mam98031 • Volunteer Community Member • Buyer/Seller since 1999
" I remember selling 20 years ago and the final value fee was something like 4%. " So is it your belief that prices for labor, supplies, hardware, utilities, etc. etc. has not increased in the past 20 years. Have costs for you stayed the same this past 20 years? Ebay should be able to charge what they did 20 years ago and still be a profitable company? The reality of that would be that Ebay would not survive.
@dbfolks166mt wrote:"Half of those eBay cheerleaders don't even know themselves that 13.25% in fees often ends up costing sellers twice as much as 13.25% or more."
This must be some of that "new math" that I don't understand.
You are 1/2 correct. There is an effective FVF percentage that is slightly higher than the 13.25% stated by eBay. This is due to the FVF's being applied to the sales tax, which eBay clearly states.
And you are only 1/2 correct, because you want so desperately for the shipping cost the buyer paid $36.90 for in this transaction to be true revenue, which it isnt. Was shipping revenue before we didnt get charged a fee on it? No - There was a line item for it on our tax form, now it is artificially built into the gross revenue.
The seller did not come here to sell his $71.90 item artificially inflated in value due to the shipping cost, he came here to sell his $35.00 item - If someone did a "local pickup" on the item, would it still be a $71.90 item? Of course not, because it NEVER WAS a $71.90 item.
Your "ebay effective fee" is based on a percentage of a figure with sales tax taken out because the seller never sees that money - But in truth, the seller never "SEES" the shipping cost the buyer paid $36.90 for - A seller retains NONE OF IT as profit - In your example above, you show the buyer paid $36.90 and the actual cost to ship was $36.90. And in reality, when you account for "shipping related costs" such as shipping material, gas, and most importantly YOUR TIME, shipping is ALWAYS a wash or a loss.
So since you willingly base your effective rate on a number minus dollars you never see by taking sales tax out, when doing a quick accounting for profit, (not formal end of year accounting, which we have no choice but to do), you can just as easily base the effective rate on a dollar amount minus other costs ebay has their fingers in that you never see, such as the shipping cost...Especially when considering the ONLY profit bearing figure in this transaction is the items price.
The true "ebay effective fee" of $10.40 against the item is 30%.
@tim3737 wrote:I just sold a $20 item with free shipping that I paid $20 for on eBay and I got $11.75 for my trouble, so basically a 40% loss! That is the opposite of making money. The world has just gone to hell with all the greed.
I'm unsure as to how you thought you would make any money off this selling something for exactly what you paid for the item. This isn't or wasn't your first sale, so you know there are costs associated with selling here.
I'm also unsure as to how this equals Ebay's fault. You priced the item, NOT Ebay. You should have known that listing it for the exact amount you paid for the item and gave the buyer Free Shipping would mean that you would be in the hole. There would be absolutely no way for you to make any money on the sale and that is completely due to how you set the pricing on the item.
Why were you surprised at the outcome of you losing money? You set it up that way.
@adkhighker wrote:
@yuzuha wrote:
@tim3737 wrote:I just sold a $20 item with free shipping that I paid $20 for on eBay and I got $11.75 for my trouble, so basically a 40% loss! That is the opposite of making money. The world has just gone to hell with all the greed.
If the price was $20 with free shipping, then it wasn't actually a $20 item. It would be more like a $13-15 item + shipping.
Ain't that the truth. Either way the seller figures it, free shipping or not, they still would lose a little over 40% of their sold price for that transaction. Sometimes I think Free Shipping should be changed to Sellers Pays for Shipping.
Why? No one actually gets Free Shipping, someone has to pay for it. When a seller offers free shipping, they need to roll the cost of the shipping into the price of the item and therefore raise pricing.
Selling an item for $20 with free shipping.
Selling an item for $15 and $5 shipping.
Both are the same, just different methods of selling.
Some do what to complicate the FVF calculation and it simply is not necessary. Ebay charges 13.25% in most categories on the total amount received from the buyer, period. Whatever the buyer pays for the item is what the 13.25% FVF is calculated on. THEN Ebay adds the 30 cent fix fee per transaction, regardless of the amount of the transaction.
You are trying to calculate different numbers. The "effective fee" is NOT Ebay's FVF. You have to manipulate the number to arrive at that value.
IDK why some what to complicate the Ebay FVF calculation, it is simple and straight forward. Rearranging numbers or adding other number into the calculation get you different outcomes, like profit, COGS [cost of sale] etc. But Ebay's actual FVF calculation remains the same.
Calculating other numbers is important to understanding if you are making a profit or if selling certain things are worthwhile, but even in trying to figure that out, Ebay's FVF calculation is what it is. It is stable and it is constant.
