Omega Owners Forum
Chat Area => General Discussion Area => Topic started by: mkaminski100 on 01 February 2009, 12:46:52
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I have just sold an item on ebay for £62. E-Bay charged me £6.86 their fees (Insertion fee, min price, sell fee etc) and when I got my payment through PayPal, I found that PayPal charged me another £2.31. So I only got £52 from £62.
This means that from any item on Ebay I have to pay min 15% for fees! That's little too much.
Previously I've been using Ebay for purchasing and selling cars so I have never checked fees (£12 for car) but now I see how much money they take.
Unfortunately, there is only a Gumtree where I can sell my "junk" without paying that much so next time I will have to wait longer for any response to my ad.
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Don't see what the problem is to be honest, You'd have to pay to advertise virtually anywhere else and if you wanted to express clear a cheque you'd have to pay bank charges.
Most large value items (such as cars) usually have the transaction done by agreed means other than Paypal so they don't pay the fee's.
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If you want to use their commercial service, you have to pay those fees. If you don't want to pay the fees, there are other outlets ;)
For a trader, ebay is quite cheap - remember a small stand at a show at NEC can easily be £10k for a week :o
Your other option is pitch up at a car booty on Sunday morning, pitches normall £10 - £20
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I'm not a trader and I don't make living from e-bay sales so 15% is a lot for me, especially that I am selling stuff from my garage.
Usually I use Monebookers to transfer money and they charge 1% (up to £0.50) so PayPal IS expensive.
Next time I will wait longer for a Gumtree ad response and ask for cash :)
Is there anything else similar to Gumtree (free ads)?
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I'm not a trader and I don't make living from e-bay sales so 15% is a lot for me, especially that I am selling stuff from my garage.
Usually I use Monebookers to transfer money and they charge 1% (up to £0.50) so PayPal IS expensive.
Next time I will wait longer for a Gumtree ad response and ask for cash :)
Is there anything else similar to Gumtree (free ads)?
Somebody, somewhere, has to pay for it.
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you could always try loot.com they're free and you would also appear in the regional paper. the problem with using them and your local rag in the most part is that you usually have a limited amount of text and no images. ebay affords you as much text as you want and the option to add additional and hi quality images, so you can be sure to get as much detailed info across as possible. its just a shame a lot of sellers still choose to put minimal description in.
agreed, ebay and paypal make a great deal of money from doing not a lot, ie. no physical product means limited overheads thus high profit margins. but at the end of the day therein lies the brilliance of the business model and it is no surprise that ebay is now the worlds 4th largest growing economy. that's ahead of a great deal of the developing COUNTRIES of this world!
you have to remember that ebay allows your 'for sale' item to appear worldwide, and from the comfort of your own home ie. no pitching up a stand at the car boot in the cold and only selling to locals for a few hours on a sunday. your ad goes in for up to 10 days.
my biggest problem with ebay is that the paypal protection scheme just doesnt seem to be worth the e-paper it's written on, however, by and large i have had nothing but positive experiences on ebay.
of course, some people artificially inflate the starting bid on their item to offset the fees and expected end sale price, and there are others who, against ebay rules, inflate the postage costs to do the same thing. im not recommending either of those methods you understand, but it would appear that there are things you can do to improve your overall ebay experience
:y
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you could always try loot.com they're free and you would also appear in the regional paper. the problem with using them and your local rag in the most part is that you usually have a limited amount of text and no images. ebay affords you as much text as you want and the option to add additional and hi quality images, so you can be sure to get as much detailed info across as possible. its just a shame a lot of sellers still choose to put minimal description in.
agreed, ebay and paypal make a great deal of money from doing not a lot, ie. no physical product means limited overheads thus high profit margins. but at the end of the day therein lies the brilliance of the business model and it is no surprise that ebay is now the worlds 4th largest growing economy. that's ahead of a great deal of the developing COUNTRIES of this world!
you have to remember that ebay allows your 'for sale' item to appear worldwide, and from the comfort of your own home ie. no pitching up a stand at the car boot in the cold and only selling to locals for a few hours on a sunday. your ad goes in for up to 10 days.
my biggest problem with ebay is that the paypal protection scheme just doesnt seem to be worth the e-paper it's written on, however, by and large i have had nothing but positive experiences on ebay.
of course, some people artificially inflate the starting bid on their item to offset the fees and expected end sale price, and there are others who, against ebay rules, inflate the postage costs to do the same thing. im not recommending either of those methods you understand, but it would appear that there are things you can do to improve your overall ebay experience
:y
depends on your definition of 'limited'. Each server is probably in the region of £5k-£30k, and they will have thousands. And these need power and cooling, constant disk replacements, and entire replacements every 3-5 years. Then their is the software costs. I don't know, but guessing the databases are probably something like Oracle, and are clustered with something similar to Veritas Cluster Services. That ain't cheap. And I seem to recall ebay saying they used Sun Microsystems servers, so there is the support contracts associated with not only the hardware, but also the OS (likely Solaris if based on Sun hardware).
Yes, its undeniably a great business plan, but don't underestimate the cost of running a massive site!
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oh yeah granted that the running of an operation like ebay has significant overheads in terms of technology, contracts, staff, global operations etc, but some other multi national organisations would have similar expenses AND manufacturing / 'physical' costs in addition to all those. as a business, you ideally want a product that has no manufacturing costs altogether, and thats almost what ebay has achieved, hence their profit margins are through the roof. of course all this is possible because the likes of you and me want to sell any old tat on there. bread annual 1986 anyone?*
and one mans rubbish is anothers treasure as they say... :y
*feat the non peter howitt joey boswell. open to offers ;D
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Ebay fees do "sting" sometimes, but at the end of the day its the price for a service - but check the fees when you list (specifically the price break points...) to use them to your advantage.
If you expect a certain value for your item, then it has been known for a slightly inflated postage cost to be "reduced" if using another payment method...know what i mean?
You're paying for the ease of it all..sitting there in the warmth of your own home, without 100's of phone calls and (in the case of cars for sale) multiple tyre kickers. Granted - their "Buyer Protection Scheme" isn't worth a sod, so I use a credit card for my ebay purchases (hence getting their protection) then pay the CC the money straight away from my bank account so they're making nothing from me either!
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oh yeah granted that the running of an operation like ebay has significant overheads in terms of technology, contracts, staff, global operations etc, but some other multi national organisations would have similar expenses AND manufacturing / 'physical' costs in addition to all those. as a business, you ideally want a product that has no manufacturing costs altogether, and thats almost what ebay has achieved, hence their profit margins are through the roof. of course all this is possible because the likes of you and me want to sell any old tat on there. bread annual 1986 anyone?*
and one mans rubbish is anothers treasure as they say... :y
*feat the non peter howitt joey boswell. open to offers ;D
Remember, ebay give away a lot of their fees to winning bidders - see the link below my sig for how to get up to 40% of ebay's fees when you win an auction ;)
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oh yeah granted that the running of an operation like ebay has significant overheads in terms of technology, contracts, staff, global operations etc, but some other multi national organisations would have similar expenses AND manufacturing / 'physical' costs in addition to all those. as a business, you ideally want a product that has no manufacturing costs altogether, and thats almost what ebay has achieved, hence their profit margins are through the roof. of course all this is possible because the likes of you and me want to sell any old tat on there. bread annual 1986 anyone?*
and one mans rubbish is anothers treasure as they say... :y
*feat the non peter howitt joey boswell. open to offers ;D
Remember, ebay give away a lot of their fees to winning bidders - see the link below my sig for how to get up to 40% of ebay's fees when you win an auction ;)
Specifically this link (http://www.cashbackkings.com/?ruid=3025050-keep) :y
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I have just sold an item on ebay for £62. E-Bay charged me £6.86 their fees (Insertion fee, min price, sell fee etc) and when I got my payment through PayPal, I found that PayPal charged me another £2.31. So I only got £52 from £62.
This means that from any item on Ebay I have to pay min 15% for fees! That's little too much.
Previously I've been using Ebay for purchasing and selling cars so I have never checked fees (£12 for car) but now I see how much money they take.
Unfortunately, there is only a Gumtree where I can sell my "junk" without paying that much so next time I will have to wait longer for any response to my ad.
ebay's fees vary depending on what you're selling, mobile phones has a high fee percentage too
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I up the postage to cover it, but recently postage rate rises have eaten into that
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I up the postage to cover it, but recently postage rate rises have eaten into that
And another dramatic increase in April
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mobile phones has a high fee percentage too
And rightly so :)
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Ebay fees did go up a lot recently? I tend to wait till it is a free listing day or weekend and then list any Junk I have to sell. :y
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You do have to be careful with upping your postage costs to cover some of the ebay fee's. Someone did that with us and we complained as I didn't think it right (and knew damn well it was against the rules) for the seller to expect us to pay her ebay fee's through 'postage costs' even though we were collecting the item lol. We ended up not buying the item at all as all trust was lost. As a seller, usually, I am careful to charge as minimally as possible for postage fees.
As a seller, I'm afraid, you have to accept that ebay fees will be incurred. Think also about the costs of running a shop.., far far more than ebay fee's. My fees run at about 10% or less and to be honest, I have sold mobile phones in quite large quantitities recently and found the fee's to be a lot less than 10%. I don't think ebay fees are that unreasonable.., it DID allow me to appeal to a very wide audience (I have quite a few regular European buyers now) which i would not find it as easy to get without ebay.
Yes, there have been a couple of times I've been burned through the rules on ebay, both as a buyer and a seller but I know this happens and its just one of those risks you have to accept.
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You do have to be careful with upping your postage costs to cover some of the ebay fee's. Someone did that with us and we complained as I didn't think it right (and knew damn well it was against the rules) for the seller to expect us to pay her ebay fee's through 'postage costs' even though we were collecting the item lol. We ended up not buying the item at all as all trust was lost. As a seller, usually, I am careful to charge as minimally as possible for postage fees.
As a seller, I'm afraid, you have to accept that ebay fees will be incurred. Think also about the costs of running a shop.., far far more than ebay fee's. My fees run at about 10% or less and to be honest, I have sold mobile phones in quite large quantitities recently and found the fee's to be a lot less than 10%. I don't think ebay fees are that unreasonable.., it DID allow me to appeal to a very wide audience (I have quite a few regular European buyers now) which i would not find it as easy to get without ebay.
Yes, there have been a couple of times I've been burned through the rules on ebay, both as a buyer and a seller but I know this happens and its just one of those risks you have to accept.
Are you still being let loose on ebay...... :o :o :o :-X
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You do have to be careful with upping your postage costs to cover some of the ebay fee's. Someone did that with us and we complained as I didn't think it right (and knew damn well it was against the rules) for the seller to expect us to pay her ebay fee's through 'postage costs' even though we were collecting the item lol.
Now that's taking the pee... But i have seen many 99p items with £30 postage to make the £30 value of the item (which does cost 99p to send) as a way of circumventing final value fees. If it's against their rules (aside from the "excessive postage" one), no-one has told the sellers from Hong Kong yet..
If the item is of such a size that it warrants a courier cost (cos Royal Mail want the earth sometimes), then i'll offer collection - and also cash on collection as an option (seems fair?). Apparently it's now a rule you HAVE to offer Paypal as a payment option??
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If you want to use their commercial service, you have to pay those fees. If you don't want to pay the fees, there are other outlets ;)
For a trader, ebay is quite cheap - remember a small stand at a show at NEC can easily be £10k for a week :o
Your other option is pitch up at a car booty on Sunday morning, pitches normall £10 - £20
Your not wrong there, we usually have a stand at the NEC bike show and pay upwards of £30k a week, just for the space. We supply the stand itself.
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You do have to be careful with upping your postage costs to cover some of the ebay fee's. Someone did that with us and we complained as I didn't think it right (and knew damn well it was against the rules) for the seller to expect us to pay her ebay fee's through 'postage costs' even though we were collecting the item lol.
Now that's taking the pee... But i have seen many 99p items with £30 postage to make the £30 value of the item (which does cost 99p to send) as a way of circumventing final value fees. If it's against their rules (aside from the "excessive postage" one), no-one has told the sellers from Hong Kong yet..
If the item is of such a size that it warrants a courier cost (cos Royal Mail want the earth sometimes), then i'll offer collection - and also cash on collection as an option (seems fair?). Apparently it's now a rule you HAVE to offer Paypal as a payment option??
I have bought loads of stuff from HK and not problem with postage rates. Most recently bought 50 miniture batteries, £2.99 for 3 in B&Q. for 00.01p and iirc about £3.50 postage. Also bought loads of Christms lights from Hong Kone and previous batteries. Never a problem with postage rates. Lets face it, the postage rate is posted, if you are not happy do not buy, I never understand all the fuss.
If you do not like how ebay does business then don't rather use it. >:(
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Yes you do have to offer paypal as a payment option but usually people aren't adverse to paying cash if that's how you want to be paid.
I think you will find the number of extortionately high postage charges items are reducing although I agree they do still exist. I guess the foreign ones manage to explain it away but well, the choice to not buy from them is obviously there for the buyer.
And yes mike lol, I am still being let loose on ebay.., and for good reason :P
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Its important to remember that postage fees are not postage fees, there shipping and handling charges.
So you can obviously charge more than the postage cost, after all its not the ebay fairy that provides your jiffys, bubble wrap etc.
I am running about £150 a month in ebay fees - but if im spending that then i am making it at front end..I just think of it as moving to 40% tax band ;D
Important to note that powersellers/ shops and business sellers dont get some mythological preferential treatment....we get charged just as much with the exception of a 20% discount on fvfs each month.
its also important to remember that its not only "bad sellers" that ruin ebay there are some absolute tossers as "bad buyers / liars / scam artists and non payers"
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oh yeah granted that the running of an operation like ebay has significant overheads in terms of technology, contracts, staff, global operations etc, but some other multi national organisations would have similar expenses AND manufacturing / 'physical' costs in addition to all those. as a business, you ideally want a product that has no manufacturing costs altogether, and thats almost what ebay has achieved, hence their profit margins are through the roof. of course all this is possible because the likes of you and me want to sell any old tat on there. bread annual 1986 anyone?*
and one mans rubbish is anothers treasure as they say... :y
*feat the non peter howitt joey boswell. open to offers ;D
Remember, ebay give away a lot of their fees to winning bidders - see the link below my sig for how to get up to 40% of ebay's fees when you win an auction ;)
Specifically this link (http://www.cashbackkings.com/?ruid=3025050-keep) :y
Here's another similar one www.quidco.com
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oh yeah granted that the running of an operation like ebay has significant overheads in terms of technology, contracts, staff, global operations etc, but some other multi national organisations would have similar expenses AND manufacturing / 'physical' costs in addition to all those. as a business, you ideally want a product that has no manufacturing costs altogether, and thats almost what ebay has achieved, hence their profit margins are through the roof. of course all this is possible because the likes of you and me want to sell any old tat on there. bread annual 1986 anyone?*
and one mans rubbish is anothers treasure as they say... :y
*feat the non peter howitt joey boswell. open to offers ;D
Remember, ebay give away a lot of their fees to winning bidders - see the link below my sig for how to get up to 40% of ebay's fees when you win an auction ;)
Specifically this link (http://www.cashbackkings.com/?ruid=3025050-keep) :y
Here's another similar one www.quidco.com
Yup, a few out there - for me, CashbackKings seems to offer the best deals on what I buy :y, but pays to shop around a bit :)