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 Replies: 9 / Views: 1,810 |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1291 Posts |
I must be an ostrich disguised as a man. How else can I explain why my head has been buried in the sand (or some part of my anatomy) when it comes to the cost involved in selling on ebay? The last time I put the pencil to it, a few years ago, it was costing me about 10% to sell, including all the ebay fees and the PayPig fees as well. I knew fees had been increasing...but last night when I created a little Excel spreadsheet to calculate it all out...HOLY COW! If you sell on ebay using the "Auction Style" listings, here is what it costs at the various levels shown: TABLE REMOVED BY WEERDSTEEV! IT HAD 2 MAJOR FLAWS AS POINTED OUT BY SCUBU IN HIS POST, BELOW. CORRECTED TABLE SHOWN IN SUBSEQUENT POST.As you can see, MY average sale is $13.00, so I'm getting dinged to the tune of over 21%...! Great googledy-moogledy! This Excel file allows you to put in whatever final price you'd like and it automatically calculates all the fees. If anyone wants a copy of it, let me know and I'll email it to you. (Remember...it only works for "Auction Style" listings. "Fixed Price" listings are another animal, but if you'd like a sheet that calculates THAT, I'm sure I could throw one together for you. Also: The fee schedules shown are for coins. Other non-coin items may have a different classification and could have different fee schedules) Edited by weerdsteev
09/05/2009 11:43 am
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Locked
822 Posts |
Not sure where you came up with these numbers but they are crazy wrong. Final fees are waaaay too high, didn't even check the rest. Final fee on $500 is $18 and change, not $33, you have it almost double. Also are you assuming the opening bid and sale price are always the same? Start an auction at 99¢ and sell for $500... total ebay fees are $19 or so. Edited by scubu
09/05/2009 10:47 am
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Pillar of the Community
 United States
1291 Posts |
Scubu - Thank you for exercising restraint and not calling me an idiot. Had you done so, I would have deserved it! You are right, of course. My final value fees column was based on the final value fees for "Fixed Listings", the very thing I was saying was NOT in the table. Duh. Also, my insertion fees were based on an ascending starting price structure, rather than just starting out at .99 cents, which is the cheapest option. It's still a lot, but not as bad as I originally portrayed it...and I certainly apologize to everyone for my inaccuracies. Here is a corrected table. Scubu: Look right this time....?  Edited by weerdsteev
09/05/2009 11:25 am
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Pillar of the Community
United States
4870 Posts |
I just sold an item on ebay via Buy-It-Now. The insertion fee was .35 cents and the final value fee was .24 cents. |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1291 Posts |
That would be considered a "Fixed Price" listing. What did the item sell for? Was it paid for through PayPal?
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Pillar of the Community
United States
4870 Posts |
I set the fixed price listing at $2.00 and charged $1.00 for shipping. It was paid via PayPal.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1291 Posts |
Then, at a minimum, you paid about 29.5% in fees. If you have a PayPal Premier account (the kind that allows you unlimited transactions but charges you for receiving payments) then you paid an additional .36 cents. If so, then you paid 47.5% in fees.
Sound good?
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Pillar of the Community
United States
2521 Posts |
Looking at your spreadsheet, It looks like ebay is really putting the screws to me! Last month I sold an item (auction style) and realized $260.99. My final value fee was $19.99 & PayPig fee was $8.07. |
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Valued Member
United States
79 Posts |
I have not sold recently on ebay, but in the past I was not all that unhappy with the fee's. When you consider the costs of a brick and mortar operation, or even renting a table at a major coin show with some traffic, the fees are not that bad. With ebay your offerings are given global exposure and in my mind bring about as high of a price as you are going to get. If you wanna play, ya gotta pay. I have only been buying recently, no selling. My experience has been excellent, same for Amazon.com and half.com. I like buying on line and having it delivered to me. No more trips to the mall, negotiating with coin dealers and getting books really cheap with no sales tax. I am a tightwad goldenager to boot. |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
581 Posts |
Zold makes some good points. 1. I think the days of finding and old coke bottle in the garage and throwing it on e-bay to see what it'll fetch are getting rarer and rarer. 2. In real life, successful sellers are clever, excel at presentations and have a silver tongue. They also don't sell items for $1 with a 56% overhead when they can sell a bundle of 25 of those items and only have a 13% overhead. You don't see anyone selling single airt-tites on ebay. You also don't open a Dollar Store on Madison Avenue. 3. The OP makes very good points though. I've often bought something and thought - well, If I don't like it or whatever, I can alwasys sell it on ebay. Hmmmm. Or maybe not! |
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Replies: 9 / Views: 1,810 |
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Posted 09/05/2009 11:24 am
