Warning: eBay Raises Payment Processing Fees

by: val2525

@RKTOYS Bonanza is a joke. They should have used some of that venture capital to advertise the site and draw in buyers.  

I agree with an earlier poster - Ina, can you verify eBay actually meant to say "per listing"?  That is totally out of line with the rest of the payment processing world.

by: InspirationPlus

OfferUp, which used to be local sales only. now offers shipping. You all might want to look at it as well. I've done very well on that site, but I don't really like the shipping policy and don't use it. I do ship, I just don't use their shipping.

The best thing for me has been not to put all my eggs in one basket. There are times of year when sales are slow, but if you can be on 5+ sites at least you will be making sales somewhere.

by: iheartjacksparrow

@InspirationPlus - I don't use the shipping calculator on eCrater. Since most of my items ship as First Class Packages, and that service has now gone to zone-based like Priority Mail, before I list something, I pack the item (without sealing it up), weigh it, and determine what the cost would be to the farthest zone. That's the cost I use for shipping. If someone purchases an item and they are in a closer zone, and thus costing less to ship, I refund the overage.  

by: Shopping Cart Broken

the increase would mean 40 comic books totalling 100.00 through ebay using paypal would garner a  3.05 paypal fee

now the new ebay math will make it so you are paying 17 dollars and change to ebay for that 100.00 sale via just for payment fees alone

plus listing fees, final value fees, search glitches and quickly declining buyers

why do they think people will pay a 460 percent increase for the privilege of ebay using your stock as a means to gain advertising revenue?

ebay is about to evolve into an advertising only website, with nothing but crickets for customers

this is a blatant cash grab and does not make any business sense unless they are  going under and need an immediate infusion of cash instantly

glad i have other business interests, ebay is not out to help sellers succeed. i think ebay is wanting a 70/30 split for revenue with every seller

that is not sustainable most likely, still they have decades of momentum to kill, so it will be a long slow painful death, with the alpha sellers hanging on until the last possible second, them bailing to whatever new site will replace ebay

sad to see ebay die, but i believe after 20 years selling on here with 75 thousand items in our store, we are the kind of seller ebay needs to help pay for the yachts and stock dividends

too bad i personally would rather shut the doors then allow ebay to use us as a slave business

pathetic ebay

by: InspirationPlus

@iheartjacksparrow Thanks for the reply. I might try again and only list those items which I can safely calculate a shipping price. Maybe in the fall. Too many irons in the fire at the moment.

Apparently you can sell on Instagram and Pinterest too. Going to research how to do that.  

by: toolguy

@Shopping Cart Broken

"now the new ebay math will make it so you are paying 17 dollars and change to ebay for that 100.00 sale via just for payment fees alone"

How do you figure?

I get about $13

40 x .25 = $10
$100 x 2.7% = $2.70

Total eBay payment take $12.70

Please explain how you arrived at $17?

by: CanBrit

I think the most frustrating thing was that there was once a time I could have a store on eBay, nowhere else,and make a decent profit. Now spreading wings to Etsy, I have to be careful when something sells, to pull from either one or the other. It's extra work, double work. I wasn't looking for that at this stage of my life. Now though, I just can't stop. My fault.

The punishments and abuse have really knocked me down flat. Now I don't mean financial penalties. I'm still one of the lucky ones where my eBay costs are still low. It's the jerking back and forth. It's the highs and lows that come in quick succession. It's the awful darn community that bans sellers on a whim and likes to make you feel small (Yes, I'm talking about you, you little weasel Alan). It's the CS group where I've had 75% more stress and insults than success.

Finally, it's Wenig himself, who really does make me nauseous. The fact that this blight is continuing to exist, to flatter himself, to rob his sellers, to destroy the vets and elderly sellers. To destroy a company that no one at one time thought could be done. I wish him the worst, the very worst.

Only the good die young. Worst saying in the world.

by: Silver Ice King

@CanBrit

It's the awful darn community that bans sellers on a whim and likes to make you feel small (Yes, I'm talking about you, you little weasel Alan). It's the CS group where I've had 75% more stress and insults than success.

Alan suffers from what my spouse once referred to as "Little Man Itis" similar to what Napoleon dealt with.  I guess he has to make himself seem important somehow and abusing Ebays Sellers seems to be the standard way to operate at Ebay.  At any other company he would have been long gone and his H1B visa would have been revoked,

by: Snapped

This is a significant costly change to impale customers with, without so much as a comment.  Add cowards to the long list of unfavorable adjectives that are eBay's these days.  

by: Shopping Cart Broken

@toolguy

ahh was using paypal numbers, ebay will charge slightly less at the outset

but toolguy, is there really much of a lesser pain point when the payment transaction fee is 4 times higher aproximately as opposed to 4 and a half? you almost sound like an ebay CSR trying to justify this increase, regardless, please nit pick somebody else and do not troll us

the point being made is i am not going to work harder for ebay on such an unjustifiable one time increase, this is not how landlords are supposed to work in the real world.

thanks dude

peace out

by: toolguy

@Shopping Cart Broken

If you sold 10 items to 10 different people you would pay .25 cents for each transaction

eBay Payments now wants you to pay the same amount if you sell all 10 items to the same person.

No one wants pay more then we have to, me included.

But I would rather eBay do this then raise the FVF to 15% or 20%

eBay offered everyone the chance to join eBay payments and be "grandfathered" into the prior system. . . .I declined, you must have to. . .

PS: You are FREE to leave eBay at anytime you desire, they aren't forcing you to sell on THEIR platform.

by: toolguy

I got my 1st Facebook sale this morning!

Lot of pipe benders for $100 CASH

No fees to anyone!

by: iheartjacksparrow

When the low, low, low processing fees for eBayPay were first announced, I and many others who post here said it's going to be sooner rather than later that those fees go up. The eBay Apologists said we had no facts to back that up, but those of us who know too well how Devin and his gang think knew we were right. So eBay has found another way to squeeze a few more cents/dollars out of its already beleaguered sellers.

by: RKTOYS

@toolguy
I think you don't understand the impact because you are probably used to selling one item at a time.  In spite of Donahole and Weiner, there might still be markets where people buy two or more items at a time.  All it's going to accomplish is have sellers raise prices or reduce selection by bundling in lots.

Or sell somewhere else.  It's not taking much to beat eBay's performance these days.

by: toolguy

@RKTOYS

I get multiple orders all the time

So when a guy buys more then 1 item I would be paying .25 cents more for that order.

If a guy buys 2 items I'll pay .50 cents more

If eBay can bring me buyers that buy more then 1 item at a time it's well worth the extra pennies it costs.

Just the packing time is worth that to me.

I'm not going to lose any sleep over a few pennies!

Heck, I took 20% off a $70 item yesterday, that's $14

It would take 56 sales to equal that same amount of money eBay Payments wants now.

If eBay can do it they will. . . I have to say they've hired some pretty smart people over the past 15 years.

The guy who dreamed up FVF on shipping should've got a $1million bonus!

by: val2525

"Second thought:  Was this an Elliot Management idea?"

I don't think so. If you read the Elliott presentation, it included long term solutions like fixing the aging infrastructure, focusing on key selling areas, addressing and correcting the public perception of eBay being a scam site, etc.  This per listing transaction fee is a money grab by Wenig.  

by: RKTOYS

@toolguy
Well I am talking collectibles, where $20 has become a major life decision and an extra 50 cents in fees is another 3% taken out of a profit margin that might not have 3% left to take at this point.  It's actually moot for me since I've been lucky to make multiple sales only a handful of times on eBay.  And it's not going to be my problem either once eBay Pay is foisted on everybody.  I will need to sign up for one or two more cons to make up the shortfall.  Hell, reactivating my eCrater store, pitiful as it was, would go a long way towards replacing the trickle from eBay this year.

I still say the bank account hoop is going to be the one that your casual sellers won't jump through and a whole lot of GMV will evaporate when they don't.

by: toolguy

@RKTOYS

Have you tried Facebook Marketplace?

It's free so you have nothing to lose

by: NoMoreEbay

The greed couldn't even wait till this was off the ground. This guy must sit around all day just inventing ways to extract more fees.

by: b86fiero

Second thought:  Was this an Elliot management idea?

Yes, I read the Elliott Management proposal numerous times, as did many on here.

Updating aging infrastructure, focusing on key selling areas, addressing the negative public perception of eBay,etc. all cost money.  Lots of money.  While Elliott recommended selling off some eBay holdings to raise capital and eliminate low hanging fruit, who is to say the board of directors did or did not unanimously decide to require sellers to help fund these future improvements?  

I have never attended an eBay board meeting so I can not say who or whom proposed, developed and legally researched this addition to the user agreement.  I was not privy to the work of the committee tasked with developing the proposal nor the board discussion before a vote.  I have served on the boards of 22 businesses, developmental, community and quasi-governmental entities over the years.  I do know that every board strives to present a unified front to the public, and most disagreements are kept behind closed doors.  

I do believe Elliott Management's addition to the board of directors has influenced the path eBay is currently pursuing.