eBay

moggsdoggs · ‎08-05-2014

Well, I've just sold my last item on eBay....

Vintage Dinky Toy airplane : Sold for $5.34 CDN to International buyer

Shipping: $9.40 CDN

Final Value Fees (eBay): $3.42 CDN

PayPal fees: .89 CDN

.....which means that I made a grand total of one dollar and three cents. Definitely NOT worth the time and effort.

WHY eBay finds it necessary to claw back fees from the shipping is beyond me. Yes, I've read in other posts that it's because some sellers will charge "0.99 for an item", and then charge "60.00 for shpping". Fine....then penalize THOSE sellers, and not the ones who are charging for the ACTUAL shipping cost. This is the final straw for me.....Webstore is looking better all the time!

ronny_resistor · ‎08-19-2014

If your selling stamps vs selling 2 Kg of Lego yes it makes a big difference.

pjcdn2005 · ‎08-20-2014

In some categories you can list up to 100 items per month for free but you have to use auctions, not fixed price.

boris1954wine · ‎04-25-2015

can we say GREED! Amazon will gladly take your money.......eBay....sucks!

@moggsdoggs wrote:
Well, I've just sold my last item on eBay....

Vintage Dinky Toy airplane : Sold for $5.34 CDN to International buyer

Shipping:   $9.40 CDN

Final Value Fees (eBay): $3.42 CDN

PayPal fees: .89 CDN

.....which means that I made a grand total of one dollar and three cents.   Definitely NOT worth the time and effort.

WHY eBay finds it necessary to claw back fees from the shipping is beyond me. Yes, I've read in other posts that it's because some sellers will charge "0.99 for an item", and then charge "60.00 for shpping".   Fine....then penalize THOSE sellers, and not the ones who are charging for the ACTUAL shipping cost. This is the final straw for me.....Webstore is looking better all the time!

mr.elmwood · ‎04-26-2015

On a $14.99 US dollar sale

All fees: $2.34
Shipping: $6.83
Convert to Cdn: x 1.26
I made: $7.33 Cdn

eBay is not for everyone and it is certainly not for everything.

.
.
.

femmefan1946 · ‎04-26-2015

A thread that was resurrected from the grave after nearly a year, but oh well.

Or, if you use the shipping calculator= no fees. Flat rate shipping= fvf fees. There was surely an alternative solution.

If the reason for adding the FVF to shipping were to combat the postage scammers, this is actually a pretty good idea.

If your selling stamps vs selling 2 Kg of Lego yes it makes a big difference.
I have a stamp up at $2400 at the moment. With ‘Free’ Shipping.
I think I will be paying more to ship it than you will for your Legos.

remember the 5 cent listing days ??
Most of my listings in my Store are a nickel a month on relist, but the first month my listings are free.
If you can’t make money because of a 30 cent (or less) listing fee, then you are selling the wrong item at the wrong price.

mr.elmwood · ‎04-27-2015

@femmefan1946 wrote:
A thread that was resurrected from the grave after nearly a year, but oh well.

Or, if you use the shipping calculator= no fees. Flat rate shipping= fvf fees. There was surely an alternative solution.

If the reason for adding the FVF to shipping were to combat the postage scammers, this is actually a pretty good idea.

If your selling stamps vs selling 2 Kg of Lego yes it makes a big difference.
I have a stamp up at $2400 at the moment. With ‘Free’ Shipping.
I think I will be paying more to ship it than you will for your Legos.

remember the 5 cent listing days ??
Most of my listings in my Store are a nickel a month on relist, but the first month my listings are free.
If you can’t make money because of a 30 cent (or less) listing fee, then you are selling the wrong item at the wrong price.

But, but, but, it is eBay's fault and they should do something!

.
.
.

rose-dee · ‎04-27-2015

@mr.elmwood wrote:

But, but, but, it is eBay's fault and they should do something!

Those of us who have been around here for a while know there are many ways to avoid paying any more fees (FVFs or listing fees) than absolutely essential. I'm getting a bit weary of offering my hard-earned selling tips here gratis to people who don't care to hear, so I won't repeat them again (I imagine the OP is probably long gone anyway).

The other side of the coin is that I feel many people who come to sell on eBay have never had to pay what it costs to sell in the brick-and-mortar world (or online using their own website with properly secure commercial checkout features). They come here with an unrealistic concept (or no idea at all) of the costs those venues entail. None are cheap, all of them cost far more in the long run -- and get far less exposure -- than on eBay. In many situations, a combination of the two (eBay store + website sales) can be effective because eBay offsets some of the other costs!

My average total costs as a percentage of sales are usually between 7% and 11% here. However, I do use all the strategies eBay makes available that I can think of to keep those numbers down. On another site on which I sell, I pay lower fees, but I also get less exposure and fewer sales overall. There, the actual percentage is more like 15%. If you sell on consignment for example, or to an auction house, the percentages are even higher (I've been quoted up to 40%).

Rather than throwing their hands up, sellers with the OP's beliefs need to spend more time asking questions here (and listening carefully to the advice they get), as well as reading through eBay's policies and rules. The answers, as we know, are there, you just have to be willing to look for them.

ronny_resistor · ‎04-27-2016

EBay is loosing money like the Titanic, gone are the days where a seller can meet a buyer and sell. We started almost 6 years ago and did a lot of selling but e-bay has erroded to "buy now" and they own PayPal and pittney bowes shipping, there making a ton of money and not really adding any value other fvf. They can't go back to the list anything for 30 days for 5 cents, selling a dollar item is just not worth it

reallynicestamps · ‎04-27-2016

EBay is loosing money like the Titanic,

EBay had a $10 billion dollar profit in 2015

http://www.wikinvest.com/stock/EBay_%28EBAY%29/Data/Gross_Profit

they own PayPal

EBay has sold Paypal

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/sep/30/paypal-split-ebay-become-separate-company

and pittney bowes shipping

PitneyBowes is a shipping business that has been around since 1902 when it provided businesses with postal meters.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pitney_Bowes

They can't go back to the list anything for 30 days for 5 cents,

At the moment, eBay Canada has a free Fixed Price Listing promotion to encourage sellers to move their listings to Canadian dollars, which will be the only currency available for new listings after May, although existing listings will be grandfathered until August.

And here's another for June.

http://announcements.ebay.ca/2015/06/25/7692/

selling a dollar item is just not worth it

I agree with this statement.

cumos55 · ‎04-28-2016

eBay has changed .... significantly .......since this discussion started....

I had a big smile when I read some of what i wrote... so real... and Elmwood made it very much more interesting.

As sellers we have learned how to use eBay effectively..... a learning curve..... sometimes smooth... sometimes sharp

New things are here...... New things are coming, ....and .....more with each new year...

and I have new inventory to list, list and list more.....

Springtime is a great time of the year for finding new inventory..... books, books, and more, more books... lots of new inventory to list

ypdc_dennis · ‎04-28-2016

@reallynicestamps wrote:

They can't go back to the list anything for 30 days for 5 cents,
At the moment, eBay Canada has a free Fixed Price Listing promotion to encourage sellers to move their listings to Canadian dollars, which will be the only currency available for new listings after May, although existing listings will be grandfathered until August.
And here's another for June.
http://announcements.ebay.ca/2015/06/25/7692/

Most of us don't have time machines with a reverse gear.

The June link you give is for a 2015 offer.

-..-

rose-dee · ‎05-04-2016

@cumos55 wrote:
eBay has changed .... significantly .......since this discussion started....

Absolutely right, and there are some very radical changes that are going to mean serious shifts in strategy for many sellers. For me, it will mean completely re-thinking and probably re-organizing my way of selling. My previous strategies will no longer work, for various reasons.

I must say that the changes brought in by eBay over the past few months have been some of the most challenging and worrisome for me as a Canadian seller in particular, since I started many years ago here. I'm hoping I still have the flexibility and ability to overcome the hurdles eBay has put up.

jersey..authentix · ‎05-05-2016

ronny_resister wrote; "EBay is loosing money like the Titanic,"

We are the Titanic. Every Year it's getting harder and harder and more and more expensive to sell , to make either the same money or less.

Oh , and you know this is a 2014 threat, right?

dark_phoenix9273 · ‎05-07-2016

I absolutely agree, in many ways i would say Ebay discriminates against sellers outside of the US. Now a buyer stating they received an item is apparently not even proof they received the item.