why has ebay decided to now charge a % on postage for sellers as well as paypal

[sferndale08]

i understand ebay charges a fee for selling an item but why hit the seller for a percentage of the postage costs as well that is an expense that the seller is 100% responsible for and you now have paypal taking a percentage of money deposited from sales which also include the postage amount so sellers are getting hit twice on paostage costs which i dont believe is right. !!!!!

[enigmabear]

Now? eBay have been charging a fee on postage for several years

One reason is because some people were selling an item for say, $1 and charging $500 for postage (as a a way of greatly reducing their FVF on the item) and eBay cottened on so introduced the fee on postage 

Paypal have always charged a fee on eBay sales, as far as I am aware anyway 

Not saying I agree with it, just saying that is what happens 

I'm sure if you contact eBay, the CS will give you a wonderful little story straight from their pre-loaded script

There are many,many treads on the forum about the postage fees though, which are more accurate than any story you will be given by eBay

[digital*ghost]

why has ebay decided to now charge a % on postage for sellers

The most likely answer (at least in the gospel according to me , which was in turn stolen from inspired by Occam's Razor), is that is was the lowest effort change for the highest yield in increased revenue for ebay. 

They don't need to justify it, not in any real terms, and the reality is that even if they found a reason to do it that not a single person in the world could argue with, there would still be more than enough sellers who would be angry about the cost of fees, which is why their attempts to explain or justify disliked policy changes are also low-effort (all of the reasons why they say they do something can usually be esily disputed, and / or handled in a variety of other ways).

Many want or expect them to justify on principle, or (in the absence of that) simply land on a plausible justification themselves that lays blame somewhere, but to me the answer is simple - research would have told them it was going to be worth it, research would have told them that no one would welcome it, but the majority would tolerate it, even if they disagree with it on principle, which means they'd get what they wanted / needed regardless.

PayPal is a bit different - they don't care (and have never cared) what percentage of the payment is for an item and what percentage is for postage; why even would they? They are a payment processing service, and they charge a fee that's a percentage of the entire payment amount that they process. 

[gutterpunkz05]

This must have been going on for about 5 years or so.  pretty sure it was refered to the ACCC at some stage and found to be perfectly legal.

Was implemented due to dodgy sellers  charging $1  for items  and $500 for postage,  thus paying fees on a $1  sale.

[glenbankloel]

Flogging a dead horse i am afraid. 

This has been applied to postage for several years and whilst at first there was an avalanche of complaints nothing changed, so we all just have to wear it. Even though really grossly unfair.

Just to add a note here, Etsy have also started the same process last year. Due to one of the heavies from Ebay shifting to Etsy no doubt. 

So it is a charge that is expanding and if you are with a provider that currently doesn't charge a final fee on postage chances are you soon will be. Don't think there would be many left out in the ether.   

[shoppingbag*]

This news is just so old, been flogged to death on here and then flogged again, eons ago.

[performance_parts_clearance_centre]

If you're an honest, ethical seller who charges actual postage, it's easy enough to factor the FVF into the price when creating a listing. 

As previously detailed, the charge was brought in because of dishonest, unethical sellers bilking eBay of fees  - Fred Nurk has a $500 item, but doesn't feel like paying ebay their FVF on $500, so he lists it at $1, and charges $500 for postage. He only pays the FVF on $1, and comes out miles ahead.

It was a way of life with some sellers, and eBay were losing a packet. Etsy have clearly just woken up and realised that people are pulling the same stunt on there, hence their change of policy.

[goaussies1]

Main reason: stop sellers rorting the system $1 diamond with $1K postage would be an ebay commission of 11 cents otherwise.

And you will notice ebay has introduced postage discounts to counteract much of this. For example, a 1kg parcel ebay's default for the buyer is essentially the AP price. The seller gets a discount on the postage but is slugged with the ebay fee on postage. I price my postage to be neutral cost to me as a seller. Sometimes this means adding a small handling fee to the item.
I also allow "pick up" for all items, so this does not impinge negatively on customers who want to do so.