Wednesday, January 30, 2008

Ebay - New Listing Fees

When I brought up my email this morning there was a message from Ebay labeled "Important seller pricing changes". My heart sunk, not another price increase! I hardly ever find high end items to sell so my auction offerings are usually low end. The fees kill me - insert, gallery, final value, not to mention Paypal fees as most customers pay me through that service. My strategy to help ease the fee crunch is to get auctions ready to go and then wait for Ebay to offer a special lower fee one day only type of deal. When Ebay had a 10 cent listing day earlier this month I put on a bunch of things without picture gallery. I sold about half my listing - for me that was exceptionally good.
When I read the email I was overwhelmingly surprised to discover Ebay is lowering their listing fees and making the gallery picture free! Be still my beating heart! This is the best after Christmas present ever! I was just about to jump up and do the happy dance when I thought, you know I think I will see what thatedeguy at ebayhabit.com has to say about this.........
My thoughts are mixed. The fee changes could potentially be good. The insertion drop isn’t really all that great. It’s only a nickel on anything with a starting price below 24.99, but they’ve also raised the final value fee to over 8% on those same items. An increase of 2.5%! Final value fees increased by 2.5% across the board. That means that if you list an item for 24.99 and it sells for 24.99 you’ll save $0.05 on the listing fee, but you’ll pay an extra $0.65 in final value fees. What about something that sells for $550? Well, you’ll save $0.80 on the listing fee. You’ll pay an extra $1.94 in final value fees. So much for less fees. The only sellers that the new fee structure will help are the ones that have a high number of auctions that end without a buyer!
If you use gallery, and you really should, you’ll also save an extra $0.35 there as they’ve made it free. You’ll still pay more for the auction though. The difference is that now you don’t have an excuse to not take a picture and put gallery on the auction. Start doing it now! Your sell through will improve.


Bummer - lower listing fee, free gallery but higher final value fee so Ebay in reality makes more money. The email never said the final value fee was going to increase - sneaky - get us all excited about getting a break while hiding the fact that Ebay sees yet higher profits. However, for someone like me who sees many items not sell this is a pretty good thing. Sometimes you have to list an item several times before you find a buyer - lower insert and free gallery will definitely work in my favor. The new fee structure goes in effect February 20th. I will be getting auctions ready to list and wait out the next three weeks. Time to do the happy dance!

Hi Frugal Grandma Here!


I am just a little Frugal Grandma who lives with Frugal Grandpa in a little cottage in America's heartland. I intend to teach my grandchildren everything thrifty so as they grow up they will know how to live a simple life and be smart with their money. It should be a fun trip.