Ridiculous New Fee Structure

[miomoda]

Email from eBay this mornining...NOT impressed ....Really!!!  100% increase on listing at auction from $1.50 to $3.00 also increased ebay store fees and final value fees and this is for "added benefits to sellers" Am I dumb?? what are the added benifits of these increases??? that now makes it about 400% in 5 years. I suppose us poor mugs have to cover the shortfall from the lucky "collectables" category which zero insertion/listing fees!!

Wonder who the idiotic marketing/finance graduate was who came up with this doozy 😞

[miomoda]

going by the chart it obviously applies if a seller doesnt have a store...I do so don't know why they keep pushing that on to me....

[miomoda]

Yeah I'm confused as N?A if have no store & Free if have an anchor store? only

[found-in-australia]

Re: The above table (not sure where it is from, but not surprising that Ebay has conflicting information) - auction listings within the deemed collectables categories are included in the fixed price free listing total - the $1.00 fee circled there applies once you have exceeded that number (or if you use two categories..

See here: http://sellercentre.ebay.com.au/sites/default/files/Complete_fee_table_140217%20.pdf

The only reason that I have a store is because it gives me sufficient free collectables listings, but I get the penalty fees on non-collectable items such as sports memorabilia.

========

The collectables category groups covered are:

Antiques

Art

Coins

Collectables

Crafts (given that it is mainly supplies, I don't know why either)

Dolls and Bears

Pottery & Glass

Stamps.

=========

The following category groups are deemed NOT to be collectables by Ebay:

Vintage Cameras

Vintage Clothing Shoes and Accessories.

Vintage Electronics

Vintage Stationary Engines in the Industrial section - I have not worked out how to know in advance whether a stationary engine brochure will not sell at $9.00, or whether collectors will compete and take it over $600 (such as item 371772434803).

Vintage and Antique Jewellery.

Movie memorabilia

Television Memorabilia

Music memorabilia

Vintage musical instruments

All of the Sports Memorabilia categories.

Vintage and Antique Toys and Games

And of course "Books: Antiquarian & Collectable" are obviously not a collectable.

=========

The $3.00 penalty listing fee for offering auctions in these types of categories, let alone broader categories for items which are not common and have no set retail value, and may or may not be desired by buyers on any given week, undermines further the auction business I established on Ebay in 1998. Ebay Australia rang me some years ago to say that if I continued to list auctions on their site, I would be financially punished - this just turns up those screws further. Ebay claimed at the time that auctions represented bad customer service (Ebay was apparently oblivious to the fact that telling your paying cuustomers that you are going to punish them for using your legitimate paid services is not good customer service either.) My detailed seller ratings stars are all sitting on 5.0 currently, suggesting that my customers are mostly satisfied with my customer service and the goods I supply.

brerrabbit585,

I would suggest that paying an extra 1% commission on successfully completed sale is much different to paying a $3.00 penalty fee on every $10 memorabilia auction listing, which may or may not sell on any given week, or may attract competition. I am happy to pay an appropriate percentage commission, I am not happy to be charged penalty fees as punishment for establishing a small auction business on the world's largest person to person auction site.

[thecatspjs]

In addition to the increase in auction prices that will hit many small businesses hard ...  what irks me is the way these announcements are buried to an area on the community boards that is less frequenly posted on than the other board areas

[sprue_finders_oz]

The bottom line is, huge fee increase, no added benefit or value for the seller! They have always done it this way and will continue to until a viable alternative emerges. And I don't mean Gumtree. They already own that!

[brerrabbit585]

I got an email about it, as I always do about major changes like this.

[found-in-australia]

I got an email for this one because I have an Ebay Australia store.

I don't get most of the major change announcements because I registered before there was an Ebay Australia, and sections of Ebay's system deem me to be American, even though I have been based in Australia all my life.

[*tippy*toes*]

Thanks for clearing that up for me. I thought I must be missing something.

[thecatspjs]

---

@brerrabbit585 wrote:
I got an email about it, as I always do about major changes like this.

---

The intent of my remark was related to the abilty of eBay to seem to do what it can to stifle discussion between community member about key trading matters.

[ecoins.australia]

Great for eBay owners, not for sellers.

I am not suprised eBay is so money hungry and they dont do the hard work...we sellers do. Sellers make it all possible and they forget that fact. Time to get everyone you know to message eBay ceo. It gets through at times.