posted on March 20, 2013 10:07:51 AM
RATE COMPARISON (based on new 9% Categories aka all other, collectibles, home garden, etc ).
As much as 255% increase.
My jaw dropped when seeing this. This will definitely push away sellers. I have read many who sell guitars, collectibles, etc already say they are leaving.
posted on March 20, 2013 10:39:27 AM
Fed Ex rep just called me. I told them that I am uncertain about how much volume we will be shipping via Fed Ex due to the rate increases from eBay. He was quite surprised about it too, especially considering the contract eBay/Fed Ex did recently to oust UPS.
Obviously, this may also affect Fed Ex's bottom line.
posted on March 20, 2013 01:05:46 PM
where did you guy get 255% increase?
I just sold an item in collectibles at 250,shipping is 9.95,Ebay FVF is 18.10.
Under the new fee structure,it would be 23.39 ,so an increase of 29.22%.
29.22% is a big increase,but how did you guy come up with 255% increase
posted on March 20, 2013 01:37:30 PM
I just mentioned this to a friend of mine who sells collectibles and is planning to list a guitar for $4000. His current rate is $123 if it sells before April 16th. After it will be $250, or a $127 increase. Ouch!
posted on March 20, 2013 01:57:16 PM
Come to think of it,the old fee is a steal for sellers who dont have much of a fixed overhead like store and store related expenses,the new fee is still a steal for these sellers,if he marked up the item say 50-100 %
posted on March 20, 2013 01:59:01 PM
Fed Exp is not doing well,many of their customers are downgrading their overseas shipping from priority to economy.
posted on March 20, 2013 02:16:30 PM
Paying almost $100 in fees to list one item on a glorified classified is HARDLY a steal. To raise the price to $250 and consider it a steal, especially with all of the policies and restrictions is completely asinine.
Whether you have overhead or not, it is not a deal no matter how you cut it.
posted on March 20, 2013 04:33:30 PM
I dont have a store so I dont have the fixed ovehead of a store,which means I dont have any other way to sell my items except listing on various sites such as Ebay,Etsy,Yahoo,AMZN,Bonanzle etc.
You would know better than I do listing a 4k guitar or a 2k collectible on non ebay site and how long would it take to sell it?if it sells at all?
So for me ,I have no choice.
I have an old painting which I asked a local retail shop to sell for me,I am asking 1-2K,first he told me it is a fake,then he said he would try,he told me someone offered 400 dollars which he refused.
After more than a year ,I took it back from him and listed on Ebay and it was sold for 2605 plus 99 dollars shipping which the buyer gladly paid.
So what can I say,it is like they said in real estate-location,location,location!
Of course I am a better salesman than him!drum roll please !
[ edited by lostmymojo on Mar 20, 2013 04:38 PM ]
posted on March 20, 2013 04:37:21 PM
let me take this back-a 4k guitar or a 2k collectible can be sold on some upscale sites such as Aspire or Igavel if they are worth 4k or 2K ,but both sites charge a premium from both the buyer and the seller.
I believe Aspire is 20%,not sure how much is Igavel.
posted on March 20, 2013 05:09:15 PM
For me it isn't about if there is another place to go. It is about surviving with the current fee structure. eBay rolled this out and pretended sellers wouldn't notice because most sellers don't sell items over $50. Those who sell an average $1000 item are screaming their heads off on this.
Based on the fee calculator for just these 3 items we will see the following increases:
$1200 = + $41.45
$630 = + $16.35
$400 = + $9.45
We sell a fairly balanced price range, many products under $50, but a lot between $50-250, and some $250+.
I estimate our fees will rise about $100-250 a month because of this 9% Herman Cain flat fee for collectibles.
posted on March 20, 2013 05:12:45 PM
$150 a month out of our pocket isn't chump change. That is $1800 more a year in fees for doing nothing more. What can you do with $1800???
posted on March 20, 2013 07:40:46 PM
well,if we go back and say EBAY is a person to person venue,then how many weekend warriors selling from home have merchandise over 1K?
If they do,they are probably heirlooms from parents or grandparents and their cost is nothing,so they gladly fork over the FVF to Ebay,where else can they sell,consign to an antique shop?they dont work for free,you know and they could close up shop and take your stuff with you!
But then many weekend warriors sell new electronic goods asking over 1K,using a stock photo and dropoff service,making very little money as it is so easy for anyone to post a stock photo and use dropoff service,only the dropoff service makes money.
Come to think of it,this new fee of 4-5% for electronics and PC may just put an end to sellers using stock photo and dropshipping?
See,Shag ,you have a store and you pay to maintain a store ,you dont need more overhead from Ebay,but we dont have a store,we have just an online venue which produces results for us,so we just have to grim and bear it.
Set up our own website, it takes time and money to drive traffic,many of us have tried and gave up.
1800 extra fee a year is not small change, I see your point,if you can sell these 1k,14k items in your own shop or website,then more power to you.
posted on March 20, 2013 08:18:09 PM
There is a dealer who suggested on Auction Byte? that Ebay should separate auction from store,so the professional dealers can stay away from the low price amateur sellers.
Under this set up,professional dealers who have good high ticket items can mark up the items and afford the Ebay fee.
But the question is would the buyers pay the higher price?
posted on March 21, 2013 03:05:35 AM
Shag - Fedex didn't get rid of UPS after all.
I got a notice that UPS shipping can still done with paypal.
I'm with you on the fee increase as well. It is ridiculous. I'd rather pay the listing fee than such a high FVF.
But where are you going to go to get a good selling price and lower fees. Certainly not a live auction.
[ edited by ebabestreasures on Mar 21, 2013 03:06 AM ]
posted on March 21, 2013 07:28:03 AM
I have to agree with lost on this one. I like the idea that Ebay may be embracing the little guy again.
I used to sell some high prices items along with other lower priced items, but with the economy, I am not sticking to lower priced items as well as more essential type things.
My daughter recently stated selling collectibles & items that her kids no longer needed / wanted. Or things she had put aside that were her grandmother's, etc. She is the audience that really appreciates the free listings. It is hard and discouraging to list items and pay to list them that do not sell, and you never know what will or will not sell in this market.
posted on March 21, 2013 08:31:06 AM
I basically moved away from Ebay a few years back (one reason I rarely post here any more). If you are a professional dealer, there are fixed price venues (I like Ruby Lane) that may be better for any number of reasons, but in particular, I like the fact that there is no FVF. They have a fixed fee to maintain items in inventory. My feeling is that with any of these online venues, their efforts and resources are the same whether the item sells for 50.00 or 5000.00. Why should I give Ebay a significant piece of th action?
It seems that every time I start thinking about putting up some Ebay listings, they make a change that causes me to reconsider.
posted on March 21, 2013 08:41:43 AM
Shag said-
Paying almost $100 in fees to list one item on a glorified classified is HARDLY a steal. To raise the price to $250 and consider it a steal, especially with all of the policies and restrictions is completely asinine.
Whether you have overhead or not, it is not a deal no matter how you cut it.
/////////////////
Listing is free,FVF is not,so if it does not sell,you waste your time but not your money.
But with your brick and mortar store,whether the item sells or not,rent is not free,your landlord is not going to give you free rent just because you have not sold any item that month.
Your problem is really with your brick and mortar store with the fixed overhead ,not your Ebay sales.
posted on March 21, 2013 10:10:04 AM
I pay 5 cents for listing fees + $49.95 a month. Now, because I won't be subscribing to a store, the price of my store will rise $10 a month. We list about 200 items a month, sometimes a bit more. At 5 cents, that is a $10 discount.
So, basically I get no benefit of listing fees unless I list more, which is what eBay is obviously encourage. They want sellers to flood their market with product.
Considering what this will do to common merchandise, eBay is not going to be a great place for buyers. Chinese sellers are gobbling up tons of user id's so that they can get around the duplicate item fixed price rules. Now it will be even worse because each of these user ids will be able to list tons of items for free.
My prediction:
Items under $50 will see little no decrease in pricing because of the discounts. Sellers will simply pocket the money. I know I would be happy with a revenue bump. Sellers offering items over $50, particularly when the price is in the $500+ range will increase their prices to cover these costs.
A bit over a year ago we added free shipping (which increased our pricing), then we lost our 20 % FVF discount because we can't ship within 1 day (fees increased about $75 a month) which increased pricing, now we are seeing a fee increase for higher priced items which we will increase pricing if we continue to sell. You add all of that up and you find more disgruntled buyers looking at their bottom line to purchase products, which means less sales.
There are many "general" sites that we can sell through and none of them compare to the traffic at eBay... but there are other sites that are more specialized and really need to be looked at closely.
I am going to start listing items on Etsy and another site for mid-century pieces. 1st dibs is out of the question, but there are some others out there. My main focus would be driving traffic to our website.
posted on March 21, 2013 04:26:53 PM
I dont think these changes are meant to encourage us to list more so Ebay can be flooded with more garbage and earn a pitiful 5 cents per garbage!
My hunch is that Ebay is aiming to be more selective,more upscale and it wants better merchandise and higher priced merchandise and a better mix of buyers and sellers.
This is nothing new,all successful businesses aspire to do better for less,quality versus quantity.
It costs the same to host a 99 cents item as the 99 dollars items,so which would you prefer to host?
You can see it coming-14 days or more return policy,upload tracking within 24 hours,better pictures and top rated sellers are all efforts to separate the better sellers with better merchandise from the maddening crowd!
Shag,
why cant you just upload the TRACKING INFORMATION in 24 hours,many sellers do that but it does not mean they ship within 24 hours.
posted on March 21, 2013 05:44:35 PM
"I pay 5 cents for listing fees + $49.95 a month. Now, because I won't be subscribing to a store, the price of my store will rise $10 a month. We list about 200 items a month, sometimes a bit more. At 5 cents, that is a $10 discount."
I am confused, since you will not be subscribing to a store why will the price of the store rise $10 a month?
Also, why not go to the lower subscription of about $15 per month, you still get 150 free listings and if you go over that it is 20 cents per listing.
posted on March 21, 2013 06:01:05 PM
If you have a store but pay by the month,then it is $10 more.
If you sign up for yearly subscription,it is $10 cheaper.
So the difference is like 49.95 vs 39.95
posted on March 21, 2013 07:53:38 PM
These days I see new sellers throwing something into cyberspace -poor pictures,poor description,what makes them think people are going to pay 500 for a gold watch if they cant even see clearly what the watch looks like?
posted on March 22, 2013 05:47:48 AM
New sellers have to start some where give'um a break! Selling today is much easier than it was 10-12 years ago when some of us started. If someone thinks they can make a buck drop shipping Chinese dingalings let'em go for it. 1st sale I made I cleared about 2 bucks you would have thought I won powerball.
eBay is like any sales venue the more stuff and the bigger variety you have the better the chance of making a sale.
