"The earner for eBay is the FVF, which you get back if you follow the protocol.  If you put ad in the paper and it does not sell you do not get your money back, and the advertising cost, just for couple of lines would be lot more than few  cents, not to mention photos."   You must advertise in a different paper to me, last time I put an ad in I wasn't charge 9.9% of the price for each item I sold due to that ad.  Ads in papers have nothing to do with the issue and are a completely different form of advertising to eBay, why keep using them as a comparison.

Why keep using newspaper ads as a comparison?  Because before there was eBay that was the way to sell stuff that is now sold here.  Last time I placed advertisement in The Age Classifieds, must be more than 20 years ago, it was about $25 per line (minimum 2 lines) payable up front before the ad came out.  And you are right, if I from the $50 ad sold 10 items it would not have cost any more, but if you sold nothing it was money down the drain.  Alternative was TP and they did charged FVF about 20% or was it 25% (I  never actually used them to sell, just buying), although many people would not tell them that the item sold, but that is fraud.  And to put in a photo was about $100 in that time. 

Or you can put as a comparison market stall, which you also pay for regardless whether you sell anything or not.  And I remember when some of my student friends got a stall at Camberwell market to make some much needed money and made less than half of the cost of the stall.  And that did not account for getting there at 4am to make sure they get a stall, carrying everything from the distant car park, cost of petrol etc. 


On eBay if you do not sell something you may be out of pocket few cents for listing, if somebody does not pay you get your FVF back, and you can re-list with click of a button; not much effort.

I really do not understand why people who think that the fees here are so exorbitant keep selling here.