First transaction under new format

[740miket]

I know I'm just venting but here I go. After a bit of time away, I just sold a $10.00 item, and after ebay charged me fees on the item and shipping ($18.60 shipping), and an "international fee" (even though buyer was in Utah), I netted just over half the selling price. I feel like I'm a victim of larceny. AND I'm old and tired of having to figure things out every time they change the system of payment, shipping, listing and whatever else they can think of. I know, I know I can always leave but I have been selling for many years and it has never been this complicated and expensive to sell a few odds and ends.

[chapeau-noir]

---

@740miket wrote:

I know I'm just venting but here I go. After a bit of time away, I just sold a $10.00 item, and after ebay charged me fees on the item and shipping ($18.60 shipping), and an "international fee" (even though buyer was in Utah), I netted just over half the selling price. I feel like I'm a victim of larceny. AND I'm old and tired of having to figure things out every time they change the system of payment, shipping, listing and whatever else they can think of. I know, I know I can always leave but I have been selling for many years and it has never been this complicated and expensive to sell a few odds and ends.

---

The international fee is frustrating when the destination is domestic (but the buyer pays in an international currency), but the rest isn't too different.  Selling inexpensive yet heavy items is a one-way ticket to going broke - that hasn't changed in years.

[buyselljack2016]

New format? do you mean "managed payments"?

I find very little difference in eBay/MP  vs eBay/PP fees.

[m60driver]

There is no larceny here, Ebay fees are made clear.  And what they make clear is that one can not sell an inexpensive item with shipping twice the sell price and expect to make any profit.  You were lucky to net half the sell price.

[femmefan1946]

and an "international fee" (even though buyer was in Utah),

It would be unusual to have a freight forwarder in Utah, which I believe is inland, but it would not be unusual for a US-based buyer* to have a foreign credit card or Paypal account. It is those that the "international fee" applies to. 

I have long assumed that my selling costs, including fees and insurance, will cost me about 20% of the buyer's payment, including shipping.

Your costs would be:

Procurement cost (what you paid for the item)

Selling fees (FVF) - up to 14.55% on some** items

FVF on the shipping of $18.60- again up to 14.55%

And the same fee is applied to the buyer's Internet (state) Sales Tax.

A lot of sellers, particularly those who have been away or who don't sell often, apply the entire fee to the selling price, while it should be applied to the entire payment.

*Students, tourists, new immigrants for example. It is also possible that an overseas buyer is using his auntie's address as an informal forwarder.

**https://www.ebay.com/help/selling/fees-credits-invoices/store-selling-fees?id=4809

Books are at the top rate.

[chapeau-noir]

Now that my memory is jogged, I think I remember sending something to a freight forwarder in Utah, but it was a while ago.  It sticks in my mind because it seemed like an odd place to have one.

[theteamsetguy]

Most of them are Delaware, New Hampshire, and Oregon because they are no sales tax states.

[ellenshep01]

Oh, you must have missed all the INTRO portions of the change announcements that inevitably include "for your benefit" or "to enhance the seller environment" of "to streamline the process" or to "help your  efficiency...."   Sometimes I wish they'd streamline the **bleep** and just say "we found a way we can make more money and here's how that affects you..."  

[downunder-61]

In my opinion eBay is no longer the go to place for the casual or garage sale seller - in saying that, they have had to change with the times and had they remained the same since their inception 27 years ago they would have died in the water long ago.

Local market places/sites are most definitely more geared to your type of selling - no where near the same traffic obviously, but easier and safer to deal with if you have an item people want - and NO overseas buyers LOL

[chapeau-noir]

---

@theteamsetguy wrote:

Most of them are Delaware, New Hampshire, and Oregon because they are no sales tax states.

---

There are also some in Florida, and one I used to ship to that's on the New York City docks - (curiously, they ship to Turkey only). That's why Utah was so odd.  I wonder if it was some kind of private operation - don't remember now.

[colonelmustard88]

Hello 740miket!

I had the same experience. When I talked to an eBay representative on the phone, they told me that the international fee is based on the registered address. They offered a refund on the fee, which I accepted, but more importantly I wanted the feedback passed on. We can't see the buyers' registered address, so some international buyers use this as a means to skirt past blocks sellers have placed for domestic sales only. In my case, the buyer had a New Jersey shipping address, claimed they had not received the item, and when I messaged them, they admitted they have their mail forwarded to Ukraine. So their US address is most likely a postal store service like a PO box where you can get a "real" address and then it gets forwarded to where you want.

There is no way currently to prevent this with the existing seller tools.  I have to look at individual items when they are sold to see if an international fee was charged, and then cancel the transaction.  This is not only tedious and counterintuitive to the function of the seller / listing tools, but a bad customer experience for both the seller and the buyer.

[colonelmustard88]

Larceny is eBay charging taxes on our sales, which they state are automatically sent to the taxing authority, and our seller fees are based on the total amount which includes the taxes and yet we only profit off the amount of the sale, less the listing and final value fee.

eBay should not be charging a final value fee on the sold price plus the taxes, it should be only on the sold price. The taxes are not a value added to the item and we do not get this money. So essentially charging a fee for a fee.  That's larceny in my book.

[femmefan1946]

the buyer had a New Jersey shipping address, claimed they had not received the item, and when I messaged them, they admitted they have their mail forwarded to Ukraine.

You can win that dispute by showing delivery to the New Jersey address.

Forwarded shipments are not covered by the MBG after reaching the forwarder.

For perspective, the difference between a foreign and a domestic payment is 1.5%.  And you got a sale. 

Compare that to Promoted Listings, which charges you at least 1% if it sells.

@colonelmustard88 

The taxes are not a value added to the item

Alternatively, the seller could keep a record of all sales taxes owed, including in some states county and city tax, and forward them to the appropriate authority with each sale.

EBay is doing that automatically for sellers. Is that not Value Added?

Charging fees on the entire payment, without looking at each line item, is Standard Practice in the payment processing industry.  MP does it, PP does it, and every credit card company does it -- the last since at least the mid-70s when we got our first merchant credit account.