posted on October 17, 2000 12:50:14 PM
Used to be that as value went up, their percentage went down, and the was no $26. + 1.25%. It was straight percentages all across the scale.
posted on October 17, 2000 01:04:00 PM
You mean it used to be like this?:
$.01 - $25 = 5% FVF
$25.01 - $1000 = 2.5% FVF
(or whatever the levels and percents were?)
If that was their fee structure at some point, then a $25 item paid a $1.25 FVF, and a $25.01 item only paid a $.63 FVF! In this kind of fee structure, every item sold in the range of $25-$50 would actually pay less than a $25 item would.
I'd be surprised if they actually calculated the fee like you are saying (if I'm reading your post correctly), since they would be foolish to charge less total FVF as per the above example.
However, perhaps they worded their fee schedule in a confusing manner when it was first published?
Anyone have some old records of FVFs to confirm or deny how the actual FVFs were calculated?
posted on October 17, 2000 01:20:15 PM
I've been on eBay for 3 1/2 years and they've NEVER changed the formulas for final value fees. It's always been the same.
krs - it's never been a flat 2.5% for over 25.01. If you sold an item for $35 you'd pay an FVF of $1.50:
posted on October 17, 2000 01:52:48 PM
No, it used to read (nevermind the actual numbers) 0-25. a percentage;
25-100 that percentage up to 25 Plus a smaller percentage to sale price.
And again above 1000.
In each case you paid the percentage for the first amount plus a lower percentage for amounts above that. Switch to 1000. you paid all fees up to 1000 Plus a new lower percentage for amounts over 1000.
Whoever said they reworded it is right, and they did so in their favor.
posted on October 17, 2000 01:59:53 PM
Could you kindly give us an example of how they used to compute the fee on a $25.01 item and how they do it now?
The question is..did they change the actual calculation, or just how they described it? If all they did was change "5%" to "$1.25" for the second tier, say, then we really don't care, since both are the same value.
You haven't clearly described, in a "before and after" format, how they have changed something "in their favor".
posted on October 17, 2000 02:11:55 PM
Perhaps the wording has changed but the overall concept & amounts are the same. Here's the wording I saved from 1/22/99:
Final Value Fees are calculated as follows:
* 5% of the amount of the high bid (at the auction close) up to $25
* 2.5% of that part of the high bid from $25.01 up to $1,000
* 1.25% of the balance of current high bid greater than $1000.01
In my book, if an item sells for $1500, the fee would be:
$1.25 for the amount up to $25.00
24.38 for the amount from $25.01 to $1,000
$6.25 for the amount over $1,000
The only difference I see now is that ebay has rounded the $24.38 to $24.40 which is bringing in an extra $.02 for them as compared to the actual calculation.
posted on October 17, 2000 02:55:05 PMeventer, I copied the wording for the FVF structure in Nov 1998 and it's the same as yours. I'm just wondering where eBay came up with the $26.25 fee in the $1000.01 category. My math says it should be $25.62 + 1.25% of final sale price over $1000. (5% of $25=$1.25 + 2.5% of $975=$24.375
Blanche
edited for bad math
[ edited by bhearsch on Oct 17, 2000 03:03 PM ]
posted on October 17, 2000 03:15:52 PM
BTW, eBay did calculate my FVF's in the same way I did in my last post until July, 2000. I can't say if anything has changed since that date because I haven't listed any auctions recently. In the past eBay rounded off the cents to the lower number if it ended in an even 5 ($24.375 would be $24.37) but I noticed that my last sale in July was rounded off to the next higher number ($24.38)
It looks like they're really counting those pennies.
