Transformerland.com

Ebay just notified sellers of their new pricing policy thats about to go in affect. They are now going to charge final value fees on the item cost AND SHIPPING. I assume they are going to justify it for sellers who charge $1 for the item and $50 for the shipping. But, as normal, it sticks it to EVERYONE to fix a minor problem.

I charge within $1 of actual shipping cost or I refund the overcharge, and I pack everything in plastic bags with bubblewrap in a box. My fees are going up 12%-18% depending on the shipping cost to item cost ratio. For money I don't get to keep! My prices will have to go up, I got to assume everyone else's will too.

Especially for the $1 items that charge actual shipping. $1 for the item $2.50 for actual shipping, that seller is now paying an EXTRA $.28 above the $.12+ listing price($.03-$.35) they already are paying. I'm betting $1 items now are going up to $1.30-$1.50 or more.

Edit: Actually reading the forums more, it seems this is intentional. Ebay wishes to reduce the number of low value listings.

I've just had a lengthy discussion on MSN with a fellow TFL'er regarding Ebays new standards. I don't think it's fair practice for someone to list items at $0.99 and then charge $22.00 for shipping. I've seen this happen on numerous occasions. Most recently with Generations/Reveal the Shield figures I've been trying to track down. Lots of members are displeased and have contacted customer support over this much to no avail (source: discussion forums). Ebay has always turned a blind eye to this and I agree this is most likely to weed out most of the listings with minimal financial gain for them. As if they don't make enough money already. I already need an accountant to decipher profit margin on my listings as it is. And price gouging will inevitably occur because of this. Thank God for sites such as this one and others out there.

that's really messed up. i noticed some people doing it on their auctions. They just messed it up for everyone. Roadbuster is right. just stick with sites like this if you can and trust people that are on them. I will be using the forums to sell my collection when I am ready.

Ebay it's been for a while trying to be more like Amazon instead of a fleamarket, though the last one is what made it great.

Think of the impact this is going to have for sellers shipping internationally! Who's going to offer to ship overseas now? Not me if I have to pay final value fees on international shipping which has to include tracking. Ebay has really screwed the pooch this time...

Well they are trying to help the international shipping. From what I understand what they are going to do is charge their fee based on the first domestic option you have listed. So I think they'll charge you based on the say $3 domestic first class, not the $28 international priority you use. But ebay's responses did have some ambiguity in them so I'm not positive thats whats they're doing.


On the up side for the sellers this does help you easily pass the buck on the buyers. Simply hike your item price to include the shipping and new fees and list everything free shipping. Since ebay collects fees on shipping reguardless its no longer more expensive to use free shipping. And sellers get automatic 5 star on shipping that way.

Well, I have been in e-Bay today and saw the higher charges taken place with some of the items I've had on watch for awhile. Some of the items have gone up two and three dollars.

I just hate that e-bay is now quadruple dipping on their sellers, the people who make the place possible.

I feel that it's fair for e-bay to get a percentage of the purchase price of whatever auction sells, but that's it!

I don't even think they should charge sellers a listing price!

I know that they need to run their website and pay people to keep up with it, and have it running so it can be used, but I would say they're making plenty of money and profit from auctions that sell to accomodate their mechanics and staff.

I love how each time stuff like this happens, eBay sells it as 'fees reduced for sellers!' This was the most transparent lie yet, lol

I'm glad I don't have to rely on sites like eBay, but feel bad for the sellers there. Maybe we should open up TFL to trusted sellers fed up with eBay...

'fees reduced for sellers!'

Yeah thats my favorite message too. Reduced for me almost an extra grand a year, Thanks!

The good news for you: Just keep your shipping charges low and upgrade to a Premium Store and, based on your recent selling activity, you will see little or no impact on your overall fees. Consider ways to further reduce your shipping charges, and your fees could even be lower than they are today.

I fail to see how reducing the listing fee $.15 off sets the minimum $.33 extra per sale they are charging. Especially since I'd have to list 228 items a month before I save a cent.

I'm really tired of ebay sticking it sellers. Being treated like an idiot on top that just pisses me off more.

I've been thinking about this more and it seems to me the new fees are not going to really effect the worst offenders at all. The people in Asia selling stuff for $.99 and $100 in shipping. Because ebay is charging the shipping fee based on the first Domestic shipping option. It simply puts them at risk for domestic resellers to buy their stuff cheap and resell.

So all sellers get penalized for ebay not enforcing their own rules? What a mess! I wish a company like google would have an auction site. Ebay needs competition, they are basically a monopoly and can do what they want. I guess I will stick to message boards if I have to sell anything.

Yeah, thats what happens when they hold the patent to the online auction hosting format.

well this might really suck for me cause I buy everything from OS pretty much

trance wrote: Maybe we should open up TFL to trusted sellers fed up with eBay...

That id go for ... as im sure a lot of other would

i get a lot of my Tfs from either here or through a certain not to be named * TFL er and ebay as a whole is very expensive for sellers

for me, i have the advantage of working in an auction house that gives me access to toy auctions with a live audience

* = * cough * buster of roads * cough *

This topic is old and maybe things are different now or it's just different here in Australia. I even went back to double check cause I was certain I only pay final value fees for the items sale price.

And yes I was right here is the final value fees conditions well not all but enough to get the point.

Final value fees

Final value fees are charged only when your item has sold.

Final value fees are based on the final sale price of a listing (excluding postage)

Charging a fee for your postage charges is just daylight robbery tax on a tax crazy talk. So I hope there not doing that still for you guys.

Since it's not even money that you can collect on. Well unless your in Hong Kong selling watches for 1$ and charging $50 shipping. when it only cost $12 or something.

Nope, they still USA sellers on shipping too.

Wow that's just wrong.

I dunno maybe they sting me in some other way.

I always saw the Auctions Buy it Now for $1 with jacked up shipping cost as a ploy to suck in people who impulse buy and don't read auction descriptions correctly. Either that or to get your listing higher in the search results. But the fact they charge fees for money that yeah you get paid but it's to post the items and goes to the post offices account not yours. So then it only causes people to charge more for their items or shipping which then makes them more money in fees. Sounds like it might be run by king hsss over there. I know I often get annoyed when buying from US sellers that they always seem to charge more than actual shipping but now I know why.

You can have a look at the Seller fees structure for Australia Here
http://pages.ebay.com.au/help/sell/fees.html

Maybe I pay higher insertion fees or something. Does make it hard the fact I'd like to list lots of small cost items and once I get past my free listings I try to keep it to higher value stuff where the 50c fee doesn't sting so much but there changing it from 30-40 free listings as of next month. I just wish I could pick which listings where free. So I could list low value stuff all through the month along with higher value items. Or at least worth the 50c to put em up cause I know they'll sell.

I dunno maybe it's worth listing them on a different ebay site rather than just the .com site. But that could also affect your sales too who knows.

I think it's really wrong and I hope they don't bring it in here.
I really feel your pain on this very annoying. :@