Ebay Australia v Ebay US Fees

[tecworld*]

Is it just me or does it seem ridiculous that the American ebay has a far better fee structure for store subscribers compared with Australia.

http://pages.ebay.com/sellerinformation/stores/Subscriptions.html

In the category I sell I would only pay approx. 3.22% in the US and here I pay 8.5% with the store I have.

Even with the difference in policies etc. between different sites, that difference in fees is HUGE and seems unreasonable. The US also has the top seller plus which gives you a further discount on fees. Should there not be something similar introduced here?

Guess this is more a rant than anything but would love to see a change here too.

[247newdeals]

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@dylan11235813 wrote:

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@digital*ghost wrote:

eBay has a lot more competition in the US than they do in Aus - I actually think that has more to do with it than anything else. 

Some of their competition is specialist and cheaper, some of it is general and more expensive (but actually has higher traffic), so sellers over there have more choice between sites, as well as a wider range of options to suit. 

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So they can charge whatever they like?

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Yes they can and do which is why Ebay Au is becoming a platform just for large companies and Chinese Sellers clearly that seems good to you. The main reason to give sellers bonuses is to encourage them to sell more but EBay AU does not care if they make the profit from Aussies or Chinese sellers seems a lot of Aussies thinks that is good so hardly surprising Ebay do not care either. 

[247newdeals]

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@*tippy*toes* wrote:

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@dylan11235813 wrote:

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@digital*ghost wrote:

eBay has a lot more competition in the US than they do in Aus - I actually think that has more to do with it than anything else. 

Some of their competition is specialist and cheaper, some of it is general and more expensive (but actually has higher traffic), so sellers over there have more choice between sites, as well as a wider range of options to suit. 

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So they can charge whatever they like?

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Yes, they can, as it's their company. The wages are much higher here in Aus than they are in the US, so that could play a part too. In a lot of industries we get paid double, or more, than what they do. A few of theirs are higher, but more aren't.

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I bet that does not count to the average Ebayer 😉 

[irkymirky]

I just read this thread and noticed this comment ..

You could always sell on ebay.com

So how do you do that? set up an account in the US?

I am a hobby seller, meaning that I sell on surplus items out of my hobby.

Last week I sold something for $0.99 and charged $7.45 postage on top.

I do this often, stuff that I no longer need or want. Part of the Recycle Reuse philosophy.

But the Ebay fees on FVF (postage) means I should really chuck some stuff in the bin.

I can't understand why Ebay which is mostly an automated system can't taylor thier fees for items that sell for cents especially since they are constantly hassling sellers to sell with free post and low start prices!!

Ebay is a pain in the ringgear, might be time to invest in a web site.

Cheers

[tecworld*]

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@247newdeals wrote:

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@dylan11235813 wrote:

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@digital*ghost wrote:

eBay has a lot more competition in the US than they do in Aus - I actually think that has more to do with it than anything else. 

Some of their competition is specialist and cheaper, some of it is general and more expensive (but actually has higher traffic), so sellers over there have more choice between sites, as well as a wider range of options to suit. 

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So they can charge whatever they like?

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Yes they can and do which is why Ebay Au is becoming a platform just for large companies and Chinese Sellers clearly that seems good to you. The main reason to give sellers bonuses is to encourage them to sell more but EBay AU does not care if they make the profit from Aussies or Chinese sellers seems a lot of Aussies thinks that is good so hardly surprising Ebay do not care either. 

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I would have to agree with the above to a certain point. It would seem like most things in Aus is geared towards bigger business and forgetting the smaller business (which I guess is where the money is). I am surprised however that more sellers who have responded are more or less defending ebay’s fee structure instead of being more interested in seeing positive changes that would see lower fees and encourage people to sell on ebay.

[phorum_junkie*]

I have no problem with ebay Australia's fee structure. In real terms I pay a lower total percentage of fees than I did back in the days when you paid for every listing if it sold or not, to have a store that gave you 200 inclusive listings you had to pay AU$49.99 against the $19.99 you pay now.

I gave up selling when I am over in the UK some years ago as the fees were higher both for ebay and Paypal even though they have viable competitors as do the Americans.

Of course ebay can charge what they want, it is their site. If you want to influence policy then you will have to buy yourself a majority shareholding.

[digital*ghost]

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@dylan11235813 wrote:

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So they can charge whatever they like?

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Leaving aside for a moment the fact tat my post was in no way intended to justify eBay's charges.... Of course they can charge whatever they like; they're a privately owned company, just like my business is. I could charge $5 for an item if I want to, or I could charge $50 for it - no one can regulate my pricing, except me...and customers, of course. If I could get $50 for an item instead of $5, why wouldn't I price it that high if it acheived exactly what I wanted to? (As in, consumer thresholds and demands certainly play a part in pricing, as does my business plans / marketing strategies).

Back to my original point, however, I actually do think many of eBay's fees are insulting - $1.50 insertion fees? Pfft! 

But let me put at least some of the cost of selling on eBay into a little context.

One another site, I pay USD 20c insertion fees for a listing that lasts for 4 months or until sold. Sounds really cheap, right? Well, it can be, but the actual fee structure can make certain items more expensive to list and sell there, because that is per item sold, not per listing. i.e. If I list a quantity of 10 available, and all 10 sell in a week, that is USD$2.00 insertion fees straight away, so you may be able to see that in my best-selling categories (lower value, high turnover items) it can actually cost me quite a lot to list and sell there. The insertion fees are a bit nicer (3.5%) but again that often gets absorbed by all the insertion fees I pay, and their payment processor (when used) is about twice as much as the merchant rates I get with PayPal. My other store has it a bit easier, because those items have a lower turnover and they're more expensive. 

I also explored selling on A****n, got as far as receiving approval, but never actually listed anything - for me to sell there, after the intrductory "grace period" that was offered, I'd be paying USD $39.95 per month plus 20% FVF (that, admittedly, includes payment processing fees, but still higher than eBay & PayPal combined).

Do we have it good on eBay, particularly here in Aus? I definitely wouldn't go that far, but I can at least say I'm more willing to pay their fees than some other sites... I personally wouldn't save any money by listing on eBay US, either, I'd actually be paying more. 

[digital*ghost]

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@irkymirky wrote:

I just read this thread and noticed this comment ..

You could always sell on ebay.com

So how do you do that? set up an account in the US?

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No, you just have to log into eBay.com instead of eBay.com.au when you create a listing. 

As an Aussie listing on the US site, however, there is one very important thing to consider - that being the FVF on postage. On the US site, the fee is charged on the first, domestic postage option, no matter what, which is great if you're actually in the US and posting from there, not so great if you're anywhere else with much higher P&H costs to send to America.

That's because no matter where you are "domestic" postage is to the country of the site you're listing on, and you can't exclude the US when listing there, either, so if there is a huge gap between domestic (Aus) postage and postage to the US, you may still be better of listing on the Aus site.