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.

[four_mid_able]

Ebay fee's are a tad lower now than they were before managed payments came in.

To save on fee's it's wise to just list things when you get a promotional offer but it's not really worth listing anything for less than a tenner plus p+p.

Always read the terms and conditions of any offer as it's easy to assume and then get caught out.

Always be aware of extra costs such as reserve fee's and promoted listing fee's as they can wipe out any smiles.

I hope it goes better for you ,sometimes in life you just have to change tack to get yourself to a happier place 😉

P.S. I just looked at some of your listings ,no offence but you might get more interest if you took the pictures in a brighter lit area .

[rjwilmsi · Accepted solution]

eBay's fees in % terms have stayed pretty static. Managed Payments have normally reduced fees a touch. Though I think eBay have increased % fees in some categories that previously had fees lower than default. So maybe fees have gone up in one of the categories you list in.

Postage costs have gone up, so perhaps on cheaper items it's harder to make a decent profit compared to a few years ago.

If eBay no longer works for you, or you have other priorities in your life then so be it, maybe it's not worth using eBay much more.

[plpmr]

adding to the advice already given -

In fact you are paying power fees than if you were properly registered as a business seller.

[suelel1968]

Have you tried buy it now? I know nothing about car parts, but if i needed a part for my Ford Capri i would not want to wait to see if i won an auction.

I know they recommend free post, but I think if someone wants something specific, reasonable postage won't put them off. 

[pg_kicks]

As others have said your photos are pretty dark and if I were buying a brand new old stock product I'd be wanting to make sure it was that and your pictures dont fully show off the product. 

List as buy it now, not sure you can claim the variable fee offer on that though, questionable if you are a private seller selling that many car parts but lets just assume you had a hobby of collecting and not bought to sell over 7 thousand items, also offering returns might help you, it just means that is a buyer isnt 100% sure they know they can return it if it is indeed incorrect for them.

Dont tip your stock though, if you really do give up stick an ad on forums or marketplace, there will be somebody who will give you pennies to the pound for it, not great but better than just landfilling it as no doubt somebody is sitting at home looking for a Hillman head gasket set but just doesnt understand ebay or even thinks of it.

[olivernorvillehardy]

I wish to thank the people who took the time to contact me, I have taken on board what has been said. I was a hoarder of old car parts from when I tinkered with them, the stuff just mounted up and I thought that i could sell them and make some money without being greedy, but the fees are a killer.

I will be giving a lot of it away to classic car owners that I know and will just list up less items till it's all gone, would rather give a part to someone for nothing than just bin it.

Did not think that my photos were that bad, but ?

My feedback is good so that must amount for something in itself, I am not a hard person to deal with and if I don't have the part I can give someone a part number so at least they have something to start with.

Will just need to wait and see how things pan out.

Around Xmas time I give half of what I make to children's cancer, reason, my little boy died of it aged 5.

Kind regards.

[london-mac]

I used to me in a similar position to you in two areas, old Mac stuff and old motorcycle stuff.

Although the Management Payment system killed it for me, I worked long before that that I was basically selling my stuff, 'collections' like yours, for nothing and all that I was really doing was converting the time it took to list, pack and mail stuff out into money at pretty much a minimum wages rate.

The high cost of fees was only one part of it,  making me feel like I was their employee - but without any rights - was the other (by which I refer to all of the targets, demands, helping themselves to my money and, especially, automatically backing buyers in disputes even when they were clearly in the wrong). That was around the same time that they added their additional gouging out of shipping costs.

All you needed was one dishonest idiot to wipe out days or weeks worth of profit IF you calculated the cost of your time to deal with it.

Because I sell nothing, I buy less, and am simply losing the habit. It was more of a hobby for me and I've found other ones. And that was before all of these additional problems with Ebay jiggling the algorithm destroying people's sales too. 

Long before I gave up selling, I gave up auction sales and just went for Buy It Nows with "Offers". I knew what stuff was worth and was prepared to sit and wait for it to sell, or be content if it did not. Unless the only "profit" you are after is the free space in your home or shed, then I wouldn't do auctions. Now, I'd rather have the pleasure of just giving stuff away for free to people who were geniunely grateful for it as my "profit", or swopping it for beers or favours, than deal with Ebayism in my life.

It's a shame because I still have a load of good and unique stuff that I am sure people could use but they killed the fun and the "community" aspect of Ebay off, a long time ago too. 

As many others have said, they need to divide the amateur sellers from the mass marketeers and give us a different website.

[olivernorvillehardy]

All I can say is that you are 100% correct, that's it short and sweet !

[farmer-ned]

just had a quick flick through your listings and hope you are feeling better after your op

truth is because of e bay wanting a bigger slice of the cake its lost a lot of buyers and sellers who now buy or sell from e bays rivals.. fb market place,vinted and etsy.

dont give up try them on auction on a cheap listing you will get less for them but it will at least clear your stock out and bring you a bit back in and the fees wont be as bad.

like those who sailed on the titanic e bay thinks it is unsinkable the warnings are there with the fall of woolies and wilkos let just hope that e bay heed those warnings and attempt to turn the site around only a sharp drop in fees would make e bay sit up and take notice but they have their beloved chinese sellers so those blinkered buffoons in their e bay ivory towers either cant or wont see the problem they never read S/C just keep raking in the fees and squeezing those who use its site for they can.

but theres a saying what goes around comes around. 

[farmer-ned]

..🤣😂😁

yes im afraid e bay is becoming a long drawn out process but stick with it i,ll sell.....eventually

[tony4cats]

Looking at your listings (start prices), it would be foolhardy to bin those. There is a lot of money there. List those as a "Buy it Now" at 50% of those prices, surely worth it, rather than to get rid of it for nothing.

[london-mac]

Thank you.

It was great for a while. I'm sorry to see it go.

[wyntersemporium]

Should give a separate website for the big boys on eBay like music magpie, Argos, Claire's accessories, curry's etc. They have their own websites and on the street stores.  

[wyntersemporium]

I'm getting peeved as well. Had a good weekend for once only for eBay to pull the £92 for a shop and then an extra £70 for accrued fees - nowhere on my eBay says what these fees are. 
£70 I needed for some thing else.  
for that £92 I can get a website for £50 a month and give up a store. But stay on eBay. That is what a friend is doing. 

[stans_pals]

Looking through your listings your stock is very good and lots of people would want to buy it. however the quality of your listings is not where it needs to be. Change to buy it now with free postage, add the postage cost onto the price. Take 20 odd good phots, in good light, of every part, sort titles out sio they hold all the key words that people may use to search, there is a lot you can do to improve this and get lots of sales.  I am 100% confident that I coud turn this around just by improving your listings and you would be making money. Good luck, if you follow just some of the advice on this thread you will do well.

[olivernorvillehardy]

Hi there,

I will give that a bash, thanks for your advice.

[dougbat20]

If you're a private seller and get final value fee promotions then you will want to take advatage of these, and also, only list when you have a final value fee promo. 

Yes the fee may have gone down from 12.9% to 12.8% when Managed Payments came in but this is such a small drop, and is outweighed by the (now mandatory) Promoted Listings, and having your funds held if you're not a frequent seller.

My advive - only sell on final value fee promo weekends, and set your Promoted Listings figure conservatively. Also don't throw your stuff in the bin, there is always a market for some of your stuff, even if the correct place to sell your items isn't eBay. Even donating to a car club or charity shop is better than throwing your items away.

[*devils.advocate*]

by the (now mandatory) Promoted Listings

Eh?

Where does it say that?

That's just a theory touted on these Boards without any fact behind it.

[dougbat20]

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@*devils.advocate* wrote:

by the (now mandatory) Promoted Listings

Eh?

Where does it say that?

That's just a theory touted on these Boards without any fact behind it.

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Of course it doesn't say that Promoted Listings are mandatory, but you'll soon find out when your unpromoted items don't sell, and just sit there gathering dust, but your promoted items sell perfectly well withouty issues!