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Hi Ross.
I am in the same boat for many listings.
Last night at the eBay Town Hall:
"Caller named Jason: Who does the new fee change benefit? He sees a 55% increase in FVF fees. He doesn't care if he has to spend $2 to list items if he can sell it, he cares about the commission fees going up. What's the point of having a Store, he asks.
eBay's Brian Hsu: Not everyone will see a fee decrease. Especially higher ASP (Average Selling Price) items. Advice: be in the right Store tier, duration discount."
"Advice: be in the right Store tier, duration discount" ??? Does that answer the question? Of course not.
To be honest, the worst part was receiving an email from eBay titled:
"Up to 150 FREE listings* every month and 21% lower fees for you!"
Then, eBay has the audacity to state:
"Great news for you! Based on your recent selling activity, your fees will be 21% lower than they are today!"
Are they nuts? Why lie to me? Don't they know by now that I can understand numbers? I am not stupid. eBay will not sell me that bull.
On the other side, I am old and retired. Most of my inventory is gone and I have closed my eBay store last year. In addition to using public philatelic auctions and selling directly to other dealers and regular old-time customers, I currently use eBay to liquidate inventory.
The increase in fees and, most importantly the change of policy making all fixed price listings de facto "immediate payment required" may require reconsideration and change in my plans. Let's face it: I no longer need eBay to build my business.
That was then... this is now.
I feel you pain or more accurately I felt your pain.
Low value items got badly screwed with "lowest fees ever" and "fvf on shipping" in past fee realignments now it's the turn for sellers of higher priced items to apply some lube.
"over the years must have generated a lot of profit for eBay"
True and eBay has generated a lot of profit for me! 🙂
More importantly, and I have always admited it openly, I have used eBay to build my list of 9,000 worldwide customers. Many customers acquired on eBay became regular direct customers from my website where prices were slightly lower although I have always been very careful not to break the "fee avoidance" rules.
The best example I can give goes way back to 1999 when I sold a $5,000 face lot at auction on eBay (we had no fixed price listings in those days) to a BC customer. In the course of the next two years, that customer purchased twelve similar lots (one every two months) directly. 🙂
" what do they do to repay you"
Frankly I do not see it that way. It is all business, only business. They have no loyalty to their customers (sellers) and, as such, should expect no loyalty from their customers. Sometimes I wish it were different but, it is what it is.
" or add the appropriate amount of dollars onto each one to fully cover my costs"
As you know, that is easier said than done. At the end of the day, the buyers decide what an item is worth. Buyers do not care about eBay and PayPal fees payable by sellers. Their main concern is - as it should be - what value do they get for their money.
"Is that radio really worth $220 ? Or would I only buy it for $200 ?" Different buyers may have different answers to those questions.
Life is full of challenges.
I feel sorry for new sellers on eBay. They will never know or understand how good we had it in the "good old days". 🙂
And life does go on.
"But the same thing has been said after any major policy or fee change."
Quite true.
However, this is the first fee change in fifteen years where higher priced items are really hit with a major fee increase. Previous fee increases had little effect on high priced items ($500+). This time it is really different, more so for "stuff" selling at prices exceeding $1,000.
As always, time will tell (but I can tell you right now that my high priced items will not be listed on eBay once the new fee structure takes affect).
