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.

[*devils.advocate*]

Well, better half doesn’t promote anything (thoughts about it can’t be posted here!), yet BH had best July ever - no change to inventory, no additional lines - and no idea why.

Things have tailed off back to roughly norm for the time of year.

Others have also posted that they don’t promote yet continue to sell.

How is the lack of dust explained?

As said, just a theory touted on these Boards without any actual proof behind it - admittedly, not that any could be provided because of eBay’s underhandedness and lack of transparency.

[sinthker]

I know what you mean.......I listed an item as a fixed price rather than an auction but ended up paying £384 to eBay to sell an item for £3000. My fault, I know because I didn't read what the fees were. 
A lot of people were quick to point out that other auction houses would charge more, but this wasn't an auction. I cannot think of another platform were you would pay £384 to place an advert unless I wanted to be on ITV !!

[olivernorvillehardy]

Hi there,

I agree with you, old Matthewson from Bangers and Cash, well his commission would make your eyes water !

I threw lots of parts out a few weeks ago and it made me cringe, also had my big hut knocked down. Ebay has no intention of changing it's policies as the share holders are happy, maybe we should buy some !

I must admit, I don't make much re ebay sales, but I keep it up as I give half of it to the childrens cancer charity, just to keep a connection with my little boy who sadly died of it aged 5 many years ago.

Kind regards and thanks for reading my post.

[dougbat20]

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@sinthker wrote:

I know what you mean.......I listed an item as a fixed price rather than an auction but ended up paying £384 to eBay to sell an item for £3000. My fault, I know because I didn't read what the fees were. 
A lot of people were quick to point out that other auction houses would charge more, but this wasn't an auction. I cannot think of another platform were you would pay £384 to place an advert unless I wanted to be on ITV !!

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Wow, that's extortionate for the item you're trying to sell... Admittedly £3000 is a nice sale, but still, IMO eBay should have a lower rate for items over £1000. Furthermore, for such a high value item, you should have listed it only on a final value fee promotion weekend, such as an 80% off or (ideally) £1 max.

I also hope you chose collection in person/cash on collection, or took out suitable transit cover, as not many couriers will compensate to £3000.

[dougbat20]

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@olivernorvillehardy wrote:

Hi there,

I agree with you, old Matthewson from Bangers and Cash, well his commission would make your eyes water !

I threw lots of parts out a few weeks ago and it made me cringe, also had my big hut knocked down. Ebay has no intention of changing it's policies as the share holders are happy, maybe we should buy some !

I must admit, I don't make much re ebay sales, but I keep it up as I give half of it to the childrens cancer charity, just to keep a connection with my little boy who sadly died of it aged 5 many years ago.

Kind regards and thanks for reading my post.

---

Yeah I've watched Bangers and Cash before, their commission (taken on both sale and purchase as it is an auction) is likely quite high. 

Do you get final value fee promos? Rather than throwing items away, maybe you could consider selling in bulk lots on a final value fee promo weekend. Also, if it's to do with older vehicles, there will be car clubs/member groups that may well be interested.

I'm also sorry to hear about what happened to your son, and it is great that you are donating some funds to a good cause. IMO eBay should reduce the final value fee if you're donating some (or all) to a charity.

[olivernorvillehardy]

All I can say is Thanks.

[christian_888]

Water off a ducks back ebay doesnt give a flying F ... thats why 90% of its staff are off shore being paid peanuts dont cry for me Argentina ,back to the exchange and mart looks like

[elianajvintage]

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

Ebay did try that at one time and it didn't work.

[ajj1955]

Hi

i just sold £8 item, to an international buyer. 
Tracked P&P is listed as £12. This is a promoted listing, with 8% fee. It also attracts VAT, paid by the buyer. The buyer paid a total of £23. 
All eBay fees are then  based on this amount!

Then they deduct VAT, and their fees so my total earnings, including postage was £14.48p. Out of this I have to deduct £12 p&p.

i am left with £2.48p for an £8 sale. That is approx 70% fees. Unacceptable!!!

Surely a matter for the Office of Fair trading?

[*devils.advocate*]

I assume the additional 8% promoted fee was an intentional choice only on your part?

The £12 postage amount is the amount needed to post the buyer’s item to them?

(The postage amount is never in the seller’s pocket - it is, after all, the amount you know you’ll need to send the item)

The basic FVF and the additional international charges are set out in the selling fee chart.

VAT is something eBay must collect, by law, and remit on your behalf.

All payment processors (Adyen in this case, not eBay) base their fee on the total amount to be processed.

Yes, basic fees (even though they haven't changed much in years) are too high for the current economic climate but all of the above things are surely things which can/should be calculated before listing/selling?

[ajj1955]

Hi,

Yes, is the answer to your first two questions. (postage and packing - BTW)

My main point is the bottom line - £2.48 return on an £8.00 sale = '70% total fees'

I only signed up to charges of about 12+8 = 20%, on the sale of £8. Even if the small print explains the charges, I still maintain that charging fees on postage and VAT is unfair, whoever calculates them. eBay could correct this.

[olivernorvillehardy]

Hi there,

I agree with you 100%, highly unlikely that ebay will change their policies as we can clearly see that they and their shareholders are making good money, maybe we should buy shares in ebay !

[elianajvintage]

I understood the rationale at the time ebay introduced the fees for P&P.  I have never agreed with it and it seems punitive to me paticularly now in the current economic climate.  The market has changed since ebay introduced this fee and there are so many other ways for for people to sell on-line now.

[olivernorvillehardy]

Hi there,

Where else could I sell what I have left ? 

[ajj1955]

Hi,
When I made my original post, I did not read the 'call it a day' part of the subject line

With that in mind, I think it's more a case of firmly, but politely asking' eBay to adjust their fee system, to make fairer for all sellers. I have since contacted them about my issue and they have responded positively to my suggestion. Maybe more members should support the request?

[ajj1955]

Hi

I did too,  as it covers 0.99p item with £20 postage. But now eBay offer their 'Postage' service, it is easy for them to see how much is truely being spent by the seller, if they chose that option.

I request that they utilise that knowledge which, at the same time would encourage use of their postal service.

They also need to stop adding fees onto VAT...

[litp*records]

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@ajj1955 wrote:

Hi

I did too,  as it covers 0.99p item with £20 postage. But now eBay offer their 'Postage' service, it is easy for them to see how much is truely being spent by the seller, if they chose that option.

I request that they utilise that knowledge which, at the same time would encourage use of their postal service.

They also need to stop adding fees onto VAT...

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May I suggest that you use Ebay's GSP service for international orders, instead of posting directly to the other country.

That way you're only paying fees on domestic postage (let's say £3) to post to the GSP hub, rather than the £12 you're charging for Intl Tracked.  

Also, it saves you having to do all that paperwork with IOSS, customs forms, ABNs and NZBNs and... (ok, it's honestly got so confusing for me that I don't think I could ever go back to shipping international direct!!)

But yes, what I find strange is that there is a cap on postage costs as well as fees on postage costs AND the ability to sort by "lowest price + postage".  Just one of those things would have sufficed to prevent gouging

[ajj1955]

Hi,

Thanks for your suggestion.

I did try that in the past, but Ebay's Global Shipping Fees are way too high and put buyers off. A Catch-22 really.

[dougbat20]

With this matter you should have probably used ebay's Global Shipping Program - they deal with postage charges, you only send it to the UK hub, so in theory you should only get charged fees on the UK portion of shipping?

Probably the VAT and the overseas charge will still apply but at least you then won't get FVF charged on £12 shipping!

[yattyyak]

Agree now they've become too expensive, 

it's getting harder to sell as living cost kick in so no money out there and to take £11 from a £75 sale + postage , I'm looking at other platforms that are either free or cheaper .