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View Full Version : ebay huge fee increase - what are they thinking



John Weber
01-12-2005, 10:14 PM
I'm not sure how many sellers we have here, but I just got the new prices from ebay. What the heck are they thinking? The fee increases are way out of line. ebay needs to get back to the core business, and drop all the other crap. Like most I'll try and pass the increases along to the buyers, but this sucks. The ebay forums are hot, so what do the rest of you guys think?

John





Gallery fees will be raised from $0.25 to $0.35 per listing. We will also be increasing the size of the Gallery image on search and listings pages by 56%. This will make it easier for buyers to see details of the item before clicking into the listing.

Buy It Now
Buy It Now fees will no longer be charged at a flat rate, and will instead be determined based on the Buy It Now price. Fees will be charged as follows:

Old Rate $.05
Buy It Now Price Fee
$0.01 - 9.99 $0.05
$10 - 24.99 $0.10
$25 - 49.99 $0.20
$50+ $0.25

10-Day Duration
The fee for 10-day duration listings will be raised from $0.20 to $0.40 per listing.

eBay Stores
The fee for the Basic eBay Store subscription will be raised from $9.95 to $15.95 per month. The subscription fee for Featured and Anchor Stores will be unchanged.

eBay Store Inventory format listing insertion fees will remain unchanged. The Final Value Fee for Store Inventory items will change as follows:
Closing Price Old Price New Price
$0.01 - $25 5.25% of the closing value 8% of the closing price
$25.01 - $1,000 5.25% of the initial $25, plus 2.75% of the remaining closing value balance. 8% of the initial $25, plus 5% of the remaining closing value balance ($25.01 - $1000)Over $1,000 5.25% of the initial $25, plus 2.75% of the next $25.01-$1000, plus 1.50% of the remaining closing value balance ($1,000.01 - closing value). 8% of the initial $25, plus 5% of the next $25.01 - $1000, plus 3% of the remaining closing value balance ($1,000.01 - closing value).

Charles McKinley
01-12-2005, 11:55 PM
Hi John,

I'm just starting to sell stuff. I was hoping to start listing stuff for others as well. Buy the time I took a reasonable percentage the incentive to sell on ebay for my potential client would be greatly deminished.

That jump in the closing value percentage is huge. I'm guessing that they feel they have a monopoly on the market. Also enough people are depending on ebay for an income they will have to pay up. It will be interesting to see how the market reacts. The buy it now price increase is just stupid! for the $25+ it is a 500% increase!

So what other options are there? Are there any that are worth looking at as a buyer as well?

Christopher Pine
01-13-2005, 12:01 AM
I am confused? Closing price and closing value??? WHat does value mean?
They are still just taking there percent out of what it sold for right?

Steve Clardy
01-13-2005, 11:15 AM
The people that started Ebay are probably already beyond Rich.
Maybe their trying to catch up with Bill Gates.

Chris Padilla
01-13-2005, 3:44 PM
Do these fee hikes go into effect immediately?

John Weber
01-13-2005, 4:47 PM
Chris, the hikes start Feb 18th.

I've been on ebay since 1999 and both buy and sell. Ebay has already lost the community feel it had in the early years, and now is more populated by businesses then individuals it seems. I'm just not sure what they hope to gain from these hikes, they are already profitable, and I've never spoken to an actual ebay emlopyee on the phone, so my maintenance is very low, but I send them a nice chuck of change every money. They have gotten into all this stuff that is not thier core business, buying assets, sending out catalogs, lots of TV ads, etc... I think they have hired to many MBA's and in a effort to justify thier own existance they fool with the product. They have brand managers ala P&G for the different catagories - who knows what these people do, but I'm sure they are well paid. Ebay has been slowly raising prices the last few years, and now this big hike. I think they should have been happy with a little piece from every transaction, but corporate GREED has infected them and in my opinion will ruin them. So many sellers are now looking for other avenues to support sales. This is the latest in a series of over control type decisions that will in the long term spell the end for ebay as we know it. The time is now ripe for another major player in the online auction business so a little competition will in the end serve us all. PayPal was better before ebay, it just seems ebay can't resist fooling with a good thing. In my opinion this is very bad more for ebay as a business, there is no reason given for the hike, and service level remains very low in my mind. ebay does provides the platform for the transaction, but other then that adds very little value to the process. I believe it's time for a new CEO or some of the staff to lose jobs, this is a major long term mis step.

Off rant...

We will see - John

Gary Bingham
01-13-2005, 5:24 PM
eBay Store Inventory format listing insertion fees will remain unchanged. The Final Value Fee for Store Inventory items will change as follows:
Closing Price Old Price New Price
$0.01 - $25 5.25% of the closing value 8% of the closing price
$25.01 - $1,000 5.25% of the initial $25, plus 2.75% of the remaining closing value balance. 8% of the initial $25, plus 5% of the remaining closing value balance ($25.01 - $1000)Over $1,000 5.25% of the initial $25, plus 2.75% of the next $25.01-$1000, plus 1.50% of the remaining closing value balance ($1,000.01 - closing value). 8% of the initial $25, plus 5% of the next $25.01 - $1000, plus 3% of the remaining closing value balance ($1,000.01 - closing value).

"The Final Value Fee for Store Inventory items will change as follows:"


I don't really think it's all that big of a deal. If it only affects people running ebay stores, so what. They'll still be getting off cheap compared to what it would cost to run a brick and mortar store, or even an online business. Anyways, I'm sure a lot of ebay stores will just jack up their "handling" costs to offset the fees. If you ask me, paypal is and always has been more of a ripoff than ebay. Even before they were bought out by ebay.

Bill Grumbine
01-13-2005, 6:55 PM
If you ask me, paypal is and always has been more of a ripoff than ebay. Even before they were bought out by ebay.

Hi Gary

I'll ask. Why is Pay Pal a rip off? I just signed up for Pay Pal a couple of months ago when my DVD came out, as I had a number of people asking for it as a way to buy the DVD. It does cost a little bit more than my regular merchant's account for credit cards, but if it is the difference between a sale and no sale, I will take the sale. I have had many international sales that were made easier because of Pay Pal, not to mention domestic sales. And, if I count my time, the higher margin they take is more than offset by the shorter time it takes me to process a Pay Pal order.

I have the same attitude towards American Express. They charge a bit more too, but I have made many sales over the years because I accepted the card, sales I would not have made if I didn't. It is not like the rates they charge area surprise or anything. It is just one more way to transfer money, and if people don't like it, no one is forcing them to use it.

As far as the EBay thing goes, it does not really affect me (yet) but I think it is a stupid idea. They have every right to do it, but it is going to annoy a lot of people, and even more importantly, it will probably provide an opportunity for someone else to come along and take that business at a lower profit margin.

Bill

John Weber
01-13-2005, 7:47 PM
Bill,

I think you are right on the money as usual. I've been with PayPal since it was xcom.com or something like that. It works super and they had great customer service (still decent). When you call you talk to someone fairly fast, and they have always taken care of my issues. With transactions it creates an electronic trail and I use the shipping service because it saves typos and make shipping that much easier. I'm not sure what rate I'm on now - I think $.30 + 2.9% or maybe $.30 + 2.2%, anyway it's well worth it. I often don't bid on items unless they take Paypal, the extra cost and time to get a money order just isn't worth it if a similar item seller accepts PayPal.

As for ebay, I guess if they gave some justification, but email was direct and to the point with no effort to provide any justification.

Good Luck with your DVD sales - John

Gary Bingham
01-13-2005, 7:47 PM
I don't mind the fees that paypal charges for credit card transactions, but they also charge fees for any transaction. That includes payments from one paypal account to another, echeck or eft transfers from banking accounts. For example, if I were to buy your dvd, and already had money in my paypal account, I could just pay you with those funds. No credit card involved. If you had a personal paypal account that you couldn't use for credit cards, you could still accept the payment and it would be free. But since you have a premier account that can accept credit card payments, you are charged a fee for it.

There's also the problems of paypal freezing accounts, chargebacks, etc. Personally, I've never had any real problems with paypal, but I've seen a lot of people that have.

Christopher Pine
01-13-2005, 8:24 PM
"The Final Value Fee for Store Inventory items will change as follows:"


I don't really think it's all that big of a deal. If it only affects people running ebay stores, so what. They'll still be getting off cheap compared to what it would cost to run a brick and mortar store, or even an online business. Anyways, I'm sure a lot of ebay stores will just jack up their "handling" costs to offset the fees. If you ask me, paypal is and always has been more of a ripoff than ebay. Even before they were bought out by ebay.

I can live with the smaller fees increases but the percenatage increase makes little sense to me! The more items sold the more money they make raising the percentage in my mind simply would seem to slow the number of sales? I think that raising the percentages allmost 3 pts is a lot!
I remember whne they did not charge a percenateg just a fee to list and a final fee when sold. That was a sweet deal back then. Was also a sweet deal when priority mail was $3.00 for anything 2 lbs or less... OIE old fogie syndrom starting...:)
I have also been on ebay a long time and I miss the feel as folks have talked about it had in the earlier days...
what I would like to see is an auction site that catered more to the local person.. Like all the sellers came from you state. I think that might work I don;t know but I think it would be cool somthing like ebay yet smaller scale..
Anyone have anything like that in there state?
Chris :cool:

Chris Padilla
01-14-2005, 6:05 PM
I have never sold anything on eBay...I've only been a buyer...but I've thought about selling stuff here and there. So far, I haven't for whatever reason. I have had remarkable success selling stuff through my local www.craigslist.org (http://www.craigslist.org/) but then, I am NOT a business.

For PayPal, I really like them and because I am not a business, all my transactions with PayPal have been free. I have not upgraded my class with them and I don't want to accept credit cards for any kind of payment. What little I do transact through PayPal has worked awesome for me.

So as a non-selling eBay'er and a non-CC-accepting PayPal'er, these things do not impact me...so far....

Boyd Gathwright
01-15-2005, 1:15 PM
Comments On EBAY Fee Increases

.... I think, to simply sum up all of these comments, as far as the increase in price (cost) to the buyers and sellers that it makes it especially difficult for people on fixed incomes or for those who are retired because there is NO increase in the cost of living for THEM. And, makes it frustratingly difficult for them to keep up their buying power with those that can just INCREASE their prices. Hence, and I agree with most of you here, their ONLY salvation in the market place is more and better competition so as to keep the pricing the same or possibly lower.

.... Just my feelings on this subject.

Boyd

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