SELLER FEES

[tons_of_sheet]

EVERYONE HAS IT WRONG. EBAY IS CHARGING SELLERS FEES ON TOP OF WHAT THE PRODUCT SELLS FOR. EX, YOU SELL AN ITEM FOR $100.00.. IF TAX TO THAT STATE IS 10% EBAY ADDS THAT COST INTO THE TOTAL VALUE. NOW YOUR ITEM IN THEORY SOLD FOR $110.00. THEN IF YOU ITEM COST FOR SHIPPING IS $10.00, EBAY ADDS THAT INTO THE TOTAL SALE. THUS YOU ARE NOW AT $120.00

SO EBAY IS ARTIFICIALLY INFLATING YOUR SALE PRICE. WHY ARE WE PAYING FEES ON $120.00? WHEN OUR ITEM SOLD FOR $100.00?  BECAUSE ITS EBAYS PLATFORM AND UNTIL THERE IS BETTER COMPETITION WE WILL SUFFER.

ON TOP OF THAT, EBAY NOW CHARGES U A PROMOTIONAL FEE RATE. THAT RATE CAN BE ANYWHERE  FROM 2-20% ON TOP OF THE FEES EBAY ALREADY CHARGES.  

[tobaccocardyahoo]

Seems like the only people who got anything wrong are the people who did not read what the final value fee applies to is the total of product price, shipping and tax the buyer pays.

Seems like some of the same people enabled promotion without knowing how to control the cost and that it had a cost.

Go to the competition. The only competition which gets enough buyer eyes on their listings costs as much or more.

If you can't meet your profit goals under Ebay's fee structure, you have few other options. Perhaps selling on Facebook or Tiktok will meet your needs, but I doubt it unless you are selling fast fashion.

Many sellers complain about Ebay fees because it is harder to succeed selling on Ebay than it used to be. There are more sellers offering the few products which sell, and you cannot succeed by raiding the clearance shelf at Walmart anymore.

[johnson_junk_company]

While I disagree with eBay charging fees on shipping collected because they don’t handle that, Pitney Bowes does on behalf of the USPS. 
eBay does handle the forwarding of state sales tax collected and sends it to proper office so I have no issue paying them to do in the form of FVF’s. 

[monica-sells]

---

@johnson_junk_company wrote:

While I disagree with eBay charging fees on shipping collected because they don’t handle that, Pitney Bowes does on behalf of the USPS. 
 

---

@johnson_junk_company 

Would you have the same argument if......

A. You were selling an item for $50.00 with free shipping (FVF would be $6.62)

and

B. Your competitor sold the same item for $30.00 + $20.00 for shipping? (FVF would be $3.95-no fee on shipping)

Both total $50.00, but your competitor paid a lot less in FEES.

(sales tax excluded for simplicity sake)

You may want to re-consider your thoughts

[johnson_junk_company]

If eBay didn’t charge fees on shipping then final value fees would not be charged on the full $50.00. The price of the shipping label would be backed out of the 50 making the fee on free shipping items the same as those who charge shipping as the fee would be based on the item cost.  “Free shipping” is just a marketing tool to get customers to buy. 

[redlinear]

---

@johnson_junk_company wrote:

If eBay didn’t charge fees on shipping then final value fees would not be charged on the full $50.00. The price of the shipping label would be backed out of the 50 making the fee on free shipping items the same as those who charge shipping as the fee would be based on the item cost.  “Free shipping” is just a marketing tool to get customers to buy. 

---

This would only apply to shipments created on eBay.  The ones that use their own shipping account, pirateship, etc would not be subject to that

[inhawaii]

No kidding?

Is that even legal?

[stainlessenginecovers]

---

@johnson_junk_company wrote:

If eBay didn’t charge fees on shipping then final value fees would not be charged on the full $50.00. The price of the shipping label would be backed out of the 50 making the fee on free shipping items the same as those who charge shipping as the fee would be based on the item cost.  “Free shipping” is just a marketing tool to get customers to buy. 

---

@johnson_junk_company 

Then the site will just charge 20% of the selling fee, like some other sites do...

BUT!!- what about those that do FREE SHIPPING which is something the site would prefer? 

Sell $20 Free shipping

Sell $15 w/ $5 Shipping

So, the seller with FREE shipping should pay MORE than the one that charges shipping??

[stainlessenginecovers]

---

@tons_of_sheet wrote:

EVERYONE HAS IT WRONG. EBAY IS CHARGING SELLERS FEES ON TOP OF WHAT THE PRODUCT SELLS FOR. EX, YOU SELL AN ITEM FOR $100.00.. IF TAX TO THAT STATE IS 10% EBAY ADDS THAT COST INTO THE TOTAL VALUE. NOW YOUR ITEM IN THEORY SOLD FOR $110.00. THEN IF YOU ITEM COST FOR SHIPPING IS $10.00, EBAY ADDS THAT INTO THE TOTAL SALE. THUS YOU ARE NOW AT $120.00

SO EBAY IS ARTIFICIALLY INFLATING YOUR SALE PRICE. WHY ARE WE PAYING FEES ON $120.00? WHEN OUR ITEM SOLD FOR $100.00?  BECAUSE ITS EBAYS PLATFORM AND UNTIL THERE IS BETTER COMPETITION WE WILL SUFFER.

ON TOP OF THAT, EBAY NOW CHARGES U A PROMOTIONAL FEE RATE. THAT RATE CAN BE ANYWHERE  FROM 2-20% ON TOP OF THE FEES EBAY ALREADY CHARGES.  

---

@tons_of_sheet 

1st- the Final Value Fees are CLEARLY shown BEFORE you hit 'list it'

2nd- Ebay does NOT charge ANY promotional fee, unless YOU, the Seller- decides to Pay MORE to have your item show higher in the search. 

[soh.maryl]

Why isn't there a "tongue-in-cheek" emoji when and where you need it?  

[jameshen1]

I can't believe the OP has been selling for 7+ years and over 1400 sales and just now realizes how the fees work.  Not a great business plan.

[bonjourami]

" IF TAX TO THAT STATE IS 10% EBAY ADDS THAT COST INTO THE TOTAL VALUE."

Wow, what a shock...not.

[soh.maryl]

It disturbs me somewhat that your totally false statement comes from someone who has 1729 FB and has been on eBay for over 7 years.  

[dbfolks166mt]

The two main reasons for charging FVF on shipping are (1) to avoid discouraging sellers from offering free shipping;

And for the hard of thinking;  Free Shipping means that the cost  of shipping is included in the asking price of the item.

Which is cheaper? A $100 item with $10 shipping or a $110 item with Free Shipping?

     While trivial possibly the $100 item with $10 shipping if it sells to a buyer in a state that does not charge sales tax on shipping. But even at 10% sales tax that would only make it $1 cheaper. 🙂

[adkhighker]

I think what a lot of sellers, even some that are experienced, might not realize right away is that the percentage of the sold price a seller will lose to eBay is almost always greater, often much greater, than the fees percentage that eBay charges for any particular category.

For example, with a 13.25% category, on an item that you sell for $10 with a calculated shipping cost of $5 and sales tax of 8%, some folks might think they're only going to lose 13.25% of $10 ($1.33) to eBay because they forget eBay rakes in money from the seller on sales tax and shipping. Instead of the cost to sell that item being only 13.25% of the selling price, the cost to sell that particular example would end up being right around 23% of your sold price. Ouch. Even a little worse if you don't pay for a store.

Even if you roll the $5 shipping cost into the selling price of that same item, resulting in a selling price of $15 with free shipping and 8% sales tax, you still end up paying eBay around 23% of your sold price for that particular example.

eBay is telling sellers the truth when they say they're charging 13.25%, but what they don't tell anyone is that you will be losing more, often significantly more than 13.25% from you sold price.  Sellers have to find that out the hard way which isn't hard at all if you know how to divide how much money you lose to eBay by the sold price and multiply that by 100 to come up with the percentage that it costs to sell any particular item.

(This is not my selling ID)

[tons_of_sheet]

I SIMPLY STATED THE FACTS AND IF YOU DO NOT LIKE THEM, TOUGH. 

AS A PUBLICLY HELD COMPANY WITH A FIDUCIARY RESPONSIBILITY TO ITS SHAREHOLDERS, EBAY MUST DO EVERYTHING POSSIBLE TO SHOW A PROFIT EVEN IF ITS AT IT SELLERS DETRIMENT. 

ONCE SELLERS LEAVE, ITTT IS DIFFICULT TO GET THEM BACK.