The 2011 Spring Seller update recently published by eBay has left many sellers frustrated and angry. The eBay fee structure is changing, again, and many believe this is not for the better. eBay announced that they will now charge final value fees based on the auction sell price plus shipping charges.
eBay claims they are doing this to encourage better overall prices for their customers, and while that may be so, it will also help to weed out sellers that sell items for a penny, and then tack on huge shipping fees to avoid paying large final value fees. Clearly eBay wants to collect their part from those unscrupulous sellers.
To offset some of the seller upset, eBay will be reducing final value fee rates for store subscribers. However, the insertion rate for store sellers will remain the same. These fees vary based on what level store subscriber you are.
For non-store sellers using fixed price listings, the final value fee rate will also be reduced. Until recently, eBay had been running a promotion that offered one hundred free listings to auction sellers that were willing to list those hundred items at a starting bid of $0.99 or less. This will be ending on April 19, 2011 and will be replaced by a new promotion in which they offer sellers fifty free listings that can start at any price. These fifty listings will also be eligible for using the “Buy It Now” option at no cost.
Selling for profit on eBay has become much harder than it used to be, and this new fee structure will not do the small seller any favors. If you aren’t ready to abandon the eBay ship, here are some tips to help deal with the new eBay fee structure:
Take advantage of the free fifty listings by listing your highest priced items first. Using these fifty listings on items that would have high insertion fees can save you a good bit of money. Save your low price listings for after you have used these fifty listings up.
Consider doing what eBay wants you to, and offer free shipping, but do your homework first. Make sure that your listing price will cover what you paid for the item, what it will cost to ship, shipping materials and costs, eBay and PayPal fees, and the amount of profit you would like to make. Yes, eBay will still be collecting higher fees from your listings than before, but items with free shipping are proven to sell better than items with separate shipping fees attached. The sooner you get on board with this, the better off you will be.
Lastly, consider opening a store. Yes, again I know this is what eBay is hoping you will do, but if you want to continue selling there and actually make a few dollars off all those hours of taking pictures, creating listings, and shipping, you will need every price break you can get. With a store you will get lower insertion fees, as well as the new lower final value fees.
If you are simply fed up with eBay, there are alternatives out there. Unfortunately, none of them perform as well as the auction giant, but if you have patience you may be rewarded on other auction sites as many have zero insertion fees and much lower final value fees.
Source: announcements.ebay.com/2011/03/2011-spring-seller-update/
