Made my first sale on eBay, now I'm confused by eBay final value fees

[bspes-f2ttqxod3m]

Hi there! I just recently made my first sale on eBay (hurrah!). A simple PS2 memory card, put up for sale during a promo for free insertion fees. The buyer paid a buy-it-now price of $10 with a shipping cost of $15.48 (Canada Post Expedited), of which it says on the Paypal invoice that eBay took a fee of $1.04. This is fine. I received an email today saying that an automatic payment had been made to eBay for the item I sold this month. I check the Paypal invoice and it says I've made another $2.68 payment ($1.05 final value fee + $1.63 final value fee on shipping). I'm confused why another payment was made when eBay already got a payment when the item sold? I tried looking at the faqs on final value fees but it still didn't make anything clear for me. It just seems now that I'm paying a lot of fees on something that didn't sell for that much in the first place. Any help or clarification would be greatly appreciated. Thanks! Spencer

[pjcdn2005 · Accepted solution]

For domestic sales, Paypal charges 2.9% of the total plus a .30 transaction fee so the $1.04 was a Paypal fee, not an ebay fee. Paypal fees for a sale to a US buyer is 3.7% . For other countries the fee is 3.9%.

In most categories, ebay charges a 10% final value fee on the item price and shipping. They are also required to charge gst or hst so in your case that would be 5% added to your fvf.  You are right though...fees can really add up. 

https://www.ebay.ca/help/selling/fees-credits-invoices/selling-fees?id=4364&st=12&pos=1&query=Sellin...

[bspes-f2ttqxod3m · Accepted solution]

Thanks a lot! I didn't realize that the first fee was a PayPal fee. This answers all of my questions 🙂

[tyler@ebay]

Thanks for the tag @lotzofuniquegoodies!

The link you mentioned is no longer able to be found organically because the illustrator is no longer available.  

Instead, the fee chart is available through Seller Centre (link here). That's the most up to date place for Final Value Fee percentages broken down by category.

Congrats on the sale @bspes-f2ttqxod3m!!  

[cumos55]

Your profit is based on the amount you paid for the sold item.

Profit equals  = Amount your buyer paid ...minus... (eBay fees plus GST/HST on fees)....  minus  (Paypal fees) ... Minus ... (The amount paid for the sold item).

Most sellers will look  for a profit based on the ratio of the sold price divided by the purchase price....  with that ratio being 5 to 7 and higher

Then... If you paid  $2 for an item... It can be sold for $10 to $14  and more

[danno001]

I sold something for $40. Paypal took their 4% or more on the shipping and $40, then ebay just sent their invoice for $7.70.

So out of a $40 sale I got $26?????No wonder why all ebay prices are so expensive..everyone one has to take their piece of the pie and the buyer gets screwed. Well no more selling on Ebay for me.!!!!They can **bleep** themselves!!!Bandits

[lotzofuniquegoodies]

tyler@ebay  @bspes-f2ttqxod3m 

In the past on the ebay websites there was a "Fee Illustrator" that was extremely helpful for an estimation of fees. This is sadly no longer available. Any links I could find do not work. Doing a search there are a few independent calculators that work reasonably well. Best to be used just for an approximation and with discretion. Several will let you choose the various eBay site you may use to compare.

-Lotz

PS. The available selling fee calculator does work but it is only for items that have  already sold.

[clemowbooks]

The GST/HST is on the eBay fee, not on the buyer's payment -- so 5% of 10% .

To make things more complicated, if you look at your American buyer's invoice, you may see a US state sales tax included.

Don't panic.

This is nothing you ever have to deal with, it is collected by eBay and sent to the buyer's state, you never see the money.

The internet sales tax is new, but if you get a complaint (or howl of rage) from a startled customer , come back for some suggestions on how to pacify him.

[bspes-f2ttqxod3m]

Sorry, that didn't fully answer what I'm confused about. All of the fees above were ones that were collected from me. The invoice on my Paypal for my funds received showed a $1.04 fee collected from me (so he paid more than what I received). Then I got this invoice from eBay. Also we're both in Canada