eBay fees on Shipping and Taxes

[vintagetibits]

I am selling Ribbons below $5.00 and shipping runs from $3.75 to $4.75. No handling included. Usually my price is around $3.49 a yard and most sales are 1 yard. Ebay is adding in the shipping fee and taxes  (some states have very high sales taxes)  which are paid by the buyer to my sales amount. After ebay deducts their 12.75% from the new total, I am netting around $1.82. Highway robbery!! Does anyone know how to stop ebay from using this inflated illegal calculation of total sales for their base calculation to charge their fee. It's not correct in any money system I have dealt with and I am 71 years old. Does anyone know of the law ebay is using to inflate the total of sale amount?  Shipping is not an item sold, nor is the taxes. After my cost, I am making roughly 75 cents per sale. Is this right? The ribbon cost more than that. What to do??  

[duffy4444]

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@loc2blue wrote:

Do NOT GIVE ADVISE TO ANOTHER SELLER TO SEND THEIR STUFF WITHOUT TRACKING!!!!!!!!!!! THAT IS THE MOST INACURETE ADVISE YOU CAN GIVE--let the seller decide that--and then he will learn and adjust ,,but just to say send it with no tracking??? you should be ashamed to say this with your amount of feedback you have--JUST DO NOT GIVE ADVICE NEXT TIME PLEASE----

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@loc2blue:

   When an OP asks for advice like this one did, we give advice. That's what this forum is for, and it's always up to the OP to take it or leave it.  

   My advice and proposing an option is not inaccurate. It is a reasonable option for any seller seeking advice.  There is a reason why eBay does not ding a seller below "above average" for not providing a tracking number. It is because a lot of sellers use the less expensive no-tracking shipping method as their choice.  

   I've been selling on eBay for over 24 years, and have used the letter rate and large envelope/flat rate for appropriate and inexpensive items all along. For instance, I can sell a small glassine envelope of collector stamps or up to 5 skeins of DMC needlework floss in a letter-sized envelope with just a stamp on it. This has been going on for years, and I have had only one related INR situation that I also believe was a legitimate lost-in-the-mail situation. It was quickly refunded and a small, inconsequential loss of a few bucks that didn't put me in the poor farm. It's just an occasional and usually rare cost of doing business, more than compensated for by the amount of shipping costs saved over the years. Other inexpensive items like my needlework kits and sewing patterns can often go in a large, flexible envelope/flat for as little as around a buck and a quarter, and so far I've had zero  non-delivery complaints over hundreds of sales and shipments.

    I always send a message to such customers to not expect a tracking number, and many times they reply and thank me for the heads up. I also credit this to the type of buyer of these items like the OP's ribbon; they're most often the type who want to use the items for crafts/gifts, and not involved in scamming for just a few bucks.

   Don't discount advice out of emotion. With the OP's experience, he/she can try it and see if it is successful. It probably will be, and a pile of shipping money can be saved... especially if a courtesy message is sent to the buyer as a heads-up.

Cheers, Duffy

[dbfolks166mt]

     The ecommerce marketplace is becoming a difficult environment for the smaller sellers to make money in. The addition of the sales tax to ecommerce sales outside your home state was the result of a Supreme Court decision in Wayfair vs. South Dakota.

     While it is of little consolation remember eBay is a business and they also exists to make money and the fees they collect are not all profit. They have to pay CC fees, salaries, benefits, infrastructure, etc.

     While I don't particularly like the shipping and sales tax being included in the fee calculation it is what it is. I am also not thrilled with the constant USPS shipping increases but they have to deal with inflation also. 

     Like you I am a senior citizen and I don't really sell on eBay to make a fortune but more to keep me busy as kind of a hobby, although not from a income tax perspective. As for solutions look at broadening your product line if you can find a good source of items that people seem to buy and can obtain them at a reasonable price. 

[nocoolnamejane]

Just to add some positivity, I want to be the first to wish @monroe67 an early happy birthday! Here’s a cupcage

 

And a Snickers bar for @loc2blue 

 

[dbfolks166mt]

YES YOU ARE 100 PERCENT WRONG ,,,I MAKE GOOD MONEY SELLING MY COMICS FOR A FEW BUCKS--SO YOU SELLERS STOP MAKING FALSE STATEMENTS PLEASE

     Tend to agree with your statement and it goes to a basic business principal. Do you want to net $10 on 10 sales for a  total of $100 net or do you want to make $100 net on one sale? There is always a possibility that over a given period of time there will be a greater turnover in the lower return items that in the higher one resulting in a larger net gain. For example if you sell 30 of the $10 net return items in 2 months you have a $300 net return but if you only sell 2 of the $100 net return items in 2 months your total net return is $200. 

     Lower cost items are also often more apt to be purchase on impulse than from planning. It's one of the reasons the candy and snacks are right there in the checkout line. 

[wrong66]

????

[johnrj1226]

What would you do if the USPS  postal system was  losing 8 billion $/year after year, after year and you were charged to fix the endless bleeding??  LaJoy was appointed Postmaster General in May 2020. Now they only are losing about 3 billion/year as  of last year.  The fix is simple - stop Saturday mail deliveries - which for me is fine and dandy as it  is  99% "junk" mail.  Don't think the union likes that idea.  UPS, FedEx seem to increase  prices rates like clock work every year too.  Heck just the  cost of fuel alone will have an impact of shipping costs.

Been an eBay member since 2008 and USPS label costs and postage stamps did too have gone up every year - either the price or a reduction in the commercial rate discount or a combination of both.   Likewise USPS brought out some cost  saving products - Regional rate A & B Priority and First Class Package and the cheap trading card mail rate(don't know the name but it  saves $$ for those that  peddle them. Free Insurance coverage up to 50 bucks on Priority mail was introduced during my tenure, now it is free  up to $100.  Only had two claims on lost packages that i was  reimbursed for  item and shipping label actual cost - not my  higher shipping  plus handling charge - I was OK with that.  Everything  helps.  Wish I could  buy a brand new Oldsmobile 442 for  $3500 out the door like I did in 1968 - now that  was a gas  eater  12 - 14 m/gal on a good day but it would run.