It's very difficult for the little guy on ebay.I am paying about 17% in fees to EBay and Paypal

[momcqueen]

Your paypal fees are less if you list your items in CAD and restrict your sales to Canadians. If you became a top seller, your final value fees drop a little. But, otherwise, yes. It's a bit of a shock at the end of the day. You might have to look at your prices and add an additional 17 per cent to cover fees. I factor paying a third of my 'sale' to ebay/paypal fees by the time everything is totalled: store subscription, listing upgrades, international site visibility etc. 

[recped]

With a very few exceptions ALL sellers pay the same fees. Big or small has nothing to do with it.

[mdf_jersey]

Ebay is not for everyone. From the day Ebay first started ,up to today, Ebay is been killing the little guy. Todays ebay has a larger base of sellers meaning much more competition to what I feel is a diminishing buyer population.

To sell in ebay today and be some what successful you need to look at what you are selling, what is your cost and what is your profit margin. Can you sell quantity for a low price and be profitable or can you sell few items for a higher price and still maintain your desired level of profit.

The perfect model to me would be able to get my stock cheap. Be able to sustain and 100% markup and sell enough based on your pricing and expectations. Unfortunately to many small sellers paid a reasonable dollar on what they sell and over estimate the value and find that they are basically doomed complaining about Ebay and Pay pal fees, Low sales, not enough traffic, and so on.

BUT WHAT DO i KNOW

[recped]

From the day Ebay first started ,up to today, Ebay is been killing the little guy.

You have that completely backwards. eBay has done nothing but ENABLE the little guy.

Todays ebay has a larger base of sellers meaning much more competition to what I feel is a diminishing buyer population.

You got that half right, there are many more sellers chasing buyers but there are also more buyers spending more money. One only needs to check the numbers, I think with the exception of one quarter a couple of years ago the amount of sales on the site have continuously increased.

[mr.elmwood]

There are millions of small sellers, always has been. eBya does not really make it easy, but, if you have a professional attitude and understanding, everyone will do fine.

17% fees? Um, er, no. Mine average about 16%. The exchange rate is running around 12% reducing my fees to 4%. I buy in Cdn and sell in American. I pay my eBay fees through PP, no exchange.

My net fees are 4%.

[mdf_jersey]

"You got that half right, there are many more sellers chasing buyers but there are also more buyers spending more money. One only needs to check the numbers, I think with the exception of one quarter a couple of years ago the amount of sales on the site have continuously increased."

Im going to disagree with you. The numbers show that Ebay has increased profits, yearly. No one disputes this.What the numbers do not show is the increase or decrease of what sellers make today versus what they made in the previous years or what is the ratio in sellers vrs buyers from years ago. I know for myself and I have heard from many others on this board and in other conversations that sales were far better before. For me 2004-2007 were amazing. If we are to believe that buyers have increased with the same ratio as new sellers, we would all be doing better. It no secret that sales for most sellers on Ebay today are down due to events earlier this year, and sorry to say, it is because of a lack of buyer confidence in Ebay, which means lack of buyers in general.

Fiscal year is January-December. All values USD millions. 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 5-year trend

Sales/Revenue

8.71B

9.15B

11.68B

14.03B

16.05B