> 16.5 % to sell on ebay ??

[masterstroke.eng]

Is that figure correct, or is it more when you ad Pay Pal fees ?

[kopenhagen5]

eBay selling fees are 10.9% on total invoice and includes tax capped at 440.

PayPal fees are 2.6% + 30cents.

Fees - https://www.ebay.com.au/help/selling/fees-credits-invoices/selling-fees?id=4364&st=3&pos=1&query=Sel...

[egglesdtp]

This is the percentage figure I received for April this year:

This was the highest one for this year on this ID, but the rest are in the same sort of range with the lowest at 13.63%. And this does not include Paypal fees.

Total monthly sales figure and total fees figure agree with my calculations too.

[brerrabbit585]

The higher your postage costs, the higher your total fees will be as a percentage of your item price.

[egglesdtp]

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@brerrabbit585 wrote:
The higher your postage costs, the higher your total fees will be as a percentage of your item price.

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This is especially applicable if the item cost is close to (or even less than) the postage cost - as mine are.

[egglesdtp]

Just worked out that in the month shown in the graph, I sold 26 items, so average cost per item was $11.83, not much higher than my postage cost per item.

The month of my lowest percentage of 13.78%, my average cost per item was $13.46.

So the higher your item cost compared to postage cost, the lower your percentage in fees.

[go-tazz]

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@brerrabbit585 wrote:
The higher your postage costs, the higher your total fees will be as a percentage of your item price.

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I was going to list an item at a $4.99 auction start price which had a $14 postage cost,(I was fairly sure that it

would go a "bit" higher and this way it might atract some interest).

Then worked out the fees if it only got one bid and started it way higher,(on my other account).

Fees if it only sold for $4.99 would've been $2.07 for eBay and 79 cents for PP for a total of $2.86,(total profit

woul've been $2.13).

So over 57% in FVF's,(that's the sort of thing I have done when I first started selling on here but there is no

way I do it now),

Unfortunately that same listing didn't sell the first time around and when it went into unsold it came up with

the eBay suggestion that similar items sold after the starting price was lowered to 99 cents,(which off course

would've meant that I would've made a loss on the item).

It ended up selling for over $50 with only one bid,

[chameleon54]

Yes your figure could well be right. Accountants figures last year showed that all ebay & paypal figures added up to around 20% for my stores gross sales. My larger store had more listings than the store package freebies so I was paying for a few extra listings each month, but the cost of this was not that high. Most of the money just went on FVF fees, store cost and Paypal.

It is worth noting that fees jumped dramatically when ebay introduced the FVF on postage costs. I was opposed to this impost at the time and it still ranckles now as a reasonable % of my items go to international clients with very high postage costs. It was one of the main reasons I started a new business enterprise to ensure I was not totally reliant on ebay for a major proportion of my income.

[performance_parts_clearance_centre]

This is my most recent one (last 31 days), including PayPal fees:

[chameleon54]

Assuming you have done your homework and have a selling system which makes the best use of free listings.

The single biggest determinant of ebay costs as a % of gross sales is the % of total sales made up by postage costs. If you sell cheap items with high postage costs, your % of fees payable to ebay will be higher.

There is a very simple answer to this problem and that is to know your costs and factor them into the buyers purchase price and postage costs. That way, the buyer pays the ebay fees, not the seller. If you dont do this, your profit margins are squeezed and you end up working for nothing or worse still, paying ebay to get rid of your items.

It also reinforces the need to sell products with very high profit margins. If you are selling items where the product cost is similar to the postage cost, you need to be getting your initial stock for next to nothing to make the whole system work. If you are selling low cost items and only working on gross mark ups of 50%-100% it leaves very little for your time and effort once all the fees are deducted.