eBay fees are doubling in April. BEWARE!

BadJazz · #1 03-19-2013, 01:24 PM

So I just sold an old Airline guitar on feEbay. While I will still profit from the overall deal, I was not so pleased when I saw the ebay invoice of 56 bucks for the transaction, based on the total auction amount of $860. (This is NOT including whatever bite paypal takes.) This seemed about double what I expected, so I looked around trying to find out why the fee was so high. I found the shipping calculator and fooled around.

My roommate is planning on selling a guitar, and figures he'll get $1,500 for it. I ran this through the calculator and got this:

Note the date above the box.

My guess is that Ebay is floundering, and since it's the stupid law in this country that all publicly-owned companies must attempt to grow at all costs, this is a flailing effort to stave off the inevitable collapse. I can't think of a single instance in my life where any business has simply doubled their price like this. Frankly it's suicidal.

Be warned!

Jim Nazium · #2 03-19-2013, 01:30 PM

Ebay is hardly floundering. They had $2 billion of net income in 2012 on $14 billion sales.

http://finance.yahoo.com/q/is?s=EBAY...atement&annual

DwaynieAD · #3 03-19-2013, 02:00 PM

havent used ebay since i discovered amazon.com

MatticusMania · #4 03-19-2013, 02:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DwaynieAD

havent used ebay since i discovered amazon.com

+1

eyeballkid · #5 03-19-2013, 02:09 PM

wow... if that's true, Ebay won't even be my option of last resort. lame!

kai_ski · #6 03-19-2013, 02:17 PM

The amazon referral rate + fees looks to be higher across the board than the ~ 10% lost to ebay+paypal. Maybe that's why ebay is raising it's rates? Amazon gets away with it why can't we?

eyeballkid · #7 03-19-2013, 02:21 PM

just checked.. its true.. as of april 16th ebay will take a straight 10% of the final value and combined shipping. on top of that Paypal will take another 3-3.5% (whichever it is).. yep. Im done selling as of april 15th.

i just sent ebay's customer service an email informing them I will no longer be selling..

the fees were already ridiculous for doing business thru a service that only offers the guarantee to the seller that their protection is the absolute last priority.

BadJazz · #8 03-19-2013, 02:59 PM

UPDATE:

The final ebay fee on my transaction in the first post was 55 bucks, and paypal took another 25. 20 bucks in gas to get the guitar and I'm down $100 with a final profit of $230. I'm not blaming ebay or paypal for the gas, obviously, but that factors into determining whether or not I bite on a deal.

So yeah, that's still more than I would have made on craigslist but I am looking at other sites for certain.

BadJazz · #9 03-19-2013, 03:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DwaynieAD

havent used ebay since i discovered amazon.com

Just found this:

http://pics.ebaystatic.com/aw/pics/s...on-compare.pdf

It compares the new "updated" ebay fees to amazon's current fees. Worth a look.

MJ5150 · #10 03-19-2013, 04:23 PM

Why does Ebay charge a fee on the shipping charges? When I sold stuff on Ebay, the shipping cost I charged the buyer was the exact price I paid. Shipping costs were never a profit source for me. That doesn't seem right.

-Mike

Philonius · #11 03-19-2013, 04:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MJ5150

Why does Ebay charge a fee on the shipping charges? When I sold stuff on Ebay, the shipping cost I charged the buyer was the exact price I paid. Shipping costs were never a profit source for me. That doesn't seem right.

-Mike

Some sellers were gaming the system by listing goods for absurdly low prices but charging astronomical shipping fees, thus getting out of paying applicable auction charges. So we all pay the price.

beggar98 · #12 03-19-2013, 04:35 PM

It stinks when prices go up, but it not just eBay:

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/...92H0CR20130318

Pilgrim · #13 03-19-2013, 04:44 PM

Cost of doing business. Everything costs. Use Craigslist and show your stuff to 30 people, or Ebay and show it to 300 to 3000 of them.

I'm not in the habit of doing high-value transactions on Ebay, but I don't object to paying for services....and reaching 10X as many people is an extremely valuable service.

BadJazz · #14 03-19-2013, 04:59 PM

The difference on a $2,500 total transaction value:

If there is a silver lining to this turd-cloud, it's that the fee caps at $250. Several years ago I sold a Rickenbacker guitar for $2,900, including insured shipping. All told, my fees were $300. With the "updated" rates, they will be closer to $500.

beggar98 · #15 03-19-2013, 05:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BadJazz

The difference on a $2,500 total transaction value:

If there is a silver lining to this turd-cloud, it's that the fee caps at $250. Several years ago I sold a Rickenbacker guitar for $2,900, including insured shipping. All told, my fees were $300. With the "updated" rates, they will be closer to $500.

EBay is the leader in the market. They get to set the price. Feel free to use someone else, but you get what you pay for.

basscooker · #16 03-19-2013, 06:23 PM

i don't sell there anyway, so...
there's no real profit there for the stuff and quantity i sell. so many scam buyers, fake bidders, almost no seller protection, the feedback system makes it way too easy for 1 jerk to completely ruin you, nickel-and-dime fees, plus the paypal fee scam..... yeah stopped selling there years ago anyway, so no bfd for me. besides, i live in a big enough town that CL works well enough for anything i try and move. it's slower, but meh, still sell plenty of stuff per month. my basement gets a little emptier every week, and i haven't paid a penny in fees, or had to box up stuff, take it to a shipper,, deal with an a$$hole leaving false feedback,etc. never even considered amazon, anyway, i always thought they charged too much. sorry to everyone who relies on one of these two sites for part of their income, but always thought they were scams, at least fron a sellers, standpoint.
it isn't like i ever felt bad about it, but i've made some monster deals in incorrectly listed, or no reserve stuff. picked up a marshall silver jubilee microstack on a no reserve auction for 50 bucks plus shipping ~another 20. 70 bucks in on a 250 microstack. the seller knew he got robbed, but he's the one who listed it 1)no reserve and 2) as a "Marsall" on a 3)24 hour listing.....

SBsoundguy · #17 03-19-2013, 06:36 PM

It's like they're asking for another competitor to jump in.

tastybasslines · #18 03-19-2013, 07:22 PM

Amazon is also increasing fees! Beware. But Amazon will warehouse things for you and provide customer service, etc...I prefer to sell on Amazon.

http://www.insidermonkey.com/blog/am...rchants-89599/

The good news in these increased fees is that it looks like Walmart is going to make a big push into this category, and we could see the best seller margins yet, with reasonable prices that we can expect from Walmart. This would SERIOUSLY threaten Ebay's and Amazon's business, and I hope it does. When companies get greedy, I rebel and I hope others do too. I just don't use Ebay at all. I refuse. I hate them.

MJ5150 · #19 03-19-2013, 07:45 PM

A Walmart auction site? So I could pay even less for those Puritan stretch denim pants? Enticing.

-Mike

DwaynieAD · #20 03-20-2013, 06:44 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kai_ski

The amazon referral rate + fees looks to be higher across the board than the ~ 10% lost to ebay+paypal. Maybe that's why ebay is raising it's rates? Amazon gets away with it why can't we?

amazon has a higher satisfaction rate and a larger customer base than any other online retailer (and most brick and mortar retailers)