I have a question about the 10% final shipping fee, 10% for selling, 10% for shipping, fees are high

[rfl101ray]

10% final shipping fee and 10% selling fee, plus the paypal fee, Ebay is forcing a seller to over charge for shipping to cover the extra shipping fees

[mr.elmwood]

I don't, I mostly do free shipping.

[pierrelebel]

If you open an eBay store, you would save on FVFs.

[mr.elmwood]

Open a store and work up to TRS and get further discounts off of fees. When eBay brought in FVF on shipping, they lowered other fees. I ended up paying less in fees.

Factor in the decline of the Loonie against the greenback. Three years ago, Small packet, under 250 grams, cost me $8 US to mail. Three years later, that has dropped to $6.50.

[tobyshitzu]

store would cost op more then the 1% would save

It just doesn't work in Canada with canada post rates to sell things like the tea cups where postage is more the half the gross sale

[mr.elmwood]

I make my store cost back on the first morning of every month. Takes me another 2 days to earn ALL other fees for the month.

[tobyshitzu]

I didnt say what you did, I said OP would lose money with a store being there is only  1% fvf saving and no where near enough sales

[rose-dee]

Even though sales turnover has slumped for me in the past few months, it still only takes one small sale to pay for my monthly store fees.  

There are also many other features of a store that have real value beyond the mere consideration of fees.  I think this is something a lot of sellers ignore.  To my mind, if you're planning on staying on eBay for the longer term, being able to establish a "brand" with a store is worth far more than the monthly cost of store fees.  The marketing tools alone are worth the monthly fee.  

Besides, I rarely if ever, pay a penny in listing fees above my store subscription even if I exceed the allowable limit of listings, with all the promos available.  Now that eBay has increased the listing limits for stores, it's an even better deal.  

Of course, that may not be the case for an occasional or "hobby" seller, but for someone looking to sell regularly, it's a serious consideration. 

[mr.elmwood]

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@toby**bleep**zu wrote:

I didnt say what you did, I said OP would lose money with a store being there is only  1% fvf saving and no where near enough sales

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So, I checked. Basic selling fees, no store, free shipping, motors, parts & accessories, $100 sale  = $10 fees

With a store, same fees are                                                                                                               = $8

TRS and the fees become                                                                                                                = $6.40

That is a difference of not 1% less, but, 36% less.

[pierrelebel]

That's for car parts

In "stamps"  it goes down from 10% to 6% or 4.8% only is you qualified as TRS.

[tobyshitzu]

For op the saving is 1%. Nothing to do with you.  $2,000 in sales just to break even on a store, $2500 if op got to TRS.  Being it wouldn't be a good idea to start off comitting to a year.  If OP got the free month offer could take that and cancel, wont save very much.  Paying for a store would only increase the fees

[tobyshitzu]

of course even if op wanted to and managed to massively increase sales to the point a store saved any money, saving 1% in fess on the CP parcel rates would not make any difference at all to the issue of fees on selling tea cups etc in Canada  (what the thread is actually about)

[rose-dee]

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@toby**bleep**zu wrote:

$2,000 in sales just to break even on a store, $2500 if op got to TRS.  

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How do you figure that?  Are you talking monthly or yearly?  Neither one makes sense to me, especially not monthly. 

[mr.elmwood]

The thread is actually about the OP complaining about fees. Both Pierre and I have demonstrated that fees can be manipulated. I demonstrated a 36% decrease. Pierre showed a whopping 52% decline.

[tobyshitzu]

Okay, tell us how the OP can save fees when paying for a store increases their fees?  

[tobyshitzu]

"How do you figure that? Are you talking monthly or yearly? Neither one makes sense to me, especially not monthly. "

Its incredibly simple math. Store is $20. Store saves op's categories 1% fvf. 1% of $2000 is $20. At TRS you already get 20% off, so it takes $2500 in gross sales for 1% to save $20. That would be just to break even and not get any fee saving from a store. To actually save money monthly sales have to exceed $2,000/2500. Even then its only 1% or .8%(TRS). So Ops $12 shipping would save...12 cents, after $2,000 in sales

It would make no sense at all for the op to subscribe to a store, nor make any difference for the problem indentified even if it did

[rose-dee]

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@mr.elmwood wrote:

The thread is actually about the OP complaining about fees. Both Pierre and I have demonstrated that fees can be manipulated. I demonstrated a 36% decrease. Pierre showed a whopping 52% decline.

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I agree, and here's the thing.  The OP could actually reduce his FVFs on shipping to $0 with the proper strategy.  I know because I've done just that.  For items (like cups and saucers) that require expensive parcel shipping within Canada, that savings could be very substantial every month.  

If he has a store and works up to TRS, then his FVFs on item sales would also drop, maybe not as low as Pierre's (since stamps have a preferential FVF rate), but there are considerable savings available if the OP wants to take advantage of them.   Since it seems the OP is selling 10 or 12 items per month of varying value, I can't see the financial down side in having a store -- even a month-to-month subscription -- unless he doesn't plan to sell on eBay for more than a few months. 

[tobyshitzu]

You don't understand the fees here if you think ops sales could save anything with a store

[reallynicestamps]

Even with Calculated Shipping, which I certainly hope you are using, you can add a Handling fee to cover fees, insurance and packaging costs.

Or you can add these costs into your asking prices.

If you go for Free Shipping, which takes more massaging of prices, all of your costs, including postage, are included in the asking price.

Have you considered that your asking prices (in the $5-$8 range) may be too low to make a profit on your sales?

And consider that buyers hate paying shipping, even fair shipping like yours, Free Shipping might increase your sales.

[rose-dee]

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@toby**bleep**zu wrote:
Its incredibly simple math. Store is $20. Store saves op's categories 1% fvf. 1% of $2000 is $20. At TRS you already get 20% off, so it takes $2500 in gross sales for 1% to save $20. That would be just to break even and not get any fee saving from a store. To actually save money monthly sales have to exceed $2,000/2500. Even then its only 1% or .8%(TRS). So Ops $12 shipping would save...12 cents, after $2,000 in sales

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I'm not sure I follow your logic.  The OP currently has only 26 items listed.  With a store, the potential now is more than 10 times that number of listings -- for one listing fee.  One thing I've found to be true is that the more you list, the more you sell.  

So one would have to calculate what the OP would be paying currently in listing fees to list, say, 300 items per month, against the $19.95 (or $15.95) it would cost for a store.  That is, if the OP really wants to be a regular seller.  I don't know what that calculation is because I've always had a store.  Perhaps someone could really help the OP by comparing apples to apples, listing fees without vs. listing fees with a store, for ca. 300 items per month. 

However, it seems to me the OP was complaining primarily about FVFs, not listing fees.  The savings on the listing end with a store helps to offset some of the FVF costs, since it really only takes 1 sale per month to recoup the store listing fees.  That's the whole point -- shifting savings on one side to the costs on the other, not comparing merely listing fees.  As I said, I rarely pay FVFs on shipping, and I use Expedited and Xpresspost quite a lot.  With the right strategy, it's possible to do.   

In addition, as I said, if the OP planned to stay on eBay for some time, in my opinion the value of having a store goes far beyond the mere cost of listing/FVFs.  If this weren't true, sales agreements for even small businesses wouldn't include a substantial cost for "goodwill", "trademarks", "client lists", etc.