I've been watching each months statements and the totals aren't even close.
They don't differentiate between sales and shipping.
The numbers I'm seeing in the statements are more three times the amount they payed out to me and if I add in the shipping which I paid out, its still half the amount of the statement.
Where one earth are they coming up with these numbers?
Even with shipping included, shipping doesn't come anywhere near the difference between the amount paid out and the statement numbers? Shipping totals that I paid are just under $860, payouts were just over $2,400, they have total sales at $12,600 for the last two quarters of 2021. Where do they get their transaction totals from?
I know how much they payed out, and I know how much I spent on shipping, it should be that simple when it comes to eBay total sale amounts. If they did actually collect the $12,600, their FVF is far more than $20%.
Also, since they take 15% of the sales tax collected too, that means sellers are technically paying 15% of the buyers sales tax burden out of their profit.
If I sell an item for $99.99, plus $35 shipping, and 7% sales tax, the buyer pays $144.44,
$144.44 minus 15% is $122.78, minus $.30 on every sale, and minus the $9.45 tax is $122.48, then minus the $35 to ship it, it leaves $78.33. Now any intelligent person can figure that if you sold an item at $100, and get paid $78.33, they're not taking 15% + $.30. Call it what you want, Its really closer to 22% that they're taking off the top.
Then to top it all off, the actual payout ends up being $66.59? Did they take another 15% off the end amount?
The above was a single item sold in a 40 day period, no other totals came into play to confuse the figures and nothing carried over from the last period.
None of this also takes into consideration that the shipping calculator undercharges buyers half of the time.
Especially on larger items via Fed Ex or UPS. The buyer gets charged the calculated amount on a package that's already packed and weighed before listing it, then shipping gets charged three weeks later at 25% more than the shipping calculator had figured. I just had a package that quoted as $23.15 shipping, and the charge after the fact was $31.80.Its happened several times now with FedEx labels.
On USPS items, it somehow undercharges as if the buyer was in a closer zone, yet I get charged a higher rate when I buy the shipping label.
For example, A buyer in AZ buys an item, shipping is calculated by location, it calculates the shipping as if they were one or two zones closer, and I end up eating a couple bucks on every item.
I just listed one item, a vintage magazine, it weighed in at 8oz, first class mail quoted me $2.75 to the furthest zone in the calculator, the buyer pays, gets charged $2.45, I go to ship it, and I get charged $3.21.
There was no rate increase in that time period, and the buyer was far closer than what should have been the maximum amount in the calculator which said $2.75. This happens over and over again. The only sure way to not lose is to either way over estimate the weight, or charge a flat rate to cover the farthest rate, which usually runs buyers. Then when eBay takes their cut of the already too low rate they charged, we lose even more. The USPS site calculator is usually closer to the actual charge, I'm not sure what's up with the eBay calculator though. There's no discount on First Class packages so there's nothing like that being miscalculated.
