seller ebay & postage & paypal fees

[evilhighway]

I know this is an old one now but it still annoys the heck out of me. I do sell a little bit on ebay but not that much. But when I sell something for say $5.00 and then I get charged by ebay (which i expect) and paypal I also expect but the fee for postage that they charge is damn ridiculous.

I recently sold a book for $5.00 and postage was $8.70 but by the time I got all charges taken out the money I made was only $2.02.

Yes I could have used the option of putting the book start price at a higher price and include postage but really it would work out the same and I have had better sales in the past when using the price and postage seperate.

I still dont see how ebay can get away with charging us for a service that is not provided by them. 

I undestand that they have done this to overcome the issue of seller's  selling something for a cheap price and having a huge postage cost.

eg a new laptop for $1.00 buy now and $200 postage.

Seriously though why would I or anyone else continue to stay somewhere when most of our profits are eaten up by charges. Especially ones that are charged by ebay for using delivery services that ebay are not the owner's of.

Its like a take away pizza shop charging you extra for your drink that you will purchase at the shop across the road because you will drink it with your pizza.

Instead of offering you a lower price for a drink from them or if they are unable to offer a drink then they must change there business to suit it or accept they can only make money on the pizza. Instead of charging for you something that isnt theirs.

I think in future I will still buy through ebay (everyone shops), but when it comes to selling I think I will start to look for alternative auction site's. I guess thats why facebook buy swap and sell sites are more popular now, even with the risks.  

[phorum_junkie*]

I can't be bothered to do the maths but if you made a profit of about 40% why would you be upset?

[Anonymous]

Ebay is not a privilege, it is a host that provides a service at a cost. 

[x3n0m]

I can't be bothered to do the maths but if you made a profit of about 40% why would you be upset?

If you had done the MAths you may have discovered that the buyer was happy to pay $13.70 for the item but after ebay FVF fees, ebay 10% postage fees, postage cost and paypal fees the seller gets $2.02 for the item and time spent listing, packing and posting!!

.. sorry op but you will need to find another venue or just give your stuff away as that type of return is an insult and quite frankly a waste of time and effort ..

[i-love-my-sheep]

By my calculation, you made $1.85. I could be wrong though. Was it a big book? Did it weigh more than 500g?

[cherry*135]

$2.02 profit from a $5 sale isn't too bad.

Did you increase the cost of postage to include ebays cut on the postage, for example, a 500gm prepaid satchel purchased through eBay online postage labels is $7.15 + .72c approx to cover eBays fee. Then charge buyer $7.90 or $8.00 (rounded up) for postage costs.

It is actually AP's parcel rate costs that are the killer on low value items. AP made more out of the deal than you or eBay!

[cq_tech]

Saying that "$2.02 profit from a $5 sale isn't too bad" is all very well if the item cost the OP nothing at all to begin with, although I don't consider a 40% nett profit anything to write home about, but what if it was a book for which he/she initially paid $10, then put it up on eBay to sell? That $2.02 profit becomes in effect a $7.98 loss, because provided that its condition remains the same, whether it was read or not is essentially irrelevant.

[evilhighway]

This I understand and its fine for ebay to charge for use of their services but for use of australia post service. Yes they promote the company and offer their products at a reduced priced but why an extra fee to use any company to have products delivered. Whether it be Australia post or other. 

Whether legal or not it is unethical. 

But as we know ebay is the biggest online auction site and will continue to be for many yrs atleast but it is a good way to loose a small % of seller's

[Anonymous]

In the past there were many sellers that had low sale prices, and really high postage costs to avoid/reduce Ebay sale fees. So in response Ebay also added postage fees to stop this practice. You will find many of Ebay's actions introduced are to combat mostly a minority that spoils it for the majority.

Since I avoid auctions these days and use BIN only with free postage, I first calculate all the outgoing costs and add it to the sale price which seems to work for me anyway. But these days I hardly sell.