New Ebay fee structure

[500Club]

I absolutely agree, they are running around like chickens without heads making random decisions every few months and changing them. They HAD a niche...they are losing it in a race to become Amazon clones.

 

Oh, these aren't random decisions. Think of it as a shell game. We'll make a bunch of small changes, give a little here, take a little there, change store fees, decrease free listings/month. While people focus on whichever change impacts them most, the end result is an overall increase in fee volume.

 

Crazy like a fox.

[mschmidt]

This is so short sighted by eBay. They just get dumber and dumber.

 

Due to the economy, I sell an incredible 30-40% of my store stock outside the USA. It is very common for me to sell a $50 lot of comics to Australia and have to charge $45.50 flat rate box shipping.

 

If they think I am going to pay them 11% on the $45.50 shipping they are freaking crazy! I already pay Paypal a premium for taking money from Canada and Europe (which already includes the shipping) so I am getting hosed there already.

 

NO MORE. As of the new fee start, I am going USA only, and will consider shipping out of country only on high ticket items where the shipping is not a large percentage of the total payment.

 

eBay is seriouly run by some the largest insufficiently_thoughtful_persons in the USA. Their stupidity is frankly mind blowing. Watch their overall revneue drop like a prom dress as USA sellers cut off the rest of the world. It was hard enough to sell overseas anyway (Italian Post Office anyone?). This is the final straw. Yes, my sales volume will crash because Americans have little money right now for comics, but I would rather cut my sales 30% then have to pay eBay this unfair insane shipping fee.

 

 

Read on ...

 

Are Final Value Fees charged on One-day and International services?

 

Final Values Fees will be calculated on the shipping service paid by the buyer unless the buyer pays for a One-day or International shipping option. If a One-day service or International option is selected, the first domestic shipping service offered other than One-day will be used to calculate Final Value Fees. If there are no other domestic shipping services offered, fees will be calculated on One-day service or International service.

 

The way I'm reading it is if you offer any sort of domestic shipping service (including free domestic shipping), the domestic shipping cost will be the one included in the FVF calculations - even if the item was sold to an international buyer.

 

So you shouldn't really see any change here :shrug:

[Bomber-Bob]

They probably recognize that many sellers are making a profit from their shipping

fees and want to tap in. Sounds like it should give more incentive for free shipping.

I long ago stopped any selling on E-Bay as the fees are not worth it. Paying a listing fee for something that doesn't sell makes no sense to me. However, I will occassionally buy on E-Bay, so the prospect of more free shipping intrigues me.

[Comicsarefun]

Think about all the single issue, high volume sellers out there like mycomicshop and mile high...

 

They sell thousands of single issues priced under $3.00 a pop, and charge $3 (or so)shipping. This new rip off from eBay will almost DOUBLE their eBay fees.

 

Let's see how they react.

 

I sell a great many lots of comics for around $9.00 and charge $4.95 shipping. I can't charge less to ship a set of 10 comics! My fees on those small lots will go up 50%. ROBBERY.

 

Companies will have to change their entire approach to selling on eBay.

 

Have I mentioned how dumb eBay is?

 

And to make it all worse, if you read the release from eBay, they have the nerve to cover all this up and weave some crazy story about how this will keep shipping costs low. Total insanity. You think I can lower my shipping costs (which I already lose money on) without raising the price of the item? Do these people at eBay own a single high school economics text book, because they sure do own a lot of books on spinning bull to deceive the masses.

[Comicsarefun]

This is so short sighted by eBay. They just get dumber and dumber.

 

Due to the economy, I sell an incredible 30-40% of my store stock outside the USA. It is very common for me to sell a $50 lot of comics to Australia and have to charge $45.50 flat rate box shipping.

 

If they think I am going to pay them 11% on the $45.50 shipping they are freaking crazy! I already pay Paypal a premium for taking money from Canada and Europe (which already includes the shipping) so I am getting hosed there already.

 

NO MORE. As of the new fee start, I am going USA only, and will consider shipping out of country only on high ticket items where the shipping is not a large percentage of the total payment.

 

eBay is seriouly run by some the largest insufficiently_thoughtful_persons in the USA. Their stupidity is frankly mind blowing. Watch their overall revneue drop like a prom dress as USA sellers cut off the rest of the world. It was hard enough to sell overseas anyway (Italian Post Office anyone?). This is the final straw. Yes, my sales volume will crash because Americans have little money right now for comics, but I would rather cut my sales 30% then have to pay eBay this unfair insane shipping fee.

 

 

Read on ...

 

Are Final Value Fees charged on One-day and International services?

 

Final Values Fees will be calculated on the shipping service paid by the buyer unless the buyer pays for a One-day or International shipping option. If a One-day service or International option is selected, the first domestic shipping service offered other than One-day will be used to calculate Final Value Fees. If there are no other domestic shipping services offered, fees will be calculated on One-day service or International service.

 

The way I'm reading it is if you offer any sort of domestic shipping service (including free domestic shipping), the domestic shipping cost will be the one included in the FVF calculations - even if the item was sold to an international buyer.

 

So you shouldn't really see any change here :shrug:

 

Ah ha! Thank you sir, I missed that section. So they will still squeeze some extra out of international deals by charging me fees on the domestic shipping which was not even paid. Still, that calms me down a bit. I did not see that section and I thought I read the whole new program!

[somewhereintexas]

For auction-style listings, the FVF has been 9% for a while. Besides factoring in shipping, the major change is to increase the cap from $50 to $100.

[mrmitchgro]

Anyone see this yet? Looks like a big increase in FVFs (9% or $100 max! )

 

http://pages.ebay.com/sellerinformation/news/feeupdate2011.html

 

As far as I can tell, for fixed price listings it's going to be pretty much a wash - for comics, the FVFs used to be 12% of the first $50, whereas it'll now be 11% of the first $50. But this will be offset by the inclusion of shipping cost in the total for FVF purposes.

 

A couple of examples:

 

$200 CGC book with a shipping cost of $8.

Current FVFs: $6.00 (12% of the first $50) + $9.00 (6% of the remainder) = $15.00

New FVFs: $5.50 (11% of the first $50) + $9.48 (6% of the remainder) = $14.98

 

$100 CGC book with a shipping cost of $8.

Current FVFs: $6.00 (12% of the first $50) + $3.00 (6% of the remainder) = $9.00

New FVFs: $5.50 (11% of the first $50) + $3.48 (6% of the remainder) = $8.98

 

$40 raw book with a shipping cost of $4.75.

Current FVFs: $4.80

New FVFs: $4.92

 

I believe those fee calculations are for fixed price auctions. For auction style, the 9% stays the same, but they're raising the cap from $50 to $100 - doubling the fee for any high dollar books.

 

So for example, the GS X-Men #1 I have up right now would cost me $50 if it sells at $735, but in April that would go up to $66.15. I save $2 in listing fees, but they've been doing so many free listing promotions recently that I haven't had to pay that anyway.

 

So as a seller I start to look harder at CLink and other comic-specific outlets, and as a buyer I'm pizzed because there are fewer books available on ebay (where deals are easier to come by). I don't see who wins with this

[mrmitchgro]

For auction-style listings, the FVF has been 9% for a while. Besides factoring in shipping, the major change is to increase the cap from $50 to $100.

 

What he said.

[mrmitchgro]

I absolutely agree, they are running around like chickens without heads making random decisions every few months and changing them. They HAD a niche...they are losing it in a race to become Amazon clones.

 

Oh, these aren't random decisions. Think of it as a shell game. We'll make a bunch of small changes, give a little here, take a little there, change store fees, decrease free listings/month. While people focus on whichever change impacts them most, the end result is an overall increase in fee volume.

 

Crazy like a fox.

 

Totally agree that it's a shell game. It's how do we get the most money with the least amount of customer dissatisfaction.

 

But as someone who works at a company that plays this game, I can tell you from experience that this is harder than it looks. Even pricing programs that work in a financial model or a test market can fall flat once you push it out to your entire business.

 

Plus at big companies, you will have groups of people who have wildly different opinions on what the "ideal" structure is, and it's extremely rare to get everyone to agree. So you have warring camps, limited empirical data, and competition from the amazons of the world bearing down on you.

 

In these situations, it's so easy to just do "something", even if you aren't sure it will work. I think you've seen this at ebay in the last couple of years. And as I said, all it leads to is angry customers and less credibility for the company.

[InvstmntComcSuply]

I for one like the change.

I know. I know. Hear me out.

 

E-bay has been constantly raising fees every few months for the last several years, almost always under the guise of a "fee decrease" where they lower some fee a nominal amount and jack up the FVFs on the back end.

 

The majority of this fee increase is going to be borne by shipping profiteers. It actually should drive most of that pricing model out of the market, once the changes take effect. Which I think will be a HUGE benefit to the community as a whole. Of course the profiteers won't all close up shop, they will simply be at a level playing field with the rest of us who are not avoiding ebay fees.

 

The only other people this hurts are the onesie twosie sellers who want to do an auction with FVFs between $50 and $100, which were capped at $50 previously. If you plan on doing several high value auctions, you can avoid most of that fee increase by simply signing up for a store for a month and knock them out at the reduced fee.

[500Club]

I absolutely agree, they are running around like chickens without heads making random decisions every few months and changing them. They HAD a niche...they are losing it in a race to become Amazon clones.

 

Oh, these aren't random decisions. Think of it as a shell game. We'll make a bunch of small changes, give a little here, take a little there, change store fees, decrease free listings/month. While people focus on whichever change impacts them most, the end result is an overall increase in fee volume.

 

Crazy like a fox.

 

Totally agree that it's a shell game. It's how do we get the most money with the least amount of customer dissatisfaction.

 

But as someone who works at a company that plays this game, I can tell you from experience that this is harder than it looks. Even pricing programs that work in a financial model or a test market can fall flat once you push it out to your entire business.

 

Plus at big companies, you will have groups of people who have wildly different opinions on what the "ideal" structure is, and it's extremely rare to get everyone to agree. So you have warring camps, limited empirical data, and competition from the amazons of the world bearing down on you.

 

In these situations, it's so easy to just do "something", even if you aren't sure it will work. I think you've seen this at ebay in the last couple of years. And as I said, all it leads to is angry customers and less credibility for the company.

 

Agree with all. (thumbs u

 

eBay has the advantage of being a de facto monopoly, and they've pushed that advantage, leading, as you say, to an undercurrent of customer dissatisfaction.

 

To me, they're getting to the point where customers would gladly embrace a competitor with an equivalent service.

[Boozad]

I'm surprised eBid never took off.

[PEP]

I'm surprised eBid never took off.

Anyone ever try the site?

[Boozad]

I'm surprised eBid never took off.

Anyone every try the site?

 

I took a look at some listings a couple of weeks ago in the hope of a bargain, but all that was on there was drek. The trouble is that while eBid's fees are miles lower than eBay's, people don't want to list auctions there as they don't reach anywhere near the amount of potential bidders. A vicious circle if ever there was one.

[PEP]

I'm surprised eBid never took off.

Anyone ever try the site?

 

I took a look at some listings a couple of weeks ago in the hope of a bargain, but all that was on there was drek. The trouble is that while eBid's fees are miles lower than eBay's, people don't want to list auctions there as they don't reach anywhere near the amount of potential bidders. A vicious circle if ever there was one.

Was just taking a look at it right now, doesnt seem too bad, looks simple, but yea there's not a lot of good stuff on there. Maybe they need an aggressive marketing campaign to get the word out.

[Boozad]

I'm surprised eBid never took off.

Anyone ever try the site?

 

I took a look at some listings a couple of weeks ago in the hope of a bargain, but all that was on there was drek. The trouble is that while eBid's fees are miles lower than eBay's, people don't want to list auctions there as they don't reach anywhere near the amount of potential bidders. A vicious circle if ever there was one.

Was just taking a look at it right now, doesnt seem too bad, looks simple, but yea there's not a lot of good stuff on there. Maybe they need an aggressive marketing campaign to get the word out.

 

Or an exodus of moaning eBay sellers to mosy on over...

[mrmitchgro]

I'm surprised eBid never took off.

Anyone every try the site?

 

I took a look at some listings a couple of weeks ago in the hope of a bargain, but all that was on there was drek. The trouble is that while eBid's fees are miles lower than eBay's, people don't want to list auctions there as they don't reach anywhere near the amount of potential bidders. A vicious circle if ever there was one.

 

Definitely some serious barriers to entry when it comes to new competitors. But make no mistake, if they continue to screw both buyers and sellers they will lose business. I'll be very interested to see what ebay as a company looks like in 5 years

 

At least when it comes to comics, we've got some competitively-priced specialty sites that we can look to...

[InvstmntComcSuply]

I'm surprised eBid never took off.

Anyone ever try the site?

 

I took a look at some listings a couple of weeks ago in the hope of a bargain, but all that was on there was drek. The trouble is that while eBid's fees are miles lower than eBay's, people don't want to list auctions there as they don't reach anywhere near the amount of potential bidders. A vicious circle if ever there was one.

Was just taking a look at it right now, doesnt seem too bad, looks simple, but yea there's not a lot of good stuff on there. Maybe they need an aggressive marketing campaign to get the word out.

 

Or an exodus of moaning eBay sellers to mosy on over...

 

There are always lots of posts on chat boards about people quitting the bay and going elsewhere, especially after each fee "decrease" but invariably no other auction site has garnered any real steam. I have sold some on Bonanzle though.

[FlyingDonut]

So if I understand this correctly, currently for this auction, selling for $11 plus $5 shipping, I get $14.19 in my pocket on a customer payment of $16.00.

 

 

($11 sales price minus $0.25 listing fee, minus $0.79 fees ((9 percent times $11)*.8 because I get a 20% discount because I'm wonderful), minus $0.30 (Paypal fee) minus $0.46 (Paypal fee which is already on both) minus $4.75 shipping (because of the Paypal discount).

 

Under the new "plan", I get $13.83 in my pocket.

 

($11 plus $5 shipping sales price minus $0.25 listing fee, minus $0.79 fees ((9 percent times $16)*.8 because I get a 20% discount because I'm wonderful), minus $0.30 (Paypal fee) minus $0.46 (Paypal fee) minus $4.75 shipping (because of the Paypal discount).

 

All I need to do is charge $5.50 for shipping, and I'm making more money than I was before.

 

($11 plus $5.50 shipping sales price minus $0.25 listing fee, minus $0.79 fees ((9 percent times $16)*.8 because I get a 20% discount because I'm wonderful), minus $0.30 (Paypal fee) minus $0.48 (Paypal fee) minus $4.75 shipping (because of the Paypal discount).

 

Now I get $14.28.

 

Mountain, meet molehill

[COI]

Sweet, more reasons for people not to ship to me.

 

I'm done with Ebay. 'em.