Why are Ebay including Postal charges to their fees?

[gezzy123uk]

Why are Ebay including Postal charges in their fees? I have sold an item for £1.50 plus £3.50 post . They then took their cut and took 90p from total which means all I received was 60p for that item because obviously I had to pay the postage to send it. I also will be charged VAT of 20% on that . It is not worth selling smaller items on here anymore . Surely postal charges should not be included in the final fee. I charge the correct postal charge and pay that amount for the postage. 

[red_magpie · Accepted solution]

It is not worth selling smaller items on here anymore .

You definitely have to do the arithmetic before selling things here, especially what the fees on postage will be.

For low priced items with high postage costs, sellers can easily be left with only a few pence for the item by the time fees have been paid.

As a rule of thumb, you need to allow about 15% of the total selling price including postage for fees. (More, if you use "paid-for" optional listing features.) Work this out, and start the listing at the lowest price that would leave you with enough money after fees to make it worthwhile selling.

Incidentally, don't forget potential losses from money back guarantee cases. EBay makes it easy for buyers to invent any excuse for a return, with the seller refunding the full cost and having to pay for the return postage. All too often items are returned damaged, or even switched for another item. EBay has advised some sellers privately - although they don't say this publicly - that buyers returning items "in a lesser condition than they were sold" is a risk of selling online, and they advise sellers to budget for this in their selling plans!

[gezzy123uk · Accepted solution]

Thank you for your reply and yes I have had items returned to me with damage as the buyer changed their mind

[plpmr]

the subject has been talked to death over years and years - read the hundreds of threads on the subject.