $3.50 shipping ,after all said and done I made $5.78..thats around 24% of the entire value I earned from the sale...excluding the shipping which I made nothing off of. well I got to take my time to go to the post office on my lunch break. we all know how fun that is..

[ted_200]

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@apluscarddealer wrote:
the charges that Ebay takes per item sold is a **bleep** joke.. it says they charge u for the total amount earned on the sale...well shipping isn't a total amount earned its part of the cost of doing business. Then pay pal (which is owned by ebay) dose the exact same thing but they charge u before Ebay dose instead of what's left after these vultures take what little was made. An item I sold for $7.50 and $3.50 shipping ,after all said and done I made $5.78..thats around 24% of the entire value I earned from the sale...excluding the shipping which I made nothing off of. well I got to take my time to go to the post office on my lunch break. we all know how fun that is..

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Well, other than the fact that eBay no longer owns PayPal, you are correct.  Like eBay, PayPal charges fees based on the total amount you got paid.  It's sort of what it would be like if the Feds charged you Income Tax on the money you never saw because it went to Social Security / Medicare already.  

I think the fees are excessive, but they are what they are, and for all the deceptive nonsense these two otherwise engage in I must say they're pretty upfront about how the basic fee schedule works. 

[freeshipusa1]

if all your items under that Ebay ID are low price items,look into Paypal micro payment,which is 6 cents plus 6%.

check Paypal fee schedule to verify. 

as for Ebay fee,get a Paypal debit card and use it as a credit card,Paypal will give you 1% cash rebate,use it to pay Ebay fee,buy things in store,pay gas bills etc. 

[nobody*s_perfect]

@freeshipusa1

For US sellers, the micropayments rate is 5 cents plus 5%, which means the break-even transaction value is about  $12 (not $10 as Paypal suggests):

https://www.paypal.com/us/webapps/mpp/merchant-fees

[herbstyle]

Today I get invovoce for 15,77 dolars.

However for last month I sold items for around 30 dolars.

This is 50% fee + 3% and 0.30 dolars Paypal fee!!!

Ebay what's going on!!!!

[nobody*s_perfect]

Probably insertion fees. You can see your itemized invoice in My eBay > Account tab > Summary

[percgrabbe-0]

Doesnt FVF differ in some cases by category of item?

[nobody*s_perfect]

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@percgrabbe-0 wrote:

Doesnt FVF differ in some cases by category of item?

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For sellers who don't have a Store, the rate is 10% in all categories except for Guitars.  If they are Below Standard there is a 4% penalty which brings the rate up to 14%.

For sellers who have a Store subscription, the final value fee depends on the category; there's a chart on this page:

Fees for Store subscribers: http://pages.ebay.com/help/sell/storefees.html

[fern*wood]

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@herbstyle wrote:

Today I get invovoce for 15,77 dolars.

However for last month I sold items for around 30 dolars.

This is 50% fee + 3% and 0.30 dolars Paypal fee!!!

Ebay what's going on!!!!

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Are you counting your insertion fees into your invoice total?  You have over 700 listings and no store to help with lowering those fees. 

[dtexley3]

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@femmefan1946 wrote:

To complicate matters, the FVF of 10% on shipping is not on the actual shipping.

It's on the First Listed Domestic Rate.

So if you ship domestically as Free Shipping (by including the actual cost of shipping in your asking price)

BUT

you are actually shipping to me here is beautiful Victoria BC or my cousin in Victoria Australia, you will be charge $0.00 shipping FVF.

Even if you charge me $5 for shipping to Canada and my cousin $50 for shipping to Australia.

First Listed Domestic Rate.

Hmm. I think that means you could offer Free Shipping at Media Mail rates (as apppropriate) which is cheap and slow, and include that rate in your asking price.

Then offer UltraZippySuper Fast On Your Doorstep In 45 Minutes Mail for $100

And your shipping FVF would be $0.00.

I'm a little vague on the operations of the USPS.

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In the US we pay FVF on the shipping PAID by the buyer.  So if you pay me $5 for shipping on an item and you sister pays $15 on an item that has free domestic shipping, I still pay $0.50 and $1.50 in FVF on shipping respectively.   It may be different for sellers in other countries, but US seller pay the FVF based on the shipping paid by buyer.

[buyselljack2016]

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@relicanthology63 wrote:

I am fairly new to Ebay as a seller, but I am finding that the fees are far more than stated in Selling Fees in Customer Service page of eBay. I have one item that was 23% in fees and that was before the PayPal fee (35% after that was taken). Now this was a low cost item and I thought, wow, since I made less than $3 on that sale, I need to check my fee percentages. It looks like they are running 12% on most items that I checked. The article on eBay Selling Fees states 10% maximum. 

Wondering what is up with the difference and yes I included the  Final Value Fee on shipping in my cost. 

I realize everyone is here to make money, but after the cost of item, handling cost (a lot more than people think!) and the fees, there is not much incentive. I mean you have a lot of competition and you have to price to sell.  Thank you for any help on this and for keeping it classy. 

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Plain, and simple.

You are just confusing FVF percentage with the total percentage of the sale that you get to keep. (profit) Two related, but different things.

I have some items where I get 56% of the selling price after deductions. Paid nothing for the item. 100% profit.

I have another item where I get 70% of the selling price after deductions.

Paid $1, and pocket over $33. 

eBay FVF is 10% on each. PayPay rate is the same on both.

[agent006140]

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@nobody*s_perfect wrote:

@freeshipusa1

For US sellers, the micropayments rate is 5 cents plus 5%, which means the break-even transaction value is about  $12 (not $10 as Paypal suggests):

https://www.paypal.com/us/webapps/mpp/merchant-fees

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I swear that they raised it from 5% to 6% last year,but looks like NOt.