Selling fees are too high on ebay, time to call it a day and just bin it all

[olivernorvillehardy]

I have been a loyal and faithful member of ebay for 20+ years now, till quite recently it has been good, but of late not so good, sadly. The fees are just too much for me and also for other sellers too.

So what to do, I think that the options for me are to list less items only every second week, so my fees are less and to list less items.

I have found it very theraputic as I had to have open heart opp over a year ago, it gave me something to focus on and I met a lot of nice people and remain in contact with them to this day. But I can see me calling it a day and just giving away my stock of old car parts or just taking it all to the dump, which will be to me a sad day, but such is life and it will be the end of an era too.

Not much else I can say, but I think that ebay should rethink things as it is going to cost them a lot of business, I wonder, I can see that nowdays that their is very little or no loyalty at all.

Kind regards to all who read this.

[marccarter1972]

Yep I agree. I have just sold an item for 350, eBay took 46. Going to close the account, not even buy from there.

[iluvneighbours]

EBay is complicit in this. It has got even worse since eBay introduced zero selling fees for private sellers selling new and used clothing. There is now a proliferation of so called 'private' sellers who list 1000s of new items of clothing.  I have reported one such seller who has listed over 1000 new Zara items and am watching them to see if eBay does anything. 

[eastern-lights]

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@marccarter1972 wrote:

Yep I agree. I have just sold an item for 350, eBay took 46. Going to close the account, not even buy from there.

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Seems about right. How much were you expecting?

[camdenmark09]

Yes the 46 is correct based on ebays current fees. The issue for me is selling low value items and the expensive fees on postage it is just not viable to sell on ebay. I know ebay is a business and has to make money but I feel their fee structure is way out.  EBAY annual profit for the year end 30th June 2024 was 7.34 billion USD.  and the year before 7.2 Billion. The shareholders must be delighted.

[kath3735_wxmjn]

No way are those items you have listed anything but  business type ones.  It is also difficult to imagine that you have not known the difference between a private and a business account or is this your first time on these boards???   As a genuine private seller i have no problem with listings being limited to 300, even selling for the family i never get anywhere near that.

[bittyboy101]

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@eastern-lights wrote:

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@marccarter1972 wrote:

Yep I agree. I have just sold an item for 350, eBay took 46. Going to close the account, not even buy from there.

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Seems about right. How much were you expecting?

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£15 - £25 would be more reasonable - Whether you sell an item for £10 or £750 the service is still the same - eBay does not work any harder to sell a £750 item then if you had sold a £10 item so WHY such extortion ?? 

[daro2096]

I remember when eBay had different FVF rates depending on how much something sold for. Something that sold under £10 used to have a fee of roughly 3%. Oh how I wish for those days back.

[bittyboy101]

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@daro2096 wrote:

I remember when eBay had different FVF rates depending on how much something sold for. Something that sold under £10 used to have a fee of roughly 3%. Oh how I wish for those days back.

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I remember those days very well too - They were great up until 2013 onwards when eBay started getting smart and putting  fees on postage & packing costs... but it wasn't until 2020/21 that things really went down the drain with searches manipulation NOT SHOWING EVERYONE'S LISTINGS and eBay forcing people to have to pay even more for the same level of visibilty they once had before eBay's greed set in and they started DELIBERATELY limiting private sellers with little to NO VISIBILITY UNL ESS THEY PAY for promoted listings (100% extortion at the highest level)...

I've now given up selling on eBay as eBay constantly ghost all my listings and haven't let me make a sale since 18th July 2024  😞 😞 😞 😞 😞

[ianseymoursalvage]

I have had a quick look at your listings and tbh with car parts of that vintage its hard work,i a few years ago got a skip and literally binned hundreds of 80s  and 90s mirrors headlights rear lights etc 

I had checked completed listings and many were just not going to sell nor could i be bothered with the hassle.

The other issue of course is finding the man or woman for the part you are appealing to a very select limited market so unless you are the cheapest it is not going to sell.

With regards to fees its the same story as always if you can factor the fees in its still a great place to sell 

If you feel you cannot then find somewhere else but not sure where else you get the kind of exposure this offers for 12% ish 

Good luck what ever you decide 

[bittyboy101]

Sadly the fees to sell here on eBay are very expensive, It is virtually impossible to factor these very high selling fees into items and still "sell cheap", even if you do this, well seasoned buyers still add your stuff to their watch lists and wait for you to send an even lower offer than your cheapest buy it now price... So if you're selling like this you are basically selling at a 99% loss !...and this is by time you've paid eBay to get your item seen other wise it's ghosted and reamins on ZERO VIEWS indefinitely...

So the kind of exposure eBay now offers along with their jacked up selling fees make selling here on eBay NOT worthwhile anymore.  

[bojangled]

@bittyboy101 

Watchers don't pay the bills. 

Earlier on this year I had a quantity listing with over 100 watchers, it was over a year old, had had good sales, but it was drying up. Ended and sold similar, back on the sales map again.

Watchers are just bookmarking, setting and forgetting it. Be they competition or genuinely interested parties. 

Jo

[bittyboy101]

There are also watchers who are very crafty and stick stuff on their watch lists so that they can get the item even cheaper as they know now most sellers are so desperate to sell they send offers just for the sake of getting a sale because sales are now so bad on eBay lately.

I read on reddit this exact phase;-

"I watch items on eBay all the time. Anything that interests me I  don't buy, I watch waiting for an offer to come through and if its low enough I'll then buy it."

So this is how people's attitude is now.

All this "send offers" eBay started recently now results in smart thrifty buyers just adding stuff to their watch lists and not buying it straightway because there is now a hope/possibility that the seller will send them a cheaper offer via eBay...  

[1956glyn]

I do not think "most sellers" are desperate to sell.   Daily i look in a couple of popular categories and sales are very brisk and achieving good  prices.  I think that bargains are getting way harder to find on the site. 

IF anyone is waiting for me to send them a low offer or even an offer at all.....they will be waiting forever lol

I think people often add items that appeal to them  to their watch list as they are curious as to what it will make if the bidding is likely to be out of their price range  OR they may have one similar they are contemplating listing. 

At the end of the day watchers mean absolutely nothing so they do not bother me in the slightest.....its only bids that count.

I also think that if someone lists something on BIN and after a few relistings it does not sell.......then either that item is currently not so much in demand OR the BIN may be slightly too high compared to comparable competitors for the exact same product.

[technthread]

I have been finding that when I auction coins, the views can be tiny or non existent for the 7 day duration. Some unsold listings might have got a couple of watchers if I'm lucky. 

When the auctions end, let's say it was around £8 start bid, I'll relist as a buy it now for around £10 and the listing gets a lot of early views and watchers. Some are then selling as a buy it now fairly quickly. Some auction listings are selling too but it's a confusing pattern that I am seeing.

Maybe it's unique to this category or due to me not using promoted listings? I only get organic sales so perhaps doing that on auctions isn't good for visibility but does less harm on buy it now. 

[bojangled]

@bittyboy101 

Yes, I don't deny that's how some buyers use the system.

But the ball is in my court wether or not I want to send offers.

Ive also used @technthread 's approach. Relist at a higher price.

But to be fair to you with your locks being very niche and specific in sizes etc it's not a high demand category.

I have said before I think you should leave them up for more than a week, what have you got to loose if they don't sell? 

[bittyboy101]

Good morning,

Agree that my old locks are specialized items.

It is so discouraging when I have 60 items listed on eBay and only 4 are getting views whilst the other 56 remain on 0-1 views for more than a week ?

The way it looks to me, is eBay are only showing people searching 4 of my listings and the others are just ghosted/hidden...

It says that the indexing process can take up to 24-48 hours before your items become searchable on eBay... but 7 days  ??? and still ZERO VIEWS ??? - This is very questionable as to why hasn't eBay indexed all my other 56 items ??? which have the same first 4 keywords and were listed at the same time as my other 4 which are getting viewed and watched ?????????

It definitely appears that eBay are cutting corners here and not indexing ALL my listings within the stated 24-48 hours that they promise items will be fully searchable on their website.

I am pretty sure they are doing this to lots of private sellers who do not pay extra for their promoted listings...

Why doesn't eBay have the guts to just say;-

"THE FIRST 4 LISTINGS ARE FREE AND WILL BE SHOWN TO PEOPLE SEARCHING.  ANYTHING OVER 4 LISTINGS WILL HAVE TO BE PAID PROMOTED LISTINGS BEFORE WE SHOW THEM TO PEOPLE SEACHING" 

That way people would know where they stand and NOT WASTE THEIR TIME listing more than 4 items if they are not going to be seen.

[eastern-lights]

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@technthread wrote:

I have been finding that when I auction coins, the views can be tiny or non existent for the 7 day duration. Some unsold listings might have got a couple of watchers if I'm lucky. 

When the auctions end, let's say it was around £8 start bid, I'll relist as a buy it now for around £10 and the listing gets a lot of early views and watchers. Some are then selling as a buy it now fairly quickly. Some auction listings are selling too but it's a confusing pattern that I am seeing.

Maybe it's unique to this category or due to me not using promoted listings? I only get organic sales so perhaps doing that on auctions isn't good for visibility but does less harm on buy it now. 

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Some buyers just don't like auctions. They want it now rather than possibly get it in the future.

I use the opposite approach to you, I first list as a buy it now and if it gets little interest then list it at auction.

[eastern-lights]

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@bittyboy101 wrote:

There are also watchers who are very crafty and stick stuff on their watch lists so that they can get the item even cheaper as they know now most sellers are so desperate to sell they send offers just for the sake of getting a sale because sales are now so bad on eBay lately.

I read on reddit this exact phase;-

"I watch items on eBay all the time. Anything that interests me I  don't buy, I watch waiting for an offer to come through and if its low enough I'll then buy it."

So this is how people's attitude is now.

All this "send offers" eBay started recently now results in smart thrifty buyers just adding stuff to their watch lists and not buying it straightway because there is now a hope/possibility that the seller will send them a cheaper offer via eBay...  

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I do not find it in any way odd that buyers should use tactics to buy at the lowest price possibly, in the same way that sellers will always try for the highest price. Where those prices overlap we get a deal, if they don't overlap we don't.

With collectibles, buyers who are keen to buy an item are at a bit of a psychological disadvantage over the seller, in that if they hold off for a lower price somebody else may step in and buy it, whereas the seller does not care who buys it.

[bittyboy101]

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@eastern-lights wrote:

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@bittyboy101 wrote:

There are also watchers who are very crafty and stick stuff on their watch lists so that they can get the item even cheaper as they know now most sellers are so desperate to sell they send offers just for the sake of getting a sale because sales are now so bad on eBay lately.

I read on reddit this exact phase;-

"I watch items on eBay all the time. Anything that interests me I  don't buy, I watch waiting for an offer to come through and if its low enough I'll then buy it."

So this is how people's attitude is now.

All this "send offers" eBay started recently now results in smart thrifty buyers just adding stuff to their watch lists and not buying it straightway because there is now a hope/possibility that the seller will send them a cheaper offer via eBay...  

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I do not find it in any way odd that buyers should use tactics to buy at the lowest price possibly, in the same way that sellers will always try for the highest price. Where those prices overlap we get a deal, if they don't overlap we don't.

With collectibles, buyers who are keen to buy an item are at a bit of a psychological disadvantage over the seller, in that if they hold off for a lower price somebody else may step in and buy it, whereas the seller does not care who buys it.

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My point is before eBay introduced "send offers" buy it now items were selling well, most people viewed the item, liked what they saw and parted with their money to buy it.

Now because of "send offers" we now have crafty people who have wised up to this and so they view an item, they like what they see but instead of just going right ahead and purchasing it, they simply put it on their watch list instead and wait for the seller to send them over an offer of a lower buy it now price, where a watcher can even make a counter offer !! 

This bartering prevents/delays sales and can result in bitterness if a seller then declines a watcher's counter offer !

It's sad but true.  Whilst I  don't deny that "send offers" dosen't work... It does but only for some sellers.

[1956glyn]

I tend to use 5 day auctions.   Auctions are handy for us because half the time we do not know an items true value in todays market.  Yes we can see what similar items have sold for but more often than not ours is in a better condition than those sold.

I have tried BINs too but tend not to have so much luck with those and tend to end the listing after say 10 days if no bid.

With 5 day auctions we have more control over our listings as we are still in the position where one or both of us  may have to take off at very short notice.   Eg Glyns having to go down to Cornwall for a few days next week and he was only asked to go with his bro in law yesterday.