*I was charged $96 for promoting it and over $100 in fees and taxers."
You chose to promote your item at 11%. Thus, your promotion fee is really nobody's "fault" but your own. What did you think "promoting" means? What it means is that the seller pays for promotion (advertising) and, in theory, eBay places your item near the top of similar listings. Essentially, eBay would say to you, "Hey, you chose to promote your listing and your item sold. Our system worked for you. So, what's the problem here?"
Sales taxes are paid by the buyer. eBay is required by law to collect those sales taxes from the buyer, based on the sales tax percentage at the zip code of the delivery address. eBay then sends that sales tax money to the state where the item was delivered. Yes, eBay does show you that amount of sales taxes, as they are part of The Total Amount Paid By Your Buyer.
Why is "The Total Amount Paid By Your Buyer" such an important number? Because (1) the percentage you chose for promoting your listing and (2) eBay's Final Value Fee (FVF) percentage are both applied to that Total Amount in order to calculate how much money eBay will retain (keep) from your total sale.
"The buyer paid $20 for shipping, however the shipping label I printed was for $56. I did call on this and they are going to dispute it with the USPS."
This should be another learning experience for you. You don't really say whether the listing in question had a flat shipping cost of $20.00 or whether it had "calculated shipping."
If you listed a flat shipping cost of $20.00, you essentially are volunteering to pay any shipping cost over $20.00.
To complain now about those costs (over $20.00) is a little -- I don't know -- confused?
With calculated shipping, each listing form contains spaces for you, the seller, to fill in the weight of the item and the dimensions of the box or envelope it will be shipped in. The weight of the item, therefore, should be a very accurate estimation of the weight in the packaging you choose, with packing materials included.
"All in all, from an $800 sale, my portion came out to $550. I think this is absolutely crazy. $200 for selling an item? This is making me rethink selling on ebay, although I know it's the best place for selling online."
My calculation of a $550 payout from the sale of an $800 item comes to 68.75%. That sounds about right. The old saying about "looking a gift horse in the mouth" comes to mind. My selling ID generally estimates she will receive about 70% of the item prices in her listings.
eBay's Final Value Fees apply to each and every eBay sale. The FVF percentages vary widely among categories, from 6.35% for guitars to 15% for jewelry. Most categories carry an FVF percentage of 13.25%.
The Promoted Listings fees, however, are completely voluntary. You might want to try not promoting a few listings in the future, just to see whether the advertising program will always work for you or not.
And come back often and read this Shipping community forum and the Selling community forum. It's one of the best ways to learn about eBay's procedures on shipping and sales taxes and fees, etc., etc.
