eBay fees are killing me - Comic books

[galeascomics]

My current average sale is $8.75. Selling fees are 21.1%. 

Comic books are already hit with the highest final cost fee. Now eBay is changing how they calculate promoted listings, which I rely heavily on. My shipping fees are 40% of my total sales. Almost 25% of my sales come from promoted listing. I either have to cut my sales significantly or pay eBay significantly higher fees. This might make eBay unviable for me to use. Is there anything we can do about this?

[electronicsextraordinaire]

These fee increases impact all sellers, so feel free to raise your prices to break-even on it. Other sellers will raise theirs too. Ultimately higher fees = higher prices = buyers get driven to other marketplaces.

Don't feel guilty about moving sales and listings elsewhere and letting eBay earn 0% on a sale instead of >0%. 

Many products have a product-specific place to list those items for sale. See what's out there for comic books. That's where buyers end up when they get fed up with eBay's pricing being higher than elsewhere. But if a buyer wants to pay for eBay's convenience, so be it. Let them pay.

Sadly, eBay is going the way of Canada Post, thinking they can perpetually increase costs and nobody will leave, but leave they will. When it costs me $20 to ship a 600g box to another major city, I understand how the giant river company is putting ebay+CP out of business

[reallynicestamps]

Your selling cost is charged to and paid by your buyer not by you.

You pay the same fee on the selling price and the shipping price and any sales taxes your buyers in the US or UK may have to pay.

But you don't pay the shipping.

You get money from the buyer and use it to buy  shipping.

This is also true if you offer Free Shipping (Don't Panic!). Free Shipping means you have included your shipping costs in your asking price

Which is cheaper a $5 book with $5 shipping or a $10 book with Free Shipping?

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

Are you listing as Collectibles at 12.9% or as Books and Magazines at 14.6%?

If you have been calculating your shipping cost as a fee, you're making a common mistake among new sellers who haven't worked retail (or mail order).

You have another post about Promoted Listing costs.

[recped]

Ultimately higher fees = higher prices = buyers get driven to other marketplaces.

When they have finished their "drive" all they will see is MORE high prices! Do you think eBay is the only marketplace experiencing inflation and raising fees?

I'm not sure how the OP calculates their "average sale" but I think they are including shipping since the bulk of their sales are Sub $5 items. Not only that but there is no cushion on their shipping charges so they are probably losing on that as well.

It's just not a good strategy that isn't really viable no matter where they would sell unless they were doing truly massive volume.

[electronicsextraordinaire]

"When they have finished their "drive" all they will see is MORE high prices! Do you think eBay is the only marketplace experiencing inflation and raising fees?"

As OP seems to be selling in a single niche (comics), there's gotta be a niche forum/marketplace for that which charges small/zero fees because they're oriented to their community or just care enough to make enough to make a comfortable living. I know those exist for vinyl records and bike parts. And failing that, MarkZuck's place can work beyond face-to-face transactions. 

Overall, eBay as a company has been doing okay, but its proportion of online shopping is dwindling.

[dobo5250]

I am with you on this one - i feel your pain as it is the same as me - my total costs are closing in on 50 % of sales  with the cost of goods not included so profits (what i earn) are around 10 percent including all costs -

if i clear 100 dollars a week i think i hit a gold mine - as i have posted here before - my accountant  told me to quit - i made about $2.50 a hour with all the labor hours i put in  avg over the last fiscal quarter- but like a lot of others ebayers here failure is not an option---- too much money/time invested in this -- need to get some return in the late later part of my life - we got sucked in to this way to sell- by ebayers telling how easy it was high profits-- at home work-- your own hours --etc.etc.etc. -- we will keep pluging maybe it will get better -- hope so

[comics_from_mars]

Yep GREEDflation is real. The few rich are price gauging us, and eBay is a part of that. Its impossible to make profits on here between the cheapskates and low ball offers, combined with fees, eBay is not a sustainable means of running a business.

[brettjet38]

Zombie thread from 04-30-2022 02:47 AM

[kh-cathy]

Hi everyone,

Due to the age of this thread, it has been closed to further replies. Please feel free to start a new thread if you wish to continue to discuss this topic.

Thank you for understanding.