Paying a 30% eBay fee on sold item.

[discofriend]

I am about to sell a vintage toy on eBay that I see sells for about $50.  Due to the size, it will also cost $50 to ship.

When it sells the 15% eBay feel will be calculated on both the sale price of the item ($50) and the shipping ($50), so $100.  

This means will be $15.  And this means that for your $50 item, you will net $35.

I believe it is unethical for eBay to charge sellers a fee on shipping.  Sellers do not receive the money for shipping, FedEx does.  Yet sellers pay a fee on it.

Ebay clearly can see and know this, but still will charge the seller the fee on shipping.

[deosil111]

You’re forgetting the sales tax which eBay charges sellers 13.9% for also. 🤪

[monica-sells]

it's unfortunate, but that is how it they have chosen to handle the problem with shipping scofflaws.....it has been that way for years, and it disproportionately affects items with high shipping costs as compared to the selling cost (like your item)

You do need to compensate for that with your selling price by maybe adding a handling charge to offset the disproportionate amount.

oh...just to tighten up your math a little bit...if the fee was 30% you would have netted only $20.00

[laststopgeneralstore]

Why are you charging the exact amount that it will cost to ship? Considering that it takes time, packaging, tape, labels, printers, fuel, storage etc... to ship the item, you should be charging more to cover those costs. Most online business never ever charge the exact amount that it costs to ship an item and you shouldn't either. It's not cheap to ship. Also, it's not unethical, it's the standard practices for almost all payment processes, which is part of our eBay fee's. Yes their are some platforms that don't but the fee's are most likely higher and/or have a smaller audience.

[varebelrose]

"Due to the size, it will also cost $50 to ship."

Some things are just not meant to be sold online and shipped. This sounds like a prime candidate for either local pick-up only, or some other venue that allows for face-to-face transactions. Even if the sale goes without a hitch, the profit will be minimal, and if there is a problem, such as a return, the seller will be in the red.

[luckythewinner]

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@discofriend wrote:

I believe it is unethical for eBay to charge sellers a fee on shipping.  Sellers do not receive the money for shipping, FedEx does.  Yet sellers pay a fee on it.

Ebay clearly can see and know this, but still will charge the seller the fee on shipping.

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There are three reasons why eBay started calculating the fee based on the total payment and not just the nominal item price:

1) Before they did this, sellers would avoid fees by inflating the shipping cost and reducing the item price (ex. instead of a $50 item with $10 shipping, they would list a $10 item with $50 shipping).

2) eBay wanted to encourage sellers to offer "Free Shipping", and calculating the fee based on the total payment eliminated the financial penalty for sellers who offered "Free Shipping". (ex. a seller offer a $60 item with free shipping now pays the same fee as a seller offering the same item for $10 with $50 shipping).

3) eBay is a for-profit company, and calculating the fee based on the total payment means eBay makes more money. 

All three of these reasons make sense. The fact that you find them to be "unethical" does not really matter to eBay.

Most sellers have come to realize that items with higher shipping costs are less profitable. IMHO the smart ones consider that when choosing their inventory and/or adjust their prices to account for it.

[inhawaii]

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@discofriend wrote:

I believe it is unethical for eBay to charge sellers a fee on shipping. 

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 You have every right to.

[buyselljack2016]

I expect "selling costs" (not eBay fees) to run me about 28-30% on the items that I sell. 

Heavier items with higher shipping costs are at the top of (or over) that %age due to shipping, and "fees" on shipping.

Overall expected expenses can be "estimated".

My "business model" is set up to compensate for those costs.

To note:  you are at a great advantage here. You are aware of what the costs may be. We see many posters come here, "after the fact", completely gobsmacked that they paid any fees at all 😊

[monroe67]

"I believe it is unethical for eBay to charge sellers a fee on shipping.  Sellers do not receive the money for shipping, FedEx does.  Yet sellers pay a fee on it.

Ebay clearly can see and know this, but still will charge the seller the fee on shipping."

In The Beginning, eBay charged final value fees on the cost of the item only.  
Too many unethical sellers took advantage of eBay, and listed, oh, let's say, a Fisher Price Toy Garage set from the 1970s, for sale for $10.00 and shipping costs of $90.00. 
Finally, eBay began to see clearly how badly they were being cheated, if you will, by those cheaters.  eBay realized the only thing they could do, and stay in business, was to start charging final value fees on the total amount paid by the buyer.  This has been eBay's procedure for a long, long time.  

A couple other points about your post:  
The fee percentage in the Toys category is 13.25%, not 15%.  
eBay's final value fee also includes a flat amount of $0.30 per order.  Thirty cents. 
As mentioned above, the final value fees are charged on the total amount paid by your buyer.  That amount will probably also include some sales tax paid by your buyer, possibly even sales tax on the postage or FedEx cost, depending on your buyer's state.  

By the way, percentages are not cumulative.  Fifteen percent (15%) of the item cost plus 15% of the postage does not equal 30%.  The final value fee is a percentage of the total paid by your buyer.  In the case of toys, again, the final value fee is 13.25% of the total, plus 30 cents.  

Unless I am looking at the wrong listing, the shipping cost to me shows $20.00 and change.   But I am only a short drive west on the I-8 from your location, according to the listing.  Obviously, if the item sells to somebody on the east coast, the FedEx cost will be higher.  The shipping options in most of your listings that I looked at are only FedEx Ground, FedEx Home Delivery, or local pickup.  Wouldn't USPS be less expensive than FedEx?  

[powell-memorabilia]

You aren’t selling a $50 item.  Your buyer knows it is a $100+sales tax item.  

[1tuna]

if it costs $50 to ship them you nee to charge at least $58 just to not lose money on shipping

ebay is not easy to always make a profit on what we are selling

its gets harder when you dont charge enough for shipping

shipping is taxed and then you can pay around 13-15% FVF on that

@discofriend 

[fab_finds4u]

It's not unethical to want to be paid a fee to make sure the buyer's  payment is collected and the proceeds are put in the right pockets. No matter who is collecting the payment, Adyen or eBay It doesn't happen by magic.  

[simba6]

You may need to rethink selling lower value items that cost a lot to ship. Pick up only might be a better way to handle them.  The other problem is returns.  Your wagering the profit of the sale against the cost of shipping both ways if a not as described case is filed.  It's not always a smart bet to place.

[discofriend]

I'm talking about the fee on the shipping.  15%?  FedEx should pay that fee as they are receiving that business, just like we pay the fee on the our business (the price of the item will sold).

[discofriend]

I did not even know that!  Yikes!