Had a few fishing reels to sell and posted them on Ebay. Here is a breakdown of what it cost to complete the transaction. Have sold a significant number of items on Ebay in the past but the fees were no where near this much.
Selling price of reel $259.95
Ebay fee $ 26.00
Paypal fee $ 7.84
Shipping cost $15.61
Money left for me $210.05
Total cost to sell and ship a $260 reel on Ebay was $49.95, a bit ridiculous I think.
It is no secret that ebay as a platform for private sellers is not really worth it. You’d have to get the goods for next to nothing or for free (ie inheritance, house clearances, yard sales, …) to make a profit.
seller fees are now at a very high level and, most importantly, you’d also have to account for your time taking pictures, uploading the item description, gas/mileage to post office, packaging, and any other issues.
The worst are things like used flashlights, outdoor equipment, potentially even fishing gear. It is very difficult to make money.
I once sold a modded S2 which looked like new for less than 18.
Ten or eleven years back I ran across a good deal on some Canon digital cameras which I sold for $270 shipped and the Ebay fee was only about $8 or $9 back then. The Ebay fee was slightly higher than the Paypal fee. Wish someone would come up with some competition for them, they are a monopoly and gouging people because if it.
eBay has been this way for quite a while. When I sell on eBay my auction prices will reflect a 15% premium to cover the eBay and PayPal fees. One thing that still galls me is that they charge the same fees on the shipping portion. I know they did this to deter sellers trying to avoid paying eBay fees by having low item prices and hiding a portion of the price in the shipping, but it still just feels wrong for sellers who only charge the real shipping costs. Oh and the buyer always pays for shipping costs for anything I sell… its way too expensive to offer free shipping.
China and Hong-Kong pay virtually nothing for shipping even for quite large items across the world.
I bought an $10 gadget it came with free delivery shipped to the UK, the postman asked me for an signature it had tracking, how much did RM get for this delivery from China.
I have bought $1.25 item from China on eBay and had it shipped free. Crazy how they can do that. Just like Fastech and those places. They will ship a .75 item free!
For shipping, I usually try to use the “If it Fits, It Ships” Flat Rate boxes. That or a padded envelope. I also am signed up on the USPS website and use the Click & Ship feature. This saves money and time on shipping. Someone told me they do Money Orders & or a Personal Check on Ebay. Can you still do that? You could also use something like Chase Quick Pay. Where you just email them the money. No fees. I know not everyone would do that cause you would have to give up some protections, but it could cut down on fees.
Ebay has changed their fee structure to be greedy, and unfortunately now it is a selling scam. lol
There are also many markets and ebay requirements where you can not sell without Paypal. You can not disable it when listing an item! you can highlight the fact you’d accept bank/wire/digital payments but which buyer would effectively do that over paypal? Probably nobody.
Furniture, larger items, cars, boats, … are good for craigslist or similar but otherwise ebay and PP have cornered the market for most items that can be shipped.
When every 1st rate nation owes trillions of dollars to you for goods you can kinda do what you want. Running a deficit if China wanted to collect there debt they would take all of america. Which they already own pretty much. They are buying up massive amounts of real estate and companies people still think are american. Years ago I worked for ge plastics warehouse. They sold out to sabic Saudi Arabia basics industry corporation. The Saudis didn’t want ge plastics they only wanted the plastic recipes. Ge said all or nothing. So they paid 13 billion for all of ge plastic plants and ware houses. Just for the formulas. The Saudis make more profit then ge did. The saudis get oil for free basically compared to ge to produce the plastic. Plastic starts out as these pellets. Like ford gets all there plastic from sabic for their dashboards. Has chemicals mixed in to resist fading from UV light. We would ship ford 40,000 pounds of plastic pellets they melt them down and mold them. Point is nothing is american anymore. A lot of major industries are all under the table sold to foreign nations and nothing is said. Like some people think that Budweiser is still a american company
Yahoo did try compete for a while years ago. They just couldn’t draw the private sellers which is what makes eBay such a hit. Its only the little guy that is selling the oddball thing you’re looking for, not the commercial seller that makes it the powerhouse it is. Amazon Prime is giving them a serious hit in terms of commercial merchandise.
Exactly. They lost touch with the original concept long ago when someone realized how much money could be made there. Everything they had right was changed to maximize corporate profits without consideration of the buyers and sellers who made their business what it is All I use it for now is to research prices on items I can’t easily find reference to elsewhere- I refuse to buy or sell there except as a last resort.
My boycott and protest will not show up on their books but it means something to me :sunglasses:
Yep i went to sell some torches i had laying around i bought a few doubles for back ups for my fishing kit. Did not even bother the fees are extreme. You can get deals where there are no selling fees i had one of them.
Was selling Abu Garcia Revo Toro 60HS, had 8 of those and 2 50HS, only bought to resell a couple of years back. When I bought them I got them at half of what they were selling for at the time. Well, everyone else also got the same deal I got and the price dropped like a rock. Price just went back up to where I can sell them again without loosing a ton of money. Sold five so far. Used to fish a lot and for freshwater I used Shimano open face, mostly Diawa bait casters, and a few Abu Garcia bait casters. Saltwater reels are 95% Shimano. Last year when I decided I wanted to do more saltwater fishing I ran across a man who had developed a allergy to the sun and was getting out of fishing. Bought most of his new gear and a couple of used items. Torsa, Trinidad, Stella, and Saragosa reels. Calstar and Shimano rods.
These are pretty common fees and really not all that high compared to what they have been during the “transition phase”.
Now days they basically let you list for free or almost free and charge all the fees on the final selling price. A flat 10% off the top. Which is bad but not all that bad when compared to commission sales.
The real issue with ebay is that there is ZERO seller protection at all and they also hide small sellers items making it hard for them to even sell something.
As far as the shipping goes, ebay and many others have made people think that shipping is free and they punish people that do not offer free shipping by burying their listings.
I still refuse to offer free shipping on anything but tiny items and obviously you have to build the shipping cost into the item cost.
In your case the shipping price is exactly what it should be and a lot cheaper then if you went to the post office. Next time just build the shipping cost into the price of the item.
You could have shipped it via first class mail at that weight and saved a lot but it would take longer and not sure if they have signature confirmation online for first class.
I could rant and rant about ebay but basically it is a great place to buy but forget selling there unless you have to. Not so much because of the fees, they are a bit high but not insane but because of everything else they screw sellers over with.
Here’s the thing with ebay, compare how much your local newpapers charge for a classified ad these days, it’s not cheap anymore.
And then how many people who are interested in what you are selling are actually going to see that ad?
Pictures? Not in the paper unless you are willing to pony up for a box ad.
Yeah the fees suck, but millions of eyeballs on what you need to move , all listed from the comfort of your own home and discounts on the USPS fees, it is the best game in town so to speak.
If someone with the capital can challenge epay, then I’m all for that. But so far Google hasn’t found the need to do so.
As far as shipping fees, most buyers will pay a small amount and you have to kick in the rest. I am seeing much less free shipping from a lot of epay sellers that have offered free shipping in the past. And they still seem to be moving product.
All I use it for now is to research prices on items I can’t easily find reference to elsewhere- I refuse to buy or sell there except as a last resort.