ebay Whitman's retiring...fee adjustments...good or bad for card buyers? Your thoughts...

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Posted By: Shawn Chambers

I just read that Meg Whitman should be stepping down soon and, apparently, at eBay's upcoming fourth quarter economic announcements they are hinting that listing fees will be lowered to be replaced by higher fees on the back end.

Now, I know "dump days" are a pain to wade through. I'm worried that EVERYDAY is going to be "dump day" soon. Am I paranoid? Will higher final value fees drive more seller off?

Shawn

PS...also will this lead to more fraudulent sellers with the listing fees dropped?

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Posted By: larryhaven

With the shape the economy is in right now, this amounts to business suicide for eBay (higher fees of any kind). Competition and bankruptcy might be right around the corner for them.

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Posted By: Russ Bright

it's disappointing to hear that - the fees are killing my sales as a part time seller - If i had to pay less in fees overall i would be more prone to sell more in these venues - Everytime I sell a card for 100 dollars and have to pay 8 dollars (listing fee plus final value fee) and then pay 3-5% to paypal i end up LOSING money -

Having an auction board for here is a great idea, but i missed the last auction because it wasn't clear that he card you were selling was listed on the Net54 auctions - T202, right? I would have bid and would be interested in selling, btu i don't think there is enough advertising even in Net54 for the new auctions - maybe i'm wrong...

Bottom line - I don't think Ebay will be bankrupt anytime soon, but i DO think more people will look for other options once they realize that they're being gouged on every end of the transaction

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Posted By: Red

Do fraudulent sellers pay listing and final value fees?

The reason Ebay is so popular is because almost anything you can think of is only a quick search away. I'm not talking about rare or unique items, although they will pop up now and then, just the normal weird kind of stuff that you wouldn't know where else to go and buy. Think of anything you wanted or had as a kid, or adult. Not only will you probably find it, you'll also have a choice between several. Lowering the listing fees will just provide more choices for the buyers. The net for the seller with a higher fee collected on a sale will probably balance out.

If "dump day" bothers you then learn how to use the search feature. Very few collectors need to look at everything. Just search for what you're looking for and you don't have to see everything else. If you're looking at everything because you're looking for mistakes and bargains then just think of it as working hard for your money.

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Posted By: barrysloate

The listing fees are already minimal. It's the selling fees that are killers. So you'll save 35 cents listing and get hit with an extra $10 on the back end. Great deal.

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Posted By: JK

No offense to Barry or the other auctioneers out there, but ebay's fees are nothing compared to the standard consignment rates charged by many auction houses (unless, of course, you can negotiate a 0% commission).

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Posted By: Matt

JK - good point - even if you negotiate a 0% consignment fee, you're still losing the 15-20% buyer's premium. It would take quite a raise in the ebay/Paypal fee structure to come up to even 20% of the gross sale price.

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Posted By: barrysloate

No offense taken...I know how it works.

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Posted By: Joel

I think selling on ebay and having Paypal for 8% (approximately, depending on sales price) total sales fee is a bargain. If you were to operate a brick and mortar store just paying rent, insurance, employees, fica tax, power bill, advertising etc is going to be much more than 8%. Even with a store credit card fees are still going to be 3% or more. Some people complain about having to pay ebay and then paypal but the services provided are not the same and paypal isn't exactly taking credit card payments at no expense to them.

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Posted By: barrysloate

My understanding is paypal is only taking 3%. Does anybody know exactly what they get?

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Posted By: Anonymous

paypal fees are 2.9%. electronic check has a max fee of $5 per transaction. I believe a debit/credit card payment has a .35 cents fee plus the 2.9%

personal paypal accounts are great for doing off ebay transactions. There are no transactions fees as long as debit or credit card is not used. they say there is a $500 receiving limit each month but as long as the transaction is done properly there is no receiving limit.

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Posted By: Richard Simon

In answer to Barry's comment on this thread, listing fees are as high as $4.80, obviously depending on the price of the item, much of what I list costs me $1.20 or more to list. At least there is no egregious buyers premium when I sell an item. I can remember the days when there was no buyers premium at the big auction houses.
As a semi/regular seller on ebay, with a 1000+ feedback, I am all in favor of lower listing fees. I never mind paying them a commission when an item sells (especially because there is no buyers premium).
I think it hurts me financially when those listing fees start to pile up on the unsold items.
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