Another eBay cash grab...

FoxRidersCo

Sanity is not statistical
eBay is changing the final value fee structure from 6 May 2014. The final value fee will be based on the total cost to the buyer, including postage costs !!
 

excrabot

Squid
That site has really been taking some dives in the last twelve months. I emailed thier support staff to let them know how I
felt about that.

"You greedy fools,

you already take a hefty fee from every sale, and then after shoving paypal down your customers throughts take
another cut from the paypal fees. You've slowly been destroying what was a marvelous selling platform.

You've already seen in your stats that people with secondhand goods are moving away from your system.

I'll continue to buy on ebay,. but you can blow your new fees and structure out of your bloated rear end.
i'll avoid listing items at all.

thankyou."


they gave a pretty curtious reply considering my rear end coment...


"Thank you for contacting ebay about the changes made in our site.

Wayne, we always strive to keep ebay fun and enjoyable to use. There are changes that may please or displease our members.

These changes are a part of an ongoing effort to reduce the basic upfront cost of selling on eBay for everyone and encouraging the selling practices that we know keep buyers happy and coming back time and time again. Just so you know, more than 60% of items sold on eBay.com.au already offering free postage, the new way of calculating final value fees means all sellers pay a fee based on the total sale price, whether postage is included in the cost of an item or charged separately.

The main change is that final value fees will now be taken from the total buyer cost for purchasing an item (ie including postage). The % is not changing.

This change is being made to encourage sellers to offer free or competitive postage in line with consumer expectations. Where fees on total cost has been introduced in other markets, the rate of free and fair shipping has increased substantially.

Your feedback is very important to us and with this I have escalated your email to our Development team. Rest assured that we always take your comment seriously and we will take action to bring back your confidence with ebay.

I appreciate your time for bringing this to our attention.

Thank you for choosing ebay!

Regards,

eBay Customer Support"
 

skinnybeans

Likes Dirt
Probably to stop people listing an item for $10 then have $50+ shipping charge attached.

Like most things it's the few that try to game the system that ruin it for the rest.
 

floody

Wheel size expert
Well then, that should see a shakeup of their BULLSHIT global shipping program... Got stung on that recently, $34.65USD in a nicely itemised shipping invoice to ship a keyring sized brake cable stop. If the seller opts into it they can't send their own invoice.
 

Mica

Likes Dirt
Simple solution for us is to get to buyers to pay/organise their own courier, I find Aus Post isn't much good for a lot of bike gear anyway. Done it myself on a few items and requested others to do the same when I can't be bothered to organise the courier.
 

mitchy_

Llama calmer
Probably to stop people listing an item for $10 then have $50+ shipping charge attached.

Like most things it's the few that try to game the system that ruin it for the rest.
thats exactly why. good i say too; makes it a pain in the ass trying to find items from same sellers when one guy has $50 postage on each item, whereas someone else may $40 more expensive on the original item, but offers combined shipping, etc.
 

Calvin27

Eats Squid
Ebay don't give a crap about second hand goods. It's clear their revenue is from big sellers.

To keep the peons happy, they will just send out a free listing here and there once in a while to average Joe who buys a lot.
 

Tristan23

Farkin guerilla
Gumtree is owned by ebay...
I've sold a few bikes and bought a bunch of stuff through Gumtree and the most i've paid is a $3 urgent listing fee. Doesn't bother me in the slightest that they're owned by eBay, it's a much more cost-effective system.
 

MudRhino

Likes Dirt
I've sold a few bikes and bought a bunch of stuff through Gumtree and the most i've paid is a $3 urgent listing fee. Doesn't bother me in the slightest that they're owned by eBay, it's a much more cost-effective system.
Yep - for the time being. If they are not intending on making money from it though, they would not have bought it. Thus why I think give it some time and Gumtree will eventually start going up to.
 

driftking

Wheel size expert
That site has really been taking some dives in the last twelve months. I emailed thier support staff to let them know how I
felt about that.

"You greedy fools,

you already take a hefty fee from every sale, and then after shoving paypal down your customers throughts take
another cut from the paypal fees. You've slowly been destroying what was a marvelous selling platform.

You've already seen in your stats that people with secondhand goods are moving away from your system.

I'll continue to buy on ebay,. but you can blow your new fees and structure out of your bloated rear end.
i'll avoid listing items at all.

thankyou."


they gave a pretty curtious reply considering my rear end coment...


"Thank you for contacting ebay about the changes made in our site.

Wayne, we always strive to keep ebay fun and enjoyable to use. There are changes that may please or displease our members.

These changes are a part of an ongoing effort to reduce the basic upfront cost of selling on eBay for everyone and encouraging the selling practices that we know keep buyers happy and coming back time and time again. Just so you know, more than 60% of items sold on eBay.com.au already offering free postage, the new way of calculating final value fees means all sellers pay a fee based on the total sale price, whether postage is included in the cost of an item or charged separately.

The main change is that final value fees will now be taken from the total buyer cost for purchasing an item (ie including postage). The % is not changing.

This change is being made to encourage sellers to offer free or competitive postage in line with consumer expectations. Where fees on total cost has been introduced in other markets, the rate of free and fair shipping has increased substantially.

Your feedback is very important to us and with this I have escalated your email to our Development team. Rest assured that we always take your comment seriously and we will take action to bring back your confidence with ebay.

I appreciate your time for bringing this to our attention.

Thank you for choosing ebay!

Regards,

eBay Customer Support"
The fact the percent isn't changing is a nice little way for them to make it sound plausible. The end result is still less money in the pocket of sellers and more to ebay.

EG
lets assume they charge 20% on sale items

Old scheme
Item cost $200, shipping $30
You hand over 20% of the sale, $40 to ebay.
You receive $160 for the item and $30 for P&H
The $30 goes to shipping

Yielding a sale of $160 and a profit to ebay of $40.

New Scheme
Include the shipping
Item sale+P&H cost $230
You hand 20% over which comes to $46 dollars leaving you with $184, you will then need to pay the $30 postage from this total
Yielding a sale of $154 and a profit to ebay of $46

Essentially they are taking part of the shipping cost for more profit and making the seller foot the shortfall now. So we as the seller are paying for shipping.

They can spin it anyway they want but its taking money from the seller and putting it into their pocket.

Will buyers not just up the shipping cost to take into account Ebay's new system to get the price they want or as they do just increase the price and list free shipping.
 
Last edited:

FigBo0T

Puts verniers on his headtube
Probably to stop people listing an item for $10 then have $50+ shipping charge attached.

Like most things it's the few that try to game the system that ruin it for the rest.
I don't think that's fair. I'm trying to sell some items atm. I've got them at $5 starting price and $10 buy now. The minimum postage for each item is $6.95. Two items sold yesterday for the starting price. Total $11.95 each.

I get $5. Aussie post gets the $6.95. I then have to pay a % of the money the buyer gives to Aussie post.

Ebay can get fucked.

I'll be smashing it until the new charging comes in, and then I'll boycott the site completely.

If I can't sell stuff for a fair price, I won't be buying either.

I might just have to put up with Fa$book and their garage sale thing.
 

Zam

Likes Dirt
I might just have to put up with Fa$book and their garage sale thing.
I dint have Facebook, but I have heard quite a few pages have been started up recently where people put shit up for sale as it is all free advertising etc so you dint have to worry about fees etc etc, I think with everything increasing in prices this will also increase in popularity,.
 

FigBo0T

Puts verniers on his headtube
Yeah, same here. I don't do Facebook at all. I really don't like how it works, or that "everyone is doing it" but quite a few friends are into the garage sale part of it, and by all reports, it works.
 

Pebble

Likes Bikes and Dirt
I haven't been selling on Ebay for ages now, it's just not worth it, at times you think that you may as well give the thing away to someone.
I did buy a phone cover $10 (buy it now) including shipping from the UK for my Lumia, but wondered how on earth the seller would be making any profit on that! Must have been making a loss to clear it out as there wasn't many like that he was selling.

I use local buy/sell pages on FB to try sell or give away bits and pieces these days, Hubby uses Gumtree with a fair bit of success. I don't really trust Ebay any more, seems too easy to get scammed (through Paypal etc if buyer says they didn't get an item or whatever).
 

Xavo.au

Likes Bikes and Dirt
Yeah, same here. I don't do Facebook at all. I really don't like how it works, or that "everyone is doing it" but quite a few friends are into the garage sale part of it, and by all reports, it works.
Yeah, it works pretty nicely actually. Particularly if you join groups that are buy and sell in your area - so there's no postage involved.

Then you can get pages that are really specific, like the 80 series cruiser buy/swap/sell. Change 80 series, for any sort of car and you're likely to get a few groups offering stuff.
 

FigBo0T

Puts verniers on his headtube
I just came from the P.O. All postage charges increased at the start of this week. The $6.95 parcel pack is now $8.25.

An 18.7% increase. Not bad if you can get it.

Someone tell me Ebay was unaware of this. Cash grab alright.
 
Last edited:

floody

Wheel size expert
So if you opt in to their 'Global shipping' to do international stuff you might be paying a percentage on a grossly inflated shipping cost too.

e.g. I bought a headset cable stop the other day
Item: $10
Shipping to Global shipping centre: $3
Global Shipping: $31.65

Seller got a quote for posting it himself, $10.25, but was unable to change it as once you opt in to Global Shipping and start an auction you lose the ability to send an invoice out.

The seller receives $13.00, but under the proposed changes will have to pay a percentage on $44.65.
 

Steve-0

Likes Bikes and Dirt
I've been making a fair bit of money lately on eBay and the fees definitely kill off small items. Even if I sell a $2 item for $8 the profit gets sucked up by postage and fees and I get nothing.

I always factor the fees Into my list price so I don't miss out. Forward on the costs to the buyer like every other business does.

Sent from my LG-D802T using Tapatalk
 
Top