Ebay fees :(

sisterpine · #1 03/06/10, 11:11 PM

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

Starsmom · #2 03/06/10, 11:41 PM

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.

lharvey · #3 03/07/10, 07:30 AM

Never underestimate corporate greed

ErinP · #4 03/07/10, 11:49 AM

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.

sisterpine · #5 03/07/10, 06:49 PM

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

bigmudder77 · #6 03/07/10, 09:20 PM

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

Nik · #7 03/07/10, 10:02 PM

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.

gohammergo · #8 03/11/10, 02:31 AM

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.

Rocktown Gal · #9 03/11/10, 04:59 AM

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.

VA Susan · #10 03/11/10, 02:12 PM

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

glwalker · #11 03/12/10, 11:50 AM

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.

Ken Scharabok · #12 03/13/10, 12:54 AM

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.

6e · #13 03/13/10, 08:14 AM

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?

6e · #14 03/13/10, 08:25 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Faughts Run Farm

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?

ErinP · #15 03/15/10, 02:19 PM

Quote:

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!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ken Scharabok

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...

Rocktown Gal · #16 03/15/10, 03:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 6e

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.

ErinP · #17 03/15/10, 06:34 PM

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.

Ken Scharabok · #18 03/15/10, 07:56 PM

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.

ErinP · #19 03/15/10, 08:31 PM

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.

bigmudder77 · #20 03/15/10, 09:40 PM

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