Re: how do you use ebay?
I've been a Silver PowerSeller on eBay for about 2 years. This month I think I am being promoted to Gold.<br /><br />rogerwa - you have it right. You have to look at the total price. Item + shipping. <br /><br />Some people use inflated shipping as a way to beat eBay out of some of the final value fee. Here is what eBay charges for items that sell (n/a for autos and RE)<br /><br />Closing Value Final Value Fee <br />$0 - $25 5.25% of the closing value <br />$25 - $1,000 5.25% of the initial $25 ($1.31),<br />plus 2.75% of the remaining closing value balance. <br />Over $1,000 5.25% of the initial $25 ($1.31),<br />plus 2.75% of the initial $25-$1000 ($26.81),<br />plus 1.50% of the remaining closing value balance. <br /><br />You can find eBay's fee schedule here:<br /> http://pages.ebay.com/help/sellerguide/selling-fees.html <br /><br />On top of that you add 3% fee for paypal and all of a sudden selling fees are not trivial when you are running it as a business. When you include the cost of no sales (listed but not purchased) plus deadbeats (maybe 1% - 5% of all sales) and I figure the cost of selling on eBay is around 10% of revenue over the long term.<br /><br />Anybody trying to inflate shipping w/o fixed shipping disclosed in the auction is not going to last long on eBay. As long as they are up front about it they are usually ok and get what other sellers are getting for similar items (when you add bid + shipping) <br /><br />I usually ship priority mail and charge actual cost - actual cost includes the cost of labels, ink, packing material, etc. I only use fixed price shipping and disclose it and the method clearly in the auction.
I've been a Silver PowerSeller on eBay for about 2 years. This month I think I am being promoted to Gold.<br /><br />rogerwa - you have it right. You have to look at the total price. Item + shipping. <br /><br />Some people use inflated shipping as a way to beat eBay out of some of the final value fee. Here is what eBay charges for items that sell (n/a for autos and RE)<br /><br />Closing Value Final Value Fee <br />$0 - $25 5.25% of the closing value <br />$25 - $1,000 5.25% of the initial $25 ($1.31),<br />plus 2.75% of the remaining closing value balance. <br />Over $1,000 5.25% of the initial $25 ($1.31),<br />plus 2.75% of the initial $25-$1000 ($26.81),<br />plus 1.50% of the remaining closing value balance. <br /><br />You can find eBay's fee schedule here:<br /> http://pages.ebay.com/help/sellerguide/selling-fees.html <br /><br />On top of that you add 3% fee for paypal and all of a sudden selling fees are not trivial when you are running it as a business. When you include the cost of no sales (listed but not purchased) plus deadbeats (maybe 1% - 5% of all sales) and I figure the cost of selling on eBay is around 10% of revenue over the long term.<br /><br />Anybody trying to inflate shipping w/o fixed shipping disclosed in the auction is not going to last long on eBay. As long as they are up front about it they are usually ok and get what other sellers are getting for similar items (when you add bid + shipping) <br /><br />I usually ship priority mail and charge actual cost - actual cost includes the cost of labels, ink, packing material, etc. I only use fixed price shipping and disclose it and the method clearly in the auction.
