# Ebay fees :(



## sisterpine (May 9, 2004)

Chatted with an ebay customer service rep today regarding the new fee system going into place at the end of March. I currently pay about 15 bucks for my store and about 3 cents per listing in my store. The new plan, I am told, is to have all store listings be the same as fixed price listings. The price per listing will be now 20 cents per month. I asked what I would be getting for this almost 700 percent price increase and the fellow tells me my items will get more exposure thereby creating more sales. I say, 700 percent more exposure and he does not reply. Told him I understand that Ebay has to make money too but this is just two rich for my little business which has been very slow lately. Guess I am gonna pull out at the end of the month. Kind of reminds me of the health insurance thing. My wages did not go up (frozen) in the past couple of years but my health insurance went up 250 per month this year. It is just sad. Sisterpine


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## Starsmom (Nov 7, 2004)

I know how you feel. Ebay has taken all the joy out of selling. Trying to tell us that everything is better when it is horrible. The only one it is better for is ebay. With the constant increases in rates, they make more off my sales than I do. Since I sell mostly items under $10, the profit margin is small to begin with and with the increases and such, I don't see how I can afford to keep selling on ebay. A couple years ago, I was making enough to consider it a full time job. Now, I need a job and honestly ebay is probably costing me money. It just makes me sick what the corporate dummies have done to what used to be a good thing.


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## lharvey (Jul 1, 2003)

Never underestimate corporate greed


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## ErinP (Aug 23, 2007)

I would give it a couple of months before you quit entirely. You might be surprised.
You can currently list at 10c for a month's worth of FP listings. 
Were I you, I'd move _all_ my store listings to FP for a month at the promo fee and see what happens...


If I were only listing in 3c store listings, I know for a fact I would have about 10% of the business I currently have. 
I have been listing in FP format almost exclusively for about a year, and when I started doing that, my sales jumped immediately and stayed that way.

I crunched the numbers and by bumping up to a $50 a month store (from $15) I qualify for the 5c FP listing fees. Personally, I'll end up saving at least $80 a month.


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## sisterpine (May 9, 2004)

Hmm, Erin I did not know this information. I will investigate further since i have been with the ebay store for the past 6 years. sisterpine


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## bigmudder77 (Jun 9, 2008)

every thing goes up but what you make 

i screw ebay every way i can $10 item with $140 handling fees i get charged the fee for the $10 from ebay and pocket the $140 with no charge 

also do it with the shipping and handling 

any way to screw them over works great for me since they charge me almost $100 for selling a $600 item its crap go to craigslist and deal with the stupid people and spam but its free to post so thats a good thing


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## Nik (Jul 31, 2004)

Ebay is managing to scare off sellers each day with rate hikes, not being able to leave a negative for a bad buyer, etc. It had been a while since I sold something on ebay after being a silver Power Seller for several years and was apalled at how high the fees were now. Craigslist has it's drawbacks, but I'm making more money that way so it makes dealling with the wingnuts and scam artists easier.


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## gohammergo (Dec 18, 2005)

Caution about the high shipping fees. I did that for awhile too, starting low and charging high fees for shipping so I didn't have to pay so much for the final value fee. Still have 100% + feedback, but with the "new" ratings system in place, I had some gripes about shipping cost. Now ebay wants to restrict my selling. I have been starting to sell at a site called http://www.bonanzle.com/ . No fee until it sells, and it stays there until either it sells or you take it down. More of a sell place than an auction, but there is an option where someone can make an offer as well. Sales are slower, but much more profitable.

It's a shame that ebay is going the way it is with the fees and the screwed up feedback system. If people really would stand together they could make a dent in ebay profits. Like say on July 4, independence day. If enough people would co-ordinate and close all of their auctions down on July 3, and then on July 4, put up a bunch of listings. But, instead of putting actual listings up with product descriptions, they would post a link to a new site where they were selling. Then people who were browsing ebay would go to the other sites and see what else is available. I realize that this is just fantasy and that people will never do it, but it's too bad they won't. I have seen in the past when people were going to boycott ebay, but so few did that it made no difference.


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## Rocktown Gal (Feb 19, 2008)

I am thinking seriously about taking my store off eBay. I have been looking for the past couple of days for other places to sell. I think I know where I am going. eBay does take more fees then I make and the new place not an auction place just a store. I will list my items and no fees for either listing or selling. I will place items on eBay for sending people to my other store.

I think this would work.


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## VA Susan (Mar 2, 2010)

I recently opened a shop on Etsy, but so far no sales. The problem is your stuff is easily buried with so much competition. Selling through a craft shop has not been very profitable for me since they add on a 40 percent commission and my printing prices and envelopes keep going up. 
Has anyone ever heard of a place called Zibbet? (It's from the word exhibit.)
http://www.zibbet.com/ I was thinking of trying one too. I'll check the bonanzle link as well.

Here's my shop: http://www.etsy.com/shop/laurelcreekgallery


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## glwalker (Apr 19, 2005)

Depending on what you're selling, maybe Amazon would be a good alternative to Ebay. I've been selling used books on Amazon for about a month now, and I'm getting better prices for the books than I would probably get on Ebay. Also, the fees at Amazon aren't usually so high as at Ebay.


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## Ken Scharabok (May 11, 2002)

I ran the calculation on estimates for past store sales and Basic and Premium are within a couple of bucks of each other.

Looks to me like they are going after small value items which have been listed for a long time and haven't sold. For example, a $10 item. Currently it costs $.03 per month - or $.36 per year. Under Basic it would cost $.20 month - or $2.40 per year. It it sold you would only net out about 83% ($8.30) so it sitting there for a year without selling takes away half of the potential net sales price.

In preparation I canceled about nine listings and will be consolidating others.

I saw nothing they are moving away from Best Match being the default search.

"every thing goes up but what you make 

i screw ebay every way i can $10 item with $140 handling fees i get charged the fee for the $10 from ebay and pocket the $140 with no charge 

also do it with the shipping and handling "

Which is one reason why legitimate sellers (change actual shipping with maybe a small handling charge) are having to pay more. We're paying your sales commission.


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## 6e (Sep 10, 2005)

When I listed something on ebay it wouldn't let me put in more than $4 shipping and it cost me about $12 to ship. So, I ended up having to put a note in the actual ad that shipping would actually be $12. Not sure why?


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## 6e (Sep 10, 2005)

Faughts Run Farm said:


> I am thinking seriously about taking my store off eBay. I have been looking for the past couple of days for other places to sell. I think I know where I am going. eBay does take more fees then I make and the new place not an auction place just a store. * I will list my items and no fees for either listing or selling. I will place items on eBay for sending people to my other store.*
> 
> I think this would work.


How do you do that because usually, if you even mention your own site or something, ebay will delete the ad?


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## ErinP (Aug 23, 2007)

> I ran the calculation on estimates for past store sales and Basic and Premium are within a couple of bucks of each other.


That's if you were using store listings. 
Personally, I never got enough exposure with store listings so I had moved everything to Fixed Price a couple of years ago. 
Sales _immediately_ jumped and have remained that way... The higher cost of FP listings more than paid for themselves with significantly higher sales. For me, the new fee scales are definitely a good thing!



Ken Scharabok said:


> Which is one reason why legitimate sellers (change actual shipping with maybe a small handling charge) are having to pay more. We're paying your sales commission.


I agree. 
It's also because of bad sellers leaving retaliatory feedback that no one can leave buyers anything but positive feedback anymore...


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## Rocktown Gal (Feb 19, 2008)

6e said:


> How do you do that because usually, if you even mention your own site or something, ebay will delete the ad?


There is a store on ebay that I found that at the end of the listing he/she puts their store name and then the link goes to another store on the internet. I can't remember what the store is now, but at the time I thought, hey I should do that.


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## ErinP (Aug 23, 2007)

The way I read eBay rules, you are expressly forbidden to mention your store by name, link directly, or to state your store's address.

HOWEVER, near as I can tell, it's legal to tell people that you _have_ a non-ebay store. 
My listings, for example, now say: _eBay rules forbid linking off-site, or even referring you to my store's address, but I can't help it if you might do a basic Google search on my store's name.  Nor can I help it if you then discover that I carry all the same fabrics on my website, but at 10-25% off my prices here!_

Is it legal? I dunno yet! lol 
But, _technically_ I haven't broken any rules.


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## Ken Scharabok (May 11, 2002)

As near as I can tell, you are telling the rest of us 'legitimate' eBay sellers to drop our pant and bend over. You are using eBay as a sales referral and then not compensating them for each referral sale. We end up doing so.


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## ErinP (Aug 23, 2007)

I'm not going to worry too much about it I guess. lol

I currently make an easy 95% of my sales from eBay. 

Also, I have about 450 listings currently running on eBay. At Fixed Price rates. 
I'm going to guess I've been paying far more in eBay fees than you are. So don't worry.


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## bigmudder77 (Jun 9, 2008)

1. i tried to work with ebay and they tell me nothing they can do i got screwed out of over $500 in the years with people buying my stuff not paying for it or me buying some thing from some one and them not following through paypal is the same way the last couple months i have sent alot of nasty e-mails to ebay and paypal and now ebay is trying to make things right with buyer protection but its still not very good 

most times i get every thing back if some one dont pay but other times ebay screws me and only gives the final value fee back and not the listing fee back and if the buyer leaves a positive feedback saying bad ebay dont deal with ebay wont remove it cause its under postitive and they wont remove it 

so after getting screwed by ebay i started screwing back ya they say that they are gonna block you for having high shipping costs and i just say im giving the item away and selling my time and they cant charge me for my time or my packaging or the shipping cause there is alot that goes in to shipping not just the cost (tape went up boxes went up and now you cant get the usps boxes and flip them inside out and ship ups cause they put stuff on the inside now paper and ink for the printer) and what ever else you need to do before you even get the package to the post office so ebay can say its high all they want but factor in the costs and your time is worth some thing 

so for me ebay is the last place i sell or buy from any more there are alot more sites out there that i can sell stuff on and buy stuff on for free


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## sisterpine (May 9, 2004)

If folks do not want to play by the rules, that is their choice. I prefer to play by the rules and at this time I may be beyond my price point if I use Ebay. This is a choice i need to make for me and my business. Those who are comfortable getting around the rules...that is just the way you do business.


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## ErinP (Aug 23, 2007)

I agree. 

But at the same time, it would be downright foolish to make the rules MORE restrictive than they actually are.


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## Bountiful Ranch (Jan 11, 2010)

Ebay actually made me use a different email address because my email was to close to my user name. 

I think I give my soap away on Ebay so I only use it for advertising here and there.
I list maybe once a month several bars with the hope that they like the soap and start buying off my website. Of course I get those that order off my website and remind me what I sold on ebay for. At first I was a dummy in that area but now I say that is the price and they are buying still.

I do not understant etsy and I am wondering about Amazon.Anyone with experience?







ErinP said:


> The way I read eBay rules, you are expressly forbidden to mention your store by name, link directly, or to state your store's address.
> 
> HOWEVER, near as I can tell, it's legal to tell people that you _have_ a non-ebay store.
> My listings, for example, now say: _eBay rules forbid linking off-site, or even referring you to my store's address, but I can't help it if you might do a basic Google search on my store's name.  Nor can I help it if you then discover that I carry all the same fabrics on my website, but at 10-25% off my prices here!_
> ...


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## tarmogoyf (Feb 12, 2010)

I've found that its never been cost effective for me to open a store. maybe if I was doing several thousand dollars in sales a month. but not with just doing a couple hundred. as thats like having to give away the first $16.00 I make a month to ebay, plus reduced listing fees on top of that. and now with items being able to be listed for 30 day spans, I dont see the point of even having a store.

also, if anyone wants to do exact calculations on things. here is the best fee calculator that I've found:

http://www.rolbe.com/ebay.htm


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## romysbaskets (Aug 29, 2009)

Bountiful Ranch said:


> Ebay actually made me use a different email address because my email was to close to my user name.
> 
> I think I give my soap away on Ebay so I only use it for advertising here and there.
> I list maybe once a month several bars with the hope that they like the soap and start buying off my website. Of course I get those that order off my website and remind me what I sold on ebay for. At first I was a dummy in that area but now I say that is the price and they are buying still.
> ...


Hey Bountiful Ranch!
I did try etsy....at Christmas time with my seashell ornaments. I sold them on craigslist and right here on HT. I am much happier doing my modest sales this way. Not a single ornament sold on etsy. I grew tired of ebay although I followed every rule, never even charged a handling fee and really was above board. For what I sell it is not a good fit. I heard that from others who have tried etsy incidentally. You may want to check out www.davesgarden.com I have seen soap there, not sure of the business you would do but it is free to list and they charge 3% of the sale price. Which is pretty good for the little items I thought. At least you know what it will cost and only if it sells. My sister in law loves Amazon but their fees are not cheap. Again the fit for me was wrong. You have to qualify to sell toys at Christmas! She had to wait one year of sales to get in on the Christmas sales? I have never heard of such a thing. I like it simple....the people here are wonderful. I know craigslist you get spammed but hey, free is awfully nice! I meet such good people with my items, always in a safe local spot....a coffee shop in a library.... Best of luck to each of you! It is not easy out there for anything but niches are very nice to acquire as some of you have!


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## chicamarun (Dec 26, 2006)

I used to do eBay full time. I was working 80 hours a week and a Gold and sometimes platinum power seller (I have the t-shirt to prove it! LOL)

We stopped full-time when we moved to the farm - and we did some of it for 1 more season but that was about it.

We were having some of the same problems - the fees etc. I was paying up to $400/month in fees because of the stuff I sold. If I were to have a store front (actual building) - I know my lease would be more than that and I wouldn't sell nearly as much.

In the 5-6 years of full time selling we had 1 serious problem which wasn't even caused by us - I had shipped it via a UPS store insured etc and it arrived "damaged" though UPS said when they finally got the guy to allow them to come pick it up (per their insurance policy rules and if he wanted his money back they got the item) they said it looked fine and worked - but THEY paid just to get him off their backs!

This is the way I look at it and still do if we decide to start selling on eBay again.

1) Do I sell enough to cover my costs? If not - do I need to raise my pricing and can I?
2) Would I sell as much if I sold it somewhere else? (I will tell you right now I never look at etsy or any place other than eBay or Amazon for 95% of my stuff)
3) Is it worth my time to sell it?

Then if you decide you WANT to sell on eBay - you really should play by their rules because no one is forcing you to sell their and they do have (in my opinion) an incredible marketing place.


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## sisterpine (May 9, 2004)

Well said! I agree totally, it is a choice now and has always been a choice. I get very irritated when I am looking for an item on e-bay and see it selling for a buck with 29.99 for shipping of something like a pair of earrings! sisterpine


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## Ken Scharabok (May 11, 2002)

eBay initial attitude was it was the responsibility of the buyer to understand S&H charges prior to purchasing. Then they realized how much revenue they were losing in the type sale you mentioned.

Now a buyer can rate a seller on five aspects, one of which is reasonable shipping charges. eBay monitors the overall percentage and can suspend or terminate a seller with poor ratings.

I recently had a sale of a propane forge to someone in AU. Shipping charges would equal the cost of the forge. I gave him the option of canceling the sale and he did.

I sometimes get an irritated buyer would thought the shipping charges were too high (I charge actual plus $1 handing per shipment). I can't control the rates of USPS or UPS.


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## rcornish (Apr 4, 2005)

Selling on eBay is a balance act to be sure, between eBay fees, PayPal fees, shipping charges and leaving enough to make a profit as well. Certainly over the years the continued upward pressure on fees charged by eBay has driven off many a fine seller and left buyers with a lot less choice of what used to be a good thing. On the other hand, those users who brag here in an open forum of how they are screwing eBay and everyone else in breath and the next condemn eBay for being so greedy and that is the justification for not adhering to the rules and even social decency I put one step below eBay own greed driven hunger. Just my two cents mind you... But if you are going to use someones processes you agree to be bound by the rules involved. If it is not a set of rules you can live with that it is time to move on to something else. And for the record, eBay has always been very open and upr front about rate changes, giving plenty of advance notice.


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## luvzmybabz (Sep 8, 2008)

I started selling on ebay early in 2001, and did great with my nickels and dimes. But then they started raising fees and so I started to decrease my business and when the recession hit I ended up using ebay for tax purposes but you can only use a business like this for losses for 3 out of 5 years. I have not sold on ebay for 2 years now not worth the hassle to lose money taking into effect that I use gas to go to estate and garage sales to find inventory and all my time and even tough I loose money I can not take a lose on my taxes. I do have a bit of stuff left that I have been considering listing just to get rid of it as there are a few things left that I might actually make a profit on. The fact that ebay now owns paypal and when they tried to force you to only take paypal, many fought this and obviously won as Inow see many auctions with MO or check options but Ebay lost us a lot of customers when they tried this, now do not let you leave bad feedback for non paying buyers while you have to fight them for the fees back. There will always be thouse that buy from china and sale with really doing nothing but sitting at the computer but for those of us that worked hard to build ebay up ( ebay used to be the GO To PLACE for vintage and glassware, now you have to sort through the junk to find anything) just not worth the hassle anymore.


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## southerngurl (May 11, 2003)

I quit using it long ago for selling and hardly use it even for buying these days. 

I'm on craigslist more than anything, though they drive me nuts to because they WILL NOT get one in our area. All of them are 2 hours away in different directions so very annoying. They do not appear to monitor their forums where people are asking for more locations.


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## Beaners (Feb 23, 2005)

I wish I had seen this thread when it was first posted. I also wish that a certain old thread, probably on the poultry board, hadn't been pruned at some point. It was a discussion about eggbid that included a member saying that they created other accounts on ebay to bid up the prices of the things they were selling. They claimed they were doing it because ebay made the fees so expensive. (Nevermind that it was their customers they were actually cheating.)

Kayleigh


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## Ken Scharabok (May 11, 2002)

EBay reortedly has a program which compares the cookie of the one doing with listing with the cookier(s) of those doing the bidding; If you are caught bidding against you own item, you can get permanently kicked off eBay.

It has been a while now since I've heard of a group of guys from TX who were rigging bets. Say Party B bigs very high against a particular arrowhead and wins. Payment is made. However Party A then bids high against an arrowhead of Party B. This went on between several individuals. All of their arrowheads were fakes (recent reproductions). If a legimate bidder stepped in, they member(s) of their group would quite bidding.


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## Jo in PA (May 10, 2002)

I have been selling on ebay for several years. I use to have very good sales. Ever since they imposed the new fees and since items are no longer listed in stores, my sales have dropped drastically. I have no idea why the fees would affect my sales. Anyone else notice that their sales have dropped in the last couple of months?


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## Bandit (Oct 5, 2008)

I thought I was the only one here that was negative about Fee-Bay ?
Me , I love and use Craigs List .
We just sold a item for $ 1200 . cash in the hand , not in No Pay Pal never never land .
with 8 offers , from $ 300 to $900 , with 4 @ $ 1200 . This on a $ 5.00 investment .
Bob


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## GoldenCityMuse (Apr 15, 2009)

ecrater.com is a pretty reasonable site. No listing or selling fees, just pay the google checkout fees.

here is my site:
http://insulator-king.ecrater.com/


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## GoldenCityMuse (Apr 15, 2009)

Oh, and I have made 88 sales with very little effort on my part. If I was really working diligently, I would have several hundred sales. But I am very happy with the ones I have made!


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## longhorngal (Aug 4, 2005)

What are you all still doing at Ebay? Come on over to Bonanzle! I'm new there but already have had 6 sales and I'm small time. Very helpful people-totally different from Ebay.
Just follow my signature sig link.


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## GoldenCityMuse (Apr 15, 2009)

http://www.powersellersunite.com/

This is a really great site that lists all the viable alternatives to eBay. Good forums, and decent dialogue. You can get a lot of 1st hand info about what sites work best for you.


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## SquashNut (Sep 25, 2005)

bigmudder77 said:


> every thing goes up but what you make
> 
> i screw ebay every way i can $10 item with $140 handling fees i get charged the fee for the $10 from ebay and pocket the $140 with no charge
> 
> ...


i am a buyer and a seller on e-bay and i won't buy auctions that are set up like this. I think if you want to be dishonest like that with e-bay, you might treat me that way too. JMHO


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## suelandress (May 10, 2002)

I just got a charge from ebay that said "recurring fee" Anyone know what that is?


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