10.9% selling fee on this site is daylight robbery.. I've removed my adverts. Will not use again

[imastawka]

Maybe they conduct auctions in their front yard?

[k1ooo-slr-sales]

the clearance auctions I have attended do charge a commission to sell things for people AND there is usually a buyer's premium to pay as well. The buyer's premiums have ranged from 11% to 17.5% and I always factor in the total amount payable when I set my max bid amount.

[k1ooo-slr-sales]

. . . and there is usually a fee on payments made by credit cards (buyer paid the fee, not the seller). From memory it was a few %.

This CC fee was payable on the item price and the buyer's premium.

My local clearance auction would deliver won items for a fee. It was $110 per hour for two men and a truck. You paid for them to load the truck, drive to delivery address, unload truck and then to drive back to base.

Spoiler

after re-reading attic's post I think he meant this:

In response to your grand statement that physical auctions charge more. Really? No they don't, because there are no fees for postage (or time + packaging costs + fuel + car expensez + time), nor fees for paypal, so the cost usually always comes out cheaper

I don't think he was saying auction houses run auctions for free . . . I mean, that would be stupid!

Spoiler

as I posted, there were fees on card payments and of course there is no postage when you physically attend an auction and take won items with you.

Needless to say though, pretty limited buyer pool on localised physical auctions . . . so even if fees for sellers worked out less as a % than those on eBay you don't have the potential for realising higher prices as the item is not available for overseas buyers.

[digital*ghost]

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@joztamps wrote:

So overall I think ebay fees and protections are pretty good.

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I fall somewhere in the middle, personally. I don't think ebay provides good value for money, from a seller point of view, but I still sell here so obviously I find the costs both acceptable and worthwhile. The fact that buyer numbers and overall sales on eBay are shrinking but their revenue is growing, I feel succinctly conveys sellers are paying more (and more) for less benefit, and I include site improvements that are sorely needed as well as bringing in [quality] traffic. ebay continually encouraging 'race to the bottom' pricing strategies does not help anyone, either. 

I don't really like comparing eBay to physical shops or auctions because they are very different ball games, despite having similar functions. It's like when people compare buying from a B&M to buying on eBay and basing their expectations of eBay on regular or standard B&M practices or costs - at best there's a venn diagram that operlaps a bit in both kinds of scenarios, but that's about as far as it goes, JMHO. 

I'd be more inclined to compare with other forms of online selling, which range from free to more expensive than eBay (though that can depend on what you're selling and the average price of your items, too), as well as having a multitude of pros and cons that can mean one of them is either the best or worst place to list a given item, and eBay is no different - it is the best place for some, the worst place for others. 

Just as an aside, since the protections eBay offers was mentioned, I thought I'd post the below pic which I found on eBay's home page (apologies if others have already seen it, I did post it elsewhere recently). There is a list of links on the home page that go to selling pages, overall it's supposed to convey that eBay is a great place to sell, and each link has an icon - one of the links goes to eBay's seller protection page, and so someone obviously had to choose an icon to represent that on eBay....

Spoiler

So...yeah, I thought that was a particularly unique icon to choose... 

[11dustyattic]

No fees for postage, you missed that or chose to put your own slant on it, not surprising. Regarding fuel to get to a physical auction, few people would drive there just to buy one item. Any other questions oh great one?

[davewil1964]

Postage is a cost of doing business.

I certainly don't have any questions you are likely to have sensible answers to.

If somebody in Dampier wants to buy from me and pay $8.95 postage for something they would otherwise have to drive 1000km to get, then it's a win/win for both. I sell less than 1% of my items locally, so a local auction house isn't really a viable alternative. If you're selling heavy pickup up items and you can find an auction house that doesn't charge as much as eBay, go for it.

I've been around long enough to know that blowins with simplistic answers to not necessarily simple scenarios, tend to have little impact on those trying to make eBay work for them.

[11dustyattic]

Blow ins? lmao

Now let me ecplain in point form for you, because you don't seem to understand or change your context as you go along.

1. You claim physical auction houses charge more. They actually don't which I explained but you conviently twisted my words to make fun of me, laugh with your equally insufferable mates here ugh

2. So instead of dealing with numbers (online or here vs physical auction), you then get further off the subject waffling on about a Dampier buyer you'd like to help out lol Dampier's a great place. I used to live up there, but what does that have to do with the price of turnips?

3. I'm not a blow in but even if I was, please stop with your snotty nosed insults. You are the only person who holds the opinion of yourself you do. Trust me on that

[yeoldecoinco]

Physical auction charge a packet.

Coin/stamp auctions in Australia charge up to TWENTY TWO percent "buyers fees" PLUS in nearly every case a 10-15% sellers fee. In most cases, goodbye to nearly 40% of what is OFTEN a wholesale price, rather than a retail price.

Most of the material at these auctions sell for less than it does on eBay, in fact many dealers like me buy at these auctions then re-sell on eBay. The poor vendors get murdered by auctions, they are often deceased estates and the people selling the stuff did not buy it. Just as well or they would be rolling in their grave at the pathetic prices.

Most coin/stamp auctions also charge outrageous postage costs for anyone not attending in person.

Recently I bought a single $300 stamp from a Victorian stamp auction. The rip-off postage charge was $21 on something I could have sent by Registered mail for $6. Needless to say, I won't be buying from that auction again, unless I attend in person.

The ONLY items worth selling at physical auctions are very RARE items, these often do better than listing them on eBay and vendors can often negotiate a lower fee with the auction house for RARE items.

Any common, run of the mill material usually gets absolutely slaughtered at physical auctions, even before nearly 40% is skimmed off by the auction house, in most cases the vendors would be MUCH better off finding a dealer and selling to them.

I have lost count of the number of items that were poorly or incompentently described at auctions that I have bought for next to nothing and sold at a big profit. Many auctions are extremely lazy or stupid in how they lot and describe items, especially, for example, if they are a general goods auction selling coins or stamps or a stamp auction selling coins.

Recently from a lazy local stamp auction I bought a lot for $100, described as "box of coins and medals" what a pathetic, useless  description. Contained a Melb Centenary florin and several rare medals that I sold for over $1000. The poor vendor got royally stiched up on that one.

eBay/Paypal charges are not cheap but they are reasonable given most alternatives and one learns to live with it or one finds a different venue to sell. As for eBay, I list the more common or middle or the road stuff because that's where its market is for me.

The rarer material usually gets listed on my website.

I have been selling on eBay for 20 years and despite all the hoops they throw you, I am VERY grateful for the chance to work from home at my own pace. eBay changed my life greatly for the better, that is for sure.

By far the best job I have ever had..