I guess ebay doesnt make enough money

[Fred]

Email I just got this morning. Looks like they are raising there prices yet again.

Soon its just going to be stolen goods since no one can make any profit from it.

We are writing to let you know that effective midnight PST, February 18, 2005 eBay.com and eBay Motors will be making changes to the fee structure.

The fee changes are as follows:

Gallery
Gallery fees will be raised from $0.25 to $0.35 per listing. We will also be increasing the size of the Gallery image on search and listings pages by 56%. This will make it easier for buyers to see details of the item before clicking into the listing.

Buy It Now
Buy It Now fees will no longer be charged at a flat rate, and will instead be determined based on the Buy It Now price. Fees will be charged as follows:

Buy It Now Price Fee
$0.01 - 9.99 $0.05
$10 - 24.99 $0.10
$25 - 49.99 $0.20
$50+ $0.25

10-Day Duration
The fee for 10-day duration listings will be raised from $0.20 to $0.40 per listing.

eBay Stores
The fee for the Basic eBay Store subscription will be raised from $9.95 to $15.95 per month. The subscription fee for Featured and Anchor Stores will be unchanged.

eBay Store Inventory format listing insertion fees will remain unchanged. The Final Value Fee for Store Inventory items will change as follows:
Closing Price Old Price New Price
$0.01 - $25 5.25% of the closing value 8% of the closing price
$25.01 - $1,000 5.25% of the initial $25, plus 2.75% of the remaining closing value balance. 8% of the initial $25, plus 5% of the remaining closing value balance ($25.01 - $1000)
Over $1,000 5.25% of the initial $25, plus 2.75% of the next $25.01-$1000, plus 1.50% of the remaining closing value balance ($1,000.01 - closing value). 8% of the initial $25, plus 5% of the next $25.01 - $1000, plus 3% of the remaining closing value balance ($1,000.01 - closing value).

Store sellers will continue to be eligible to receive 50% off of the Store Inventory listing final value fees for Store Referral credit. Please click here for details.

Insertion and Final Value Fees
The insertion and Final Value Fees will be changing for items listed in certain Business & Industrial categories. More details about the changes for these categories are provided below. The insertion and Final Value Fees in other categories will not be changing.

Business & Industrial Listings in Certain Categories
The Reserve, insertion and Final Value Fees will be changing for select high item price capital equipment categories in Business & Industrial. Please click here to view the capital equipment categories affected by the pricing change.

The fee changes for these capital equipment categories are as follows:

* Reserve fee: Lowered to $5, refundable if the item sells
* Insertion fee: Raised to $20, regardless of starting price
* Final Value Fee: Lowered to a 1% flat fee, with a $250 maximum charge

Additional listing upgrade fees will remain the same as for eBay.com. Pricing for all other Business & Industrial listings outside the specified capital equipment categories will remain the same as for eBay.com.

eBay will also introduce Buyer Protection covering up to $20,000 per item in these capital equipment categories this spring. eBay will offer this Buyer Protection at no cost to the buyer or seller.

The following fee changes will apply to vehicle listings on eBay Motors.

Fee Changes for eBay Motors Vehicles Listings

Reserve
Reserve will be charged a $5 flat fee for all eBay Motors vehicles categories except Pocket Bikes. This fee will still be refundable if your item sells.

10-Day Listings
The fee for 10-day listings will be changed to $8 for all eBay Motors vehicles categories except Pocket Bikes.

Pocket Bikes Category
The insertion fee and Transaction Services Fee will be lowered from $30 to $3 each.
The following fees will remain the same: Reserve ($2 flat fee, refundable if item sells), Gallery (free), Listing Designer ($5) and Highlight ($5). Motors HomePage Featured fee will be lowered to $24.95 and Vehicle Picture Pack fee will be lowered to $1.50. All other fees will be lowered to become the same as those for eBay Motors Parts & Accessories categories.

For more information about these fee changes, please see our Frequently Asked Questions.

Some international eBay sites have also changed their fee structures. To learn more, please check Announcements for the eBay site of interest.

We understand that fees directly impact our members, and take care to ensure that any decisions to change fees are made only after careful consideration of this impact. These changes will help us continue to sustain and develop a thriving global marketplace, while balancing the needs of our buyers and sellers around the world.

Regards,

eBay

[Spike]

I dunno, I don't sell a lotta stuff on eBay, but that doesn't seem ridiculous to me.

[Fred]

Well like you said you dont sell a lot on ebay. I try too. I sell a lot of videos. But when it comes down to ebay fee's. final price fee's. paypal fee's. i make very little money. And I am sure many companies will be feeling the same pain

[Bud Doggin]

I use Ebay alot and I think the increase sucks. They are one of the most successful if not the most successful money making sites on the internet. Like Fred says, between Ebay and Paypal it starts to hurt especially when selling something like a car or bike.

[sideswipe]

I use ebay a lot as well. And the fees are getting to high to make a decent profit if you use ebay on a regular basis. Price increases tend to encourage a lot of (unsafe) side bidding IMHO.

[hanglowejohnson]

Yah those new fees are a little fuckin ridiculous... its not the site it used to be... Ebay wanting to charge 8% plus insertion.... plus the fact they own paypal now and get 3% or so from EVERY transaction .... It just makes it a lot harder to get a good deal now, plus it makes it harder for the average person to sell I think.... basically they doubled everything... who DOUBLES fees... who does that????

[Naughty76]

That's insane....but is there really another viable option out there?

[Kawa-ZX9]

Who can we go to then? Ebay's competitor?

Oh , they have none.

So us suckers got served.

[StormHawk]

I won't say they are not trying to make more money, but at the same time, there is a fucking shitload of stuff on ebay, they may just be trying to make it easier to manage by charging higher rates. Also they are increasing buyer protection, which is a very good thing. I know I hate it when I get ripped off and I think I just did so I will have to talk to ebay to sort it out =/

[gotwingz]

got the same e mail, The best thing to do that i found is to set up the auction where you have your price listed in the shipping (including the shipping costs). Then have it stated in your auction to bid on top of the shipping costs what you would like to pay for the item. Makeing it less money you have to dish out to ebay because no matter what your shipping is they dont charge you anything to have shipping costs...

ex. say you are selling a video for $20 dollars and shipping is $5 have the shipping be $25 and start the auction @ 1 cent this way you have no real ebay fees and you will still get your item out there... hope this all came out in a way people can understand...

just another way to beat the system

[Bud Doggin]

Originally Posted by gotwingz

got the same e mail, The best thing to do that i found is to set up the auction where you have your price listed in the shipping (including the shipping costs). Then have it stated in your auction to bid on top of the shipping costs what you would like to pay for the item. Makeing it less money you have to dish out to ebay because no matter what your shipping is they dont charge you anything to have shipping costs...

ex. say you are selling a video for $20 dollars and shipping is $5 have the shipping be $25 and start the auction @ 1 cent this way you have no real ebay fees and you will still get your item out there... hope this all came out in a way people can understand...

just another way to beat the system

So... If I'm selling a $4000.00 motorcycle that costs $400.00 to ship I list the shipping fees as $4400???

[gotwingz]

damn bud is smart and funny.... but if you can do it and not pay any fees on 4000 what the hell not

[sideswipe]

So thats why those sellers have those high shipping charges, to dodge ebay fees! It makes sense...thanks for the tip.

[Gimpdiggity]

I don't think it's that big of a deal...at least not for the casual user. Someone like me who maybe sells, like, 10 things a year it won't really effect.

Now, if I were trying to run a business through Ebay, I might think differently then. But then again, I don't think anyone should run a business solely through Ebay either...