I do agree that the FVF's are quite a big chunk of the sale price at 9.9% but you nevertheless won't sell at a loss.

PayPal fees are a much smaller percentage of the sale price and if the seller doesn't wish to foot the bill for postage, they are not forced to. That cost can be passed on to the buyer. My impression is that very few sellers are offering free postage.

You are still going to make a profit of some sort on sold items, unless of course you make the opening bid or BIN price, a lot less than the item cost you in the first place. If you do that, then you have made the conscious decision to take the risk of possibly making a loss on the sale.

Of course, you may feel that the profit you are making after all the fees are paid, is simply not worth the effort that listing involves. That's a decision each seller will make for themselves.

Until ebay encounters some REAL competition from some other online auction site, they won't be changing their fee scales (other than possibly to raise them at some unspecified time in the future. . .perish the thought !!!!) There is STILL nothing to touch ebay in terms of the potential bidders / buyers it attracts and . . .that's the rub !!