Final Value Fees are Insane

[the24-7shop]

I usually don't post on the public forums at all. But  I have been selling on Ebay for over 23 years and just

recently I sold a Sirius boombox  with the receiver in great condition. Was listed for $35.00 after the fees were taken out my pay to me was $21.40  **bleep**  am I not seeing something is wrong here??  I really am thinking outside the box here and is it worth my time and energy to let these people make actually more than I do ... I don't think so  I will reconsider my selling options moving forward

[janet9988]

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@adkhighker wrote:

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@laststopgeneralstore wrote:

That's your fault. Seeing as you've been on here for 23 years that means you've accepted and read the updated terms and conditions and seller updates roughly 46 times. Looks like you also charged the exact amount in shipping that it costs to ship out the item which means right off the bat you lose almost $4 in fee's just to shipping, not including fee's taken out of the item price & taxes. Next time calculate what you actually need to charge so you come out on top instead of ending up with less than expected and proceed to blame eBay for your lack of due-diligence even though they lay everything out very clearly for us.

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Why is it the OP's fault? What did they do, other than realize it costs too much to sell an item in that price range that requires a high shipping cost? That's their fault for seeing the writing on the wall? And where do you get that the OP was blaming eBay? I didn't see them blaming eBay. All I saw from their post is that they are smart enough to reconsider their selling options moving forward. I don't blame the OP at all for reconsidering their selling options when the cost to sell here in nowadays is obscenely higher than it was more than 20 years ago for them. 

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The OP's post title was FINAL VALUE FEES. Also the OP stated after the FVF were taken out they were left with ....  nothing else outside of FVF were mentioned . The OP is doing something wrong or does not understand what the term Final Value fee actually means.

[adkhighker]

The OP's title is actually Final Value Fees are Insane, but I hear ya, and that's a good point you make. I do think people could be more clearly taken if they would differentiate more often between final value fees for selling any particular item and the actual cost of selling that item, which are two different things. Maybe if their title had been The Cost of Selling Here is Insane rather than Final Value Fees are Insane, things might have gone more smoothly. 

[mam98031]

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@adkhighker wrote:

Yes, 38.8% being what it cost you to sell that item is definitely tough to take. Ouch. That's why so many people selling lower priced items that require higher shipping costs to ship anything weighing over a couple of pounds are paying such high percentages to sell here anymore. 

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Ebay has no such FVF rate for any category.

[broto_64]

Final Value fees are charged on the total sum of item price PLUS shipping.

[mam98031]

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@the24-7shop wrote:

I usually don't post on the public forums at all. But  I have been selling on Ebay for over 23 years and just

recently I sold a Sirius boombox  with the receiver in great condition. Was listed for $35.00 after the fees were taken out my pay to me was $21.40  **bleep**  am I not seeing something is wrong here??  I really am thinking outside the box here and is it worth my time and energy to let these people make actually more than I do ... I don't think so  I will reconsider my selling options moving forward

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There has to be something else in that amount other than the FVFs on the transaction.  You can go and look at the details of that on your Order or in your MP account.

35.00  Product

36.90  S&H

  5.75   Estimated sales tax at 8%

77.65  Total

77.65 times the FVF of 13.25% = 10.29 + .30 fixed transaction fee = $10.59 in FVFs.

Clearly you had high price shipping on this item, so I'm unsure as to what you expected.  

35.00 - 10.59 = 24.41  

So while there is a small difference in numbers, you get the idea.  You just need to remember you don't get to keep the shipping money the buyer pays you, that goes to the carrier.  And that is likely why this transaction tricked you into thinking the Ebay fees were really high.  They weren't.  They were normal.

[fashunu4eeuh]

Yes, i agree with the OP—not everything is suitable for listing on eBay.

Also agree with some others that a seller should not be surprised by their fees. One cannot set adequate pricing without knowing upfront what all the costs will be for listing and selling their items on eBay. 

[dbfolks166mt]

Yes, 38.8% being what it cost you to sell that item is definitely tough to take. Ouch. That's why so many people selling lower priced items that require higher shipping costs to ship anything weighing over a couple of pounds are paying such high percentages to sell here anymore. 

     It's actually much higher than that at around 65% but that is the eBay SELLING COST not the FVF's. See my post with the breakdown. If OP wants to complain about the selling costs then maybe they should target USPS or the other shippers. For OP's transaction, assuming they actually paid the same amount for the label that the buyer paid them for shipping then the shipping cost for this item was 51.3% of the selling cost while eBay's FVF's were 14.3% of the selling costs. 

     You also have to factor in other selling costs outside of eBay, COGS and taxes being two of the major ones. I find eBay's fees to be a pretty low percentage of the bigger picture. 

[johnrj1226]

  Here is how eBay calculates your selling fees - never had eBay or eBay/PayPal overcharge on fees

https://www.ebay.com/help/selling/fees-credits-invoices/fees-selling-costs-charged?id=5297&st=3&pos=...

How  did you calculate your selling fees?? - show us  item by item - maybe we can help you

[adkhighker]

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@mam98031 wrote:

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@adkhighker wrote:

Yes, 38.8% being what it cost you to sell that item is definitely tough to take. Ouch. That's why so many people selling lower priced items that require higher shipping costs to ship anything weighing over a couple of pounds are paying such high percentages to sell here anymore. 

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Ebay has no such FVF rate for any category.

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Where exactly did I say it did?

[adkhighker]

Of course I know that the selling cost is not the FVF's. I already pointed out clearly that there is a big difference in percentages between the percentage of eBay's final value fees and the percentage of what it costs to sell here.   Whether the OP knows that or not, I do not know. The 38.8% I referenced is the percentage of money that the OP saw gone from their $53 selling price.  Or if you want to look at it another way, the OP ended up with 61.2% of their sold price. 

[theteamsetguy]

There is no way it costs $34.90 to have the boombox shipped from Las Vegas to Minneapolis if the OP used UPS, USPS Ground Advantage, or Fedex ground.

[soh.maryl]

Did you mean to say that "it is not twice as much . . ."?

[soh.maryl]

"Subscription"? The cost of a subscription to a store is NOT part of the final value fee.  

[soh.maryl]

Can you explain further?

Selling a lower priced item does not always translate to higher shipping costs, although it certainly can.

And people selling low priced items that require higher shipping costs are not necessarily paying "such high percentages".  I don't understand that statement at all.

eBay's Final Value Fee (which is what I assume we are discussing here) is calculated on (mainly) the price of the item, the  shipping cost and the state sales tax (if applicable).  

Yes, any item, low priced or high priced, that weighs a lot will have a higher shipping cost (which your buyer pays), but the percentage of the final value fee will be the same, usually, as that on a lower priced item.  

There are SO MANY people here who, when discussing the FVF, are really talking about the total cost to the seller, including how much he paid for the item.  The price you paid for that item, your gasoline to shop for it, and the time it took you to handle the sale are in no way part of the final value fee.  

[soh.maryl]

Respectfully, have to disagree.  It's evident that the OP did NOT see the "writing on the wall".  The writing on the wall included the information about how eBay fees are calculated.  Although it's available for anyone to read, and especially should be read by sellers before pricing their item, it looks like the OP may have skipped that step for some reason.