Less profits since managed payments started

[diancrotea_2]

I don’t know if it’s just me and I thought I was imagining it.. I think eBay is trying to get rid of us low budget.. trying to support our self  sellers..I know I’m not alone a lot of us do this for different reasons. Fixed income, older , etc to buy my prescriptions , my oil, so on and so forth..since eBay started managing payments I have les and less money and basically going down with the ship is how I feel for example.I sold 5 items this week the total on the item only was 28.00 so now ebay is charging 12.55 or whatever they feel like on the items including shipping i but not taxes as far as I can tell .so my balance after shipping and eBay fees is 11.58 cents yep so take the 5 items which are way below price to begin with because shipping is ridiculous.. and eBay is charging us on shipping so we do not make much if anything there…but I have boxes tape packing supplies which I have to purchase to ship these items….so the small amount on shipping helped..I sold 6 skeins of yarn two large cones of yarn a small  tapestry  yarn and a soft cover piano lesson book. I paid more for these items than what I got back.. out of the 28 eBay Took 16.42 it just seems unfair that they are getting more for our items than we are so I’m totally going in the hole with no profits to purchase any items to replace the things i sold ..plus il pay 21.95 a month for a starter store so there is more money they are taking from me..I know I’m not alone please let me kno what you think

[jda07121]

If you are not making money, the fault is yours, not eBays. Certainly not MP because MP is transparent to buyers.

[coastaltechsolution]

Sounds like now with MP and seeing all charges in one place you are now just figuring out your true P&L 

MP is not the culprit but now that you know the true numbers you can figure out if you should raise your prices and if you need to find cheaper sourcing for resale. 

I wish you best of luck for future sales and profit  

[soh.maryl]

Using your information, I come up with somewhat different numbers.

Using your last five sales, although several go back into July, your total sales (last 5) add up to $46.59.

Since there are about 45 states now requiring eBay charge state sales tax, there MUST have been state sales tax on at least a few of those.  

You mention having sold skeins of yarn; however, those are still in your current listings.

As above, I don't feel we have all the information we would need to be helpful to you.  One thing I would suggest is to perhaps put low cost things like those buttons into lots of maybe two or three. Or, if most of your current things are low cost, maybe think about selling higher priced stuff.  There are at least several sellers who do not bother to list anything for less than starting at $20-25.  

ETA:  You mention your balance "after shipping and fees".  Your BUYER pays shipping, so you should not be including shipping cost in your costs.  

[mtgraves7984]

"…but I have boxes tape packing supplies which I have to purchase to ship these items…"

@diancrotea_2 

I hope you're taking advantage of the eBay shipping supplies quarterly coupon. Good luck to you.

[releasethekraken_1]

Selling an item for $2, with $2.95 shipping, costs you 92 cents in fees. That’s comparable to what you were paying with PayPal, unless you were using a micropayments account. If you’re shipping with first class package, you’re undercharging.

With so few sales for over 800 items listed, how do you justify the time investment? 

[donsdetour]

You do not seem to know what it cost to sell on ebay.

It is the item price + shipping+ tax : and then the final value fee is calculated: + 30 cents.

Your lower cost items with higher shipping cost  more because of this:

Oh and back when: between eBay and PayPal with the new tax thing it has been this way in the over all cost for some time...

[wrong66]

Sorry you're not able to make money on shipping. 

[luckythewinner]

Ignore. 

[johnrj1226]

This

1.  Seems you use USPS Priority mail to ship - Priority Mail boxes & Envelopes  are "FREE" and you can order online via USPS.com have have them deliver to you at "no charge" and there are many more shapes and sizes available  taht you won't find at your local PO.

2. eBay has been charging FVF on shipping since 2011.

3.  Do you realize  that out of that 12.55% + 30 cent  your are no longer paying that PayPal charge of 2.9% + 30 cent. You used to pay eBay 10% and Pay Pal charged their fees on the entire amount the buyer paid including the state sales tax.  FYI PayPal now  charges 3.45% +30 cents to process buyer payments.  Now  all your selling fees are wrapped into one under the Managed Payments and you pay them as you sell - used to pay eBay FVF once/month.  Your eBay fees are very near to what you used to pay and maybe a bit less.

[dbfolks166mt]

     I have found that there is little difference between the fee percentage under MP and what it was before.  However, some things have changed that are affecting total cost under MP. Some of those are out of eBay's control. The first is the sales tax laws that a lot of states have passed that require the collection of sales tax on items sold on ecommerce sites. While the buyer pays the sales tax which does not increase cost eBay does collect FVF's on the amount of the sales tax. Second while eBay has, for quite some time, collected FVF's on shipping costs those costs have increased which resulted in an increase to FVF's collected by eBay. 

     These are simply things you have to take into account when calculating the price you want to list an item for/at. It's what every business does when their cost of doing business increases they pass along the cost to the consumer or take the hit to their bottom line. The price on virtually everything I buy/consume has increased in the last 2 years. You have to adjust with the economy. 

[luckythewinner]

A few thoughts:

If you are paying $21.95 a month for a store, then I think that is a Basic store and not a Starter store.

If you have a Basic store, you are not paying 12.55% ... I think you are paying 8.7% or 11.7%.

eBay does not charge "whatever they feel like". The fee schedule indicates what fees are charged.

eBay charges a fee based on the total amount the buyer pays. This means that sellers will pay higher fees on items with higher shipping costs. This has been true on eBay for years and has nothing to do with Managed Payments.

If you are in the hole after selling an item, that means you failed to do the relatively simple math necessary to assess whether the item is a good fit for eBay.

[itscalledapostingid]

What I have always done when sourcing and listing items is over estimate what the fees and expenses will be. I multiply the selling price by .85 and subtract the shipping and what I paid for the item from that. Example for an item I paid $30 for and sell for 100:

100

x.85

=85

- 5 for shipping

- 30 for original item cost

=$50 profit