Final value fees and postage

[sweetsherry1]

I am absolutely appalled that my final value fee was charged on the total price including postage. Postage is not money in my pocket. It was $70 paid by the buyer to get the article to themselves. How can they do that and get away with it. That must be illegal. I will NOT be selling any large cost items on ebay again. That is highway robbery. sweetsherry1

[p9games]

It's not illegal and it isn't highway robbery.

If they didn't do it people would sell items for $1 + $500 postage wouldn't they?  

Deal with the fees or sell on another platform.  Entirely up to you

[*sons_and_daughters*]

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@p9games wrote:

It's not illegal and it isn't highway robbery.

If they didn't do it people would sell items for $1 + $500 postage wouldn't they?  

Deal with the fees or sell on another platform.  Entirely up to you

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And they were. I bought an item a few years back now, at auction, for 1c with $45 postage. I was the only bidder, and I knew getting it at that price was a bargain. The same seller had the same item, again at auction, with a start bid of 1c with free postage. That item sold for over $100. Win for me, but they escaped a lot of fees for the item I won.

I got quite a few bargains like that, because I looked at the total price, not just what the item sold for.  A few were after the fee on postage came in, so while I got a few more bargains, the seller was probably shocked why they were paying fees on those items, when ordinarily they'd pay nothing.

While I'm not a fan, I don't have an issue with fees on postage. It's kept those trying to rort the system a bit more honest. I look at the overall price, not just item price and postage cost.

[sugar249]

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@countessalmirena wrote:

 for instance, those selling reasonably items whose overseas postage costs would be disproportionately affected in comparison with their local postage costs. Sellers have in the main had to think strategically about how to offset this or how to list or what sort of items to list.

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Nothing strategic required,  It's quite simple and what any professional business would do,  calculate all costs of a sale, such as purchase of item,  how much profit you want to make,  postage price,  all fee's, etc, etc,  then price your item accordingly.   Not strategy just logic.   We have people coming on here who just list an item,  and don't consider the costs,  they forget Ebay is not a charitable organisation.   If they want free, go to Facebook or Gumtree, and look at the issues people have there.

[digital*ghost]

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@sugar249 wrote:

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Nothing strategic required, 

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There definitely can be, since there are a lot of different pricing and postage models aside from the straightforward one you've outlined. Pricing itself - with or without fees being applied to prices - can be considered strategic, and designed to appeal to a specific market. Double one of the costs involved overnight (as many sellers experienced when fees were applied to postage), and yeah, sellers all over the site had to rethink their pricing strategy. 

[gec2002]

In an earlier answer to the countess you stated

"I always struggle when a radio station makes a statement, that everyone loves this artist, or a politician makes a statement saying everyone is for it, or anyone else saying everyone.

People shouldnt assume because of there own opinion, or a handful of complainers on a forum or Facebook, that everyone doesnt agree."

Then you state "Nothing strategic required" a blanket staement that pricing is just logic, no if or buts Just Logic. Pricing has both elements of logic and strategy, have you never heard of "Lost Leaders", and how do you set your pricing compared to your competitors, higher/lower/the same, are you going to give Free Post or charge Postage, if you charge Postage will just cover costs or show a discount and make up the difference in price, what profit margin are you going to set, what is my discount pricing, what is my promotional pricing, all these elements are strategic.

[gec2002]

Really must learn to type faster and how to use more than one finger

[natozi]

I hadn't sold anything on Ebay for a few years so maybe I have a bad memory or that the things I had sold in the past weren't very high in price. I sold something for $927 including postage and ended up with a payout of $803. Far out $124 selling fee (12%) seems steep to me. I get that the platform makes things easy and has a lot of buyers to drive the price up but still that seems a lot. Anyway lucky I don't sell much as Ebay seems much better for buying than selling. 

[jellybirddesigns]

I'm constantly surprised by the number of people who think that selling on Ebay is virtually "free".

The fees are upfront and displayed for anyone who cares to look and have been around 13.4% combined for Ebay/Paypal/Adyen for many, many years (depending on what category you sell in).

PS:  12% of $927 is $111.24, which would have given you $815.76. If you got $803, then your percentage was approx 13.4%, which is as stated above.

It would not have seemed a lot of you had worked out what your nett would have been after fees ahead of time and then made listing decisions based on an informed opinion.

[phchbr]

There is a valid question here. Ebay can charge what they want, and people can choose to use it or do something else. I'd prefer to use it than risk the Wild West of GumTree, and I'm ok paying a fee for the protection offered by ebay. Their reason for including postage in the fee calculation, ie that people are selling for $1 and charging $99 postage, when in fact the goods are worth $90 and postage costs $10, seems a bit lame in this age of AI and machine learning, but again, I can either put up with it or go somewhere else.

The problem though is that the seller's fee varies depending on where the goods are being shipped to, and by what method. I just sold something as a private seller, not a store seller, on ebay Australia for A$137.50 to someone in Canada. The buyer requested Express postage. I got a quote for A$36, plus an Australia Post packing box and insurance, total A$42. I discovered after everything had been agreed by the buyer, this bumped up ebay's fee to me, the seller, from 17% to 19% of the sale price. Had the buyer been in Australia and happy with a standard shipping service, my total fee would have been 16%. If he'd requested a courier to Canada, my fee would have been 25%! And none of this benefits me in the least. You might say ebay gave me access to an overseas buyer, but they also charged me 1% for that. Ok, so I've learned a valuable lesson.

I assumed that if I looked through goods for sale by private sellers that I would see people protecting themselves from these fee variations. I expected to see comments like "Ebay fees are calculated on the sale price plus the postage. If posting by Express or any service other than Standard, or if posting outside of Australia, the buyer will bear the additional ebay fees incurred". I can't see anything like that. Does anyone know if people protect themselves in this way?

[davewil1964]

There isn't a valid question.

You've posted the same novel in two threads.

It is a novel, because you don't have a grasp of facts. None of the numbers you have quoted align with reality. Find a calculator. Your phone has one, or your computer.