eBay fees are INSANITY! Am I the only one?

[rob2e]

I thought I was doing people a solid by listing auctions starting at $0.01. I thought it would be nice to sell something for a penny if no one else bid besides the first person. I listed MANY DOZENS of auctions. I then started noticing I was PAYING eBay money, not RECEIVING it.

An auction for a book sold at 1 cent plus $3.19 (the minimum shipping amount for media mail) and eBay charged me a 14.6% fee INCLUDING fees based on SHIPPING! So I have to pay 80 cents, PLUS the $3.19 shipping to earn one penny. Auctioning that book COST ME 79 cents (as the buyer paid the shipping).

First, it's insane to charge 14.6% of anything less than what it would COST you to auction something.

Second, charging a final fee on the SHIPPING?!?!

Am I the only one? Am I missing something? This seems very bad.

[chapeau-noir]

@rob2e   I think you're missing the fee schedule that eBay is very open about.  The cheaper you sell things for here, the more fees will take up anything you make. 

[gamersbaystore]

I would agree the fees have gotten outrageous, but where is the logic in selling anything for a penny, much less a dollar? You have a bunch of sold listings for a buck or less. You're literally paying ebay more in fees than what you sold your items for.

Likewise, I don't see much logic in using auctions for items that aren't really valuable, like a cheap book or $3 DVD. AUctions are better utilized with higher dollar items that people are more likely to bid on.

The fees are a problem too, as are the USPS rates that just went up this week. Its now $3.49 to ship a DVD, which forced me to raise my shipping rates yet again.

Those inflated fees and shipping costs force sellers to raise prices, further alienating buyers. I think it was a terrible decision on the government's part to allow USPS to raise rates at a time when the nation is struggling with out of control inflation. Inflation is at a 40 year high! USPS is literally causing more inflation with its clearly illogical policies.

[johnrj1226]

Seems to be your error by starting an auction at 1 penny - totally your decision.  eBay doesn't  scrub each listing  to try to determine if the seller is going to make many or not - way too many variables..But  you have the all the info in hand to determine you cost of  sales and expected profit.  Do the math first before you set your price and post a listing.   eBay does  guarantee a bidding war for auctions - always set you bid starting price or fixed price at a price you are willing to accept and make a  nickle or two or a decent profit.

On the bright side you  made the buyer happy - small loss  for a lesson learned.  You can  use the loss  amount to help offset the revenue on your 1099K when you do your 2022 taxes.

eBay  has charged  the FVF on shipping since  Nov. 2011

. 

[rob2e]

Ya. USPS is crazy as well. Are you saying I should make my lower auctions NOT auctions, but just set a buy price?

[richard1rst]

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@rob2e wrote:

Ya. USPS is crazy as well. Are you saying I should make my lower auctions NOT auctions, but just set a buy price?

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YES !!!

Or if you insist on auctions DO NOT start them at a penny.

[downunder-61]

My mind is blown........... 

[bonddm_07]

You only have yourself to blame...I'd be angry selling my items for a few dollars.

[rob2e]

Thanks. Very helpful.

[gamersbaystore]

Yes, use buy it now. Its actually not a bad idea to use both, but reserve the auctions for the more valuable items that are likely to drive bids.

[inhawaii]

What is INSANE is  someone who would sell things here without a clear understanding of the fees and how ebay works.

[annadryl]

Never before have I heard of someone starting an auction and hoping it ends at the first low bid. That's not the point of an auction at all!

If you want to hook somebody up with some cool books, movies etc. that's nice. BUT cover yourself. You can still list it cheap, but cover all those fees. The BUYER should cover all of that.

Bake it in.

Good luck~

[rob2e]

Thank you for being so kind.

[2013grotz]

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@rob2e wrote:

Ya. USPS is crazy as well. Are you saying I should make my lower auctions NOT auctions, but just set a buy price?

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Like was said, that's the usual way most people do it, as people generally don't want to mess with auctions on small items with no demand anyway.  But if you do auctions, you always want to start at the least amount of money you need to handle your costs, especially since the biggest disaster you can get is one bid at your starting price. 

So basically, you start out with "What does it take to just get my costs back?", add what you want to get back out of the item, add about 10% for sales tax, add shipping, add 14.9% of that + .30 for ebay and you get your starting point for auctions.   Of course, you can add what you *hope* to get out of the item and set a BIN price anyway.

Although the caveat is that there's a lot of people selling at loss and buyers aren't going to care about that, so it's hard competitively to get sales.  But really nothing that a single individual seller is going to be able to do about that.

[rob2e]

Ya, my problem is I'm operating from a point when I was selling 20 years ago and doing well, I admit I didn't keep up with the changes now that I'm just dumping out my garage and collectibles.