why does Ebay take a fee on postage?

[lauren.skye001-7]

Why does Ebay charge a fee on postage costs? We do not profit from this. I charge the exact fee it costs to send an item domestically, this is to be fair to the buyer. And this is also automated by Ebay as it makes uploading process easier. Ive just discovered that on the final postage fee of $8.50 (for example) Ebay take 93 cents? What purpose does this serve other than ripping off the seller? With both paypal and ebay fees on top of this i am out of pocket. Its already a struggle to sell on ebay. Literally ill sell my items somwhere else. 

[cooltronix]

It was probably already answered a 1000 times, so 1001:

I guess there was a lot of abuse before. Having a $30 item, selling it for $5 + $25 shipping. I saw that quite often.

In an honest world I don't really agree with a fee on postage, but adding 10% to shipping is still withing my math skills 😉

This will not make anybody calm down, but Paypal takes their cut on shipping too.

[kh-jean]

Hello everyone,



This thread is getting a bit heated and off-topic.  Please remember that it’s fine to disagree with others, but discussion should always remain courteous and respectful. Please bring back the discussion to the original topic of this thread.



Thank you for your cooperation.

[countessalmirena]

springyzone's post shows the perspective that I think eBay would like to have their members believe.

I don't think it's the real reason, because eBay's reason for policy changes is always going to be based upon increased profitability. The current CEO is strongly focusing on giving the customer what he believes they want. All the surveys are slanted to support the view that he is espousing and putting into practice; these surveys are added to a pile of "evidence" used to ensure that the board members are on board.

Unfortunately, as unfair as I think all of us consider the charging of a final value fee upon postage, there doesn't appear to be any way at present to successfully challenge it. Sellers are faced with the problem of trying to work with the system as it is, and that means putting numbers into spreadsheets and doing calculations to work out what is their best way forward - if they remain on eBay as sellers.

[digital*ghost]

The easiest way to encourage people to do something is to reward them for doing it, with something tangible.

When fees were on a sliding scale, meaning the higher the item price went, the lower the fee would be (as low as 2.6% on amounts over $1000, from memory, and the first drop came after the price hit $75), it at least didn't make it so bad when you sold higher priced items, and - IMO - kept more people from being tempted to inflate postage. Doing so of course still put sellers at a greater advantage than if they didn't, and putting FVF on postage removed that advantage, but now that eBay Plus has been introduced, they've come full circle and introduced a system that not only actively encourages postage piracy, but at their own expense, so it's getting harder and harder for me to have any hope that the board not only has some small sliver of an understanding of their market (both buyers and sellers), but that they have any idea what they are doing. 

I also think that if they genuinely wanted to encourage free postage from sellers and make it a level playing field for those who were paying lower fees by not having free postage (as they claimed), all they would have had to do was offer a reduced rate for items listed as free post. If free post is truly what buyers prefer (as they claim), and it would increase sales, then it would have been a win all 'round.

The best eBay could ever seem to offer was a boost in best match rankings, which is vague, unverifiable, fluctuating, and rarely seemed to translate into anything of substance for most sellers. A limp promise if ever there was one. 

[steveoz-1]

Too many fees

[davewil1964]

Thanks for that considered and perceptive addition to this old thread.

This was done and dusted years ago, when eBay first introduced it. The government and the ACCC both said it was legal, so it is unlikely to change.

Nobody forces you to pay fees to eBay.

[jimaras_50]

where else can you sell??????

[davewil1964]

Anywhere you want, that is legal.

And what has this to do with eBay's years-old FVF on postage?

[supermussolinibros]

I took the plunge and went to that big social media site and have never looked back since-fee free and paypal scam free and no ridiculous DSR's, even that classifieds site tree is better than here.  I can't name the sites as there are numerous dissillusioned trolls here who think they will get special favours from ebay by defending this place-some of these have already replied to this thread

[lyndal1838]

Nothing to do with getting favours from ebay....just that if you name other sites the Moderators can remove your posts and you could be sanctioned.