I read somewhere here on the message board to expect somewhere around 10% combined ebay and paypal fees. I did some calculations recently, and discovered my ebay plus paypal overhead is actually 18%. That includes store listing fees and auctions, but still, I am realizing the cost of doing biz here is MUCH higher I thought.

Hi,
I found today ebay UK changed without any warning the fees police. the reserve price fee was refunded if item sells and now it doesnt happen... i'm very frustated eBay and paypal fees eat all my profit
I'm considering leave eBay after 6 years!
Regards

Hello again.

lifeinblack1, back to your comment and my "18%" question...

I ran some numbers tonight and ebay stores are cheaper to operate than auctions. When combining all fees, including paypal, ebay stores are cheaper - if you have multiple quantity. If you only have a single item it might not be worth your time to create a single store product with only one quantity. Saying all of that, ebay stores are cheaper upto around the $300 mark, meaning, BIN vs ebay Store. After $300 bucks or so BIN auctions begin to get cheaper, but, if you upload 10 of the same items a month and sell them for $400 each, it might be cheaper than a store but what about your time. With a store you might not have to touch a thing whereas relisting 10 items is going to take at least 15-30 minutes of your time. 30 minutes of my time is at least $10. Think about things that way too.

Anyway, I thought I would share that with you. Happy Selling!

Camera Prices

Ebay is not an inexpensive way to move your products but it works sometimes. I don't know of any other effective alternative to Ebay & Paypal fees are abusive as most of us know. Let's say you try to price this selling expense between 7-10% into your product then it probably won't sell meaning the 7-10% expense is something you are going to have to eat if you want to sell your product.

I tend to think it depends on what you compare it with.

B&M stores have much higher costs.
There you would calculate your total revenue per square feet. Your eBay business is just a mouseclick away.

Even a yard/garage sale can be more expensive considering the time you spend in order to drive a certain amount of traffic. Try putting your stuff out in the yard for 7days ...

You pay for the traffic and the exposure on one of the biggest marketplaces in the world.

In the moment you spend your money on additional listing gimmicks like "bold" "framed" and such you might want to reconsider because that's where its getting ridiculously expensive.

_________________________________________________________ _______________________ The easiest way to make money on eBay? You should have bought their stocks years ago. Now it's just hard work.

I also thought that EBay's fees were too high. I calculated the fees out and found that the cheaper the item, the higher the fee percentage! An item sold for 99 cents costs around 30% in fees where an item selling for $99 would only cost around 7%. I don't believe that you can get wider exposure and more selling and buying tools for less anywhere. A B&M store here on Long Island costs a fortune to operate and these costs must be paid even if you don't sell anything. If you go on vacation, you still pay. Here, you only pay when you list (except for stores). I also believe that there are people out there selling items for prices below the cost of the same item to legitimate resellers. Either they have no idea how to price things to make a respectable profit or they got the stuff really cheap. Either way, these people won't be around that long because they will soon realize that they are actually losing money. 'nuff said.

I don't mind the fees so much, as long as the items sell. problem is there is a major slow down in sales all over and many auctions/sales end up unsold. That's when eBay fees start to hurt. You feel like you paid the fees and got nothing in return. The fee system needs to be changed somehow, so it is more fair towards the small sellers who can't afford to give 18% to 40% (!!!yes I read that on another board) out of their revenue to the ebay/paypal combo.

yes, very greedy and they will pay, looks like later,
but no alternative, for now.
to pay, and get moreless surely , so not big choice, in present,
what about their share's price.

I have an idea - I agree their new fee structure is total B.S. - Yes, the insertion fees need to be less and then if the item sells fine - divide that into the cost. But as the election nears and less people are letting go of there money now until they see what the economy will do - we are going to have a lot more non-sold listings.

Overall between the listing fee reduction - not counting free gallery - the total increase in fees assuming an item sells is about 25%. Ebay is not dealing with a raw product contigent on weather conditions or ??? They just want more revenue to keep their executive salaries up and keep the shareholders happy without assuming any risk as an Ebay seller.

My solution is simple - everyone get together and boycott ebay for just one day this month. If they take notice fine - if not let's hit them again next month - this time for two days. We are the engine behind Ebay - not the other way around.

Let's pick a day and go for it. If you've got some ideas on how to make it work, throw them in. Trust me though - this will hurt Ebay more so than any one of us - just one day can add up to millions in revenue for Ebay if we all join in.

I noticed in yesterdays discussions at another forum, one seller making the remark that they thought the fees were totally fair - "...just go out and try to find something better" was the gist of their argument. And to conclude they remarked, "If you don't like it then don't sell here, you knew what the fees were when you signed up."

What an ignorant seller. Oh yes, they would love to see these new sellers gone, their mentality is if they're the only gig left standing they will be the winner not realizing it is all of us small volume sellers and large volume sellers that make Ebay what it is. You help yourself up by helping someone else up. Anyway that is the way it works in rock climbing. LOL And yes, business also!

So let's jump in and help each other in getting to the top with some ideas and let's put them into action!

Your turn, Randy

oh yeah!! i have closed the store i was running to help Loving Paws Assistance Dogs because it was costing so much that i was not making enough for LP to make it worth my extra time and effort. and i am in the process of closing my store, primarily because of the horrendous fees. i have already removed 200+ of my highest priced items that i am putting on my new website store so i do not have to continue to support ebay while they have not supported me with responses to suggestions and questions. and thhey have recently totally messed up almost 200 of my listings that were on sale--they said they could not fix it and would not compensate me for my income and time lost. now all of sudden they come with an announcement of how they are reducing the fees but if you look closely you will see they did drop the listing fees by a few pennies and are going to give the gallery pic for free (a whole penny!)BUT the FVF will go up considerably!!! after many years, i find ebay has gotten greedy, unsupportive and at times even impolite. i cannot take the stress anymore....

carlenef

actually i just posted a message similar to this one but i see it did not get posted--yet another ebay glitch! so here are my thoughts again; please excuse the redundancy if ebay suddenly posts the first message. i have been overwhelmed with ebay. they messed up about 200 of my sale items and would not fix it or compensate me for income and time lost as i spent hours fixing each item. plus their fees are over the top; i owe them nearly $800 for Jan!! so, after a couple of years of complaints, suggestions, and requests for help which have all been treated superficially i am fed up with them. i have closed the store i was running for Loving Paws Assistance Dogs because i could not make enough money for them once i paid all of the fees. now i am getting ready to close my TurtleBear store; my webmistress is redesigning my website and i have pulled all of my highest priced items out of my ebay store and will put them on the new site eventually; i did not want them to sell so ebay would get their big % cut. i will keep some items in the ebay store but limit them to lower priced items so i do not have to give ebay all of my income. i am running sales until my inventory gets reduced substantially, again to lower what i have to give to ebay. they have become greedy, snobbish with their sellers, and unresponsive---i cannot take the stress any more.

carlenef

I SUGGEST You ALL CHECK THE FEE SCHEDULE for the Final Value FEES:
http://pages.ebay.com/sell/update08/basic/index.html

The listing fee went down but that is NOTHING (THEY KNOW NOTHING!!!!!) compared to the FInal VALUE Fee INCREASE!!! THeir margin used to be at 10% including PAYPAL commmissions. NOW it is defintely going higher!!! THey are treating us like SH$#! Powersellers please revies this matter and protest.

ANother thing, the new feedback does not allow POWERSELLERS to leave negative feedback to BUYERS>WHat the hell is that!!! Feedback change link:

http://pages.ebay.com/sell/update08/rewards/index.html#4
"Buyers will only be able to receive positive Feedback"