eBay

niftynoodle · ‎05-17-2021

im sorry to have to do this but we will no longer be selling on ebay .. We just shipped out our final sales and what ebay took from our sales was the cost of the shipping so who pays that now.....How is it legal to take a percentage of the cost of shipping. Someone has now become greedy. I dont sell on ebay for entertainment. This was a way for my family to earn extra money not ebay....

luckythewinner · ‎05-27-2021

@shallow_karl wrote:
All of this stems from greedy sellers who years ago would charge a small fee to "buy" the item, then a huge shipping cost as a way of avoiding final value fees.

IMHO all of this stems from eBay wanting to encourage free shipping by eliminating the "penalty" for doing so.

Before the fee on shipping:

$10 item with $5 shipping: $1.00 fee
$15 item with free shipping: $1.50 fee = 50% penalty for offering free shipping

After the fee on shipping:

$10 item with $5 shipping: $1.50 fee
$15 item with free shipping: $1.50 fee = same fee

duffy4444 · ‎05-27-2021

I usually agree with you on nearly every subject.

But on this one, there's more that went into my shipping decision than avoiding an extra 2-3% for just the shipping. My original very low cost of obtaining goods for resale, along with my very competitive pricing structure and strategy, allows me to accept a very small shipping cost added by using Stamps.com. It's really important for me to use a shipping site that is very comprehensive and easy to use, has next to no downtime, and has real people on the phone (very little wait time), who can take immediate action if I have a question or problem. I've only had to use them for issues three times in almost 20 years. I've been selling here for 23 years.

Years ago I tried Ebay's shipping for a little bit as a comparison to Stamps, but quickly realized that it was much more cumbersome and susceptible to more downtime than stamps. With my agreement with Ebay to ship within one business day, I cannot afford to have glitches that prevent me from shipping NOW. My customers expect that and get it.

All my Ebay sales (and Amazon and Etsy) are linked to Stamps and downloaded automatically with one button pushed. Then after the label and packing slip are printed, my feedback for the buyer and all the other information is automatically back-loaded into Ebay and the others. I have to do nothing else. Convenience, reliability and TRUST means a lot to me.

Even though it's usually the seller on Ebay and their lack of attention, research or knowledge that's the problem, you've heard here of the numbers of long-standing sellers who have unresolved frustration because of taking hours to get nowhere trying to have Ebay solve their various problems with the site. The last thing I need is for Ebay to have a major problem with shipping labels again. With their moving over to more AI bots and lack of real people who can solve problems quickly (or not at all), I'm not taking a chance by putting all my eggs in one basket when it comes to shipping. My current very reliable shipping model gives me peace of mind, and you won't hear me complaining about shipping on this forum.

Cheers, Duffy

nobody*s_perfect · ‎05-27-2021

If you want to pay extra for convenience and reliability, that's your choice and completely understandable. I misread your earlier post, I got the impression that you thought you were avoiding some sort of eBay fee, by not using eBay to purchase postage.

fern*wood · ‎05-27-2021

@nobody*s_perfect wrote:
If you want to pay extra for convenience and reliability, that's your choice and completely understandable. I misread your earlier post, I got the impression that you thought you were avoiding some sort of eBay fee, by not using eBay to purchase postage.

I can't imagine why you would think that since they only said " I totally avoid the Ebay tacked-on fee for domestic shipping costs by listing most of our items with free domestic shipping, and then using Stamps.com."

😜

vintage-car-magazines · ‎05-27-2021

@duffy4444 wrote:
   I totally avoid the Ebay tacked-on fee for domestic shipping costs by listing most of our items with free domestic shipping, and then using Stamps.com. (International shipping, when I use it, is different and usually has to be calculated by Ebay when listing).
   Yearly, I have spent as much as $8,000 in shipping. For a very low monthly fee, they don't tack on any extra cost... at the end of the year, the total fees for my domestic shipping at Stamps.com averages only about 2 or 3%. And I get all the benefits of discounted shipping costs, international shipping with customs forms, low-cost insurance if I want it, and a whole list of benefits.
    The Stamps.com site is user-friendly too, with the added bonus of actual people to answer the customer service phones, and who really know their stuff and can actually do something when needed!
   I've been using them for about 17 years now, and even have them linked to my GoDaddy.com account for automatic bookkeeping.
   Based on the amount of shipping you expect (or hope) to be doing, using a similar service may be a solution for you.
   I shake my head when I see all the complaints about using Ebay for shipping.
   Don't be foolish and hurt yourself by leaving Ebay just because of the added fees for shipping... there are pleasant alternatives.
Cheers, Duffy

The FVF charged by Bay has nothing to with the Free Shipping, added shipping or where the seller buys postage. It's calculated on the total paid by the buyer...item, shipping (if any) and sales tax (if any) regardless of how it's broken down.

If the buyer paid $100, it doesn't matter if you paid $10 for postage or $20 for postage, where it's purchased from or if you used old stamps from 1980, the FVF is the same....it's based on the $100 payment.

craft-stash · ‎05-27-2021

I'm going to be SELLING **bleep** out of it!...LOL I love to eat😎

duffy4444 · ‎05-27-2021

I admit that "I avoid the tacked-on fee" was not a good choice of words, when I really went on to explain in further posts what I meant in the big picture...

I already explained in further posts that the extra 2-3% I pay for using Stamps.com is acceptable to my business model for the added benefit of a better, non-Ebay shipping site that I fully trust for ease-of use, excellent up-time, real and capable people on the other end when only occasionally needed, and peace of mind.

I am aware that I pay more in fees for having a higher, yet still competitive selling price that one would assume makes up for the free shipping offering. But my pricing strategy and very low cost of original acquisition of goods, in addition to the advantage of buyers being attracted to see "Free Shipping with tracking to a US Address!" make the very low Stamps.com fees a non-issue for my business model and worth it because of the higher volume of sales. This also really becomes beneficial when easily combining multiple sales to save on shipping, when buyers do not use Ebay's shopping cart and there are a lot of single sales that the buyer may hope to combine.

I've been selling here for 23 years, and I know what I am doing, and able to accept a very small overall inconsequential shipping fee for the added benefits, trust, and peace of mind I receive by using another site for shipping.

Read my other posts here. I'm done wit this issue and have sales to process... so if you'll excuse me...

Cheers, Duffy

duffy4444 · ‎05-27-2021

Sorry - I admit that it was an initial bad choice of words on my part that mis-characterized what I was trying to get across. That's why I added more posts to further explain what I meant in the big picture.

- Duffy

vintage-car-magazines · ‎05-27-2021

Paying for convenience or added features is fine. You're experienced and know what you're doing. My reply was less directed at you than it was intended for those who are new and still learning so they don't head down a path of misinformation....even if it was unintentional.

Thanks for jumping back in to clarify.