My first experience as an eBay seller is nearing an end. I stopped off at the Post Office on my way home this afternoon, and put the item I was selling in the post. <\/p>\n
I knew there would be a cost involved, but had no idea what to expect as to how much it’d be. <\/p>\n
For those people like me who have never sold anything on eBay before, here is an entirely unscientific and unrepresentative anecdote. Make of it what you will. \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n
I was selling an unwanted gift. It was new, still boxed and in it’s original shink wrap. It sold for \u00c2\u00a3730<\/strong>.<\/p>\n Total fees : \u00c2\u00a378.05<\/strong><\/p>\n Nearly 11% of the sales value. Feels like a lot. <\/p>\n I dunno… I guess it’s hard to justify sounding too aggrieved. I was selling something that I’d not spent any money on, so even after 11% in costs, I’m still getting a lot of money (a sum that will be a *big* help).<\/p>\n I should be fair to eBay, and explain that the eBay fees are partly my fault.<\/p>\n I put this up for auction twice. The first time, the auction completed when someone “bought” it. The buyer requested my contact details from eBay, and on receiving my phone number gave me a phone call with a question about the item. <\/p>\n When I told him the answer, he decided that he didn’t want the item after all. <\/p>\n And this is where I screwed up. <\/p>\n He told me that if I logged on to eBay and marked the transaction as “closed by mutual agreement” then the transaction would be cancelled and I would get my fees back – allowing me to re-list the item for auction if I chose.<\/p>\n So I did. <\/p>\n That was a little naive – I didn’t stop to check the eBay rules or regulations for myself, and went straight ahead and clicked on the button while he was on the phone – “releasing him from any further obligations regarding this item”.<\/p>\n It turns out that closing a transaction in this way results in eBay refunding only your “Final Value Fee”. The other fees remain.<\/p>\n The fees for the first sale were:<\/p>\n The Final Value Fee credit still left me paying eBay \u00c2\u00a317.83 for an auction that had been brought to an unsuccessful premature end.<\/p>\n Gah. <\/p>\n I re-listed the item. Fortunately, the “Insertion Fee” is not charged for a re-listed item, making the fees for the second sale:<\/p>\n (Note the lower Reserve Price Fee this time around because I’d lowered the reserve price the second time around<\/em>)<\/p>\n This left me paying eBay a further \u00c2\u00a328.40 to complete the second auction. <\/p>\n So, to be fair, although I’ve had to pay \u00c2\u00a346.23 to eBay, you could argue that the legitimate eBay fees actually only came to \u00c2\u00a329.70.<\/p>\n\n
\n
\n