First and foremost, stop yelling !! It is difficult to read all-caps and has long been considered the equivalent of shouting in real life.
Next: What does "everyone has it wrong" mean?
"eBay is charging sellers fees on top of what the product sells for." OK. Yes, that is true. It even says so in eBay's User Agreement. This quote here, in green with some bolding for emphasis, is directly from eBay's User Agreement:
"Final value fees
We charge one final value fee when your item sells, and you don't have to worry about third-party payment processing fees. This fee is calculated as a percentage of the total amount of the sale, plus $0.30 per order.
The total amount of the sale includes the item price, any handling charges, any shipping costs collected from the buyer (some exceptions apply), sales tax, and any other applicable fees.
An order is defined as any number of items purchased by the same buyer at checkout with the same shipping method."
All those words are simple words in the English language. You just have to take the time and read them carefully and understand them. And when you do read and understand them, you will see that your statement -- "eBay is artificially inflating your sale price" -- is just plain false and wrong. eBay's Final Value Fee percentage is charged on the total amount paid by your buyer. Your U.S. buyer will pay the item price plus probably some sales tax plus the postage/shipping cost (unless you list the item with "free" shipping).
About that Promotional Fee Rate: you, as the seller, get to choose whether to pay eBay a promotional fee rate. eBay doesn't just charge it on a random basis, or only on sellers from Illinois, or only on sellers to sell certain types of items, or only on listings placed on Tuesdays. eBay sellers are completely in control of the percentages they decide to pay eBay (voluntarily) for promoting their listings.
What's that saying about the loudest sounds coming from empty vessels?
