Missionfish - is it safe and how much does it cost?

SpammyTheSpammer

Hi people! I want some advice.

I am thinking of selling items and making using the MISSIONFISH charity donation option but am put off for a number of reasons:-

1. The MISSIONFISH admin fees look pretty steep if you are selling low value items. I see that a previous posting, by cyberbob, states that if the item value is £2 to £9.99 then 20% of the donation is taken as an admin fee. This would have to be factored in to the item starting price along with P&P and fees ...
2. MISSIONFISH state that "The minimum donation is £1 per listing". So how does that work? You sell a 99p item - what do they take from that and what do they pass on to the charity? See later point. Clearly even items in the £2 range would presumably suffer from a £1 donation, 40p fee so how do you cover the P&P and fees? Makes auctions a real problem.
3. I have just spoken to a representative of a charity to see what they thought and their view was somewhat jaundiced: -
   • They would prefer a straight donation (!)
   • They had outstanding issues with MISSIONFISH and an eBay seller: The seller reported to them that the MISSIONFISH payments made from sales was less than expected. This is worrying.
   • I asked about 99p items and the charity representative looked at their reports from MISSIONFISH. She found a couple of items in the list of sales that were for 99p items and reported that the donation was reported as £2 ! I have just found out how that works - it is an extra fee taken from your acount
     

So I am now seriously concerned. I can see that this would work well on items listed in the £10+ range but would work poorly for anything under £5.

Anyone else offer advice here please?

TurkishDelight

We've only done it for buy it nows, so probably not much help to you, but it appeared to be a minimum of £1 per listing, not per item, so that might explain one of your points.

I'm terrible at maths but we sold 16 items for £6 each, 10% donation, and got charged in total £9.60

fridayschild_2

Turkishdelight, you sound as bad as me at maths, lol, I just got google to calculate it and your 16 x £6 is £9.60 so that would be correct at a 10% donation

Re the 99p listings, no, that wouldn't work because it does say that there is a minimum £1 donation (I'm not sure where the £2 deduction comes from, that sounds a bit cheeky) so even if the OP gave 100% it wouldn't be enough.

I have used it a few times on larger items with a 10% or 20% donation and once gave them 100% at something that sold for around £4.50.

Yes, they take an amount for admin, I guess you can't really expect them to do it for nothing and yes, the charity would prefer a direct donation but unfortunately that would mean that a seller would have to just say that in their listing that they were giving and the sad truth is people are more likely to give if it shows in the title so the charity would lose out anyway.

OP, I guess the only way would be to try and fit the charity name in your title and give that a go but with the character restriction you might find it impossible.

Otherwise it seems Moonfish is your only option, at least you will still be doing something for charity. Good luck with it.

cyberbob

fridayschild wrote: »

that would mean that a seller would have to just say that in their listing that they were giving and the sad truth is people are more likely to give if it shows in the title so the charity would lose out anyway.

OP, I guess the only way would be to try and fit the charity name in your title and give that a go but with the character restriction you might find it impossible..

The listing would be pulled as it has to be an official charity listing otherwise how would the buyers know the money is actually going to charity. So you have to do it via missionfish

http://pages.ebay.co.uk/help/policies/fundraising.html

SpammyTheSpammer

OK - that settles it for me.

• I am not using MISSIONFISH - it looks far too risky/expensive
• I shall carry on selling and then just making the contributions directly - more for the the charity and less sticky-fingers involved in the sums.
  

"It's all for Charrriddeee but I do not like to talk about it"

fridayschild_2

cyberbob wrote: »

The listing would be pulled as it has to be an official charity listing otherwise how would the buyers know the money is actually going to charity. So you have to do it via missionfish

http://pages.ebay.co.uk/help/policies/fundraising.html

Really? Well, there you go then!

I've seen lots of those, it just took people's word for it.....

SpammyTheSpammer

Am I correct in assuming the following: -

• There is a £1 contribution to the selected charity just to create a charity listing. This is added to your eBay fees.
• There is a MINIMUM £1 contribution to the charity IF the item sells - also an ebay fee.

So, if you sell a 99p item with 10% charity offer then eBay/PayPal add £2 to your fees for the month to cover the £2 charity costs?

• Then there are the MISSIONFISH fees - £2 to £9.99 then 20% of the donation. Does that mean that if you sell a £3 item, then the charity gets £1 + £1 - £0.60 i.e £1.40 and MISSIONFISH pockets 60p?
• Thus you are left with £1 and have to pay the FVF and the P&P out of that?

Sorry everyone, my sums are a bit poor as well. I am trying to explain this to my 'bezzie' so that she understands.

TurkishDelight

SpammyTheSpammer wrote: »

Am I correct in assuming the following: -

• There is a £1 contribution to the selected charity just to create a charity listing. This is added to your eBay fees.

No, you don't pay any extra to list.

It's worth noting that you get a FVF reduction as well, so you don't pay FVFs on the bit that is going to the charity effectivly.

SpammyTheSpammer

I have been confused about this MINIMUM charity payment.

Apparently, the MINIMUM PAYMENT to the charity is £2, regardless of the final item price. Consequently, a £2.40 auction final price (no P&P) costs you £2 as this is the MINIMUM charity payment. Ditto, a 99p item would still incur £2 to the charity - this is added to your fees for the month?

However, some web pages suggest that the MINIMUM PAYMENT to the charity is £1 - see this one: -

http://www.missionfish.org.uk/fundraise/receive/uk_receive-donations.html

"(There is a £1 minimum donation per listing)"

This page says that it is £2 and this tallies with my chat to a charity officer:

http://pages.ebay.co.uk/community/charity/FAQ.html#16

"If your item sells, £2 or 10% of your item's final selling price, whichever is greater, is required for each eBay for Charity listing in order to ensure that a substantial gift will reach the charity organisation."

Obviously, the charity actually only sees the net amount, less the MISSIONFISH fee which would be 40p on £2 so the charity get £1.60, MISSIONFISH pockets 40p and you are out of pocket badly if you sold a 99p item with a 10% charity donation. But it is ALL FOR CHARIDDEEEE!

Have I got it right now?

PRESUMABLY NOT, as TurkishDelight sold 16 items at £6 with 10% charity. So that should have been 16 * £2 as 10% of £6 is less than £2 and that is the minimum? Or did TurkishDelight have one listing with 16 items on it - that would work out correct....

Oh lord, I wish that I had never began to look at this, worse than triangles at skool....

TurkishDelight

Ah, no- I think I am complicating things

The minimum is per listing, our listing was a buy it now and we sold 16 from the one listing.

The charity fees don't get added to your ebay fees though, they come out seperately, although there may be a option somewhere to get it paid with your ebay fees.