why does Ebay take a fee on postage?

[lauren.skye001-7]

Why does Ebay charge a fee on postage costs? We do not profit from this. I charge the exact fee it costs to send an item domestically, this is to be fair to the buyer. And this is also automated by Ebay as it makes uploading process easier. Ive just discovered that on the final postage fee of $8.50 (for example) Ebay take 93 cents? What purpose does this serve other than ripping off the seller? With both paypal and ebay fees on top of this i am out of pocket. Its already a struggle to sell on ebay. Literally ill sell my items somwhere else. 

[enigmabear]

A good few dozens threads on the boards here where it has been asked and answered 

[davewil1964]

For the last five(?) years.

So there are plenty to choose from.

[imastawka]

You are not contacting ebay here, just other members.

I notice that you re-listed a yellow kimono 5 days after it was sold the first time.

 I'd say you didn't bother to get your fees back for that non-paying buyer.

But yeah, let's complain about postage costs.

[bundymods]

Because ebay are Thiefs

You Get Charged 3 Times

Final fees

Postage fees

Paypal fees

[lyndal1838]

Final Value Fees apply to the total transaction.....item and postage.

Paypal fees are to pay for the transfer of money.

ONE fee from ebay, one fee from paypal.

Please stop posting incorrect information of the boards....you can be reported for doing so.

[dazzledayz]

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@lyndal1838 wrote:

Final Value Fees apply to the total transaction.....item and postage.

Paypal fees are to pay for the transfer of money.

ONE fee from ebay, one fee from paypal.

Please stop posting incorrect information of the boards....you can be reported for doing so.

---

Absolutely correct Lyndal, there re only two fees so Peewee has misdescribed the fee structure:

1. eBay - FVF on total sale amount + 10% GST so 10.9% (for a basic seller with no store using only free listings).

2. Paypal - 2.6% FVF on total sale amount + 30c fixed fee so 8.6% on $5, 5.6% on $10, 4.1% on $20, 3.6% on $30 and so on. (AU sales only)

So, if you sell an item for:

$5   it will cost a total of $0.98 in fees (rounded up from 0.975).

$10 it will cost a total of $1.65 in fees.

$20 - $3 in fees

$30 - $4.35 in fees

I really don't think too many occasional sellers actually work this out as I see people selling for very little profit when postage is taken into account.

Quite often only a dollar or two which certainly doesn't pay for the work done.

[dazzledayz]

I should add to the above.

To get the actual profit made from selling your item use these formulae:

For a basic seller:

Profit = (Total Selling Price inc Postage) - (item cost + postage cost + packaging cost + fees)

For a business seller:

Profit = (Total Selling Price inc Postage) - (item cost + postage cost + packaging cost + fees + (Store fees/avg sales per month))

I have this set up in a spreadsheet so it's not too hard to work out what the actual profit per item is.

[padraicpaul91]

I think it was 3 years ago. Ebay's explanation was that it was in the interests of 'equity'. By that they meant they were in part protecting sellers who had moved to 'free postage' which eBay had been pushing heavily at the time. These sellers were obviously paying fees on the incorporated postage cost. Also, it helped cut out sellers who had low prices combined with high postage costs, to minimize fees.

What eBay did not explain was the effective large increase in profit they made by this move, whilst claiming they were keeping fees down. For me, it was an overnight 30% increase in fees per item, on average.

[dazzledayz]

With books it seriously disadvantaged Australian sellers as the big UK outfits get brilliant parcel prices from UK Royal Mail.

(they can post a book to me much cheaper than I can post it to myself).

Overnight, the Poms managed to undercut us by 50~100%.

It's similar in other categories with a high Chinese seller cohort.

Once fees were applied to postage Aus booksellers saw their total eBay fees increase by more than 50%.

And now we also have the GST added to that as the eBay fees themselves are taxed.

eBay could have quite easilly stamped out the practise of overcharging for postage but it was simpler to slap fees on it.

(much more profitable too, which I suspect was the real reason).