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.

[wyntersemporium]

Early eBay dats late 90's where brilliant. Discovered eBay whilst bored out of my head on a training scheme so bought a magazine to read, large advert in back read join eBay to sell your items which was rubber stamps at the time . 

[martinh8048]

I have had it with them and extortionate fees, been a cliant since 2005, have a above standard feedback but cant be paying ther fees any more, its about time there was alternative selling sites, some compertition would make ebay change this direction 

[da-vids2]

It all depends on what is being sold when it comes to promoted listings, whether to use them or how much to pay, but one thing I'll add is when I buy stuff I actively avoid buying from promoted / sponsored listings. Surely anyone who sells and knows what they are also avoid buying from those sponsored listings, also people who don't look further than their nose would find them a good idea... oh and eBay as they get more fees!

[fireblade51ian]

fees i sold 249 pounds worth to day 51 pounds wirth of fees this is just greed nothing ekse

[btr.style]

For businesses it's a tough one as it's take take take from eBay. Shop subscription fee (excess listings over quota are extra), selling fees and for those that use them, promoted listing fees. Then we have that new regulatory operating fee kicking in and postage that is always going up. 

Add to that, no fee promos ever anymore and it's one big rinse fest.

[bobosmiler]

Agreed. I sold two items recently. After fees I earned £19. Hardly worth it.  There is some reward in hoping the item might avoid being binned. I'm giving away stuff now, using Facebook Market place, or binning the item. 

EBay should lower their fees for low value items or they will lose business. 

[cholmes1060]

100% agree with everything you have said, I have been with Ebay for 18 years but only have a few items left to sell on my page now, it is no longer viable to list at auction so I changed to buy it now, once the buy it now items on my page are finished then I will no longer list anything else on ebay.

[bw20b19s25j07]

Hi & thanks for your reply.
Nice to hear that someone else has the same thoughts.
Hopefully a few more people will stop using the service & eBay will lower the costs to a sensible level again.
Mind you, I cant see that happening somehow!

[dougbat20]

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@bw20b19s25j07 wrote:
Hi & thanks for your reply.
Nice to hear that someone else has the same thoughts.
Hopefully a few more people will stop using the service & eBay will lower the costs to a sensible level again.
Mind you, I cant see that happening somehow!

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Can't see this happening - the last update was them actually INCREASING their fees by adding a 0.42% regulatory fee on top of the 12.8%!

The only time it is worth it is if you have a private account that is able to take advantage of the "80% off final value fees" promo (or whatever promo you can get) - not sure if this includes the new regulatory fee or not but certainly a hell of a lot better than 12.8% + 0.42% + £0.30 !!!

[kath3735_wxmjn]

as a private seller i tried this when it first started on one of my 'higher' priced items (just to see).  Not one view and yet i had been getting a couple of views without it.  Never tried again especially as most of my stuff is very low value

[da-vids2]

If your item is unique/ish you shouldn't need to pay to promote, passage of time a buyer should come along. If someone is buying wholesale and selling retail they are doing so alongside similar others and the cost to promote will be limited to the limited scope of the margin available between wholesale and retail price. But for example in my case my labour is sold in the form of golfballs, I could pay a lot to promote, I have no margin per se just what I am prepared to pay to promote (next to nothing in my case, on principle), the segment is hugely competitive, some large sellers with VAT attached, some have bought wholesale and sell retail, some pick up for fun and sell cheap, some sell rubbish only half clean. Point is it all depends, your item will sell eventually, for me if I was in rush to sell more quickly I could pay more to promote, i rarely pay to promote as everything sells... eventually! With regards to ebay pricing, it isn't much more than it ever was before in total, as before there were Paypal fees but it's all now in the one price ebay charges, then after brexit VAT became chargable where there was no VAT before. In defense of ebay, i always refer myself back to the point that i really appreciate what ebay enables me to do, when people have asked to sell outside of ebay, THEY really are not appreciating what ebay is enabling! Pricing is that of a franchise model, if you took on any franchise you are looking at similar pricing. Where they have come down in price in regard to private sellers is where they have had to come down because of competition from Faceache marketplace and other marketplaces of recent times, ebay must be feeling the competition. From a business seller point of view it's just franchise pricing.

[wizzbang43]

EBAY should scrap their shop fees. FVFees are one thing but their Shop fees are ridiculous when sales are so diminished.

[btr.style]

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@da-vids2 wrote:. Where they have come down in price in regard to private sellers is where they have had to come down because of competition from Faceache marketplace and other marketplaces of recent times, ebay must be feeling the competition. From a business seller point of view it's just franchise pricing.

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It's very unusual someone should have around 20,000 golf *bleep* laying around their home that they personally owned, used and no longer want so are having a clear out. 

Before someone starts complaining about competition, perhaps it would be a start to be legally compliant on the correctly registered eBay account, rather than talking about things "from a business seller point of view" and yet being on a private account to gain an advantage over those trading legally. 

[da-vids2]

Wasn't 'complaining' about competition but do realise that is not the basis of your post! Those who use private accounts for the cheaper fees aren't all bad, what's happened is ebay is just giving 80 percent off fees every 2 weeks and I have no idea why! It was 70 percent off which was great then they made it 80, again no idea why, maybe it's down to us to choose out fees using promoted / sponsored listings. It doesn't matter if my account says 'private' it's quite obvious i'm not having a clear out you're right. Was quite happy with my business account, sold more, but tempted by lower fees and now sell less, proper dilemma, so it's actually costing me because i like a bargain on fees. Would be better off going back to using my business account with the premium service etc. As far as legally compliant i do declare everything to the tax man so i don't care to be blunt  if my account says 'private' or 'business', maybe whats missing is a few promotions for business accounts, there were a few during and around covid lockdowns but none since, that does make for a wonky playing field. Maybe after getting a few promotions folk got used to it, ebay perhaps saw a big drop in listings as people awaited the next promotion to come along and now chicken and egg stylie it's became permanent fixture. If they stopped it it would sent folk elsewhere, definitely needs to be more for the business sellers. p.s blimey you get up early!!!

[da-vids2]

Agree, they could easily give that for no extra cost or absolutely minimal fee, would be good for all concerned, sellers, customers and ebay. The pricing for the shop can only really work for massive sellers where the cost would become insignificant, for most it is a meaningful percentage extra which debatably doesn't even pay for itself with more sales.

[hawvalh-0]

You don't want to sell on Ebay because the fees mean you make less money, so you're giving them away for free instead and getting no money at all...? 

[papso22]

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@hawvalh-0 wrote:

You don't want to sell on Ebay because the fees mean you make less money, so you're giving them away for free instead and getting no money at all...? 

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They have 161 live listings so never actually stopped selling at all.

[geocad_0]

Think Ebay have been trying to force out the small pocket money type traders for a while now ..sadly it all multi corporates on the site

[dougbat20]

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@papso22 wrote:

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@hawvalh-0 wrote:

You don't want to sell on Ebay because the fees mean you make less money, so you're giving them away for free instead and getting no money at all...? 

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They have 161 live listings so never actually stopped selling at all.

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Maybe they got an 80% offer and started listing again? you may never know.

[christian_888]

What’s applicable to me may not relate to others for those who are selling to survive alternatively too giving clothes to charities for free which is where a percentage of pro active ebayers get their stock/auction taking into consideration eBay’s increased fees over and above RPi and the price you are knocked down by buyers for me it’s just time consuming and not worth all the hassle especially when buyers remorse kicks in as it often does you think do I need the hassle others retired or just trying to make ends meet I get it.
What eBay’s needs is some stiff competition in order to make it more competitive whilst reducing the selling fees.
Instead in a monopolised market place.


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