Why are your fees so high? My Facebook sales are outselling eBay massively

[lilyrose071299]

I just took another item down off ebay as I sold it on Facebook for a better price and within 2 weeks.  No paypal fees and no ebay fees.  All profit.  I used to sell alot on ebay but now favour Facebook having sold in excess of $1000 worth of second hand items in 4 weeks.  Facebook is out performing eBay.  I would have listed these same items with ebay if you didn't slug me so much between ebay and paypal opn every sale.  I sold a $300 tutu - no fees.  Both myself and the buyer were very happy.  I personally like ebay but list hardly anything with you anymore.  I used to have sales almost daily.   Sales are still just as good but with Facebook.  I think you need to have a real big overhaul of your fee structure if you want to keep people selling.  I'm happy to pay fees but I have always felt your fees are ridiculously high and now I have another avenue as do we all, I can't believe eBay haven't kept with the times

[enigmabear]

Have you told ebay this?

People here are exactly like you, we have no more control over ebay fees than you do

[wide-world-of-stamps]

I wish we WERE collecting the fees as we wouldn't have to work at all!

Unfortunately we're only members here, not Ebay. You could try telling them, but they'd probably try to charge you fees for the items you sold on Facebook, saying they were off Ebay sales!

Good luck to you if Facebook works better for you, it's not the best avenue for our items.

[jellybirddesigns]

Fees are not a problem for me - they get written into my tax return.

I sell a couple of thousand items a year on both this site and another platform and there is no way that they would suit a venue like FB.

As you can see, there are over 400 items in my store.

Plus, my overseas sales count for almost 40% of my volume, something that I would miss out on if I did not sell on Ebay.

My mindset is that I am paying for worldwide exposure.

Today across the 2 platforms I use, I've sold 9 items to Germany, the UK, the US as well as across Australia, something that I could not otherwise easily achieve.

[lilyrose071299]

That's great for you as you are a business.  Clearly I am a consumer selling second hand goods largely and only small volumes.  eBay fees are expensive and ebay have lost about $1000 in fees alone this year on my sales as I have made sles through Facebook.  If you were selling on this scale, you wouldn't be happy either.  Your fees are much cheaper as your vlume improves.  You are trying to compare apples and oranges.  Lots of little people like me add up. Unlike you, I can't claim them on my tax.  It wouldn't be worth it, I would receive about $300 back so would still be out of pocket $700.  Clearly Facebook is better for the small business.  I was simply hlighting to eBay that I would like them to have my business but it's not cost effective for me to do so.  I was simply providing eBay with food for thought.  I don't care how much money they earn.  My sales are turning over at a higher rate on facebook and I am paying nothing for the privalege

[lilyrose071299]

I did write to ebay to give them food for thought and my message to them ended up in this forum.  I'm happy and doing much btter out of Facebook than I ever did on eBay. Sales are faster, I'm selling more and paying nothing.  I simply wanted eBay to know that for the small seller, eBay is less attractive.  All the little sellers fees add up and it's how eBay got going in the first place.  They have the option to keep mine and many others business if the fees were lower.  My message was sent to ebay and not a forum.  They have published it here.  I wrote to give them food for thought as I am bombarded with automated messages enticing me to make more listings

[davewil1964]

I think you will find you posted your 'letter' on this, members discussion, board. The only way a letter would have got to eBay would be snail mail or an email.

If you have saved $1k in eBay fees that is $10k in sales. Hardly selling stuff from around the house. I hope you keep the tax man up to speed.

Oh, you don't, do you? Otherwise you wouldn't hesitate to claim expenses against your tax.

[lyndal1838]

Ebay does not publish anything here.....they don't even read here.

If something you wrote is on the boards it is here because you put it here.

[springyzone]

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@lilyrose071299wrote:

I just took another item down off ebay as I sold it on Facebook for a better price and within 2 weeks.  No paypal fees and no ebay fees.  All profit.  I used to sell alot on ebay but now favour Facebook having sold in excess of $1000 worth of second hand items in 4 weeks.  Facebook is out performing eBay.  I would have listed these same items with ebay if you didn't slug me so much between ebay and paypal opn every sale.  I sold a $300 tutu - no fees.  Both myself and the buyer were very happy.  I personally like ebay but list hardly anything with you anymore.  I used to have sales almost daily.   Sales are still just as good but with Facebook.  I think you need to have a real big overhaul of your fee structure if you want to keep people selling.  I'm happy to pay fees but I have always felt your fees are ridiculously high and now I have another avenue as do we all, I can't believe eBay haven't kept with the times

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I think a lot depends on what you are selling. I noticed you mentioned a tutu for $300.

Just one question-was your buyer someone local who came to look at it first?

If so, then that could explain a lot.  $300 is a fair amount of money & when it comes to clothes, a lot of people would like to see the item first. I was just looking at facebook a few minutes ago and noticed on one of the buy swap sell sites I watch, someone listed a wedding frock. Beautiful frock actually, good brand etc (I consider myself a wedding frock expert after accompanying my daughters round a few years back when they were looking). Now, this woman had a lot of lovely photos and a note that people were welcome to come & look & try on if interested.

You can't do that on ebay. Not without committing to buy first.

So if you're trying to clear either heavier items such as furniture or special items of clothing, you'll probably have some success on FB.

But I have tried in the past with a few smaller items and not managed to sell.

I have a theory. If it is a small purchase, & maybe something that needs to be tried on eg adult shoes, clothes etc, people often won't show any interest on FB or gumtree because they don't fancy fronting up in person. They would rather have the item posted to them. but if you're talking a more expensive item they don't mind making the effort.

Ebay works better for some things, other selling platforms for other things.

[collect247]

@springy My daughter sells everything on FB shoes and clothes all the time.

It takes her only a couple of days to sell her items.

I try and sell my items on FB and I have no luck go figure.