"Why do final value fees include shipping charges?
The total amount of the sale includes the item price, any handling charges, the shipping service the buyer selects, sales tax , and any other applicable fees."
Once upon a time, a long time ago, when eBay was just a startup, a plan, a dream of a great way for people to sell, oh, old textbooks that had been sitting on a shelf for 15 years, one of eBay's founding principles was a belief that: People are basically good and honest.
Because eBay officially believed that, in their early years eBay trusted sellers to list items at true and valid prices with -- here's the thing -- true and valid postage amounts. And eBay's original fee structure charged sellers a fee based on ONLY the cost of the item. (By the way, this was well before eBay was required to charge sales taxes on sales.) So, back then, a seller might list two old textbooks for $29.99 and what seemed to be a reasonable, true, and valid postage amount of $9.00. Back then, a buyer could actually write a check for $38.99 and put it in the mail to the seller. Ah, the good old days. But I digress . . . . .
And the seller was charged a Final Value Fee on only the $29.99, the cost of the books. Because the seller was a good and honest person and followed the plan that eBay had in place at that time.
But in those days there were, believe it or not, some people in the world who were not good and honest. (I know!) They saw that eBay would charge a fee on only the cost of the item and not the cost of postage that was in the listing. And they thought, "Hey, I can get rid of those old textbooks and get some good money for them!" So a lot of those bad people started taking advantage of eBay and its corporate official trusting nature.
Some of those dishonest people would do things like list two old textbooks for $8.99 and $30.00 postage. Some of those dishonest people might list their mother's wedding gown for $10.00 and $900.00 postage. And lots of other really outrageous listings. Of course, actually mailing that wedding gown didn't really cost $900.00. A dishonest seller would pocket, maybe, $850, without paying eBay their fee on that money.
Finally, eBay figured out what was happening. eBay had to admit that NOT every seller was good and honest. eBay did have a policy in place that would punish sellers who engaged in Fee Avoidance, by charging low prices with high postage. That was a lot of work, trying to check out e-v-e-r-y listing to catch the cheaters.
So eBay decided they had to do the only thing that was good and honest and rightful: eBay started including postage and/or other shipping charges in the Final Value, the amount on which eBay charges fees to the seller. Even to sellers who list a reasonable, true, and valid postage amount.
Just like in grade school: When one child acts up in class, the whole class can be punished.
That is why we sellers now have to pay a Final Value Fee on the total amount paid by the buyer, including postage.
