SELLERS FEES

[storage-locker-aficionados]

Does anyone else feel like eBay is ripping the sellers off. 

First, they charge their fees based on category. I am okay with that.

Secondly, they add the shipping cost into the final cost and charge fees on the shipping cost. 

Third, now we have to promote our items to maintain on the first few pages of the listings. These promotions can be anywhere from 2 to 25%. 

Fourth, they add in the cost of tax to the total value of the sale and then take their fees from the GRAND TOTAL.

So as an example;

You sell an item for $500.00. Lets say gym shoes. There is a 10% tax ($50.00). Then shipping is $10.00

So they total sale is now $560.00.

Now eBay takes 13% for the category fee and if you promoted it, hypothetically 10%, eBay takes a total of 23% of the gross sale.  

So, in my example, I sold an item for $500.00 and walk away with a net of $385.00

This is ridiculous. Does anyone else feel that eBay is gougingus sellers?

Im looking for other platforms. Any suggestions?

of 

[inhawaii]

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@hartungcards wrote:

I've always felt that eBay has a lot of gougingus sellers.

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I think ebay has a lot of gorgeous sellers.   😃

[mondex]

Actually, you walk away with 371.20 unless I miscalculated.  The percentage taken is based on the gross INCLUDING tax and shipping.  You mentioned tax and shipping but then calculated the 23% of only the 500 by accident, I think...

Anyway, I think most sellers think the fees are too high.  They are higher than ever before.  However, it is ebay's platform and they spend advertising money and bring customers in, so in the end you just have to decide if it's worth staying or going to a different platform.  Most other platforms tend to also charge as many fees as their seller-base will allow, unfortunately, and none have as many visitors as ebay (unless you count Amazon, which also has fees).  Promoted fees has gotten out of hand IMO, but there's not much anyone can do about that either.  I do think there should be more transparency where promoted rates are involved, however, because there's no way sellers can really know if the "suggested" rate reflects the average.  Ebay could potentially bump that number up and sellers would just think other sellers were being more aggressive (which, in turn, actually could bump it up to that level).  To be clear, I'm not saying they are doing that, just wondering if there's anything in place to prevent it.

[dbfolks166mt]

     Not really. First the use of promoted listings is a seller choice so that is a self inflicted fee/cost. I have never used promoted listings and never will. It's pretty much a no win scenario for sellers. If I look at the 13.25% fee that is charged on the total price, from a macro level, I have no issues with that. EBay is a business and they operate to make a profit and maximize their value to their shareholders. Like any business they have costs and expenses such as wages and benefits, merchant fees, operations and maintenance costs, infrastructure costs, taxes....... which quickly reduce that 13.25% gross. 

     If I look at it from a micro level the FVF on the sales tax is one of the best accounting bargains around, there are dozens of postings on this forum why eBay charges FVF on the shipping and the FVF on the item listing price is pretty straight forward. 

     In many cases the FVF's are one of my lower selling costs from a percentage perspective. For lower priced items the shipping cost can often exceed eBay's fees, my COGS almost always exceeds eBay's fees and the 30-40% I pay in Federal and State Income taxes is always way above eBay's fees. Given the current state of our government I consider the later to be a much bigger ripoff 

     There are a LOT of other options out there these days and like a lot of sellers I have diversified across multiple platforms and venues over the years and eBay not only accounts for about 20% of my sales by volume. Some of  that divesture was forced by eBay due to their ever expanding list of restricted items and the VERO program. I am fortunate that I live in a large metropolitan area, as do you, and most of my sales these days are on local forums/venues that have lower fees or no fees. Most have far less risk and most avoid the logistical issues and costs. 

[chapeau-noir]

I have never used promoted listings and never will. It's pretty much a no win scenario for sellers.

YMMV.

[richard1rst]

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@storage-locker-aficionados wrote:

Does anyone else feel like eBay is ripping the sellers off. 

First, they charge their fees based on category. I am okay with that.

Secondly, they add the shipping cost into the final cost and charge fees on the shipping cost. 

Third, now we have to promote our items to maintain on the first few pages of the listings. These promotions can be anywhere from 2 to 25%. 

Fourth, they add in the cost of tax to the total value of the sale and then take their fees from the GRAND TOTAL.

So as an example;

You sell an item for $500.00. Lets say gym shoes. There is a 10% tax ($50.00). Then shipping is $10.00

So they total sale is now $560.00.

Now eBay takes 13% for the category fee and if you promoted it, hypothetically 10%, eBay takes a total of 23% of the gross sale.  

So, in my example, I sold an item for $500.00 and walk away with a net of $385.00

This is ridiculous. Does anyone else feel that eBay is gougingus sellers?

Im looking for other platforms. Any suggestions?

of 

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Well now, I expect this will blow your mind. I sell an item for $500 including free shipping. Assume a 10% sales tax (it isn't always that much) that makes the total $550.00 I pay a FVF of 11.21% for a total of $61.96 leaving me with a net of $435.05.

Maybe you just aren’t doing it right.

FOR EXAMPLE

Gym Shoes would be listed under : Clothing, Shoes & Accessories > Men > Men's Shoes > Athletic Shoes

In that category the FVF Is 8% if total amount of the sale is $150 or more so I am not sure where you get that 13% from. The per order fee is not charged.

[mam98031]

@storage-locker-aficionados 

Why the concern now?  You have had a successful business here for awhile now with good sales.  What makes you suddenly need to complain about some fees that are a dozen years old [FVF on Shipping] or the FVF on sales tax which is 4+ years old.  Something brought this on.

As for promotion fees, that is your choice.  Not only using the program, but the percentage of additional fees you are willing to pay for a sale is all your choice.  It may surprise you, but most sellers don't use Promoted Listings.

With that said, for some sellers promoted listings works well for them, others not so much.

Competition on this site is much greater than it was a decade or so ago.  We have so many active sellers, Ebay has about 1.5 to 2 BILLION listings on the site at any one time.  That is a whole lot of listings.

We likely could be more help to you if we better understood why all this suddenly became a concern after all this time?

[johnrj1226]

In this  world of getting "free stuff" is every where there are those that just can't get enough of that "free stuff" or as  a minimum  expect that every thing should be gotten for a kiss and a song.

[fbusoni]

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@storage-locker-aficionados wrote:

Does anyone else feel like eBay is ripping the sellers off. 

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I don't let feelings muddle my thinking.

Before I invest in anything to re-sell, I simply do the math.

There's not much more to it than that.

(PS: "Promoted listings" is a software package that eBay is selling.  If you don't know how to use the software, it will be of no benefit to you.   And even if you do know how to use it, it's primary purpose is to generate revenue for eBay, not for the seller.)

[dbfolks166mt · Accepted solution]

I have never used promoted listings and never will. It's pretty much a no win scenario for sellers.

YMMV.

     PL whether on eBay or any other platform is an ingenious why for the venue to increase revenue without appearing to be the bad guy since it is purely the sellers choice of whether to use it or not. So I am grateful for those that do use it since it has probably allowed eBay to stave off an across the board fee increase for a number of years. The one thing interesting fact about those that do use PL is there is no way to prove that the use of PL helped increase sales since you do not know whether your item would have sold in a generic mode without using PL. 

     Using PL can also become a race to the bottom as eBay continues to increase the recommended percentage on PL and some sellers continue to increase their percentage in a perceived attempt to stay ahead of the competition. Those sellers have a couple of choices with regards to their profits. They can either increase their prices to help cover the cost of using PL, which may push their items price out of the competitive marketplace price range, or they can absorb the cost of the PL which decreases their profit or ROI.

[storage-locker-aficionados]

MY GOD, U ARE ABSOLUTELY BRILLANT

[cityslickercreations2004]

Mercari will be charging sellers 10% (item + shipping) beginning Jan. 6, 2025.

Luckily, I sold a lot while there were zero fees. Back to the grind.

[mam98031]

They just said what any seller that has been here for any amount of time should know.  

[nasitc]

I am right there with you. I am new to selling on eBay and I am still trying to understand how much eBay charges me per sale. I also sell on Poshmark and I know as soon as I list how much I will make on the sale. I do not undertand why eBay cannot do the same. 

[johnrj1226]

My SWAG says you have  conveniently forgot the fees that were charged by eBay and Pay Pal charge when they were kissing cousins not  so long ago They were around around in 2016  when you became a member.  When their  divorce was finalized  every seller had to sign on to Managed Payments..  Basically they rolled the eBay & Pay fees into  a much more convenient pay as you sell charge (except optional features) and eBay also became the money processor.

One  more thing here are  the current PayPal money processing  fees - Up from the 2.9% +30 cent to 2.99% + 49 cents with PP Credit/Debit  card 4.5% w/o.  Time changes every thing.

[youn2240]

if you can get more money elsewhere you can do that because you don't have to use ebay. I would suggest trying out some other ways to sell and seeing if they are better or not and then deciding what you want to do.