Best regards,
EBay is a business with the same right to make money as anyone other business. They are responsible to stockholders, employees and people using the platform. I don't recommend wasting your money asking an attorney. There is nothing illegal about their business practices. They have a legal department working day and night to make sure they comply with all the laws, rules and regulations around the world.
The secret to making money on eBay is have the buyers pay all the fees. I recommend quit using auction style listings and change to buy it now with calculated shipping so you won't have to ask for tip money via cash app.
@goodspublicauctions wrote:I do auctions so, sometimes my auctions don't do so good.
I just checked your auctions and you may attract more bidders if you opt out of auto-pay. I am actually interested in a few of your auctions but will not bid because it limits my payment options and combined shipping options.
If you are interested in opting out of auto-pay:
Go to seller dashboard>>preferences>>your buyers>>Managing who can buy from you, and click edit to the right.
Scroll down to the second category, "Buyer rules" and uncheck the boxes requiring payment info.After unchecking the boxes scroll down to the bottom of page and click "Save changes"
You may not like or agree with the way eBay calculates fees but as toysaver mentioned eBay is a business and their only goal is to maximize their value to their shareholders. You should build a cost model so you know in advance about what your payout is going to be. Using your numbers following is an example. I had to guess on what you actually paid for the shipping label as opposed to what the buyer paid you and your $2 estimate on sales tax was probably high so I used 8%.
Shipping is becoming a bigger and bigger part of selling expenses. There are a variety of ways to address shipping and each seller has to determine what works best for them. You can use free shipping and bake the cost of the shipping into your item price but this has certain disadvantages for both the seller and the buyer. You can use calculated shipping making sure the dims and weights of your items are correct in the listing and the buyer pays the shipping based on their location. You can use a flat rate shipping cost which has some risks unless you are calculating it on the worst case scenario which is a disadvantage to some buyers. You can charge the buyer the full retail cost or you can pass along the discounted eBay rates to your buyers. For the later this would cause you to loose money on the shipping cost for every item you sell unless you are baking the cost in somewhere else. You are on the west coast and I am on the east coast and looking at the shipping cost for some of your items I question whether you could actually ship the item to me at the cost you have listed. Check your seller settings and if you are passing the shipping discounts along to your buyers suggest you consider not doing that.
Focus on your own profits and ROI not the eBay fees, shipping costs or sales tax. Switch to calculated shipping and make sure you are not passing the shipping discounts along to the buyers. Based on some of your feedback after a year of selling there are some other things you may want to address with regards to your selling.
@isaiah53-57 wrote:
@goodspublicauctions wrote:Is it right to charge fees on shipping.
I am being charged !!!15%!!!(14.5%) for EVERY SINGLE SALE. I do auctions so, sometimes my auctions don't do so good and people get a deal at $5-$9 dollars. I charge shipping and I ship through ebay so ebay knows exactly how much is paid for shipping. So when the total comes out to let's say $7 + $8.45 shipping= $15.45 + buyer pays for the taxes. Let's say 2 dollars ebay CHARGES YOU THE 15% FEES AT $17.45 EVEN THOUGH, ebay immediately takes the taxes back from your sale to their pockets. So at the end of the sale you are left with $3-$4 and the buyer outta pocket paid $17.50.
Another sale of mine and buyer paid $58.25 total and at the end of fees and shipping i got $34. That's nearly 50%
Is this right? Is this right for both buyer and seller. I'm asking the lawyers and lawmakers. Especially the part where ebay CHARGES sellers fees with taxes even tho they immediately takes those back.
Is this right?
Something is off...Fees are too **bleep** high and secretly exploitative.
Shipping is to **bleep** high and only seems to get higher and higher.
ebay fees and other policies are disclosed if you look hard enough, but it looks like you finally saw through the smoke and mirror - Many sellers think ebay takes 13+% of the items price - No, they take 13+% of the ENTIRE TRANSACTION(Items price+Shipping+Taxes) - Which can easily equate to 20%-25%-30% and even more of the items price, which of course is the ONLY profit bearing figure in the transaction.
Yes its there in disclaimer, because they need to have it by law, but there is no doubt in my mind they make it as hard to find as they can for the new and casual sellers - My guess is 90% of the people telling you you should know this, would have or did fall into the same trap in thought or perception that you and other new/casual sellers did before finally questioning the fees...
What smoke and mirrors?
It’s right there under the definition of Final Value Fees. No extra clicks needed, not in a smaller font, not as a footnote at the bottom of the page.
I would understand calling it smoke and mirror if you had to click on a link to see what is included in the “total sale amount” or if there was an asterisk sending you to the bottom of the page to learn that the “total sale amount” included sales tax and shipping and handling but it’s right there.
The problem is how you determine the starting price on your Auctions. I sell a lot auction style and the starting price is one that would yield my profit if it only sells on one bid. That starting price also has to include the Fees you will pay eBay. If you print your labels through eBay, use the Calculated shipping setting and are accurate with the weight and estimated box size that you will ship in then the discount eBay gives you on buying the label from them will offset the fees you pay on the shipping end of the transaction.
