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. 

[phorum_junkie*]

You get 40 free listings a month, if you go over that you pay listing fees. You pay fvfs on the total price charged including postage so if you are selling items at a low price with high postage you are most likely going to be paying more than you sold for.

It is easy to check what you have been charged for, just go to your account page and click on view All account activity or up the top where it says invoices you can check previous months.

That will show you a breaksown of each fee that has been charged, the insertion fee, the fvf on the item price, the fvf on the postage amount and the cost of any postage if you have used the ebay label printing service.

[jensmanchester-australia]

Are you using the ebay postage service as if you do the postage charges are added to your invoice.

[horizon1907]

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@hannu2004 wrote:

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. 

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hannu, your prices are very competitive, but IMO not sustainable. Unless you utilise the "free Listings" to help offset some of the costs, it most likely wont be worth your while selling.  The way things are today, starting an Auction off at 99c is IMO again not a good move. If you get only 1 bid on the item it will set you back. Ebay  still think starting Auctions at 99c is a good idea. That may have been years ago, but frankly I think it's nonsense. It works for some, but generally I think it's a bad move.

[hannu2004]

Thank you for your good advise, I'll look into how many items I have sold and I noticed that if I relist items it is an extra $1.50, that IMO is not seller  friendly at all. ebay should look after their customers and not making selling harder or rip them off.

My principle is to sell good items at a good price and fast, I don't see any point in listing too high and let the items hang in there for weeks or months. I agree that starting at 99c is not a good idea, what these days is worth 99 cents?

I use private posting, not ebay, so i may pay more when posting but save on seller fees. 

[mbselections00]

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@horizon1907 wrote:

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@hannu2004 wrote:

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. 

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hannu, your prices are very competitive, but IMO not sustainable. Unless you utilise the "free Listings" to help offset some of the costs, it most likely wont be worth your while selling.  The way things are today, starting an Auction off at 99c is IMO again not a good move. If you get only 1 bid on the item it will set you back. Ebay  still think starting Auctions at 99c is a good idea. That may have been years ago, but frankly I think it's nonsense. It works for some, but generally I think it's a bad move.

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Totally agree with your comments horizon having had a very quick look at hannu's listings.

I don't list Auctions, but am wondering if you can increase the starting price on listings that don't have bids yet ?  If so, I'd be increasing the start prices quick smart.

Hannu, your Feedback is excellent, so what you do you do very well - but I agree,  you need to be making a better margin.  It might pay to consider all the components in your pricing and re-calculate your starting prices based on that, because the fees all add up very quickly - and don't forget, if buyers use paypal, they charge $0.30 per transaction plus I think it's now 2.6%.  And remember if you are allowing greedybays 10%, you actually need to add 11% in your calculations.  Just my basic thoughts, others may disagree

Good luck

[mbselections00]

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@hannu2004 wrote:

Thank you for your good advise, I'll look into how many items I have sold and I noticed that if I relist items it is an extra $1.50, that IMO is not seller  friendly at all. ebay should look after their customers and not making selling harder or rip them off.

My principle is to sell good items at a good price and fast, I don't see any point in listing too high and let the items hang in there for weeks or months. I agree that starting at 99c is not a good idea, what these days is worth 99 cents?

I use private posting, not ebay, so i may pay more when posting but save on seller fees. 

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Regards the re-listing.  I could be totally wrong here, and I'm sure someone will come along and let us know if I am, or at least be able to explain.  I'm not sure if it applies to Auctions, because I never list Auctions, but on BIN listings there is a box you can tick when listing that gives you 3 Automatic Free relistings if the item doesn't sell.  I don't qualify for it, but my hubby's ID does, so if that is available to you, use it and it ill save you a lot of re-listng fees

[joethenuts]

when you do auctions before you press submit it will tell you the cost ,auction cost is $1.50 if you sell or dont sell so you relist it its another $1.50  as the other poster says go to accounts and you will see your statement with every thing on it

[i-love-my-sheep]

Try not to go over your 40 free listings for the month because all those $1.50 listing fees soon add up. Especially if an item that you paid a listing fee for relists automatically. You could pay $7.50 for an item that relists 3 times and doesn't sell. You can check down the bottom of your selling page for how many free listings you have left for the month.

Keep an eye on the forums here because every few weeks or so, eBay gives out 100 or 150 free listings. Only catch is, they are usually only valid for 4 or 5 days, so you have to have everything listed before Midnight on the Sunday night. Someone will always post the link for the offer on here. Even if you accept the offer before it starts, you can't list things until it starts or you will be charged a listing fee if you don't have any of your 40 freebies left. The promotion will also appear down the bottom of your selling page once it starts, so you can keep an eye on how many you have left.

When I started selling I was starting with low prices. Everything was selling with only one bid, so I ended up losing out big time. By the time eBay and PayPal took out their fees, I had dropped below $0. I upped my prices and things are still selling. Don't be fooled by eBay's guff about starting low. Always start at the lowest price you are willing to accept. Always assume that you will only get one bidder. If you get more, bonus. if you don't, you haven't lost out. Don't let eBay get all the money and you get nothing, or worse, pay out of your own pocket because there is nothing left.

[joethenuts]

hanna  hanna   first i am not sure you can post money with aus post  but somebody will clarify that hopefully   seconly you are selling coins only on auction starting at for instance a $1  coin for $1.20   even if you get a free listing you cannot cover ebay and paypal charges  there is already if it sells for $1.20 about 50 cents of charges the cost of the coin no less than $1  and you only just cover  your envelope and stamp as you have postage for $1   sellers start items nat .99cents  like myself but after years you have a bit of an idea what you will get for them but as you say you relist a lot so they dont even sell