What The Hell Is The International Fee For Private Sellers?

[fallen121]

I admit I must have been living under a rock or something, but I was under the impression that when eBay 1) Removed fees for private sellers and 2) Brought in the "Buyer Protection Fee" to try and claw some of this back. But the justification was always that I the seller derived a benefit in terms of I get to keep the exact cost that I am asking for my item. Which as a private seller doesn't really involve any level of profit.

What I DIDN'T know was that if I offer a book for sale for £12.99 and I buyer who just happens to live in Australia decides they want to buy it, I am charged an "International Fee" of 2.5% not just on the £12.99 price of the book but the £15.74 charged to the buyer for the book plus postage. This fee, currently 39p, is then subject to VAT of 8p, making a total cost to me of 47p because my buyer happens to live outside the UK, something which I did not know and have no control over. Well yes, I suppose I could limit my listings to UK only, but my understanding is that my next to negligible chances of making a sale are further reduced if I try to limit my market.

On what level is this even fair, WHAT EXACTLY AM I BEING CHARGED FOR in terms of an additional service to me (I presume as I am paying a fee I should derive some benefit?) and why is this fee never quoted during the listing process?

[jonatjonatjonat]

I would assume its some sort of fee associated with currency conversion.

It is noted on the fees page for private sellers

[papso22]

It's all explained on the ebay help page about fees for private sellers.

Your benefit was that ebay found you an international buyer.

[thesmokingrunner]

If only it were that straightforward @jonatjonatjonat ...

The International Selling Fee is separate from the Currency Conversion Fee. The page for which you included a link mentions an International Selling Fee of 3% if the delivery address for the item is outside the UK (in the section titled "International fee", if you page down to the section "Seller currency conversion charge" Paragraph 4 states "If your registered address is in the UK, the seller currency conversion charge applied and retained by us is 2.5%" ["us" being eBay]. The total of both charges would therefore be 5.5% on the total of item sale price plus shipping.

@fallen121 I think you'll probably find that eBay are taking 5.5% of the total paid by the buyer, not the 2.5% you mention in your post. eBay's "free to sell" is, at best, misleading: it's free to sell if the buyer is in the UK. An international sale will, as you have discovered, still attract fees for the seller.

[jonatjonatjonat]

Thanks for the pointers. It really isn’t clear what it is other than that it exists. Maybe it’s to pay for eBay’s CDN network.

do disagree that free to sell is misleading. It’s a top level marketing claim. And it’s true. You can potential sell at no cost to yourself. Of course there will be terms to that, but you could level that at most marketing claims.

i get messages via affiliates that I can get “1 month of Apple Music for 99p”. But that’s of course only true for new customers and it’s only 99p if I’m in the UK. But all that is in the terms. But you still need a top level marketing claim. Otherwise you end up with a paragraph that no one will read as your advert. If you push the free to sell line. What about packagaing? What about petrol to go to the post office?

[thesmokingrunner]

I think we'll have to agree to disagree on the misleading aspect of "free to sell".

Whilst the statement is correct up to point, it is only free to sell if the sale is made to a buyer who is registered - and whose shipping address is - in the same country; anything other than that and fees apply.

For example, if the buyer's account was originally created overseas but the buyer now lives in the UK and has a UK shipping address then the International Selling Fee would be levied. If, as in the case mentioned in this thread, the buyer is based overseas and pays using a currency other than GBP then both the International Selling Fee and the Currency Conversion Fee would be levied.

Although I do agree with you that it's a top-level marketing term and that any additional conditional information could lead to a paragraph which no-one would read, without the inclusion of "terms and conditions apply" to the claim "Free to sell" is misleading. At the very least it should read "It's free to sell for UK sellers to UK buyers".

Anything less is ambiguous - but that's the eBay way, isn't it?

[style_wise]

Thank you for raising this question, and to the responders. I thought I was paying 3% but I am actually paying 5.5% as @thesmokingrunner says. When you dig into the order details, eBay says this International Fee includes 'international, regulatory operating, and final value fees'. So the IF looks like a final value fee in sheep's clothing to me. I will now add 5.5% instead for the IF and the currency conversion.

[suelel1968]

Hi @fallen121. I largely agree with you especially if you are one of the sellers recently opted into GSP by eBay. The email sent out said nothing about fees which is very poor, but also typical. I have used GSP and made some good sales with no issues, but when I took the trouble to read the fees, it is much to random for my liking. It's not like you can decline the sale if the fee is to much, not without penalty anyway. I opted out recently. 

[a45heaven]

@papso22 

Didnt this fee get introduced about a year ago ? - along with the mysterious 'Regulation' fee which ebay dreamt up but wont explain what it is still- and i believe both fees were for both Private and Business sellers - i have no practical  experience of its application. As ebay were no help on  GPSR when it was introduced, i stopped all overseas selling on the ebay platform due to that.

Other platforms were helpful hence they got that business.

[papso22]

The international fee has been around as long as ebay has managed payments. 

[a45heaven]

@papso22 

oh ok - i thought differentiating twixt Private and Business Sellers was a new pastime.

Ah !!!!!! so they were inflicted upon sellers at the same time - Last updated on 1 September, 2024 - still ebay dont explain why they charge either fee still.

Regulatory operating fee

When your item sells, we charge a regulatory operating fee of 0.35%, calculated on the total amount of the sale. The total amount of the sale includes the item price, postage, and any applicable taxes.

International fee

If your registered address is in the UK, we charge an international fee when the delivery address for the item (entered by the buyer during checkout) is outside the UK, as shown in the table below.

This fee is calculated on the total amount of the sale and is automatically deducted from your sales proceeds. The total amount of the sale includes the item price, any handling charges, postage, and any applicable taxes.

[4_bathrooms]

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@a45heaven wrote:

Ah !!!!!! so they were inflicted upon sellers at the same time

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No, they were not. The international fee was introduced when Managed Payments was introduced in 2021:

The regulatory operating fee was introduced on 8th April last year. 

[wellingnorth]

It's a shame that ebay didn't work out a way of bundling these fees into the prices shown to international buyers when they introduced the Buyer Protection Fee.  

They're already showing different prices to UK buyers vs international buyers so I would have thought this should be feasible now?

Otherwise your only option is to add a bit onto the postage price, but that's a bit haphazard obviously.