Ebay is trying to make new friends...

...by raising their fees even higher.

Dear ndgoflo,


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).

How much longer before they run everyone away? The fees have gone up 3 times since I started ebaying, yet I don't ever see much of anything different to justify the increases.

 

Log in or Sign up to hide this ad.

I still think that it is rediculous. Can't nobody tell me that ebay ain't making money hand over fist before raising fees.

 

gd but other auction houses do the selling for you.

the catalogue and store and sell, all you do is send them the item.now the day ebay does that is the day they can charge the same fees.

 

The difference is that the major auction houses do a lot more for their cut.

They take the coin. They take better pictures than most of us can do (Heritage excepted). They direct mail this to their best and biggest customers.

They pay for the venue, the auctioneers, the facilities and sell the coins.

There's no way eBay comes close to doing all that.

I'm a capitalist and I appreciate the profit motive and the free market, but the problem with the type of business that eBay is in is that it lends itself to being a "natural monopoly." Yes, you can compete, but buyers want to go where all the sellers are and all the sellers want to go where the buyers are. So there's really not a significant ability for eBay customers to go elsewhere.

 

The way I see it, ebay IS out there for our pleasure. Nobody has to use it. The world got by fine without it. They are just milking the sellers, trying to find the ceiling for their fees without running them off. Once they start losing sellers, they will start discounting their fees.

 

GDJMSP is correct on this one. At the antique auction houses I go to, they take any where from 25 to 35 %. Even in my antique store, I charge clients 25% on things they want to commission.

 

May as well cash in the moderns and take the obsoletes to the pawn shop!!

 

As far as I'm concerned, they found it By the time they start "discounting" anything, it will be too late. There is another site looking to launch the end of this month and a lot of eBay sellers are already signed up. They have a commitment for 200 stores on launch day. Ebay just paved the way for their competition

 

Many of the people who sell consignment coins on eBay are getting that percentage for all of the work involved. Ebay has no business trying to capitalize on any of that. It would not have been such a big deal if they were proposing reasonable increases, but they're outrageous!

 

I used to use ebay when it was free. Finally, one day there was a plaintative email about whether they should charge 10 cents for every auction.

I actually had an email exchange with Pierre, the founder, about his inclusion of seperate auctions I had listed, 3 identical 386 computers, into a 'Dutch Auction'. I complained, but in retrospect I should have been asking how to invest in his company.

These fee increases seem to be pretty minor. I still list things on ebay from time to time and it doesn't really bother me. When I post something there it reaches so many eyeballs that I can hardly complain about the cost.

 

Amazon is a great auction site for books. None of the other auction sites get the kind of traffic that eBay does. The new site, Edited to delete commercial site reference has the best potential I've seen yet.

Please keep in mind that I'm not interested in a free auction site. Those sites come and go and usually are filled with junky auctions because the sellers don't have to pay for the listings. And I avoid those sites for that reason. Again let me say that, if the increases had been reasonable, I wouldn't have had a problem with it. The changes that they are about to make are going to cause an increase in many sellers' eBay bills of over 6%, more for some, and that is if the sellers stop using gallery pics or BIN. They have always nickeled and dimed sellers to death, but at least the charges were more reasonable. This is the first time that they've raised any of their rates that I have complained at all - and this time it is with good reason.

 

So I guess we won't be seeing anymore $1 items selling on Ebay?? With listing fees, final value fees, a few photos, a Gallery photo, and Paypal, you'd end up owing about $2 in fees. Guess you'll have to make it up with a $10.00 shipping fee..??

 

I can easily see sellers charging more S&H to make up for the cost. Maybe that would be under the handling area. Kinda makes selling cheap items not worth it.

David

 

Seeing the price increase on ebay makes me sick. I've been a member since 1998 and I think that a jump from 5.25% to 8% is a bit drastic. I could put up with a raise to say 5.75% but a 2.75% increase is terrible (as if they aren't making enough money already!).

I may have an idea but I don't know if it is allowed. I've seen people say add 3% to the closing costs if paying by paypal- I don't even know if you can do that anymore. I was thinking to put a line in my auction that buyers of my auction must add 10% to cover ebay's fees. Can you add a percentage to the final bid price of your auction?

 

A few additional items to consider.

1) Most national auction houses, Numismatic anyway, will not accept much of what is listed on eBay. I believe the lowest consignment amount is $5000.00.

2) Even the very large houses, ANR, Bowers & Merena, Stacks, have mailing lists that are rather small compared to the draw of eBay.

There are good reasons that eBay is pretty much an International Monopoly.

 

I think you'd be better off adding the additional cost in your S&H. There really isn't a need to make the auction complicated. Just set a flat rate charge and stick to that. It could include postage, packaging, handling if you want, and ebay fees. But at the same time you want to keep your shipping fees low for the buyer.

David

 

A seller is not allowed to charge additional to cover paypal feels or ebay fees on eBay. I believe Paypal fees can be charged on eBay.uk. What some sellers have done to get around some of this is to offer a s/h discount (subtracting 3% of what they charged for handling) if a buyer doesn't pay with paypal. It's all in how you word it.