eBay

pro_carbine · ‎11-24-2021

Is it just me, or does seem like a load of crap that sellers are charged fees on taxes collected by ebay? The effective fee rate of selling something in Ohio is close to 15% on a $29 item. No wonder this site is slowly dying. At some point, between fees getting higher and shipping costs increasing, it is better to sell locally through craigslist or fb marketplace and take a huge hit instead of paying through the nose to sell on here and dealing with the cesspool that is ebay.

dbfolks166mt · ‎11-24-2021

I consider the fees on the taxes to be a minor expense compared to me as a seller having to collect and remit the sales taxes to potentially 40+ individual states on a periodic bases. No way I want that headache. You are correct about the rising cost of doing business on eBay. In addition the ecommerce market has become very competitive. I diversified long ago and use local forums, a couple of which you mentioned, in addition to eBay and in fact sell about 70% of my items that way. The local forums don't have the buyer base eBay has but I can list items on the local forum for about 15% less than what I can list them for on eBay and there are a LOT of other advantages to local sales.

maxine*j · ‎11-24-2021

Did you never notice that PayPal took its fee on the sales tax, as well as charging you 30 cents for each transaction?

ALL payment processors charge their fees on the total sale to the buyer -- merchandise, handling, shipping, surcharges, sundry costs, sales tax. It has been this way since the invention of the credit card.

The overall take-out under Mananged Payments is about the same, or a little less, than it was under PayPal.

But if you want more opinions, you can read these daily posts about the issue:

https://community.ebay.com/t5/forums/searchpage/tab/message?advanced=false&allow_punctuation=false&q...

and

https://community.ebay.com/t5/forums/searchpage/tab/message?advanced=false&allow_punctuation=false&q...

and on and so on.

=

m60driver · ‎11-24-2021

Being charged final values fees on taxes paid by the buyer is universal now in the online sales world. Same things happens in a store when people pay with a credit card. If you don't have the profit margins to handle it then by all means sell locally on CL.

heckofagame · ‎11-24-2021

Another one of these posts? Oh goodie...

krazzykats · ‎11-24-2021

When I looked at the flood of new merchandise coming into the US at US Ports (via the news), I think "used" became more expensive.

Everything else is more expensive, so selling used is too. If less "used" is sold, would more people buy new?

And if used is more expensive, it may be cheaper to buy new.

Big business and corps sell new. They want us to replace, not reuse.

PURR AND THE WORLD PURRS WITH YOU.
HISS AND YOU HISS ALONE.

KrazzyKats • Volunteer Community Member • Buyer/Seller since 1998

jhr-4800 · ‎11-24-2021

Its the cost of business. You either adapt or perish, or look for another platform to sell.

luckythewinner · ‎11-24-2021

@pro_carbine wrote:
Is it just me, or does seem like a load of crap that sellers are charged fees on taxes collected by ebay? The effective fee rate of selling something in Ohio is close to 15% on a $29 item. No wonder this site is slowly dying. At some point, between fees getting higher and shipping costs increasing, it is better to sell locally through craigslist or fb marketplace and take a huge hit instead of paying through the nose to sell on here and dealing with the cesspool that is ebay.

It seems to me this is just a very simple math problem:

If the "huge hit" is less than the 15% in fees for a $29 item, it is better.
If the "huge hit" is more than the 15% in fees for a $29 item, it is not better.

And I suspect that what is "better" will not just differ from seller to seller, but from item to item.

For example, I would not be able to sell any of my 1200 item locally - so for me the huge hit is 100% which is much greater than 15%.

heckofagame · ‎11-24-2021

If one is selling very low volume, and that seems to be the bulk of the people repeating this complaint thread, then there may be other venues for your business. But for those of us that have a significant number of items to sell, it's very difficult to find a better venue.

m60driver · ‎11-24-2021

@heckofagame wrote:
If one is selling very low volume, and that seems to be the bulk of the people repeating this complaint thread, then there may be other venues for your business. But for those of us that have a significant number of items to sell, it's very difficult to find a better venue.

It is not just the volume that you need but the gross margins, or in effect a combination of gross margins and volume with the lower the margins the higher the volume you will need to make a successful business out of this. I have very low volume but I have ridiculously high margins so Ebay works rather well for me to make lunch money and there is certainly no better platform, none.

heckofagame · ‎11-24-2021

And starting with your 2022 tax return, you get to report that lunch money to the IRS. 🤓

donsdetour · ‎11-24-2021

Why fees on taxes: because they can. Hey their processor charges them for you paying em, so its passed on to the seller...

Its the way it is.

Oh and the why of taxes is your state want a part of what you spend. Its the easy way to tax a dollar more than once and rip every on off... That dollar being passed around was taxed way more then the value of that buck...

Think about how the politicians have been stealing from you for a very long time.

Gripping about eBay fees on the tax is not da problem. its taxing money that is the problem....

Rant over:

As for eBay fees better them doing all that collecting than me. I don,t have time to deal with all them state laws as well as the time to collect and remit them taxes... Saves me money in the long run.