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@waddingtonfirstaid wrote:

Honestly, I don't know how anyone with a straight face can justify the level of fees and the tactics used by eBay to gouge in that area.

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I'll put my straight face on and have a go.

Many years ago there was a push for sellers to offer "free shipping".  As we all know, there is no such thing as "free shipping" . . . it should be called "postage included" . . . but I digress.

Those sellers who were including shipping in the price of their item in order to have their item promoted as "free shipping" were being slugged a final value fee (FVF) on the included shipping amount.  This, coupled with what was becoming a widespread practice of reducing the item cost and inflating shipping charges, caused eBay to impose FVF on the "total transaction amount" which negated this practice.

eBay will tell you buyers prefer free shipping . . . and fees on shipping encourages sellers of Buy-Now items to list with free shipping . . . even though it only means they include the shipping in their pricing.

eBay also do as much as they can to take care of buyers.  Some say they do too much!  Fees on shipping protects buyers from unscrupulous sellers who were reducing item price but having inflated shipping and then offering refunds of 'item price only' when transactions went pear shaped.

Now, savvy sellers know to include the fees on shipping in their item price.  For example, if a seller lists a dress for $49.99 with $9 shipping they would add on a handling charge of 90c to cover FVF on shipping.  Smart sellers don't divulge the handling charge they include . . . they just include shipping at $9.90 (for the example I gave).

Any seller who is not factoring in their fees into the item price is doing themselves a disservice and should not look to blame eBay as they control their listing and shipping prices.

DISCLAIMER: I do not work for eBay (just thought I'd get that out there before anyone posts that old furphy).