Would You Share Your Inventory Costs with eBay?

by: airbrake

Never give info about inventory costs to Ebay or anyone else - It's none of their damn business. Ebay is just looking to try and control the price on what you sell. Who knows what Ebay will do with this data as far as sharing it with their so called ''Partners''.

Ebay, if you want to help the Sellers and Buyers that use your platform, fix all the software problems with your site first, maybe then, just maybe, we Sellers will consider ways of sharing info with you. Earn our the trust first.

by: etectra

eBay adding sprinkles to the top of the maggot frosting on a cake infested with a colony of mice.

Gee, how could eBay lower the price of all items on eBay and make more sales. Stop their long term scam called FVF on shipping. eBay can easily compare the cost of eBay labels and third party labels to what was charged the buyer any only charge FVF on shipping if the seller overcharged for shipping. This would mean sellers offering lower commercial price on items which will reduce the cost of the items and increase more sales. Today, it would also be possible to include postal meters purchased at post office in this with some modifications to the API USPS uses for its electronic scales in offices.

Until 2025 eBay blocked decimal values in package dimensions and told sellers to round up values in violation of postal regulations. Dimensional rates are rounded to the nearest inch and Cubic are rounded to the lowest 1/4" for computing rates. This was done to overcharge for shipping so eBay could make more money.

eBay's 2010 agreement with China Post and USPS created billions in loses for USPS, which they made up for by raising domestic rates over Obama's 8 years in office. This was done to make eBay more money on shipping while destroying USPS and American based jobs of not only people working in manufacturing but eBay resellers.

When USPS transitioned to Ground Advantage eBay did away with carrier specific discounts in seller's account preferences. They did not add these back for over a year.

eBay also did away with listing some items with USPS commercial rates and some with retail rates at the same. Since the move to Ground Advantage its been all shipments via commercial or all via retail rates. Small items are listed with retail rates with the FVF on the shipping being paid by the difference in the retail rate and commercial rate. When rates fo up you need not adjust any of these listings.

Large items require a commercial rate as the retail is too large due to dimensional rates. This means calculating the highest possible shipping cost and then adding 15% +/- percent of this to the price of the item to account for FVF on the shipping. When rates go up you must adjust any such listings to account for the higher rates. This is why you do not use this technique for large quantities of small items.

So eBay's solution is to tell you to use a flat rate in place of the commercial. That makes no sense at all as a flat rate means charging all buyers the maximum rate plus 15% to account for the highest FVF on shipping. No one is going to even bother looking at the listings with inflated shipping. But of course eBay is telling you this because flat rate shipping is a scam that makes eBay more money.

eBay's promotion of free shipping, which is similar to flat rate shipping. You must calculate the highest possible shipping rate and add this to the price of the item plus increase the price of the item by 15% of the maximum shipping rate. Since some states do not charge sales tax on shipping this make people in such states pay more sales tax, and the seller pay more eBay fees, as the price of the item is fully accessed with sales tax.

eBay selling private insurance to undermine USPS profits on insurance. USPS uses these profits to offset other services. When USPS makes less money on insurance they raise rates on multiple services.

eBay has used its postal discount to create massive consumer frauds and its time it was terminated unless eBay reimburses consumers as well as changes its system to prevent any such scams in the future. eBay should be given 90 days to pay up and fix their system or they are done having discounted postal rates.

by: Shanna

Yes, the next step is eBay monetizing this information. First they will sell the info to anyone who pays. Next you will start getting emails and messages every hour noting, "Hey! You have a lot of margin to play with on that item that has not sold yet, you should give us half of that in promoted fees so it might sell faster.

by: Bill

If you are going to tell eBay what your cost is just tell these idiots that your cost is 80% of what you are selling it for

by: AddyUp

That's something that's on my spreadsheet for my eyes only.

Maybe ebay will set an example by showing all their profit and cost details.

by: Snapped

“ “… making it easier to decide whether to accept the offer." “

Gee wiz eBay, always trying to ‘help’…..by doing NOTHING that sellers have actually ASKED for help with, and everything that will actually help eBay instead.  

by: papergoy

I filled in the price on an item I was selling for $25 as being $100.  Oops..forgot the decimal point.  If that's what people did, they'd get the same information in a format they could decipher while screwing with any data collection by eBay.....

by: pace306

Well if I was HEAVILY on crack or some other illegal drug, then MAYBE maybe maybe I (still) would NOT tell eBay anything lol.

eBay ISNT your friend, they aren’t your partner and they OPENLY work against you 24/7. And when there’s an issue they are no where to be found.

As said do well above - eBay will sell this info, and/or share it with their beloveds.

NEVER. Share info with the San Jose Mafia, never.

by: etectra

If you are selling multiple quantity items eBay is still combing the weights of the items ordered and billing the customer for the combined weight even though you have a eBay combined shipping rule set to “No discount” (i.e., do not combine weights).

Before eBay stated I needed to set this rule after 26 years of being on eBay to prevent this form happening and now they are telling me it doe snot prevent that, but can’r provide a explanation about what the rule does - apparently nothing at all.

A recent multiple quantity order for two items had a retail shipping price of $11.55 for each 1 pound item. eBay should have thus billed the customer for $23.10. The customer would then pay and receive a refund if any were due or simply request a combined invoice before they pay. This is done in case the item is subject to dimensional rates or in some cases it may be cheaper to send the item out as two packages instead of paying the dimensional.

Instead eBay combined the 1 pound rate of each item into 2 pounds and billed the customer for a 2 pound package to zone 7 which was $14.90 at retail prices.

If the combined size of the items were over a cubic foot; for example 12.5” x 12” x 12”, the commercial rate would have been $19.23 for this particular buyer.

In this case the box for the combined item was below a cubic foot - luckily for eBay.

eBay customer service’s first claims to misunderstand that I was shorted on the shipping and tells me to make up for the amount I was shorted on the shipping by:

A. Cancelling the order and relisting it. That makes no sense as the same exact problem would occur.

B. Get a payment from the buyer for additional shipping from a source outside of eBay. So eBay is telling me to commit off eBay sales to complete the order - amazingly stupid. Of course it would be idiotic to accept such a payment in the first since it would have a high degree of potential fraud on part of the buyer. This is of course assumes the buyer wouldn’t leave negative feedback immediately.

Then eBay tells me it occurred because there were no dimensions for one item. I upload 99.99% of items with dimensions since the initial rate is calculated on the weight alone. Never been a problem!

But that is also a lie by eBay.

As I still have inventory left in the multiple quantity listing I added a package size of 12” x 12" x 12”. I then added a quantity of two to my shopping cart in another browser while not signed into an eBay account. The retail shipping rate shown is still based on combining the weight. Two stacked 12”x 12” x 12” items would shipped out as a 12” x 12” x 24” package and thus subject to dimensional rate, which would be $62.80 at the retail rate or $38.48 at the commercial rate if this same buyer had purchased the items.

Then eBay tells me I need to list the items as individual items, which makes no sense at all as they will be pulled as duplicate listings.

Then eBay tells I need to use a flat rate. Yeah right.

For most of eBay’s history multiple quantity items were billed by charging the customer the shipping cost for each item times the number of items they ordered.

One feels brain cells dying when talking to to people from eBay.

So eBay is completely ignorant about how shipping works or this is another scam designed to lower prices for buyers on listings with no regard to the seller being shorted on shipping. I pick the later reason.

by: Rexford

This will surely backfire on eBay.  No seller in his right mind will give out his or her keys to the cost pricing data castle.  What they WILL do however is overly inflate the price that they enter into the cost field and eBay will only have the keys to bogus and inaccurate data.

And this clearly appears to be eBay  copying what Poshmark has been doing for some time.  Poshmark is likely getting the same bogus data from sellers as it relates to their "original price" field.

by: etectra

I do not even waste time assigning costs to individual items.

Any significant cost for a individual item can be remembered when I list it.

The majority of items are purchased at live estate in bulk so the cost per item is often pennies.

No other book sellers showed up at a live auction and I was able to purchase an entire book stock of an antique store for $2.50, filling a pickup truck. I can waste time trying to figure out the individual cost of books and record that on each listing or just record at a $2.50 expense for inventory. Record the value of books donated to charity in the ledger. At the end of the year determine what inventory is left for taxes.

Too many are anal over assigning individual costs to items and wasting time figuring the exact amount they made on each item. they could be using that time to sell more, but they waste their time messing with spreadsheets likes its 1979.

by: AllWorldSneakerz

in response to ''etectra'' about FVF on shipping.  
ebay started doing this years ago because sellers were pricing items for $0.01 and charging $99.99 for shipping costs. this was especially prevalent on high-end sneaker listings.  so, in order to counter that, ebay just simply said we will charge FVF on the total cost of each sale.  its the cost of doing business.  if you do not like it, you can always discontinue selling on the platform and set-up shop on another site, or, open up a brick & mortar location and see how much foot traffic you can get in your local market.

by: Nonesuch

Would I share on the eBay platform my cost of goods?   No way.  eBay has no business knowing that.  

by: Snapped

eBay has been collecting data from and contracting with shipper carriers longer than most eBay sellers have been trying to sell.  They knew perfectly well how much of a reasonable maximum shipping allowance would apply, especially for an item with a finitely predictable volume per unit.  And per cased quantity if needs be. In fact, that data itself is apparently marketable.  

And because they had it, there was no reason for them to blanket the whole of their customer base (sellers are legally responsible to pay all fees) with an unearned fee.  One that increases on autopilot that they can shrug their arrogant shoulders at when it does.  No reason but the one given as a smokescreen to ‘justify’ that greed.  None but laziness in management.  An unwillingness to accept their own “cost of doing business”.

Instead, such ‘unscrupulous’ sellers could have easily been identified and sanctioned separately from the entire and by a vast majority rule abiding customer base, and so ship cost limited for future sale enterprise where shipping costs were concerned.  Sellers who screamed a disadvantage because they offered ‘free’ shipping could be incentivized instead, by applying a shipping cost ‘credit’ BEFORE any FVF was calculated to their ‘free’ ship item sales, using the same data.

Which, according to eBay, drives up sales, in case they really care about that while doing their data harvesting.

‘Problem’ solved.

Now, as for the my way or the highway baloney, one can only wish that eBay will get exactly what that arrogant and condescending threat deserves.  Severance from such toxicity and disdain for a customer base upon which all of their very livings depend.  

And as for any threats of pending doom for such a divorce, when they first trotted out that KMA sword of Damocles years ago, it certainly was harder to get ‘noticed’ online.  But there have been plenty of expat eBay sellers who’ve done mighty fine and are now stress free, on their own or elsewhere since.  There’s data for that, too.

And in case it escapes, ANYbody can achieve significant visibility out there these days.  Some of ‘em aren’t even human anymore, just chunks of more data.

by: Maui5150

Never would I share cost with eBay - Given how they already "market" competing items - I could see eBay "sending offers" to buyers at or near cost, or when a user is making an offer, setting an expectation of the floor based on cost entered.  Ebay is not your friend

by: pace306

"in response to ''etectra'' about FVF on shipping.  
ebay started doing this years ago because sellers were pricing items for $0.01 and charging $99.99 for shipping costs. this was especially prevalent on high-end sneaker listings.  so, in order to counter that, ebay just simply said we will charge FVF on the total cost of each sale.  its the cost of doing business. "


I suppose then you would have no problem with others do it YOU.

1 cent french fries, but mandatory purchase of ketchup at $8

$5 car with purchase of $45K dealer rustproofing

sure, just add up a fake revenue stream cause some guy some where did something  .. are you Hillary Clinton?

Its no ones fault that eBay couldnt come up with a business plan that "worked". Ripping people off AFTER the fact because they were smarter then you isnt and shouldnt be how you do business.

Charge sellers $25 a month, charge buyers (Vinted and others do), charge each side %50, Apply the "so called store fees towards the FVF". There are plenty of ways to do it with out stealing from sellers.

Now back to the topic at hand ... eBay asking stupid questions

Would I do it? YES! I put in 100k each time as my cost of goods.

Let eBays crappy AI play with THAT!

by: salvagepanda

Not in this lifetime. As a seller you give the San Jose Mafia as little as possible.  

by: Johpa

As there is an undeniable convenience to having the cost easily accessible, especially if you have longer tail items where the cost has been forgotten, just encode the cost to numbers you understand but would be meaningless to Ebay.  

by: selling stuff

I do have the cost of my items at my fingertips. It is in my inventory files that I have been keeping for the last 25 years. I can also tell at any given time what my profit versus cost is for every month since I started. All of my files are set up in Excel format & the only person who has ever seen them besides me is our CPA. That is the way it will remain until I decide to stop doing this craziness.  

by: Rexford

Is it me, or are others finding that the more data a company is harvesting, the more corrupt they appear to be?  And if you are not reading about Palantir you should be.