The Fee Machine

[brightwarrior74]

15% standard fee.

5-15% Ad Promotion (ad general fee)

1.65% International Buyer Fee (WHY ARE WE  PENALIZED FOR THIS???)

REALLY? I could go into details about how this has affected my revenue. If this global economic disaster wasn't enough? Now, we get gouged at every turn. SMH.

[mam98031]

That isn't exactly correct.  You need to consider that you are here complaining about a decision YOU made.  It wasn't something Ebay forced you to do.  You CHOSE to select a high Promotional fee that you were willing to pay to get a sale.  You are NOT alone.  Some sellers do chose this route.  But it is important that you own you own decisions on how you want to run your sales.

There isn't a darn thing "shady". 

I always find it interesting when a seller calls Ebay [a for profit corporation, not a non profit charity] "greedy" because they want to make a profit.  Aren't sellers here to make a profit too.  Doesn't that make all of us "greedy" too.  It isn't just Ebay that wants to make a profit, all of us do as well. 

[mam98031]

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@inhawaii wrote:

You're complaining about a 1.65% fee?

On a $100 sale that's less than $2.

You would rather not have the sale?

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Yet they voluntarily paid a Promotional fee of 13% ?!?!?  Makes no sense.

[reallynicestamps]

There is no 15% selling fee actually.

https://www.ebay.ca/help/selling/fees-credits-invoices/selling-fees?id=4822&st=3&pos=1&query=Selling...

Most categories are 13.25% to 13.6% and a few are less. Books and magazines are 15.3%

[johnrj1226]

1.  For  starters the Promoted Listing  fees are  optional add on fees select and the %age

2.  This link should explain what the International Fee is all about.  It is  always advisable to   calculate your selling costs before you list one item.

https://www.ebay.com/help/buying/shipping-delivery/changing-delivery-address-method/international-pu...

3.  eBay fees have virtually  remained unchanged since 2010 when I started selling on eBay  - 5  years ago or  so the fee structure from  a 10%  eBay FVF + a 2.9%  +a 30 cent Pay Pal f fixedee to a single  fee fee Managed Payment  schedule  fee  starting at 13.5% (most common fee).  PayPal did increase their  fee almost a .5 %+  plus    40 cents

4. Dont' 'know too many businesses  or sellers that their main goal isn't making  make  a profit satisfy stock holders and/or higher commissions for the seller.

5.  Gotta big Ooops on your  eBay account when  try to access more info - no luck

[annadryl]

I promote about half of my listings at the minimum 2% because it does help get them seen and sold. It's baked into my prices which the buyer pays. Voluntarily promoting at 15% I can't imagine. It's optional. I don't blame ebay, I just opt not to do that. I vaguely remember taking a basic economics class in high school learning the do's and dont's of what to blindly throw money at.

[johnrj1226]

Some people just like to  dive in the lake head first without knowing how  deep it is.

My buyers  paid for all of my selling costs, item  acquisition, shipping plus my profit % based on  the item selling price - didn't loose  one dime on my shipping and handling - shipped USPS Priority services - very little flat rate - except for small FR.

[fashunu4eeuh]

@brightwarrior74 Wrote:

“So if sellers complain, people like you guys show up to shut it down? Wow. That's funny. ”

Not funny at all. I don’t think anyone is laughing here.

No one is “shutting it down” by sharing a difference of opinion. The forums are filled with varying views. You posted yours, others responded. It would be incorrect to say everyone feels the fees eBay charges are out of line. That doesn’t make you right and them wrong. Or vice versa. This isn’t a black and white issue. There is no right or wrong in this regard.

I rarely promote my listings. It is an expensive option that i feel is not warranted. I am a small part-time seller.

 i have not found the fees to be usurious or unmanageable. All my fees are folded into the prices i charge on my items. But for me to do so requires long-range strategic planning, like others do i imagine.

Though  lately I have heard that, for some sellers, it is getting harder  to source items at costs that can support the markup needed for healthy profit margins.

That is one of our big challenges as sellers and can lead to the desperation you mention upthread, if a seller finds they have paid too much for their Cost of Goods. That can wreak havoc right down the line.

Nothing is easy, as my mom used to say.

[fbusoni]

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@brightwarrior74 wrote:

Ebay is a multibillion dollar company. Their profits are not big enough? I am one person and a small business. There is a huge difference between Ebay and myself. My motivation is survival. Theirs is a little different I suspect. LOL

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@brightwarrior74 

There is a huge difference between eBay and the rest of humanity.

Alas, none of us is special.

And if you come here, of all places, to voice your frustration, keep in mind that you are conversing with other sellers who have dealt with all the same annoyances as you. 

The difference is that we all have made our peace with / otherwise adjusted to the realities of selling on eBay.

As for promoted listings... they are a software tool that you download from the cloud.  As I have noted on multiple occasions here in the past, if you do not know how to use software, you are better off NOT downloading it.  

PLs are designed in the first instance to fund eBay's bank account, not those of sellers.   PLs take advantage of sellers' fears of missing out ... they are a diabolical vortex that will suck a seller into spending more and more.

Even as his competition does the same thing.

The net result: you might as well not have used PLs in the first place.

[brightwarrior74]

THANK YOU! Finally, someone that understands what I'm talking about! What's really stupid? I only used their Ad Promotion because I was literally getting 1 view every 3 days on a Robert Cavalli jacket priced very low. Extremely perplexing to me. Then when I bought the promotion, i started getting way more traffic. Then when i sold it, of course, it was from the ad promotion. I really am suspicious about this because I have heard a lot of people say that when they buy ad promotion, all their sales come from that. Does anyone buy it and get a sale the normal way, without it? Do they still charge you if it didn't come through ad promotion? This is where I am unclear. Seems almost as if they're using it in a shady way, where your listings are buried in search, unless you A. Buy Ad Promotion, or B. List items daily or every other day... I think you are only considered a priority in search results if you're benefitting ebay somehow - either paying directly or adding more items for them to pilfer. 

[chapeau-noir]

I can't see what you sell, but your mention of Robert Cavalli makes me think at least some is clothing.

Clothing is so super-saturated that actually, promos make sense - just set your rate at a reasonable level. I use promos (I have a lot of experience with it so have a good idea what they can and cannot do) at a level that is easily sustainable. That wouldn't be 15% or anything close.

Also, every search engine now used rewards activity - if you don't list daily, or every other day or so, in a super-saturated category, your items WILL fall to the bottom of search after a certain amount of time, simply because of the thousands of listings added to these categories daily. It doesn't mean they're hidden, it does mean that they may be on page 12 of  category with 6 million items. It's how search works.

As for benefiting - yeah, eBay is in business to make money, they are not here to benefit us, they're here to benefit share-holders. If helping us sell more does that, then they'll do that. I don't expect anything from them save for their website to work. 

I'm not crazy about promos, either, but I'm a realist and understand the dynamics here.

[johnrj1226]

Think about this

• If you aren't changing you are getting further  behind.
• See Wham-O brand, Hula Hoops sales  quickly died the death of a raged doll after a few boom years.  Cheap knock offs  from overseas replaces them - now  they are handing on the ceilings in our  local Walmart -  Sears went from one to none
•  Lee Iaccoca said it best - "you  can lead, follow or get out of the way".
• Complaining  resolves  nothing and can't never got any thing done.
• If all  else  falls - try  yard sale or Craigs List

[fashunu4eeuh]

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@johnrj1226 wrote:

Think about this

• If you aren't changing you are getting further  behind.
• See Wham-O brand, Hula Hoops sales  quickly died the death of a raged doll after a few boom years.  Cheap knock offs  from overseas replaces them - now  they are handing on the ceilings in our  local Walmart -  Sears went from one to none
•  Lee Iaccoca said it best - "you  can lead, follow or get out of the way".
• Complaining  resolves  nothing and can't never got any thing done.
• If all  else  falls - try  yard sale or Craigs List

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Agreed

[brightwarrior74]

This is the same canned answer that I've heard at least a dozen times...

LET ME SAY THIS UP FRONT:

If you're going to respond with the "how dare you complain" nonsense, don't bother! I will just skip it and not give you another second of my time. This is what this message board is for - help, advice, complaints, issues that need to be resolved, explanations, etc.  Not this same fake sanctimonious crap that I keep hearing. Trolls will be ignored. Thank you.

I read somewhere that the Ebay "Community" was supposed to be helpful and supportive of long term sellers who feel taken advantage of with this newest fee structures and the Promoted Listings add-on. You still get charged the normal 13.6% and then the full Promotion Fee (10%) on top of that - even though your click through sale came from the Promotion and not the organic search because I was buried in the search and was not getting any views. Then somehow when I spend the 10%, I start getting all kinds of views, offers, and sales. So it's not anything wrong with my listings or items. It's their marketing.

I think it's wrong to still charge the full 13.6% when the sale is coming from Promotions. They should not charge 23.6% for a sale, just because without Promotional Ads the smaller newer sellers get buried! I had 1 VIEW over 2 months! Then, with Promotions, I suddenly got 20 VIEWS in 2 days and the item sold within a week. But before that, the item sat for 2 months with no views! How can they justify this system? It's not right that my customer paid $150.00 total, with sales tax. I ended up with $98.00. Without the extra 10% promotional, the item would still be sitting with no views. What is the 13.6% for, if the 10% sold it??? They should only charge a portion of the 13.6% if it sells through Promotions.

How anyone can think that I'm wrong here needs to go take a college course or something because I have a degree in Marketing and this is not good business. Because ebay is feeling the financial crunch that every person around the world feels, especially when grocery shopping, and so they are doing what the government and every other business is doing - looking for ways to get more money out of their customers! It's right in front of all of us and most people just have a phlegmatic personality and think that everyone has the best intentions and, "they're only trying to do their job and survive." Really? I am sure ebay's revenue and senior staff are really having financial burdens lolol.

What about the little people who put all that money in their pockets? If you don't see that they are taking advantage of us because they can, and because we have limited options and have depended on them for 2 decades! Then they screw the people that have been loyal to them for a long time. 0

Sure, I can choose to say screw this and go elsewhere. Etsy? Yeah, right, but not as flexible on types of items and no auctions.

Ebay could easily do something about this situation and not strong arm me into having to do Promotions in order to even get views and then still charge 13.6 standard fee - for NOTHING!!! Logic, folks? Think it through. If you like paying too much for the same thing that we were getting years ago - search results! Eyeballs! Do some tests of your own and see what I'm talking about. 

[hartungcards]

You lost me at, "I will just skip it and not give you another second of my time."

[jonathanbrightlight]

You're not being strongarmed into promotions.  Most sellers don't use promotions and do just fine.