New fees of eBay

[DavidJohnson]

Many of us like to buy or sell on eBay. On April 19 US eBay will start including the shipping charges in the total sale price for their 9% Final Value Fee. (July 19 for eBay Stores). As a seller I will be increasing shipping charges $.75 per item to cover this profit grab by eBay. I hope you will be sympathetic to other sellers who do the same. Many are considering quitting eBay out of disgust -- myself among them.

eBay's new policy is really indefensible. Today I spent $80 at the Post Office and $20 at the office supply store for shipping supplies. This is real money out my bank account. Now eBay thinks they are entitled to tax me $9 because I charge my customers for shipping to cover my cost.

To "reward" the sellers eBay will no longer charge the insertion fee. Their new policy is hardest on items under $9.99 which only have a $0.25 insertion fee under old fee structure, and heavy items with higher shipping costs. Fortunately our small scale is not heavy. Most of what I sell is 1/64 and 1/25 diecast. The average weight is 2-3 lbs and my average shipping cost within the US is $11.50.

Thank you for listening to my rant, and if a buyer please understand the sellers perspective as they take a hit from greed-Bay.

Dave

[Meguntic]

Dave:

It is my understanding that the "free" listing applies to the first 50 items each month. In addition, the listing fee is no longer "free" if the item sells. They will apply the listing fee to your invoice, on all items sold.

All I sell is HO & N scale items. In the past I have charged a low flat rate plus materials & ship first class mail package when possible. I do not charge handling fees or for my time to go to the P.O. I will not inflate my shipping rates to try and make money on them. But I will be raising them enough to cover this added cost that Ebay is applying to them. I still have not figured out how this is going to help me as a seller. It must be more of that "Fee Bay Magic"

The bottom line is - It is an added cost to the seller, who in turn is going to pass it on to the buyer. The only one coming out ahead is "Fee Bay"

Dwight

[stanhas87]

Dear All:

Oh, good think that I live some seven miles from Burbank House of Hobbies; this way I can pick up my wins either by car or Metro. I been noticing the increase of fees, but that does not bother me if I want the item; Welly 1/60 scale cars will be out of the question individually so I will buy these in quantities.

Guys, thanks for the warning. I found this Gentleman who sells Korean cars (the Buses are around 1/64 - I do not know, I think so) which are on the 1/32 - 1/40 scale range. He has a flat price for the vehicles (usually $20.00) and does not charge shipping. I will get some of his buses and see if he will change his (shipping) policies.

[DavidJohnson]

Dwight,
I read the eBay FAQ for answers for a few of my questions. You are right on all, except that they don't charge insertion fees for any items, sold or not, up to 50 auctions / month.

Some where in the FAQ it said their polices will help the small sellers like me. Right. All of the eBay examples to show how the new policy helps involve light weight items that will fit in a flat and can be shipped for $5. There is no way I could mail my items to my neigbor for $5 postage.

I could reduce cost a bit by shipping First Class, but one of my reasons for shipping priority is due to eBay policy. Delivery Confirmation is needed to have any seller protection. And I have used it 3 times in the past year to track lost packages (out of about 100 shipments.) So I will just tack the Fee-Bay tax on shipping onto my charges.

Dave

[cfesmire]

I just wish they would do something in their accounting department. I have been charged three times for items sold and it's taken over half a year now to recover the extra charges. Forget that they sent me emails each time they charged my account, proof of their folly. They contend the two extra times they levied fees on the items sold was for other items. Oh, there were no other items.