DONE WITH EBAY!!!

Hi!
Maybe you noticed, but maybe you didn't. But the fact is, I haven't put any novelty here for some time now. Why? Because I'm thinking of giving up EBay. Here is what happened.

When I bought my Imperial Diplocaulus (on EBay), it came with a 1980's Dungeons And Dragons figure with its accessories. Since I don't collect Dungeons And Dragons and yet I know many people just love this toyline, I decided to sell it on EBay. I put it on auction with a starting price of 10$ CAD, and a shipping price of 15$ (I estimated the price).
And I sold it! To a canadian fellow from the province of Manitoba. I shipped it to him and the shipping costed me 16,27$. A little more than the estimated 15$. Oh!Well. Still had a profit of about 8$ and Something, I said to myself. Really? WRONG! Because EBay sent me a message with the fees I owed them: 7$ !!! So, on a total price of 25$ owned, only 1,75$ went to my Pocket!!!! What is going on? Does every EBay seller gets his/her profits eaten by the huge EBay machine!!???
And my mother told me that she read, in ParisMatch, how rich EBay/Amazon owners and directors are, while their emplyees are underpaid and have very little accomodations. So, I told myself:"Great! All that time that I collected toys through EBay, I have been feeding huge, spoiled Gargantuas who litterally eat their sellers'profits. What is the point, then?"

So, I decided to cut on EBay spendings. I still have my account, but I'm not using it until I really, really have to. And as for animal (and other types of) toys... just too bad. I will only search for them in flea markets and yard sales from now on. So, if you notice I don't put that many novelties here, well, you now know the reason.

EBay takes out 10% in final value fees of each item sold, plus PayPal takes their 2.9% plus $0.30 for each transaction. In addition, you would have to pay listing fees to post the item for sale (unless you have free listings), and any additional upgrades you add to your listing (subtitles, gallery plus, reserve price, etc). So each item you sell you're losing about 13% at least. Along with the multiple other eBay policies I'm not a fan of ("buyer is always right," automatically changing your listings without your permission, buyers being jerks and scamming sellers out of items, among many more). I wish there was an eBay alternative with less fees and similar traffic.

I hate eBay. I think it's difficult to forgo in our hobby, but their fee structure is extortion-level. I prefer to buy, sell and trade without eBay if I possibly can.

Gosh !! Thankyou for telling

7 dollars out of a selling price of 10 !  

Perhaps the worst is that they don't even treat their emplyees well with all the money they make !

Yeah, the treatment of employees if shady, but as a buyer, I figure if you're willing to sell on Ebay then I'm willing to buy on Ebay. I'd most prefer to buy my figures first hand, so I can actually see what I'm getting. But I've found a good seller that treats me fairly on shipping, so I'm holding on to him!

$7 for just one listing's final value fee? That's really odd. I've been selling on eBay for years and have never been charged that much on a single item in fees. (unless it is well over $200-$300.) Never heard of other sellers getting charged that much either. Perhaps the selling fees aren't the same for those of us here in the US though. Something just does not add up here in your case.

I won't be giving up eBay though as it is the #1 way I obtain 99% of my collection and also the only way I can make decent money in sales to BUY those rare animals I am always finding there.

Sorry this happened to you though.

WhiteLightning Wolf wrote:

$7 for just one listing's final value fee? That's really odd.......

I think it is because they charge % off shipping copsts alo, so if the shipping is very expensive....
And the PayPal fees also, + extra shipping which was not payed by the buyer. Isn't it right ?

The shipping was payed by the buyer, as I charged 15$ for shipping (it finally costed 16,27$, but that is not the buyer's fault). And I charged 10$ for the figure, so the buyer paid 25$ overall. I paid 16'27$ to ship it to him and I paid over 7$ for EBay fees. So, 1,20$ or so in my Pocket.