ebay's New Fee Structure

[botn]

Just got an email from eBay that effective May 1, the rate for final value fees their Collectibles category is going to a flat 9%. In essence, that literally doubles what I pay them each month. Here is a link to the email contents...http://pages.ebay.com/sellerinformation/news/springupdate2013/springfeesimplification.html

This will have a material impact on lower volume sellers, like myself (a few hundred listings per month) and drive more business to sellers like PWCC and Probstein. Nothing against what they do but way to go ebay.

This could be a golden opportunity for Grand Slam...

[Gmrson]

I'm interested in hearing what Amazon is pitching at the Industry Summit. It will probably be geared towards the "big boys" as well. I don't really sell too much on Ebay anymore but have done well submitting old oddball to COMC.

[jhs5120]

I have a basic store. Here is the impact of the new fee schedule on a $200 item that sold via auction ($3.00 shipping)

Old Fee:
$9.97

New Fee:
$18.27



.... great

[HRBAKER]

No legitimate competition is a beautiful thing. T-I-C

But all the people are smiling on the e-mail. What difference does it make how many listings are free if your FVF basically double?

[D. Bergin]

I received the e-mail but didn't read it fully yet.

So basically they are getting rid of the stepped down fee levels for higher value items?

Typical Ebay marketing - "Good News, your fees have just gone down."

actual translation - "If you actually sell your items and don't let them sit in a store at a ridiculous over-valuation, garnering zero bids or sales.........your fees have just gone up."

[Frank A]

I don't know where you read this. My email said a strait 10%. Frank

[Bugsy]

I don't know where you read this. My email said a strait 10%. Frank

Mine said a flat 10% as well.

[Leon]

It's both- From their website-

"New everyday simplified rate plans—pick the one that’s right for you
Free listings with eBay Stores: Starting May 1, get up to 2,500 FREE listings* per month with your eBay Stores subscription. Final value fees will be simplified to 5 competitive category-based rates as low as 4% (and never more than 9%)—regardless of how you sell. Get complete details.
Standard fees (no Stores subscription): Starting
April 16, your 50 free listings* per month can be listed Auction-style or fixed price. Pay just one flat 10% final value fee—only when your item sells. Get complete details."

[D. Bergin]

People selling higher value items are going to get slammed hard with the new fee rates.

[Jason]

Thank God for the B/S/T section on Net54.

[Exhibitman]

It is a flat 10% of the gross INCLUDING shipping for a casual seller who doesn't have a store and doesn't do more than 50 listings a month, with no listing fees. BUT, you also take a 2.9% plus $0.30 paypal hit, and you also have to factor in postage and materials. As I see it, the OOP is actually greater than a number of auctioneer alternatives.

I just sold a raw card for $9.99 with free shipping. Under the new regime:

$9.99 gross
-$1.00 ebay fee
-$0.59 paypal fee
-$1.69 postage
-$0.50 materials [I recycle old shipping envelopes but still pay for tape, labels, card holder and ink]
$6.21 net.

My transaction costs will be 38.9% of the gross.

If I add a $2 shipping cost to the deal:

$12.00 gross
-$1.20 ebay fee
-$0.65 paypal fee
-$1.69 postage
-$0.50 materials [I recycle old shipping envelopes and cardboard but still pay for tape, labels, card holder and ink]
$7.96 net.

Paradoxically, the new ebay structure gives me an incentive to add shipping costs rather than offering free shipping as the company would prefer since I only lose 13% of the shipping charge to the fee structure.

Now, if I send the same card to an AH willing to give me a no commission deal and it sells for a $10 min. bid, I get $10. Even at 10% commission I get $9 for it. Even if the card was priced at $8 minimum bid, at no commission I net the same or better than ebay, and the Buyer pays the AH fee, the buyer pays the postage, I deposit a check.

Candidly, I don't see any reason to sell a solid card on ebay given the costs and alternatives, except to throw up a bunch of high starting price and high BIN items to test the waters and see if I get lucky. Not that it will affect ebay's logic any; there are enough people who won't break down the costs and who will pay for the convenience of ebay.

[Tony Gordon]

It's 9% with a store, 10% without. Also, with the cheapest store subscription you get 150 free listings a month, as opposed to 50 free listings without a store. There is also a difference in insertion fee between the store & non-store listing. It looks like eBay wants all sellers to have a store. I am wondering why?

[D. Bergin]

OK, here to put it in B&W. If you just owned a basic store subscription and run auctions on Ebay. Here are the present fees:

Basic Store monthly fee:

$15.95 per month



Final value fees for auction-style Store listings.

Total amount of the sale.


Final value fee
(per item)

$0.01–$50
7.5% of the total amount of the sale



$50.01–$1,000
$3.75 for the first $50
+
4% of the remaining balance up to $1,000



Over $1,000
$41.75 for the first $1,000
+
2% of the remaining balance over $1,000



But hey, here's the good news. You get to list 150 items for free. Thanks Ebay. Just hope you don't actually sell any of those listings, and you've gotten a bargain for your dollar.

Insertion fees for auction-style Store listings

Starting or reserve price


Insertion fee
(per listing)

$0.01–$0.99

$0.10



$1–$9.99
$0.25



$10–$24.99
$0.50



$25–$49.99
$0.75



$50–$199.99
$1



$200 or more
$2




Based on the above, at the 9% across the board this is now going to move to. Not counting shipping fees, Paypal fees and other misc. The Cost of Auctioning a card or any other collectible for $2000 on Ebay, just went from $61.75 to $180.00.

I'd wager, most of the bigger guys who actually run auctions, like Probstein, PWCC, Henry Yee, JonStats, SCGaynor..........along with the smaller guys.....aren't going to be happy with this at all.

[RobertGT]

edited

[insidethewrapper]

Ebay has a "fee calculator" to compare the old fee structure with the new fee structure.

Basic Store : $ 1000 BIN item with Free Shipping ( with 20% FVF discount) was $50.20 now $ 72.00 = + $ 21.80 in fees

Non-Store : $ 1000 BIN item with Free Shipping ( with 20% FVF discount) was $ 50.50 now $80.00 = + $ 29.50 in fees

[painthistorian]

I have been on the phone with e bay, as Greg has said, now all "store" members are paying a flat 9% in May, which is close to what fees are now on small $$$ cards such as a common T206 SGC 40. The original (increased) fee schedule now in place did make things manageable on cards in the $200-$500 range or higher and this is the quality of better trading and sports cards that collectors want offered as an auction style. It will be almost impossible to see this continue in this format if these fees are allowed to become established. Everyone should complain...this could easily be the nail in the coffin.

[deadballera]

is eBay really trying to reduce the number of sellers but make up the revenue with higher fees ?

[D. Bergin]

Seems they are effectively trying to kill any incentive to run auctions for better quality material.

Adam is right. It's almost getting to the point, you're better off sending to an auction house to do all the work and shoulder all the liability, then you are running your own stuff on Ebay.

Ebay sellers who take consignments for a percentage, this is going to absolutely kill their margins.

Hey, but free listings. Get ready for even more over-priced BIN's flooding the searches.

[RobertGT]

edited

[glchen]

I think probstein and the other big consignment sellers on ebay will just pass along the fees also.

[RichardSimon]

More money for ebay, less money for the sellers.
Is that something new??

[jcmtiger]

I don't know where you read this. My email said a strait 10%. Frank

Mine too!!!!

Joe