The fees are outrageous!

[jazzyxena]

Is it just me or the amount of money ebay is taking from sellers now making it not worth selling anymore? They are even putting fees on the sales tax??? What on earth? They are being extremely greedy 😡

[femmefan1946]

So we are all on the same page: here are the current fees.

https://www.ebay.com/help/selling/fees-credits-invoices/selling-fees?id=4822

Note that fees are charged on the buyer's ENTIRE payment, including sales taxes the seller never touches, and that there is a non-refundable fee of 30c per transaction.

The fee you will see used most here will be 12.9% since that is the most common percentage, although as you can see they run from 0.05% to 15% .

Sellers can opt to pay a Promoted Listing surcharge of at least 2%. Or not.

Sellers who have accumulated Defects for poor customer service may have a surcharge of 5% on their fees which can last for 12 months or until the Defects time out.

For which eBay presents our products to some 25million potential customers world wide, offers discounts on shipping labels, and processes both the sales taxes being paid by our buyers and the payments from those buyers.

[jazzyxena]

Sold a figure for $25 they took $6, seems excessive, why are they charging fees on shipping and taxes??

[zee-chan]

Why?  That's not something any of us fellow sellers can answer, and I'm sure phoning customer service over this would be a waste of time too. Bottom line is, if you are listing here then you agree to follow ebay rules and pay the applicable fees... or find a different selling venue. Don't waste your time and energy getting angry over something you have no control over.

[reallynicestamps · Accepted solution]

All payment processors charge their fees on the entire amount processed.

This has been true for decades, certainly since we got our first merchant credit card accounts back in the '80s and likely before that.  It is Standard Practice in the processing industry.

Paypal did the same, but because PP charged its fees on each transaction while eBay charged theirs monthly, most sellers did not notice.

With Managed Payments the fees are more transparent.

And the new Internet (state and provincial) Sales Tax, sellers are finally looking at how their fees add up.

[byto253]

That is true but PP nor merchant card companies charged 12.9%.   If I recall correctly in the late 80s we had a merchant card machine for convenience and paid the top rate as we did not have high volume through it and the fees were under 5%.  And in those days there was a lot more labour involved in processing card receipts. 

For eBay it is a convenient way to raise fee revenue but still say fees are 12.9%, aka a back door fee increase.  But that is the lay of the land and each of us has to decide if it is worth it.   My effective fees on the sale amount are in the 15% range and that works for me. 

For the OP, could you have gotten $25 on the local FBM or Kijiji, and as quickly?  If so then that would be a better option.  For a lot of things ebay will fetch $25 while local is $10 to $15. 

[mrdutch1001]

apparently you have been living under a rock all thes years and not paying any attention to your sales expenditures?

seems like this is just another venting thread from a long time seller who doesn't "keep up with the times"...

This is eBay's site, these are eBay's fees, rules and policies...and as sellers we agree to their terms of use, their fees, their ways of conducting business on their site....

[marnotom!]

---

@byto253 wrote:

That is true but PP nor merchant card companies charged 12.9%.   If I recall correctly in the late 80s we had a merchant card machine for convenience and paid the top rate as we did not have high volume through it and the fees were under 5%.  And in those days there was a lot more labour involved in processing card receipts. 

---

You may recall that when Managed Payments was being phased in, eBay's FVF percentages were adjusted so that they were less than the total of its previous FVF percentage + PayPal percentage in recognizition of the fact that the eBay FVFs now encompassed the entire transaction.

[marnotom!]

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@jazzyxena wrote:

Sold a figure for $25 they took $6, seems excessive, why are they charging fees on shipping and taxes??

---

If you offered "free" shipping by adding the shipping charge to the item charge, would you feel it's fair that sellers who don't do that get charged fees only on the item charge?  Charging fees on shipping levels the playing field.  It also discourages sellers from selling items for cheap but inflating their shipping charges.

[rocketscollectibles]

Did a sale the other day the buyer paid $265.00, my payment was $175.00. With taxes now it looks even worse. Still had a $15-20 shipping to pay on that amount, to ship a small bubble mailer... eBay, gouverment, post canada, it's just legal robbery. We are their source, they gotta exploit it 

[byto253]

But fees on the sales tax came in to effect after that "adjustment" aka back door fee increase.  And for me the fee % went up a bit with managed payments, it was not neutral but still in the workable ballpark.

[reallynicestamps]

@rocketscollectibles 

The $265 your buyer paid included the shipping, which you will buy from the payment.

So if your item sold for $250 plus $15 shipping the ENTIRE payment attracted fees of 30c+ 34.18 @ 12.9%. Not $90.

If your item sold for $265 + shipping the fees on the ENTIRE payment of $280 attracted fees.

Because it was not a sale on this account we can't see which applies. How were the $90 in fees assessed?

[rocketscollectibles]

Actually it's $195 that left. There was promoted fee in it, can't sell in my category without it. Same for shipping cost, seller must absorb it. People won't pay $120 for $100 worth of items they'll just find someone else to sell it $100 to them. Paid $37 fees + $15-20 shipping for this transaction. And on this transaction it was $35 of taxes that a few months ago would have been in seller or buyer pockets instead

eBay, gouvnement and canada post basically split 40% of what buyers pays

[mrdutch1001]

when still with PP, my sales fees were in that 14-15% range and now with Managed Payments my eBay fees are about 16%...still doable and compared to other selling sites still acceptable...

for me Etsy fees % is about same as eBay....

and my other selling site is 5-12% depending on what level of advertising I choose at any given time. These other 2 selling sites bring me more sales than eBay which is why I am gradually phasing out my eBay selling...will still keep a few listings on eBay for another 6 months, but thereafter, yet to be determnined...

[ricarmic]

I'm with @mrdutch1001  I also sell on a number of sites and the relative % for me is very consistent across sites, in the 15-20% range depending on how much relative "advertising" type activity I choose on each site.

For those old enough to remember the "before the internet" days, 15-20% "advertising" cost was not bad at all, especially when trying to attract folks outside the country! 

[reallynicestamps]

Same for shipping cost, seller must absorb it.

The idea with Free Shipping is that it is a marketing tool, because everyone likes something free.

That's why Buy One Get One (BOGO) sales are such a popular promotion. Consumers like them better than a 50% off sale on both items. Plus the shop gets rid of two deadstock* items.

Or "we pay the sales tax" sales, which again are more popular than taking 25-30% off the price, even if the item is sold at it's normal price less 13% tax.

Is the problem that the market has decided that the price for a given item is $10 and not a penny more leading to rejecting items that are $10+$1 shipping, even though $10 doesn't give the seller a profit after all expenses?  Not saying your  prices are too high, just a though experiment.

*Deadstock is an item that is out of season, or shop soiled, or no longer as popular as it once was. Think bathing suits in September or fidget spinners.

[jazzyxena]

No need to reply if you're going to be rude and useless.

[reallynicestamps]

And yet you just did.

[byto253]

Interesting, I wondered what Etsy fees were.  And that is my experience pre and post eBay MP.  I have top rated now on .com so get the 10% discount and that helps a bit. 

I would like to do book stuff, it is an interest but shipping can't compete with USPS media mail unless it is something pretty special.  

[dobo5250]

you are right its worse than it was before -- making less doing more  than when i started - it always around 12-15% ebay cost to do business here to sell --- today my cost of sales is  24% ebay and that is a improvement over last month- i have reined in my shipping costs a bit to about 2-4% of total sales- so total cost of doing busines for me is about 30% including storage fees and supplies  almost a third of sales --  i work twice as many hours redoing listings and starting sales listing new items -- my acountant keeps telling me to just give up  making about $3-4 dollars an hour when working at this about 35 hours a week - with storage fees going up in the new year --  i wish i could do local  but i can't with health issues or i would sell local - i tried other sites but they where not successful- the saying is "it is what it is "- and until i get my promo listing back and reduced  selling fees taken off - maybe next month iam hoping -- i have to accept i was sold a bill of goods three years ago - that frankly was a lie-- and i was gullable to those  canadian you tubers- that told me this was the golden ticket  to freedom and out of my finacial  problems -- all lies - but i have to swollow and keep working at this  till i get rid of  my inventory ----- hopefully before i die