ADP

Ive been using ebay for 3 or 4 years now and always seemed fairly happy with what it cost me.......however recently I sold 4 or 5 things, total value 500 ish quid................and somehow £42 worth of ebay fees!

Thats heading towards 10% - all sorts of fees, insertion fee, picture fee, final fee this that and the other..........have the upped rates?? I never remember feeling robbed on ebay but I do tonight!

apples24

iTrader: (1)

like everything successfull it well end up being a victim of own success

i sell cars on ebay imagine my fees lol i remember one month i had a 250 quid bill !

Petem95

The costs look even steeper when you include Paypal fees which take the pis$ a bit especially when you've sold lots of low value items - you are looking at about 10% in paypal fees alone then, then you have to add the Ebay listing and final sale % fees

I dont think the basic Ebay listening and final value fees have really increased much though to be honest - the Government wanted a slice of the action a few years back and made them add VAT, but other than that Ive not really noticed much of an increase since I started using Ebay, 6-7years ago (cricky, doesnt seem that long!).

The main problem with Ebay now is all the scammers, and Ebays apparent unwillingness to tackle the problem.

TopBanana

Value-added niche alternatives to ebay will appear in time... watch this space!

eldudereno

Was just thinking that myself....a little competition is all we need.

Petem95

QXL has been running pretty much as long as ebay has, but whereas ebay took off, QXL for some reason never did.

ebay went for marketing with mentions in films etc, so maybe thats what gave them the edge.

I think it'll be hard for another auction site to get established now - ebay's monopoly is too big. If a competitor allowed free listings it would just fill with crap, but if they charge for listings who is going to pay to sell when ebay has a massively bigger audience, so sale price will be higher?

kingofturds

iTrader: (1)

i sold my 360 on there just before xmas for a tidy profit, but by the time ebay and pay pal got their mitts on my cash ,hardly seemrd worth all the hassle. Wish id kept it now

Scooby Soon!

I have to give ebay £500 - £1200 a month in fees, it breaks my heart

Spoon

Yeh right. 50% increase in multiple item listing fees last autumn. It just means people are listing only one item now and if it sells they re-list immediately. I know eBay still gain on the relisting more than once but at least it's due to a sale rather than paying more for a listing that might end in no sales.

If anything they should have increased the selling fee for multiple item listings as nobody really minds paying more if their items sell. However they begrudge paying 50% more *just* to list them.

It also increases the importance of a shop to allow listings for 5p, a clever marketing ploy by eBay.

My eBay fees are always £1500+ /month, then there's PayPal fees on top of that.

GaryK

Yep agree, well I think QXL started before ebay but just never acheived the momentum that ebay has, there is another auction site called ebid.co.uk but its rubbish basically, has nothing on there, bit of a chicken an egg situation, no one looks on there because there isnt much for sale and no-one lists on there because there isnt the site traffic.

Gary

DanTheMan

I'm not making as much as you guys, probably only £400 in a good month and my fees are about £50 which means they are taking about 13% overall in fees, sometimes this jumps to 15% if I take lots of paypal payments.

If you subscribe to the sales reports you get a nice month on month graphical sales summary which shows how much you are making and where your fees go, no wonder ebay are so rich for doing so little !!!

However its still **** loads more than you make down the car boots

powerman1

double edged sword..more buyers higher price which takes away the attraction of using ebay to buy things,I have seen things sell for more money second hand than they were new i.e PS2 consoles..silly money second hand
powerman

Miss Kinky

try http://www.ebid.co.uk- its free to list on there

kingofturds

iTrader: (1)

Free to list, but look at all the ****e thats on there .And how many bids there are

Warwick-hunt

how much

Spoon

Dan, 13% is too much. You need to look at your listing strategy. Take note from your sales reports on the best selling times etc.

I got mine down to 6.8% from 9% from being more selective when listing.

DanTheMan

I think in my case I can't get the fees any lower, everything I list sells for a reasonable price and I start the auctions low so the listing fees are minimal. That percentage did include Paypal fees too, here would be a good example:

List item x for £4.99 (list fees 35p)
Item x is bid up to £8.99 (FVF fees @ 5.25% = 47p)
Postage is £5.50 so paypal transfer amount is £19.48 (Paypal fees 3.4% + 20p = 86p)

Total fees £1.68 on an £8.99 item which is actually 18%, luckily I make a quid profit on the postage to knock it down to around 7%

P555 WRC

Imagine the fees for selling a World Rally Car Subaru on ebay!...

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Subaru-Impreza...QQcmdZViewItem

D.K.1

Listing fees, then paypal fees, then fees on what the item sold for, half the time come to that much that you don't end up with much after selling something, almost makes it not that worth while for some things!

Terminator X

iTrader: (7)

Most of the cars on Ebay never seem to reach their reserve or get removed before auction end if price seems low ... makes you wonder!

TX.

kammy

If you can afford to, and you are a major user of ebay i.e £500+ revenue, why don't you buy shares in the firm? (Are eBay listed?) The money you pay will be returned to you through dividends and capital gains tax. IIRC, dividends are taxed as ordinary income and ebay revenue can be *cough cough* excluded, making your returns decent.

steve05wrx

Hi
Just checked my sales report for March 2006 - my Ebay fees were £2435.52 and we are VAT registered - so no VAT on these!!!
Cheers
Steve