Fees

[abbie2867]

Hi, can any one help me please. I sold my first ever item which sold for £350. I only received £339 into my paypal account which I assumed were eBays deduction fees? But I’ve now had an invoice from EBay for £34.99? Can anyone help as to why I’ve had almost £50 deductions on the item? Thanks in advance x

[red_magpie]

As a rule of thumb, you need to expect to pay about 15% of the selling price (including postage, when offered) in eBay and PayPal's combined fees.

You should be aware that selling gold and other jewellery on eBay is always risky. Accepting PayPal when items are collected exposes the seller to a well known scam, by which the buyer can have the payment reversed - even weeks or months later. This arises because the seller has no tracking proof of postal delivery.

Always try to get the buyer to pay cash on collection. If they won't, unfortunately eBay still insists that the seller must accept PayPal, if that's how they buyer wants to pay.

If this happens. be sure to ask for ID when collecting, and make a note of it, get them to sign a collection receipt, try to have someone else present as a witness and note their car registration. With this amount of evidence, few buyers would risk a possible police investigation for fraudulently claiming not to have authorised the transaction.

Incidentally, there are numerous other scams which dishonest buyers can use to defraud sellers, even when items are posted and delivered. "Must have" items like iphones and items that are easily converted into cash like jewellery are regular targets. The greater the value, the greater the risk, so be careful and always ask here in case of doubt.