gioscinelli 

Has anybody encountered Ebay's new fee "Final Value Fee on Shipping" along with their other fee's? I spoke to a representative by phone to explain the new charges and his explanation was it's successful for Ebay! Last financial quarter Ebay reported excellent earning for the quarter, I can see why. The Representative for Ebay said that there should be "free shipping" to avoid the extra surcharge, which the cost would be bared by the seller or add the shipping to the cost of the item. How can you add the cost to an item after the auction? The response was that some sellers hurt Ebay by starting the auction at .99 to avoid the insertion fee? But there is no insertion fee, since last year, so there is no bases to his statement. In other words, Ebay has taken the example of what the banks are doing, more fee's to offset increasing prices, like Debit Card charges or what ever the consumer think tank can come up with to stick to the people.

AZORCH

I refuse to use eBay any more, and I've dumped PayPal too. They were nickel and diming me to death, plus the last straw was a flake buyer that they supported and over whom I got screwed out of a hundred fifty bucks. I guess I will simply go back to swap meets and CL exclusively.

iab

I know that fee. They charge you the same 10% as they do for the auction price. So if your actual shipping cost is $10, I would charge $12 to cover ebay's slice.

Except you get rated on your shipping cost. I find if you are $0.02 above actual cost, buyers rate your fees as excessive.

My solution is quite simple. I only list if ebay charges me if I sell my item. They call it a "free insertion", but they do charge if someone bids on your item. I add what I want for the item plus the cost to ship (with tracking and insurance) plus the 15% ebay/paypal get. My auction starting price is that number with "free" shipping. I cover costs and can't get dinged for charging "too much" for shipping. Remember, free is never free.

I don't buy the $0.99 starting price gets you the highest ending price. They may have been true 5 years ago when people slowly bids something up. Sniping eliminates the slow build. My items get sniped 99% of the time. If there is only 1 bidder, I get what I want. If I get 2 bidders, there is a bonus. If there are no bidders (under 5% of the time), I get charged only $0.35 for the gallery picture.

That's the best way I have found to work ebay.

bigbossman 

So pass it on to the consumer, like the big boys do. When you sell a frame tack on $50 to what you think the value is, set a reserve, and offer "free" shipping. Or raise your shipping fee high enough to cover the bite.

I was accepting of the other eBay and Paypal fees because they bought my a wide audience of buyers. This shipping fee is over the line, though..... maybe they'll see the same downturn as Netflix did when they tried their shenanigans.

Drillium Dude 

Word.

I'm about fed up across the board, too. My last big item is gone (the Cinelli) so I will pretty much be a buyer here and there from now on.

There's always the cheapskates here to trade with

DD

xn7

i hate ebay and paypal. it was bad before, now even worse. the system was flawed before since a lot of people did sell items for .99 and a huge shipping fee.. but this is the wrong solution.

sellers are getting screwed.. a better solution would be to deduct the actual cost of shipping the buyer uses to ship the item when calculating the amount to take the 10% final fee from.. this is easily do-able by requiring those interested in getting this deduction to purchase the postage through their built in system.. which most probably use anyway. just get fedex and ups to integrate the same way usps has.. and there's the solution.

xn7

i rarely sell though, i think since i've been using ebay.. in more than 10 years i've only sold probably 10 things. lol.. buying is a better way to spend my time

Cyclist0383

I don't think that would work due to the international nature of Ebay. A lot of Chinese sellers would dodge fees by selling a $100 item for $20 and tack on a $80 shipping fee.

RobbieTunes

It almost never does any good to call an eBay rep for assistance or service.
They read from a script and really have no interest in assisting you; they're only there to troubleshoot problems.
eBay has no intention of trying to save sellers or buyers money; that's never been their goal.
eBay is not a customer service company; service is simply not part of the model.
They simply provide a venue for world-wide buyers and sellers, for a price.

PayPal is the same; fairness is not part of the model, never was.
PayPal was never designed to assist a seller, just transfer money.
Liability drives their process. If eBay tells them to take your money, they do.
They know and bet that you won't sue them.

eBay sees those wide-ranging CL search sites as competition that siphons off their sales and fees.
That's why you see CL going after sites like Jaxed, Site Mash, etc. Every firm wants a monopoly.

i.e. eBay has a virtual monopoly on nationwide internet sales between individuals that do not have web sites.
They want to shut down classified ad sites that would compete with eBay. They are not interested in competition.
No one is.

I can't see a way around it other than the limited markets like Serotta's SR and here on BF, roadbike review, etc.
If I list on eBay, I'm going to somehow put in the ad that the buyer will be paying a higher price due to eBay fees.
It doesn't help the sale, but makes me feel better in a very small way.

RobbieTunes

They already do very similar things.

robbied196

I'm in the UK and not seen anything about a "Final Value Fee on Shipping". Maybe I've missed it. I hear a lot of people complaining about Ebay fee's, but personally the way I look at it, is that I'm getting a far higher price than I could ever get privately, so their fee's don't really bother me.

rhm

All good things come to be less good eventually, but I remain of the opinion that ebay has made the world a better place. True, it's not as good as it used to be. But what is?

rootboy 

The greedy scoundrels running ebay just can't stop themselves. Still, it's somewhat of a necessary evil I guess. Hopefully someday we'll have a viable alternative that delivers as wide an audience.

miamijim

I'm making just as much money as I always have.

It's about time eBay charged a fee on shipping. It pathetic to see sellers sell a $50 item for $5 and charge $45 for shipping just to avoid the fees.

It's simple...dont like eBay and their fees? Sell local on CL or open up a store front.

Zaphod Beeblebrox 

corporations corporations greed blah blah blah


This is specifically to target the A-hole sellers who put an item up for $20 Buy-It-Now with a $175 shipping charge.

miamijim

And what makes you think that 'viable alternative' would cost less? eBay's not stupid, they know sellers will leave if fees get out of hand. Keep in mind that Ebay is respnding to unscrupulous sellers...if people didnt commit fraud and try to deceive things would be much different.

Ex Pres 

That's part of their intent, but if it was ALL of their intent, then the average final value fee % could be reduced. (Resulting in a zero-sum for those that charged actual shipping). Doubt seriously that that's part of the new pricing structure.

ColonelJLloyd 

You have to pay to play, fellas. We'd all like to have eBay's platform and seller audience for free, but this is the real world.

Little Darwin

That is what I understand the change was for... a little pain for most of us and a big pain for those who had been avoiding fees via this loophole.

Little Darwin

All of you that are against eBay charging fees can always buy eBay stock... Pay yourself with your fees.

rootboy 

Well, I'm not against ebay making money and am not a corporation basher by any means. And I applaud ebay if their intent is to squelch unscrupulous seller tactics. Still, it seems ebay's fees just keep going up and up. Pay to play? Sure. It's still a very valuable resource and I still use it. But is this the only way ebay could have addressed the issue? Doesn't it punish those sellers who don't game the system as well as the guilty? Nobody is suggesting ebay shouldn't charge fees. That would be ridiculous.

flash2070

Yes the fees are definitely challenging to accept! Not only from feebay, but from their brother Paypal! I wish there would be another company that would give them some competition. I bet you that they would be quick to lower the fees. The challenge with selling on CL only, is that on CL, the majority of the people do not understand or value quality, so your market is very limit, as is your profit potential, since you can't reach the affluent individual around the country!

Flash

rootboy 

Good point Miamijim. It seems though that ebay is punishing all sellers for the actions of a few fraudsters. A lot of sellers have, apparently, left due to ever-increasing fees. But ebay doesn't seem to care about them. The fees just keep rising. Their right to do so? Sure. Justified? Hard to say.

KonAaron Snake 

There are so many things about eBay/Paypal that make me furious...especially how they undercut Craigslist...but ultimately the only language they understand is money. I avoid using them and i hope a better rival will pop up. When i do use them, I do my best to minimize their profit. When i do finally get nailed by a BS buyer dispute resolution, I'll go after them with an attorney...and I'd LOVE to see another lawsuit over their holding cash in paypal while paying no interest (and being very misleading about FDIC insurance). They are nauseating, but they're the only game in town.

eBay reminds me of an old story/joke...a professional poker player is at a table in a podunk town. he's losing...badly...and the bartender whispers to him - hey, the game is crooked...when he goes up for a drink. The gambler says he knows. The bartender is confused and asks why he'd play at a game he knows to be rigged. The player answers:

"Well, it may be a rigged game, but it's the only game in town."

eBay may be rigged, but it's the only game in town.

cpsqlrwn

So my question is this....

Why wouldn't it make sense for some enterprising person or persons to develop a business plan, share that plan with a financial entity that's up on the security and system requirements needed to transport people's money to and fro, and put in place an auction style site and service dedicated solely to the cycling industry. Nothing else but all manner of cycling equipment and parts. Lord knows the market is there and eBay and PayPal would be easy to compete with since they gouge the customer at every opportunity.