eBay's horrible fees

[citygal3]

I am a novice to selling and 5 of my auctions ended at $0.99. eBay charged me $0.97! With the other fees and taxes, I had to pay $0.56 to sell my item! With $1 parking, I was down $1.56.

eBay charged me a fee for USPS shipping! I put the actual cost ($8.55 for padded envelope) and eBay is charging me $0.87 to mail it! This is ridiculous.

So, a $5 sale, I ended up with $2.90; for a $14.50 sale, I ended up with $11.18.  Check it out for yourself!  Look closely at the eBay invoice - and also take into account the paypal fees and cost for shipping.

This is usury and Congress should review and close down eBay.

[dhbookds]

Always a good idea to check the price on anything BEFORE you buy...........  you didn't think of figuring out the fees prior to listing?

[fashunu4eeuh]

Sorry to hear you were taken by surprise. Each time an item is listed, the insertion fees are noted on the listing form before the listing goes live. The Final Value fees are spelled out in the fee policy pages. See link below. It is not free to sell on eBay. In many cases, it is free to list, but once sold, eBay gets a commission. 

After selling on this platform for over ten years, i find the fees to be well within reason. 

https://www.ebay.com/help/selling/fees-credits-invoices/selling-fees?id=4364

[maxine*j]

Sadly, I think people are still encouraged to sell here at auction and with a 99-cent starting price. 

In my opinion:  Auctions are appropriate for something of unusual interest and value, where it really is worthwhile to let buyers compete to set the final price.  They're not appropriate for commodity goods, which are better sold at fixed price.

If you prefer auctions, though, at least set the opening bid at the minimum price acceptable to you, because auctions often get only one bid these days.

Better luck in your future sales.  It takes time to learn all the ropes.  😊

=

[monroe67]

You're moving out of "novice" status.  

My selling ID has received many suggestions from eBay that her auctions should start at 99 cents.  On one item eBay even suggested she start the auction at close to $100.00.   She doesn't pay any attention to those suggestions.

I always do an advanced search for sold items similar to what I want to list, and price my items with intent to end up with whatever minimum profit I hope to end up with.   Yes, it takes a little time, but it can pay off.  

One last bit of advice:  Never, ever, ever, start an auction at ninety-nine cents.   

[silverstatetreasureboxes]

@citygal3 

You stated: "Congress should review and close down ebay"?

 How about eBay and the American people shut down Congress!

[kensgiftshop]

@citygal3 

The fee's haven't changed to much since you've been selling here, so it shouldn't be much of a surprise how much they charge.

[citygal3]

The actuals aren't known until AFTER the sale - and for me, who is new to selling, I was shocked that eBay charged $0.97 for a $0.99 sale.

[citygal3]

If eBay wanted to be transparent - the amount the seller could receive (eBay must know the likelihood of selling a dress, say) should be given up-front before placing the item for sale.

[kensgiftshop]

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@citygal3 wrote:

The actuals aren't known until AFTER the sale - and for me, who is new to selling, I was shocked that eBay charged $0.97 for a $0.99 sale.

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You've been selling for more then a year.

You can figure the fee's and get a good idea what they are going to be before listing.

[kensgiftshop]

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@citygal3 wrote:

If eBay wanted to be transparent - the amount the seller could receive (eBay must know the likelihood of selling a dress, say) should be given up-front before placing the item for sale.

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If it's an auction, they have no idea what it'll sell for, so how can they tell you how much you'll make?

[releasethekraken_1]

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@citygal3 wrote:

The actuals aren't known until AFTER the sale - and for me, who is new to selling, I was shocked that eBay charged $0.97 for a $0.99 sale.

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We can see that your account has hundreds of sales, most of them more than a year old. What's up with that?

If you're taking over someone else's account, you should have asked them about fees, or read up on them yourself. You'll get little sympathy ranting after the fact, and wanting the government to shut down the site that millions of people use to earn money.

BTW, it's best not to use fancy words (usury) unless you know what they mean. It just makes you look worse.

[my-cottage-books-and-antiques]

"This is usury..."

I do not think that word means what you think it means....

"Look closely at the eBay invoice - and also take into account the paypal fees and cost for shipping...."

Most of us take the fees into account BEFORE we list. It would be a good practice to emulate.

[submelar-super]

always

[corvettestainless]

Fees are crystal clear that they include all dollars charged to the customer: Item+Shipping+Tax. 

Auctions can have reserves; something you needed to figure the MINUMUM you can sell for and make a profit or don't use a reserve (there is a fee for this whether it sells or not) and simply start the auction at the least you can sell for and still cover all costs and make a profit.