ebay fees - is this right?

Rev

I don't sell on ebay, I have in the past but only a few times and only small value items.

Last week I listed a media player. listing was as follows.

Buy it now was set at £130

starting price was £50

reserve was £100

one picture, nothing extra, no listing in two categories etc.

it sold via buy it now.

Got an email today saying I owe £17.96

Okay it's totally my fault that I didn't check how much fees were properly but after that, paypal fees and postage I might as well have kept it. I as astounded that I now owe them almost £20 to advertise something for 36 hours.

Sorry, just needed a bit of a rant, I've no idea how people make money on ebay with fees like that.

I'll shut up now.

RFW

It does tell you the fees as you go to list. So the listing fee and final value fees if it sells. That looks slightly high but only by a couple of pounds.

Not sure on the exact amounts for listing fees for that without looking them up.

You didn't really need a starting price, a reserve and a fixed price. Either list in auction with a start price you're willing to accept or list at fixed price, possibly with a best offer option.

That said you sold the item in 3 days, there aren't many places you can sell something so quickly. There are lots of cheaper and even free sites, not so many that will get you a quick sale though.


Plenty of people don't make money selling on Ebay, plenty do.

purple321

£13 would have been the final value fees and I presume the rest is the listing fee and the reserve fee. Reserves aren't worth bothering with, just start the listing at the lowest price (in this case £100) or I probably would have just put it on Buy it Now.

Rev

I know it's my fault for not checking exactly and it's done now so fair enough. Guess I was just shocked it was so much to be honest. I'm more annoyed with myself for not checking exactly what it would be in the end.

Live and learn hey.

sequence

Sound about right. Yes it's expensive!

catmiaow

Very expensive, most of the time I bin or give to charity as after fees and postage being so expensive it's not worth my while.

soolin

Yes it is expensive as you listed it in just about the most expensive way you could. You paid for the listing, you then paid for the BIN uplift and then again for the reserve. The listing costs though would have been clearly shown on the page where you hit confirm to list, they cannot have been a surprise

For future reference a straight BIN with best offer would have cost you 40p.

spike241

soolin wrote: »

For future reference a straight BIN with best offer would have cost you 40p.

Plus £13 final value fee.

I agree though, reserves aren't worth bothering with. They're expensive and not particularly useful in most cases.

soolin

spike241 wrote: »

Plus £13 final value fee.

I agree though, reserves aren't worth bothering with. They're expensive and not particularly useful in most cases.

You can't save on FVFs though and even they are estimated on the listing form before you click confirm- so again shouldn't have been a surprise. You can save a great deal on listing costs by using different selling methods, and I thought it worth noting for anyone else tempted to pay for every additional upgrade they could.