Selling on eBay

[+Mauison]

Since a lot of us sell geocoins on eBay, I thought this topic was appropriate. New standard fees are now live according to this message I got from eBay.

 

List Auction-style FREE!

 

For all sellers without an eBay Store subscription, it’s free to list Auction-style—at any start price—up to 50 items each month. You can also add Buy It Now FREE to those listings to get the price you want and attract buyers who want to buy immediately. You pay only if your item sells.

 

The Standard Final Value Fee rate for Auction-style listings stays at 9% and is now applied to the total amount of the sale—including shipping—with a maximum Final Value Fee of $100.

 

The major difference is even though it's now free to list, eBay now charges the final value fee based on the selling price AND the shipping fee.

[+keewee]

Hmmm - good for items that don't sell first time up, but for items that do and that had a starting point above $9.99 it is going to cost more.

 

Maybe it is an attempt to get everyone to charge an honest shipping charge? (Most people do charge a reasonable shipping charge, but I recently had someone who wanted to charge me $9.50 for international shipping to New Zealand for JUST 2 geocoins -and that was after a $5.00 discount on the shipping they were going to ask for. The postage they paid for the package - well under $3.00!! I complained when the package arrived and I saw that and they then begrudgingly refunded a bit more of it, but they still made a good profit on their shipping!!!)

[+AtlantaGal]

Unless you buy an ebay store. They called me and wanted me to buy one. Eventhough I sell more than 100 coins a month, I won't for very much longer. So I see no advantage to the store subscription at $15-ish per month.

 

Basically with all the promos they were doing before this change, it was better savings wise. This new plan is at best a $12 savings per month. Before I was saving $20-$30 a month in fees with the various promotions offered.

[+sdkonkle]

I guess it's to stop people from charging $20 in shipping fees when it really only costs $5.

[Riley the GeoDog]

Maybe it is an attempt to get everyone to charge an honest shipping charge?

 

I was looking for a gift card for my son who is living in France. I saw one that the shipping charge to me was $79.99!! He stated right in the ad why he was doing that (because of the fees that ebay charged) and said basically if you don't like it then don't bid. This is ebay's way of getting those sellers that do that.

 

Ok so Riley posted for me LOL LadyBee4T

Edited April 20, 2011 by Riley the GeoDog

[+keewee]

Maybe it is an attempt to get everyone to charge an honest shipping charge?

 

I was looking for a gift card for my son who is living in France. I saw one that the shipping charge to me was $79.99!! He stated right in the ad why he was doing that (because of the fees that ebay charged) and said basically if you don't like it then don't bid. This is ebay's way of getting those sellers that do that.

 

Ok so Riley posted for me LOL LadyBee4T

 

Ahhhh - he is such a good dog!

Edited April 20, 2011 by keewee

[Theotokos]

I guess it's to stop people from charging $20 in shipping fees when it really only costs $5.

 

It has nothing to do with bring shipping fees down and everything to do with making more money for ebay. They can't stop the shipping price going up so they figure they should profit from it - pure and simple

[+G & C]

I guess it's to stop people from charging $20 in shipping fees when it really only costs $5.

 

It has nothing to do with bring shipping fees down and everything to do with making more money for ebay. They can't stop the shipping price going up so they figure they should profit from it - pure and simple

 

Yes, and no. It WILL make more money for eBay, and they are perfectly aware, and ok with that.

 

But at the same time, there were many sellers who would charge $5 for a $20 item, and then charge the $20 for shipping. This, in turn, angered not only the buyers in many instances, but obviously eBay, who was basically getting scammed on final value percentages. If sellers would have remained honest and not screwed around with the system, the change to include shipping costs in the final value percentage that they take probably wouldn't have been made.

[Theotokos]

I guess it's to stop people from charging $20 in shipping fees when it really only costs $5.

 

It has nothing to do with bring shipping fees down and everything to do with making more money for ebay. They can't stop the shipping price going up so they figure they should profit from it - pure and simple

 

Yes, and no. It WILL make more money for eBay, and they are perfectly aware, and ok with that.

 

But at the same time, there were many sellers who would charge $5 for a $20 item, and then charge the $20 for shipping. This, in turn, angered not only the buyers in many instances, but obviously eBay, who was basically getting scammed on final value percentages. If sellers would have remained honest and not screwed around with the system, the change to include shipping costs in the final value percentage that they take probably wouldn't have been made.

 

You're giving ebay too much credit. Sure, the side benefit will be shipping costs may come down but truly, ebay has seen an opportunity to make more money no matter what happens to shipping costs. I've been selling for a long time with them and from a sellers perspective, ebay charges continue to get worse. I don't agree with the crazy shipping costs but I do understand the frustration of sellers getting gouged by ebay and paypal.

[avroair]

All the latest changes and every one before it are profit driven:

 

making listing an item free = more items being listed = more items being sold = more money (or that's their hope)

adding shipping to the final fee = (sidetrack seems amoral, adding fees to federal shipping) = more money

 

Whatever they are saying in their marketing campaign it's got nothing to do with helping the seller. Ebay's policies have often screwed the seller (no verification on international packages, no buyer feedback are two instances).

 

What it means will be more geocoin and path tags listings (and relistings) on ebay since there is no upfront costs to do so.

[+keewee]

I was shocked how high their Success Fee % was. Our New Zealand auction site TradeMe on charges 6.5% Success Fee. If you work on economies of scale then eBay should be able to charge a much smaller success fee and still be making obscene profits.

[+Jackalgirl]

Howdy, everyone --

 

May I suggest that if you're looking for auction and cart capability, and if your geocoin sales per year on eBay are significant, that you consider setting up your own site? If, for example, if you get hosting with a service that provides you with a PHP server, there are scads of open source PHP applications out there. My site service, which I won't post about because I don't want to shill for a hosting service (and since it's only the second one I've used anyway, so I can't offer useful advice as to how it compares to others, but PM me if you want more info) has a service called "fantastico" that will automatically install such stuff as ZenCart (not the only cart offered) and PHPAuction. I'm thinking very seriously about the latter; on the one hand, when I do geocoin auctions, eBay offers me access to a broader audience. But I don't think it's the broader audience who's buying my coins -- I think it's you guys, when I post links to the Forum.

 

If I'm reading the features correctly, we (the geocoin community) could use PHPAuction to set up our own community auction site (with all of us able to post auctions as sellers). We could set our own shipping policies, and wouldn't run afoul of eBay's policies or fees. On the downside, however, there wouldn't be the kind of buyer protection built in that eBay has. One bad apple could really ruin it for everyone. Thoughts?

[+keewee]

Howdy, everyone --

 

May I suggest that if you're looking for auction and cart capability, and if your geocoin sales per year on eBay are significant, that you consider setting up your own site? If, for example, if you get hosting with a service that provides you with a PHP server, there are scads of open source PHP applications out there. My site service, which I won't post about because I don't want to shill for a hosting service (and since it's only the second one I've used anyway, so I can't offer useful advice as to how it compares to others, but PM me if you want more info) has a service called "fantastico" that will automatically install such stuff as ZenCart (not the only cart offered) and PHPAuction. I'm thinking very seriously about the latter; on the one hand, when I do geocoin auctions, eBay offers me access to a broader audience. But I don't think it's the broader audience who's buying my coins -- I think it's you guys, when I post links to the Forum.

 

If I'm reading the features correctly, we (the geocoin community) could use PHPAuction to set up our own community auction site (with all of us able to post auctions as sellers). We could set our own shipping policies, and wouldn't run afoul of eBay's policies or fees. On the downside, however, there wouldn't be the kind of buyer protection built in that eBay has. One bad apple could really ruin it for everyone. Thoughts?

 

You should probably make this a new thread as it is OT from the original post. That said, I'd be interested. Didn't Steve (HWS) try to do it previously? I think it limped on for quite a while then died a natural death. You could veto anyone who is not known, or is know to be trouble.

[+BlueMotmot]

Ebay is definitely making it more expensive for the seller! Now it is seller beware!