eBay Business Seller fees - Ridiculous on high value items - Time to leave?

[carbubbleuk]

Hi All,

In a bid to remain competitive and actually make a profit that is worthwhile, I may need to leave eBay. After 25 years of being here, and perhaps the last 4 years of selling my products, I just can't cope with the high fees anymore, with my own costs increasing, I just can't swollow the high seller fees. 

If I sell an item for £575, eBay take £77.99 of that! It is cheaper to sell a Ferrari. 

I do pretty well on Facebook/Instagram which costs me the advertising I choose to pay for, £77.99 of advertising goes a long way! I have been told to get on TikTok which I will explore. I may explore Amazon but I hear it's costly there and does not really suit my products which are made to order in many cases.

Am I missing something, like seller offers or a feature to reduce fee's based on quantities or something?

My items are listed under their obvious and correct catergories. 

Considering that it is free to list as a private seller and other marketplaces, the business fees are just a joke. Unless I have missed something, I think that's it for me here. 

Look forward to any help here. 

[4_bathrooms]

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@carbubbleuk wrote:

If I sell an item for £575, eBay take £77.99 of that! It is cheaper to sell a Ferrari. 

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The category you are selling in - Vehicle Parts & Accessories - attracts a final value fee of 8.9% (+VAT). That particular category (apart from the subcategories shown) doesn't have proportional FVF reductions for a sale value over a certain threshold so the FVF will always be 8.9% (+VAT) regardless of the sale total. There is also an obligatory "regulatory operating fee" of 0.35% (+VAT) on top of everything. Therefore, without any other fees the minimum you would pay on a £575 sale is:

FVF @ 8.9%: £51.18

ROF @ 0.35%: £2.13

VAT: £10.67

Total: £63.98

You will need to look at the fee breakdown in each transaction to see where you're attracting other fees from such as the international fee. It doesn't look like you're paying eBay to promote your listings so you shouldn't have any costs from that.

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@carbubbleuk wrote:

Am I missing something, like seller offers or a feature to reduce fee's based on quantities or something?

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As mentioned; some categories offer reduced FVFs for the portion of the sale over a certain threshold but this isn't the case for the category you list in. Also, eBay used to offer business sellers reduced FVFs once the total value of their quarterly/annual sales surpassed certain thresholds but they abolished all such discounts in late 2021. If you're a business trading correctly eBay is a very expensive place to sell these days. 

[carbubbleuk]

Thanks for taking the time to reply. 

I should have mentioned, the 77.99 example was for an inflatable baloon globe, in catergory, 

Other Inflatables

in Toys & Games > Outdoor Toys & Activities > Bouncy Castles & Inflatables

Thanks for your input there, it's a real shame that they are fleecing sellers so much, I can't justify the fees to be honest, it's not worth it and I'm doing a dis service to the customers I want to help by charging much more than I want.