Final value free on shipping

[debbiesden]

I print shipping labels at my house.  Per Ebay I save a % for using First class or priority mail.  They always recommend both, now i see why.  However they are charging me 10% on final fee on shipping so how can they say that we are saving when they are getting the difference. 

My one question is when a buyer pays the correct shipping amount and i don't get a savings or extra money on shipping why is ebay still charging me 10%? They should see that i'm not making extra money on it.

So I'm loosing more money on my items i'm selling and not making a profit.   But Ebay is  that is not right. 

I want to know also if i go to post office and pay there instead of printing label home will i still be charged final value fee on shipping?

[fashn_cents]

You pay Final Value Fees on the TOTAL amount of the sale including shipping...Postage discount you get when you print a label on eBay is only on the postage...This was implemented by eBay when too many sellers were circumventing FVF by charging low on the price of the item then jacking up the S+H which at the time was not part of the sale amount...If you go to the PO and pay counter prices, you will pay more and Ebay will still charge you the FVF on the total amount of your sale...

[debbiesden]

Ok thanks. What is the best option when selling,  free shipping or buyer pays shipping? Also as a seller how is the Ebay store work? Do you get any special discounts for having store?

I just can't believe all the fees Ebay charges.  How can you make anything on your items.  I dont want buyers  pay alot just to cover Ebay fees.  Plus you might  not sell it if you charge more than others on same item.  It's  hard to figure out what to charge items so you can make some money.   Ebay also ask you lower price when item is not selling and you dont make nothing on it after fees. 

Might have to look into selling elsewhere. 

[disneyshopper]

I charge the counter retail rate using calculated shipping.  I pay the discounted rate for printing my labels online.  For example, buyer pays $3.82 for a 4 ounce first class package going to zone 6.  Seller pays $2.84 using ebay or Paypal labels.  The difference of .98 covers cost of printing/box/bubble envelope.  The 10% FVF is .38 so in essence you have .50 to cover the cost of packaging.

To make sure you are charging the counter retail rate, go to your My ebay > Summary > Account > Site preferences > Shipping preferences > Offer carrier specific discount for buyers > I do not want to offer carrier-specific disounts > Save

[anthology-of-treasures]

As you are not Top Rated yet eBay gives you Commercial pricing & $50 insurance. Once you reach Top Rated status you get $100 insurance and Commercial pricing less a so called 3% discount.

It would better for you to print your labels via Pirateship as they give you $100 insurance and commercial rates. They also give you Cubic rates - a special Priority Mail rate for small items 1/2 of a cubic foot or less. After you are Top Rated switch over to eBay labels for the extra 3%, although Cubic pricing from Pirateship can still be cheaper in some instances than eBay labels. You can import your eBay orders there under "integrations".

An easy way to account for a lot of the FVF on shipping is to change your eBay preferences to show customers the retail shipping rate while you pay the discounted rate. The difference between the two should account for the FVF on shipping. This might not work for some small items to certain zip codes so add "X" amount into the item's price to account for this (i.e., $1.00, $2.00, etc.). Check the rates per the link below.

When USPS raises it rates you will likely not have to adjust the prices of any of your items as eBay will automatically adjust the retail and commercial rates accordingly - if you charge customers retail while paying commercial rates. Otherwise you will need to adjust the price of each item to account for the increase of FVF fees on each item due to the USPS rate increase.

https://pe.usps.com/cpim/ftp/manuals/dmm300/notice123.pdf

If you are print labels off Pirateship for your own personal use or for sales through other online venues you of course don't pay Pirateship and fees!

Before the last USPS rate change eBay games were even worse. They charged non Top Rated sellers the higher Commercial Base price while charging Top Rated sellers the lower Commercial Plus rate. The recent USPS price change now effectively merged these two services by charging the same rate although they are listed separately in USPS's last price guide.

If you are on a Macintosh I strongly suggest using GarageSale to manage your eBay listings instead of eBay's dinosaur tools from a bygone era.

Rule #1 - don't believe anything eBay or PayPal tells you!

[anthology-of-treasures]

This was implemented by eBay when too many sellers were circumventing FVF by charging low on the price of the item then jacking up the S+H which at the time was not part of the sale amount...

Only a tiny fraction of sellers were listing items with a small selling price and large shipping charge to avoid FVF fees on the item. 

Examples:

Most Sellers:

Item $25

Shipping $10

10% FVF on Item Only = $2.50

A Few Bad Sellers:

Item $1

Shipping $34

10% FVF on Item Only = $.10 - Seller Avoids $2.40 FVF on the item.

The moral thing to do was to compare the cost of shipping to what was charged the buyer and only charge a FVF on any overage, but instead eBay started charging a FVF on everyone's shipping because in eBay's eyes all sellers are just dumb sheep to be herded. There are no technical reasons preventing eBay from doing this - they choose to do the wrong thing.

eBay publicly stated that charging FVF on shipping would reduce shipping costs

Yes, eBay thinks everyone is that stupid!

To add insult to injury eBay said they were offering some concessions for the FVF fee on shipping:

1. 50 Free listings per month.

2. Most category FVF would be reduced by 1% - a few by 2%.

3. Giving away 12 pictures per listing.

Once again that was more smoke and mirrors as sellers were already getting free listings. Those sellers who knew what they were doing had been using auction software for years to construct listings offline and to save them for free listing days. Sellers who were not years behind technically were already getting free and better image hosting from 3rd parties. The 1% (maybe 2%) drop in FVF on items, which have since been raised, did not provide compensation for FVF on shipping - not even close.

Call it was it really was - A Massive Price Increase to Prop Up eBay's Dying Market Place.

[debbiesden]

Thanks that is big help. I know Ebay does there own setting without letting you know. Also charges other fees that you dont know until you get invoice like list until cancel you are charge a fee and I cant shut that off. 

[debbiesden]

Thanks I have to look into this. I also dont believe Ebay or PayPal. I've been having problems on Ebay have to call them because of zero back buyers and they are canceling order or getting sad story that can't pay. I already called Ebay 4 times this month to get my fees back and had block them.  

[debbiesden]

I agree. I'm just trying to make some extra money on the side. But Ebay is making hard to do that.  Ebay knows that they can do it because there is really no where's else to sell. 

[a_c_green]

---

@debbiesden wrote:

I already called Ebay 4 times this month to get my fees back and had block them.  

---

You don't need to call eBay in order to do that. If the buyer requests to cancel, you can do that yourself on your Sold Items page, specify the reason for cancellation as Buyer Requested (as you have their message to prove it), and your fees will be credited back to your account.

To block them, just drop their IDs into your Blocked Bidder List here: 

https://offer.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?BidderBlockLogin

[quayvar]

A simplified summary of ebays game = Take away options, charge more fees (insertion, final value, PayPal, & shipping fees), and now tax on sold items. Always portrayed as good for sellers because ebay thinks we are all stupid, and don't have brains enough to know that its actually to benefit ebay.

[debbiesden]

Yes I know found out later. The cancel and paid one I got tired if it and denied cancel order and refund. However, I changed my mind and refunded buyer didnt want bad feedback. Had call Ebay so they see that also buyer tried scam more money out of me by saying why I'm charging them money.  The other one I had to call because buyer didnt pay and I put request in and they didnt do anything about it until I called to relist item and get my fees back. 

[debbiesden]

Go to ebaysucks.com it really exist. I googled it.  Alot of people dont know about it.

[anthology-of-treasures]

That would be incorrect. eBay is just one venue these days.

I moved most of inventory to antique consignment shops years ago. I've also sold on other online venues for years. I make more money that way. I even created my own web site on a free hosting site in the early 2000s. I linked it to similar websites via a hub of similar sites within one hobby. Payments by mail back then. I was able to sell my entire collection of hobby specific items while also selling on eBay.

eBay has become the low ball market place for many items. A couple minutes research can easily show that many items of value that you and others sell on eBay are in fact being bought by people to resell elsewhere for more money. A lot of the time the buyers don't bother to disguise their identify. You can search Google for their name or eBay i.d. and find your stuff being resold elsewhere for more money.

eBay knows its a dying market place. Instead of innovation they continue to tighten the thumbscrews.

Use eBay for what its worth. eBay hasn't been the market leader for years.

These horse harness parts would not even sell on eBay due to shipping costs. Placed in a antique consignment shop near an area where they have frequent horse shows they sold for $30. The shop took 25% for storing them and selling them. eBay simply does not work for many things due to their own self-destructive policies.

If you are selling low margin items on eBay then its very important to turn the entire process of creating listings into a efficient assembly line process. None of eBay's tools allow you to do that. Tools like GarageSale allows you to run circles around anyone using eBay's tools.

[kim_y_buran]

This has been discussed ad nauseam for years.  Yes, this is probably the most unfair thing eBay does, and yes, they stole probably millions of dollars from the sellers that way, and they will keep doing it.