Selling Coins online

I've never had problems with packages that had tracking. Either buying or selling. But stuff in plain envelopes? Stuff get's stolen from those all the time.

 

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Well they informed you that their FVF was calculated on the selling price plus the shipping fee and you agreed to that, so yes they probably do have a legal right to charge it, you told them they could.

As a reminder as to why ebay does this.

It used to be that the FVF was only based on the actual sale price of the item. If you sold an item for $100 you paid a 9% FVF or $9. But a bunch of sellers started selling items with very low BIN's but charging very high shipping fees. They would BIN that $100 item for $10 with $90 shipping. The buyer still paid $100, the seller only paid ebay 90 cents instead of $9 and pocketed the rest. So ebay changed the FVF to the sale price + the shipping fee to stop the practice.

 

That's fair.

 

Well yea. That was obviously why they changed it, as previously mentioned. It makes complete sense. I don't think anyone is arguing the fairness of it. Some of us were just pondering the legality of it. One would imagine that eBay did their homework and consulted their lawyers before making the change. Perhaps disclosing it at the time the seller is making their listing is what qualifies it as legal, as Condor101 mentions.

The change also has a secondary benefit. eBay doesn't have to deal with as many complaints/cases from dumb buyers crying that they didn't notice the super high shipping charge. Like they actually thought they were getting a $100 item for $10 , to use the example in the quoted post.

 

Can anyone cite any laws or postal regulations prohibiting eBay's charging FVF on postage charges?

I don't think so.

 

This could be about selling anything on line, not directly coin related. Maybe a better forum is Ebay? (just sayin')

 

If there's no law against it, you can do it.

 

I can't. Can you name a law that allows it?

 

I would definitely ask in the eBay forum, but I've never posted over there. Do I need to register or can you post on their forum with your regular account login?

 

On the topic of eBay and selling laws... I suppose anyone could file a lawsuit seeking compensation for damages. eBay has been sued for stuff most would have not imagined. I remember reading about one class action lawsuit in particular that claimed eBay was ripping buyers off because of their bid increment structure.

The lawsuit claimed buyers were being forced to pay more than they should have because they had to go up to the next increment and weren't given the ability to beat the 2nd highest bidder by $0.01 (or an amount between that and the next increment).

 

Read my post, #27, again. Laws are written to prohibit, never to allow.

 

I honestly don't know, I'm not a lawyer. Only sometimes when I go out drinking and want to impress a girl, haaa (just kidding). Maybe you are right Rick, but that doesn't really matter. Allow me to rephrase my question... can eBay be held liable if they were sued? And before you reply with suing doesn't necessarily have to do with breaking laws... I know that already. I'm going in a different direction here with this question. For all intents and purposes losing money to a lawsuit would be the same for eBay as getting fined by the government for doing something illegal. No need to split hairs man.

 

Anyone can sue for any reason. Can they get a court to accept the lawsuit? Maybe. If they can get to court can they win? Maybe. I'm sure that eBay has an army of lawyers. If someone wanted to bring a suit against eBay, they'd need some VERY deep pockets.
The FV fees charged by eBay are legal and their rules are clearly posted. If you don't like their rules, don't do business with them.
In your scenario, no court would even grant a hearing on those fees, and I'm sure eBay would turn around and sue on the basis of frivolity, and they'd win. That's where the deep pockets come in.

 

A listing is usually 0.50 cents, sometimes free if you regularly list things.

Final value fee is 10% which does add up, I know. With high valued items this shouldn't matter. Ebay doesn't charge fees for shipping. I have had an account with ebay for 5 years and haven't seen any. You must be thinking about paypal, they do maybe 2% of a total transaction (when a payment is received, they get a small fraction).

As long as you charge your buyers an accurate shipping cost, you still pocket a lot of money. If you list 10 dollar or 20 dollar items, ebay probably isn't a good place. In volume, it's a great place. I still list there, the fees haven't chased me out yet.

The listing fees are barely noticeable, unless you're selling really cheap stuff. A 50 cent list fee on a $100 or $200 item isn't worth complaining about. It's the Final Value Fee that you should really be looking at.

 

Kinda.

PayPal charges 2.9% + .30 per transaction on the entire amount that the seller receives. That entire amount includes the sales price, any shipping fee's "charged by the seller" and any Sales Taxes collected.

eBay, on the other hand, charges the seller a Final Value Fee on the final sales price AND a separate Final Value Fee on the Shipping charges that the seller collects from the Buyer.

The reason for the Final Value Fee on the Sellers Shipping charge is that a lot of sellers (and some still do it) will put an item up on eBay for .99 cents and then charge the buyer $19.95 for shipping and handling.
Under the old eBay fee structure, the seller would pay a minimum Final Value Fee for the item sold and not a single nickel on the Shipping Values charged to the buyer.
The buyer, would get all pissed off because s/he didn';t read the fine print and the seller would just walk off with more money than if the item was sold for $19.95 with $1.00 charged for shipping.

Now, since eBay and PayPal work hand in hand with regard to shipping, I see absolutely NO REASON for eBay to continue this "money grab" for sellers that charge reasonable shipping and handling as the amounts paid for generating the shipping label are right there for eBay to see.

IMO, it's a criminal money grab and I do not like it one bit as it does impact my bottom line. But not there's.

 

eBay doesn't charge a fee on shipping, per se. The charge the final value fee on the selling price of the item as well as the shipping charged to the buyer.
If the item sells for $100 and the buyer is charged an extra $5 for shipping, the FVF is based on $105.

 

It's not criminal, and it's not a money grab.
I do agree with it, and accept it, because of those that abused the system with $1 for the item and $150 for shipping. Those folks spoiled it for everyone else, and I can't blame eBay for protecting their profits. They're not a charitable organization, they're a business.

 

Class action sir. Sure those lawyers invest some time and money, but they only need to win one case. You don't necessarily need to be Bill Gates to sue eBay.

Yup. You tell'em Rick. If they have a problem with it then they can stay out of the kitchen. I have no problems with it. Just sayin'.

I love it when you play fake attorney. It's very entertaining. Like watching Matlock. That's your new name now. Matlock. Haha.

 

No Rick.

The Final Value Fee on Shipping is a completely separate line item on eBay's invoice to the seller. I have a store but I cannot imagine that its any different for non store sellers.





Maybe it is but from my standpoint I pay a Final Value Fee on the amount of Shipping/Handline I charge the buyer.

For some of the cheap junk I sell, I have to try and recoup at least some of my shipping costs.

Now, if eBay were to act like the USPS, UPS, FedEx and other "Real" shipping companies, they'd send me boxes and envelopes for FREE so that I could offer "Free Shipping" on everything.

But nooooooooooooooooo.

 

Again, I think its criminal simply because they CAN track what I charge for shipping vs what I actually pay.

You see, it is MUCH EASIER for them simply to "grab" the money instead of addressing the issue of sellers over charging in the Shipping and Handling Department which would be a simple enough grep to write on new listings.

Since they do NOT make any attempt at policing THEIR System, they are in FACT doing a money grab in it's purest sense.