Buyer fee - how to calculate total? + Shipping: charge separately now or not?

[jimthing]

Q1: What is the spreadsheet calculation to work out the FINAL buyer price, that's accurate? 

The new abysmal listing page does not allow you to enter a FINAL price the buyer will pay, but instead gives you a single box for your price then works out the fee that'll be added on afterwards?!

Q2: Also, is it better to break the postage back out again from a total sale price now? As previously (before free private sellers for the last 6-mths, since Oct.2024 until now) Ebay would charge fee on everything regardless of shipping cost being in price or separately extra. But AFAICT, now seemingly the buyer fee is only charged on the main price with postage not having the fee on it.

See here: 

https://www.ebay.co.uk/help/selling/selling/pricing-items/buyer-protection-information-sellers?id=55... 

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Separate issue: I should also add that Ebay's system doesn't charge the right fee either, on the list an item page! Example: 

27.95 - item price

= 1.868 - buyer fee [ 1.118 (4%) + 0.75 (fixed)] – which should round up to 1.87 fee

Yet on the list an item page, Ebay fee shows fee as 1.84!

[cbcretro]

This is even more hilarious - I upgraded to a business account last night.  So I am not considered a 2nd class citizen.   Turns out now some of my listings are fixed but not all.  So im going to have to go through every single listing and see if its ok or not - crazy!    So is this a problem now just associated to private accounts ??.....

[jimthing]

I started a new thread about the new main buyer fee error topic (see post 10).

It might be best to post there about it, so the issue can be tracked as new info comes to light from sellers over time: 

Buyer Fee amount error - are you seeing it too?

[goodibags]

Ah, that's a shame. I was quite enjoying this one. 😢

[doumind_7]

"Others pointed out the new system makes it nearly impossible to negotiate because the buyer and seller do not see the same thing and thus are not bartering based on a shared point of reference."

Ref: Liz Morton. Value Added Resource

08/02/25

Scathing report. Its even a mess in the States.

Read it.

[jimthing]

Where's that report? 

[doumind_7]

contact@valueaddedresource.net

It was actually sent to me by eBay Community something or other. So they should object to me posting the link!

Its a sort of online financial newsletter.

[doumind_7]

Sorry that's an email. Suggest to Google it.

[jimthing]

re. Calcs for spreadsheets use: 

---

@jimthing wrote:

4 columns:

A1 : Desired final price

B1 : =D1*0.04 [fee: variable amount, 4%]

C1 : = 0.75 [fee: fixed amount, £0.75]

D1 : =(A1-C1)/1.04 [SELLER PRICE, pre-fee]

Or you can combine B1+C1 together as: 

=(D1*0.04)+0.75 [fee: variable 4% + fixed £0.75]

The Item Price I set is not worked-out the same on each item. You have to set this fixed amount in your calculations (that should be 75p but isn't yet, shown in blue text above) differently for each listing via trial and error (i.e. bumping it up/down to be any of 71p, 72p, 73p) in order to get the formula to work correctly to add up to the FINAL price I want my buyers to see and pay. 

...including shipping in my case, as separating out the shipping makes the advertised price look random again. 🤷‍

NOTE: This issue will remain the same, regardless of this fixed 75p buyers fee error, that's still outstanding on Ebay (see this post: 10). 

Gee thanks, Ebay! 🙄

[wintersdawn1]

I believe what results is, a buyer receives an offer from a seller of say £12 but when they click on 'Review offer', ebay will then add the 4% plus 75/72p so the buyer sees a higher price than the sellers offer.

They may well abandon the purchase at this point due to the increase and I guess the negative interference by ebay between the seller/buyer trying to negotiate a price.

[jimthing]

Probably.

It'll basically be like in the US...  You see an item for $15 on the shelf you want (in person or online), then take it to the checkout to pay, and they then add the city/county/state sales tax for that location if there is one; meaning the final total is often something like $17.37.  🤣

I guess buyers on here will eventually get used to it when they understand it. 

[gilbertshott]

Can't Ebay just take off the fee when the item is sold.It was soo much easier and got a lot more sales

I used to sell quite a lot of items,now nothing.

Ebay isn't vinted and vinted isn't Ebay.The 2 work together.

All that will happen is when an item is say 12.00 then you get the fees on top ,you will get buyers just cancelling their order.

As for keeping the money for 14 days.is it not illegal.

Also,as sellers can't get access to their money  how can you pay bills,if you are selling off your heirlooms.

[doumind_7]

Its great you can work all this out on a Business perspective, but it doesn't really help the buyer or most low prices private sellers.

But your talents would be be best employed by eBay. They don't seem to understand their own calculations!

[jimthing]

Ebay response: 51

[broadcastnetworks]

Hi,

Thanks for your post, I have also seen the same discrepancy with the fees. They just do not add up!

If I want to show a selling price of £399.99  (Fees should be 4% up to £300 & 2% from £300 to £X) + 0.75p

£300 - 4% = £288.00

£99.99 - 2% = £97.99

Total = £385.99

+ £0.75 fee = £386.74

My listing shows a price of £401.20 not £399.99 as it should.

I need to add a price of £385.55 to show a selling price of £399.99

[jimthing]

Still considering putting shipping separately, but then pricing a rounded finished price becomes worse, lol!

[littlespinycactus]

Just seeing the word "spreadsheet" makes my blood run cold. I suffer from dyscalculia--I can't even use a calculator with any realistic hope of accuracy--and these fees are driving me demented.

I would rather adjust the prices in the listing, and take the hit for the price increase myself  than have the buyer face awkward and unwieldy prices at checkout, I  just need to know how much of a hit I need to take, and trying to work it out makes the thought of jumping off a cliff quite appealing. 

Salvation would come in the form of a nice, simple chart of worked examples for my usual cheap-and-cheerful price range of 4.99-29.99 (incl p&p), showing the corresponding prices I need to input in the listings to make the actual sale price as neat, sweet and buyer-friendly as poss.  No odd pence scattered around, making the place look untidy.

If such a thing exists, my eternal gratitude to anyone who can tell me where to find it.

[goodibags]

There's a nice calculator here that @andrewspode put together in another thread

https://claude.site/artifacts/16aab181-f07e-41cd-a2be-608b241dffda

Not sure you can always guarantee hitting a nice .99p end product (due to up/down rounding) but it'll hopefully get you as close as you can.

[jimthing]

^ That link is good for this.

One important thing to note though. Be aware you may have to still take between 1p to 4p off the Item Price to get the correct figure, as the fixed amount is not always 75p right now (actually, most of the time it's currently not!). 

Luckily you can simply enter the Item Price (from the chart link above), then on the List An Item/Revise Item page you can see the exact buyer fee amount just above. So it's as simple as adding the two amounts together to check the Final Price is what you like – if not, try taking 1p off, then try 2p off, etc. until the Final Price is what  you wanted.

If you can't get to x.99, try going for x.95, as it's pretty much the same rounded price to buyers. 

Annoying, but there we are. Hope that helps. 😉

[littlespinycactus]

I am most grateful for the suggested workaround, but if the fixed fee is
not actually fixed, it's worse than annoying! If I have to tweak pennies to
establish a definitive price for every listing, the men in white coats will
be hauling me off to the funny farm in short order.
xx

[wellingnorth]

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@jimthing wrote:

One important thing to note though. Be aware you may have to still take between 1p to 4p off the Item Price to get the correct figure, as the fixed amount is not always 75p right now (actually, most of the time it's currently not!). 

Luckily you can simply enter the Item Price (from the chart link above), then on the List An Item/Revise Item page you can see the exact buyer fee amount just above. So it's as simple as adding the two amounts together to check the Final Price is what you like – if not, try taking 1p off, then try 2p off, etc. until the Final Price is what  you wanted.

If you can't get to x.99, try going for x.95, as it's pretty much the same rounded price to buyers. 

In your experience has the rounding always worked the same for specific prices, ie will £10 always work out at £11.12, £20 at £21.52 etc?