eBay

whoohooohyeahdavid · ‎02-01-2021

i really really researched the benefits of getting a basic ebay store to lower you FVF's. after a ton of reading, I call for some verification. i say 'so right now you charge 12.39% and if you get this basic store you pay a monthly fee, but the FVF's are 10%? am i reading that correct? she says 'no you pay 11.5%' well what the heck is even the point of that? i sell items in the 18-20 dollar range. i'm lucky to clear 2 bucks. it's awful. FVF, insertion fee, etc...and the way i examine some of my sales it appears than a lot more than 12.39% comes out. i'm begging for a better site with a lot of traffic. seller are going away in droves and i'm with them. just need to figure out where because this is a joke. they hosed paypal, no ebay is your bank, giving you your money whenever they choose to. i never had that problem with paypal, i'd make a sale and buy something else the same night. can't do that anymore without waiting days and you never know what they'll send you. i have a bank. i don't need to. it's bad enough i had to get a debit card just to use ebay. enough is enough. bye ebay. someone will get it right. you're not invincible.

tdumonde2014 · ‎02-01-2021

Making $2.00 a transaction is not a viable business plan unless you're selling a thousand items a month, that plan is on you and not eBay. If you were making a better profit you wouldn't care about the new plan. Sellers are not going away in "Droves", sellers with poor business plans, casual sellers, and those not serious about selling are leaving.

"Those who enter the arena unarmed or unprepared are quickly dispatched."

yuzuha · ‎02-01-2021

@tdumonde2014 wrote:
Making $2.00 a transaction is not a viable business plan unless you're selling a thousand items a month, that plan is on you and not eBay. If you were making a better profit you wouldn't care about the new plan. Sellers are not going away in "Droves", sellers with poor business plans, casual sellers, and those not serious about selling are leaving.

I was going to say, I sell a lot of items in the $18-20 range and the smallest profit I make on any of them is around $8. For most of them, it's higher than that.

The problem here isn't eBay's fees, it's that OP is spending too much to acquire their merchandise.

mcc1775 · ‎02-01-2021

@yuzuha wrote:
@tdumonde2014 wrote:
Making $2.00 a transaction is not a viable business plan unless you're selling a thousand items a month, that plan is on you and not eBay. If you were making a better profit you wouldn't care about the new plan. Sellers are not going away in "Droves", sellers with poor business plans, casual sellers, and those not serious about selling are leaving.
I was going to say, I sell a lot of items in the $18-20 range and the smallest profit I make on any of them is around $8. For most of them, it's higher than that.

The problem here isn't eBay's fees, it's that OP is spending too much to acquire their merchandise.

Exactly. Profit is made at the time of acquisition

luckythewinner · ‎02-01-2021

i sell items in the 18-20 dollar range. i'm lucky to clear 2 bucks.

eBay fees are not a big secret. Add the item price, maximum shipping cost, and another 10% (in case there is sales tax) and figure your fees will be 30 cents plus 12.35% of that number (or 14% if you sell internationally). The account for the cost of the item itself and any shipping supplies you will need.

If you do not bother to do the math before you list an item for sale, then you will never know which items make sense to list. In your example, if I list an item for $20 I will not even consider listing it unless my expected profit is $12.50 or more (after all costs, fees, and expenses - including what I paid for the item).

and the way i examine some of my sales it appears than a lot more than 12.39% comes out

That is probably because final values fees are not 12.39%. In addition to a 30 cents fixed fee, final value fees can vary by category, by buyer location, by seller status, due to sales tax, due to shipping charges, due to listing upgrades, due to seller performance penalties, due to currency conversions, due to promotion fees, etc. etc. etc.

seller are going away in droves and i'm with them

If they are, they are being replaced by even larger droves.

you never know what they'll send you.

Well since you have no idea what your fees or profits were, I'm not surprised. But managed payments eBay tells you exactly what your pending funds and available funds are, if you go t managed payments and look at your pending funds and available funds.

rufreakinuts · ‎02-01-2021

The FVFs are basically the same now as they were before the switch to managed payments. Only difference being instead of paying a small fee to paypal and the remainder to ebay, all of the fees now go to ebay. Sadly, this change over is also providing sellers with an inferior product at the same price. There will be some sellers that decide to leave, but they'll quickly be replaced by new sellers that don't know what they're missing and will be happy accepting the new normal. It is what it is. Best of luck to you.

vintagenmoremn · ‎02-01-2021

Yes we are going away. In 16 years not a single platform change has been in favor of the sellers. Facebook Marketplace, Etsy, Shopify, Mercari, CL,Charrish, Poshmark, Ruby lane. Shopify will list items on multiple sites and remove when sold. Good luck!

hpenryessentials · ‎02-01-2021

Longtime sellers ARE going away in droves (just read the boards for 1 min) and MPs continue to be a giant problem for a lot of sellers that aren't selling "a thousand items a month" even with solid business plans. It's easy to adjust your business metrics if you can find the details of the changes easily, but you can't and eBay is not making it any easier. You only have to look at the boards for a min to see that there are hundreds of sellers that have been in MPs for months and don't even realize how it truly affects their own unique store/selling and how frustrating it is to understand the changes and adjust. Also, casual seller's are in the best position to make the most money at the moment as many of them do not have businesses, do not offer free shipping and do not have to worry about the multitude of changes and rules that come along with owning a store here. Telling a seller who said they're leaving the platform that seller's aren't leaving is blind and just plain not true and it's this kind of non-constructive criticism that makes seller's leave for good.

nocoolnamejane · ‎02-01-2021

@hpenryessentials wrote:
Longtime sellers ARE going away in droves (just read the boards for 1 min) <SNIP> Telling a seller who said they're leaving the platform that seller's aren't leaving is blind and just plain not true and it's this kind of non-constructive criticism that makes seller's leave for good.

Well, it's not like sellers who are not leaving are going to come to the boards by the thousand to post "Aight, everything is A-OK, business as usual, nothing to see here". People should not form their opinion of how a website is doing by looking at discussion boards that exist mostly for users to help other users with their issues.

Now no one is saying that sellers aren't leaving over Managed Payments, but saying they are leaving in DROVES is an overstatement. We've actually seen sellers who had done like the boards were an airport and announced their departure come back and sell with MP on their listings. And those of us who have been around long enough to remember when mailed in payments were banned and PayPal made mandatory remember how people were calling for the death of eBay... and that was like 15 years ago...

She ❤︎ Her ❤︎ Hers

hpenryessentials · ‎02-01-2021

Yes I remember when eBay made those changes too back in the day. My over all point is that a large number of sellers ARE struggling, leaving and voicing their opinions about leaving because of the confusion with MPs or fees they don't understand (whether justified or not) and should be able to vent their frustrations without being immediately told by another seller that they're doing everything wrong with their business multiple times and THATS why they're failing. There's a big difference between constructive criticism and just being a jerk.

southern*sweet*tea · ‎02-01-2021

@hpenryessentials wrote:
There's a big difference between constructive criticism and just being a jerk.

There certainly is. But far, far too many posters with problems come here seeking validation. They don't want to hear facts, they only want to hear what they WANT to hear, not what they NEED to hear.

No seller here that posts with regularity wants to see any other seller fail, we really don't. We don't spend hours a day here handing out advice for it to be dismissed. We do it because we WANT other sellers to SUCCEED.

But from what I've seen over the years, many sellers are their own worst enemy. The handful of sellers that do listen and make changes wind up doing well. The rest keep wondering why they're failing. It's because they don't LISTEN with an open mind. They don't want to make changes. They want things to be just like it was twenty years ago. If you don't agree with them, in their mind you are against them, which makes you a jerk, or worse yet an Ebay employee or shill.

I don't hand out advice nearly as much as I used to, because I'm tired of being called a shill, or an Ebay employee, or a socialist, or a Communist, or whatever the diss du'jour is.

Online retail is fluid. It changes constantly. You have to change with it. You adapt, or you die. It's that simple.

The easier you are to offend the easier you are to control.

We seem to be getting closer and closer to a situation where nobody is responsible for what they did but we are all responsible for what somebody else did. - Thomas Sowell

genkinsdirect · ‎02-01-2021

The new FVF is anywhere from 12.35% - 14.35% + $.30 depend on your product category, which is already significant higher than paypal managed payment.

Bu bu but there's still a catch! if your buyers state charges high taxes and if you charge shipping, your FVF will charge on all of them too! So that marks eBay with the highest selling fee among any other 3rd party platform.

Don't you love it when ebay charges FVF on taxs too even tho they collect tax right away and the money never pass thro the seller.

But in the end, to make your business model sustainable, you have to rethink/adjust your retail price accordingly. less than 10% net profit almost never break even, especially when you have tons of inexplicitly cost you can't see/calculate right away.

powell-memorabilia · ‎02-01-2021

Fair point. BUT, we need all types. Too many disgruntled sellers come to have their views confirmed. If they would be open to criticism, and take what some of the more abrasive responders have to say with an open mind, they'd be in a much better position to improve their situation. Sometimes people need to hear the straight dope on a situation.

Disgruntled sellers seem to have an institutional mindset, but they really need an understanding that they should have an enterprise view of the world. Enterprise vs. institutional thinking is a wonderful thing to understand.

dhbookds · ‎02-01-2021

@southern*sweet*tea wrote:
@hpenryessentials wrote:
There's a big difference between constructive criticism and just being a jerk.
There certainly is. But far, far too many posters with problems come here seeking validation. They don't want to hear facts, they only want to hear what they WANT to hear, not what they NEED to hear.

No seller here that posts with regularity wants to see any other seller fail, we really don't. We don't spend hours a day here handing out advice for it to be dismissed. We do it because we WANT other sellers to SUCCEED.

But from what I've seen over the years, many sellers are their own worst enemy. The handful of sellers that do listen and make changes wind up doing well. The rest keep wondering why they're failing. It's because they don't LISTEN with an open mind. They don't want to make changes. They want things to be just like it was twenty years ago. If you don't agree with them, in their mind you are against them, which makes you a jerk, or worse yet an Ebay employee or shill.

I don't hand out advice nearly as much as I used to, because I'm tired of being called a shill, or an Ebay employee, or a socialist, or a Communist, or whatever the flavor du'jour is.

Online retail is fluid. It changes constantly. You have to change with it. You adapt, or you die. It's that simple.

Very well said......... I've had to almost quit also as the temptation to say why don't you read what's posted or leave if you don't like it is becoming overwhelming.

powell-memorabilia · ‎02-01-2021

I won't argue what is positive or negative, but might it be that platform changes - whilst not seller friendly - are better for the buyer experience, and better for the long-term viability of the eBay marketplace? If we went with the wish-list items from sellers, no one would buy on eBay. Heck, let's just go back to the days when buyers would send a money order or, worse yet, CASH to pay for a purchase.

And, really, if you don't think that any eBay changes have been good for sellers, you aren't looking. Is the new cheap mailing packages for collectible cards good for sellers? Isn't the authentication of shoes and watches a good thing for sellers? AND, I know if it a bit taboo to express, but isn't MP good for sellers? It is for this one.