So my auctions have ended about 2 weeks ago, and have already received/cleared all payments to my PayPal account. I am a bit confused on the fees for eBay and PayPal. I know that eBay charges about 9% in fees and about 2 or 3% with PayPal... but I have added up all the numbers and none of them match what is posted or adds up to the account balance. For example, there is a very slight (off by a few cents) difference in the eBay account balance versus what I have added up manually on the fees (for both the listing and shipping). On the PayPal side, from transferring funds from the winning bidders to my PayPal account, there seems to be a small chunk of money missing. So naturally I thought the money missing was from the automatic deduction of PayPal's fees (the money missing was no where near the eBay "final value" and/or shipping fees), but when I added up each of the transaction fees for PayPal, it did not match the money that was missing (the fees added up to more than what was missing)? Also, I have not received the "official" invoice for the eBay fees yet, so maybe that would clear some things up. I'm just a little unhappy at how confusing and not strait-forward everything is involving this situation. Maybe it would also help if they totaled up the fees and the money I am supposed to get from the auctions, like any other normal bank or business would, instead of having me add and calculate everything up myself and try to figure out their system of hidden fees myself. I have calculated carefully all the numbers at least half a dozen times, and tried different theories to make sense of this, but to no avail. EDIT: I have received an invoice for PayPal but all it lists is information that is already shown on the account information/summary. No "pay this amount now" or anything. Just a list of what I have received and the fees deducted from it... but the total fees does not add up to what has already been deducted (it is more than what has been deducted/missing).
Might the difference in ebay fees be possibly due to a different method of reckoning? Ebay may treat each transaction as a separate transaction and might round numbers a specific way for each transaction whereas you may be looking at the sum total of all sales and may round a different way. This is just a thought, but would make a small difference in totals.
On eBay, go to "ACCOUNT" (AT THE TOP) and then "FEES" and it will show you exactly what you are paying to eBay. If you log into you PayPal account, each transaction show what you received and how much was deposited in your account.
When using eBay, just assume that they round up to the nearest $1, and then add fees that are equal to what ever they think they can get away with. So, net result, selling item $10, less eBay fees = $.05 to your account. Or so it seems lately.
The eBay fees are outlined in complete detail on their site here. The final fee depends on whether you sold the item in an auction (9% fee up to $250 max for an item) or in a Buy It Now (BIN) format (various fees depending on the final sell value). In brief, 11% on first $50, 6% on the amount over $50 but less than $1000, and 2% on the amount over $1000. Don't forget that most BIN listings also cost $0.50 up front for listing, whereas auctions are usually free for sellers that don't list more than 50 items per month. The break even point for auctions versus BIN is an item that sells for $100. If you list an item for auction and it sells for < $100 then you will net more than a BIN listing. If you list an item for more than $100 BIN, then you will net more than an auction that ends at > $100. The calculations are: Auction: 9% of $100 = $9 fees. BIN: 11% of first $50 ($5.50) + 6% of 2nd $50 ($3) + $0.50 listing fee = $9 PayPal fees are also straightforward and are described here.
Hi, And don't forget the Federal tax man as ebay is watch by uncle sam. Keep those receipts for what you paid for each item sold for your federal taxes as coin sales are subject to capital gain taxes on your federal tax return.
Everyone is assuming I am calculating the actual fees off the sale myself. All I am doing is adding up the fees already posted since they did not bother to post the total along with it.
So... what's your problem? Everything is there in black and white... final value fee, insertion fee, gallery plus fee, picture pack fee, PayPal fee... just add 'em up. It's not that difficult.
Alright, I may have everything sorted out now. Thanks for the help everyone. For the poster above, please don't post just for the sake of posting. If you have nothing to contribute, then I have in no way forced you to spend your time typing up a meaningless, helpless, and irrelevant post. Sorry if that seemed harsh, but you were of no help either.
