mam98031 • Volunteer Community Member • Buyer/Seller since 1999
@genv wrote:The Fee Structure on Item + Shipping + Sales Tax MUST be taken into consideration when listing.
A small/light $10. item w/ $5. (actual cost) Shipping plus tax is going to have a smaller 'net deduction/cost' to the only piece (the $10 sale price) the Seller 'gets'.
A larger/heavier $10 item w/ $15. (actual cost) Shipping, well, you get it, will increase the FVF on Postage/Sales Tax, again, affecting the Profit Margin on the $10. item.
It simply isn't worth it to list low priced items unless you are automated to stuff in a bubble envelope.
You either need to learn how to price your products better OR sell items where you have enough room to cover costs and a profit. It is a struggle many of us have on a regular basis. But if you can't make a profit on the items, and you can't raise pricing, have a fire sale and research getting different inventory that you can sell for a profit.
I sell low cost items all the time. I do make a profit on most everything I sell. However buyers of multiple items, which happens often, are the best way to profit on low $$ items. So make sure you make that a viable option.
@coolections wrote:Wow... you must have special privileges. They gave me $10 for my advertised $20 bowling ball. Wondering if maybe you would be willing to start selling some of my heavy items at that discount you get ?
There is nothing wrong with what @inhawaii said. He said "Ebay charges me 13.25% whether i'm selling a feather -or- a bowling ball." It is absolutely true. If you charged your seller $10 for shipping or $50 for shipping, the percentage of fees charged by Ebay are EXACTLY the same, 13.25%. That is the most common percentage. Different categories have different FVF rates as do the rates that various level for Store Owners.
The FVF stated by inhawaii and myself here is NOT a discounted rate. You keep confusing the COST of shipping with the COST of Ebay FVFs. They simply are NOT the same thing.
The cost of shipping is paid to the Carrier you have decided to use, Ebay doesn't keep it. It is transferred to your carrier.
Interestingly enough, I've never read a seller feeling this way when they purchase their shipping OFF Ebay.
@doc-holmes wrote:These FVF arguments are so silly. It's all semantics. When people say ebay charges 13.25% of the total people pay that's 100% correct. When coolections says after the FVF on the shipping of that bowling ball he is left with only 50% of his sale price, that is also hypothetically true. Like I said, all semantics. Ebay doesn't charge 30% to 40% FVF, but that may be what is taken from your actual sale price after all FVFs are accounted for.
No it isn't semantics. Either Ebay charges 13.25% or it charges 30, 40 or 50% FVF.
What is being confused and labeled as Ebay FVF is Cost of sales [COGS]. While Ebay FVF are part of COGS, they don't represent as much of a percentage of COGS as some would like you to believe.
Ebay FVF is a part of COGS
The carrier costs are a part of COGS
The price of sourcing the product is a part of COGS
It doesn't mean that the multiple items that make up COGS are part of the Ebay FVFs. Carrier costs are NOT a FEE, it is a cost charged by the CARRIER to perform a service for you. It is the same as any other vendor cost and becomes part of the COGS.
What is being said by some is so misleading and would be totally incorrect in using that percentage to try and come up with the price you should charge for the product you are selling.
So do you account for your carrier costs TWICE in your COGS. Once as the 30, 40 or 50% FVF by Ebay and once as the amount you pay to the carrier????
When you price an item you are going to sell, do you add the price of the product, plus Ebay fees at 30,40, or 50%, plus shipping supplies and carrier costs?
@doc-holmes wrote:I agree with all of you. Maybe this will make more sense. If you sell a $20 item with $20 shipping, eBay charges 13.25% + $0.30 of the total the buyer pays. No more, no less. But...
$20 + $20 + $4 (let's assume 10% tax) = $44
$44 x 13.25% = $5.83 + $0.30 = $6.13
$20 - $6.13 = $13.87 (total seller receives)
So, both a 13.25% FVF is correct, and the seller only receiving 69.4% of their sale price after all FVFs are accounted in for in this particular example is correct. While saying FVFs in this example are almost 30% is technically wrong, at the end of the day you end up with that much less of your selling price, anyway.
Semantics.
Edit: Maybe my use of the word "semantics" isn't totally accurate here, but let's not argue that too lol
You are talking about two completely DIFFERENT things.
1. What is the Ebay FVF.
2. COGS
Number 1 is part of number two, but #1 is not the same as #2 on it's own.
It is NOT "semantics", you can't substitute one word for the other [COGS, FVF] and have the same meaning. FVFs are PART of COGS, however FVFs do not represent all of what COGS represent.
You want to know what you receive an the percentage of sales. No problem, that is a valid thing to want to know. However that does not make that the FVF charged by Ebay. You can't include other costs into that and attribute it to Ebay's fees. The cost of what a Carrier charges you is NOT part of the Ebay FVFs. I'm unsure as to why that is so hard to get this point across.
Yet no one has answered this yet either:
Interestingly enough, I've never read a seller feeling this way when they purchase their shipping OFF Ebay.
@laststopgeneralstore wrote:I've never paid more than 15% in fee's and my average is just over 13%. Your counting the shipping cost as a "fee" when in reality it's not.
Huh? You did not know that Ebay charges you fees on your shipping bringing your total way above 13.25% ? Sell a 15 pound bowling balI for $20 and let me know your cost. I am at least glad you now know how it works.
Again mixing apples and oranges there is a difference between eBay fees and selling costs. But to use your example assuming the seller is using calculated shipping. If I posted the bowling ball and a buyer from Illinois purchased the shipping cost they would see and pay would be $23.15. The rest is below.
I agree with all of you. Maybe this will make more sense. If you sell a $20 item with $20 shipping, eBay charges 13.25% + $0.30 of the total the buyer pays. No more, no less. But...
$20 + $20 + $4 (let's assume 10% tax) = $44
$44 x 13.25% = $5.83 + $0.30 = $6.13
$20 - $6.13 = $13.87 (total seller receives) What the seller receives is $33.87.
So, both a 13.25% FVF is correct, and the seller only receiving 69.4% of their sale price after all FVFs are accounted in for in this particular example is correct. Not true you are lumping the shipping into with the FVF's While saying FVFs in this example are almost 30% is technically wrong, at the end of the day you end up with that much less of your selling price, anyway.
That will depend on what the actual cost is to the seller to purchase the label. Using your numbers as assuming the seller only pays $12 for the actual shipping label.
Semantics.
Edit: Maybe my use of the word "semantics" isn't totally accurate here, but let's not argue that too lol
@dbfolks166mt wrote:I agree with all of you. Maybe this will make more sense. If you sell a $20 item with $20 shipping, eBay charges 13.25% + $0.30 of the total the buyer pays. No more, no less. But...
$20 + $20 + $4 (let's assume 10% tax) = $44
$44 x 13.25% = $5.83 + $0.30 = $6.13
$20 - $6.13 = $13.87 (total seller receives) What the seller receives is $33.87.
So, both a 13.25% FVF is correct, and the seller only receiving 69.4% of their sale price after all FVFs are accounted in for in this particular example is correct. Not true you are lumping the shipping into with the FVF's While saying FVFs in this example are almost 30% is technically wrong, at the end of the day you end up with that much less of your selling price, anyway.
That will depend on what the actual cost is to the seller to purchase the label. Using your numbers as assuming the seller only pays $12 for the actual shipping label.
Semantics.
Edit: Maybe my use of the word "semantics" isn't totally accurate here, but let's not argue that too lol
I did not lump the shipping in as a cost, but I did include the FVF on shipping.
