Exorbitant seller fees and unexplicable billing

[hannu2004]

Why am I getting bills form ebay that are unsubstantiated and I cannot reply and complain? My last bill of fees is $50.54 from gross sales of $201.57.  But if I add all the fees from my sales page it only comes to $11.47. why so big difference and why is ebay not explaining what i am paying for? if I go to a shop and buy things my invoice lists all things i have bought that add to the total sum, but not in ebay billing... why not. Quite frankly 25% fee for all sales is a rip iff, I am thinking of chukking the whole ebay business. I operate on a very thin margin already but I get the feeling that I am only making the fat ebay bossess rich. 

[hannu2004]

i-love-my-sheep: "A few months back, I saw a current $100 note sell for nearly $300. Also a few months back, I pulled $200 out of an ATM in $20 notes. 5 of those notes were crisp and in sequence. I put those 5 in my safe with my ever growing coin collection. At the moment they are only worth face value, but I know in years to come, having 5 running numbers will increase their value."

I started colelcting all sorts of coins long ago, my objective was to have one of each year, circulated or UNC. once I had the full series I started to buy UNCs to replace the circulated ones because i did not want to spend a lot of money in one hit. Now it has come time to streamline my collections and sell all the circulated and aUNCs ad only keep the UNC for future sale and investment. some say that collecting coins for investment is not worth it but again, some coins are some not. If i did not put the monies into coins I would have probably spent it.

I did some spreadsheet calculations on my coin collection and as an average, they double every 10 or so years, same as a property is expected to. so in my opinion, carefully selecting what I collect it will be an investment. Look at the Victoria cross $1 coin, the issue price was $5 in 2000, now it is worth more than $250. 

I sold some months ago on ebay early paper notes, $1 and $2, they were really wrinkly and quite frankly looked quite sad but they all went like hot cakes. Someone just wanted them. they were nothing special and listing price was not that high. 

Same as i-love-my-sheep, I have stashed away few consecutive notes but as anything selling, the value will be whatever someone is willing to pay. I know I have bought things at high price because I wanted it, I assume I am not the only one doing that, in fact I am counting on that. 

Thanks for a good chat guys.

[i-love-my-sheep]

I mostly collect proof coins now, but I do have a (very) small collection of pre decimals, which I'll probably add to eventually. Some of my proofs I bought purely because I liked the look of them. Others I've bought because they sold really cheap. Others I've bought as investment. Things like royalty, animals and insects seem to be sought after. I figure once the Queen checks out, my royal coins might increase. I've also found that odd shaped coins seem to be popular, like square or the Australia shaped ones.

A couple of years ago when Perth Mint was releasing the Australia ones, they got snapped up pretty quickly. Subsequent issues are selling really fast too. I bought 2 of the second coin from Canada of all places. Consecutive serial numbers, low numbers at that (3 and 4), and got them at a 1/4 of the price that the mint was selling them for. Low numbers seem to have a higher value for some reason.....or more highly sought after anyway.

As for paper money, people don't seem to care what the condition is, they usually get snapped up. I went nuts last year buying some paper money. Most of it is UNC and groups of consecutive numbers, but a few single notes that appealed to me at the time. They take up less room than coins!

If you're selling off your circulated coins, do you have enough of each year where you can list a whole set? As in 5c, 10c, 20c, 50c, $1 and $2? That might make them more appealing. It's surprising what people pay for things sometimes, especially when you look at gift cards, where face value is $50 and people pay well over face value. Circulated coins are a great way for kids to start collecting.

[hannu2004]

I cannot put together sets that way but i have consecutive years in 20, 10, 5, 2 and 1 cent coins. i'll try them.

[hannu2004]

Hmmm, i got a "Fast "N"free offer for 46 items. is that a trap? I am begining to be very suspicious of ebay.  any comments on how they work out?

[i-love-my-sheep]

---

@hannu2004 wrote:

Hmmm, i got a "Fast "N"free offer for 46 items. is that a trap? I am begining to be very suspicious of ebay.  any comments on how they work out?

---

I'm guessing you got one of those emails "top tips for selling"? Ignore them. Sounds like they are trying to get you to change all your listings to free postage and have a handling time of 1 day. Yes, it's a trap. Buyers don't really care whether an item has free or paid postage. Most buyers are smart enough to know that there is no such thing as free postage and know it would be included in the price. Having paid postage means they can often get a discount when they buy more than one item.

I'm guessing that email was also telling you to add item specifics and change your titles? You will get them every week. Best to just ignore them.

[joethenuts]

hanna dont forget when your auctions finish put your coins on buy it now instead of auctions   it is cheaper ,

tomorrow you have a $1    and a 50cent coins finishing auction      like i worked it out for you  you sold your $2 coin but still lost $1.50  with fees   but can you understand if you dont sell your $1   and 50 cent coin on monday you loose less money than if you sell them at starting auction  price   [$1 coin =$1.20 +$1  postage..........50cent coin=85cents +$1 postage  ]  if these 2 items doont sell you loose $1.50 auction fee    but if they sell you loose more than $1.50     unlless someone bids more   good luck,  i hope you can see why you are losing money  with big fees.

[padi*0409]

Have you taken into consideration that you have an eBay store and hannu hasn't ?

There's a lot of difference in the fee and free listings setup between stores and non-stores, so I think some or a lot of your reasoning may well not apply to hannu..............

[bakeandfry]

Exellent point Padi, i was wondering why joe said the op was loosing $1.50 listing fee when they are not.

[joethenuts]

she is selling the coins on auction she sold a $2 coin yesterday for $2.50 +$1 postage       auction cost $1.50  fees ebay and paypall 75cents , stamp and envelope 75cents  and coin $2  total $5  sold $3.50 total   loss is $1.50      if she had it at bin price it is only 40 cents instead of $1.50 and she needs to put a higher selling price  now today she is selling a $1 coin  starting at $1.20     and a 50cent coin starting at 85cents

[black*poppy]

The fast and free simply means free postage for buyers and to have a fast (one day)handling time.

You get 40 free listings per calender month. If you get the check box saying "relist this item for free up to 3 times" the relistings are absolutely free and do not use up your 40 free listings when they relist. So you effectively get 120 listings assuming nothing sells.