topic Re: eBay fees are INSANE! in Selling

eBay fees are INSANE!

the_pooze — Mon, 10 Jan 2022 08:57:49 GMT

Have been away from eBay for a while but recently returned to buy a few items I've been looking at in the stores but thought I'd look for in eBay to try and score a bargain or two.

I was quite surprised that, in many instances, the items I was looking at were significantly more expensive than I'd thought they would be and, in some cases, notably more expensive than in B&M shops.

I also decided I'd take the opportunity to return to selling to move on a few items to generate a little cash.

Needless to say I was somewhat miffed at all the changes to the management of payments, in particular the ludicrous "hold" period and then the inexplicable delay between when the payouts are supposed to happen and when they actually do.

Most mortifying though is the absolutely INSANE fee structure!

What used to be a not unreasonable 2.5-3.5% PayPal/eBay combo fee structure, reasonable for the value of the service one is taking advantage of, has become an utterly mind bending 14.25%, more in some instances based on my reading.

I am absolutely agog that there are any eBay Sellers left and most assuredly not surprised that I can generally find the goods cheaper elsewhere.

Just an observation.

Re: eBay fees are INSANE!

padi*0409 — Mon, 10 Jan 2022 09:14:43 GMT

@the_pooze wrote:
Have been away from eBay for a while but recently returned to buy a few items I've been looking at in the stores but thought I'd look for in eBay to try and score a bargain or two.
I was quite surprised that, in many instances, the items I was looking at were significantly more expensive than I'd thought they would be and, in some cases, notably more expensive than in B&M shops.

I usually Google the items I'm interested in and I do find that eBay isn't always the cheapest.

I also decided I'd take the opportunity to return to selling to move on a few items to generate a little cash.
Needless to say I was somewhat miffed at all the changes to the management of payments, in particular the ludicrous "hold" period and then the inexplicable delay between when the payouts are supposed to happen and when they actually do.

If you can show by tracking and/or feedback that the sale has been problem-free, eBay will release the funds earlier.

Most mortifying though is the absolutely INSANE fee structure!
What used to be a not unreasonable 2.5-3.5% PayPal/eBay combo fee structure, reasonable for the value of the service one is taking advantage of, has become an utterly mind bending 14.25%, more in some instances based on my reading.

Fees haven't changed since the move from Paypal to Managed Payments, do your maths on that.

Re: eBay fees are INSANE!

gutterpunkz05 — Mon, 10 Jan 2022 09:39:39 GMT

We'll all be ruined. Strange ebay sales are still booming

Holds for new sellers are not new, was 21 days under paypal, and is now 30 days under MP, and it was introduced for a very good reason.

Fees under MP are generally 13.4% + 30c, which is basically the same as the old system where you had to combine the paypal 2.5 % + 30c and ebay fees 10.9%, Some claim fees are higher than stated, but there calculations are flawed.

Re: eBay fees are INSANE!

jellybirddesigns — Mon, 10 Jan 2022 09:42:51 GMT

Ebay has never had a fee structure of 2.5-3.5%.

Fees have been approx 13.4% for donkeys years now (with a slight variation, depending on which category you sell in)

Ebay is about 10.4% and Paypal was about 3% approx. All that has happened is that is that Paypal has been dropped in favour of Adyen and the combined fee is now taken up front, instead of getting a monthly invoice. The nett balance is sent to your bank account.

All the fees are outlined in the sellers guide. If you're smart, you can structure your listings to take into account the selling fees.

Ebay is around of the cheapest - Amazon fees are probably about 17% in comparison. All of the other big platforms work on a Managed Payments system - Ebay is actually late to the party.

I highly suggest you get signed up for the new MP system and become validated prior to any listings. There are plenty sellers who delay signing up and then come to the forums in a complete flap because they've sold something and only now are they realising that they have to submit proof of ID such as a drivers licence or passport, which they either don't have or refuse to get. Then they're 100% stuck as they cannot be validated.

Re: eBay fees are INSANE!

digital*ghost — Mon, 10 Jan 2022 21:11:53 GMT

@the_pooze wrote:

Most mortifying though is the absolutely INSANE fee structure!
What used to be a not unreasonable 2.5-3.5% PayPal/eBay combo fee structure, reasonable for the value of the service one is taking advantage of, has become an utterly mind bending 14.25%, more in some instances based on my reading.

PayPal alone has been 2.6% for as long as I've been using it (around 12 years).

Back circa 2010 eBay fees were around 9%, and you paid to list items as well as for some basic features - I was still adding extra images to the description so I didn't have to pay to upload photos to the gallery. Add PayPal into the mix and combined it averaged 11.6%, not including any other fees.

3 major changes have made the fee difference a bit more drastic than just the numbers, though - first one being FVF being applied to postage. For some sellers, this made no difference at all, for others it more than doubled their fees (anyone whose postage costs were in the ballpark of their item prices would have seen them double, at any rate).

Second one was eBay having to add GST to their fees, this would have seen 2010's combined total at 12.5% - nothing eBay could have done about that. (Side-note, GST has never been applicable to PayPal's fees, if they were, the combined total would have been 12.76%)

Another difference is the FVF cap - when ebay first raised the FVF to 9% and got rid of the sliding scale (amounts over $100 used to be charged at a lower fee, and it went down again for amounts over $1000), they brought in the $50 cap, so that was the most you'd ever pay no matter what your item sold for. Then that got raised to $250, then $400, and now there's no cap, but they re-introduced the scale (generously lowering the fee to only 2.5% for amounts over $4000, lol).

What this basically comes down to, is fees haven't changed all that much at all for anyone selling items up to $100 with free post or minimal postage added separately - everyone else, yeah, there has been a pretty big difference over the years.

With a website, or B&M, your costs are pretty fixed except for payment processing - by which I mean, once you pay for all your rent, or or site set up, it doesn't cost you any (or much) more to sell $50k of goods than it does to sell $25k of goods whereas on sites like eBay, selling more costs more, so it's a bit harder for pricing to be flexible here, even though if you compare to other third party websites, they are (or can be) cheaper.

Re: eBay fees are INSANE!

sandypebbles — Mon, 10 Jan 2022 21:32:15 GMT

Where did you get the 2.5-3.5% figure from?

Certainly not the real world

If it as insane as you say, there should be no need to make up nonsense

Or maybe you think people reading here don't know any better?

Re: eBay fees are INSANE!

colic2bullsgirlore — Mon, 10 Jan 2022 22:10:50 GMT

The beginning of the end was way back when, but, indeed higher priced items sold pre 2010 (because of the maximum FVF rule) for much less than 2.5% / 3.5% total fee.....

cut and paste from a 2013 article .... in 3 years fees went from 5.25 to 9 %

https://www.lifehacker.com.au/2013/04/ebay-australias-increased-fees-explained/

The final value fee percentage is going up from 7.9% to 9.9%. On a $50 sale, that means eBay will claim $4.95, where previously it would have grabbed $3.95. In 2011, the final value fee percentage was 5.25 per cent, so it has almost doubled in just two years.

eBay has also increased the maximum value of the final value fee to $250, up from $100. Under the old system, that meant your final value fee topped out when you sold an item for around $1266. Under the new system, that same $1266 item will cost you $125.33, and the fee doesn’t max out to $250 until your item hits $2525.

Re: eBay fees are INSANE!

digital*ghost — Tue, 11 Jan 2022 00:00:02 GMT

Cheers - my memory is definitely a bit sketchier than it used to be on the timeline of things, though I do remember FVF being 5.25% with the sliding scale, and eBay saying they were getting rid of it to make fees easier to calculate for sellers 🤣 - I thought we started with a $50 cap, or was that just the US?

They used to show the FVF before confirming a listing submission, too - i.e. it would say something like based on the listing price, you'll pay $X in fees when it sells, with a caveat that it was subject to change if the pricing did, or if promotional discounts applied etc. IMO they should bring that back - at least no one would be shocked by the fees applied post-sale that way.

Re: eBay fees are INSANE!

ictconsultingauctions — Mon, 06 Mar 2023 23:58:35 GMT

I agree, I have previously paid no attention to ebay fees as I mostly purchase items not sell them, but have recently sold a couple of welders and got shafted to the tune of $120 and $300 in fees for the sale of each machine. This is absolutely crazy and I am moving to Facebook Market Place and Gumtree for the items I sell. This kind of **bleep** makes giving items away at the local pawnshop look appealing.

Re: eBay fees are INSANE!

sandypebbles — Mon, 06 Mar 2023 22:05:51 GMT

Tell eBay

they don't read here

You are shown the fees before pushing the list button, taking no notice is on you. You choose to go ahead

You still have 5 items listed, so fees will apply to all those too