EBay fees now 14%!

i'm currently at 578 + feedbacks (100%), with sales/purchases primarily in europe, usa and some asia. i've only had a few incidents, and 1-2 near misses, but all in all really appreciate the services of both ebay and paypal. yes, i'm against heavy or frequent price hikes, and will react by using RFF first wherever possible.

some pet grievances (may no longer be current):
  • no reserve prices on german ebay
  • difficulty advertising on the u.k. or french sites (reserves possible) because of some difficulty showing shipping costs
  • am definitely against forced linking of ebay and paypal on some country sites
  • paypal used to be more useful buying in the u.s.a., but with many u.s. sellers either refusing to sell internationally, or others who will ship only to paypal verified addresses, this option is "drying up".
one great feature of paypal is the ability to browse through years of purchase or selling history. i found this very helpful in remembering what i paid or sold an item for.

thanks for yet another interesting thread!

greetings from hamburg

rick
 
Many USA sellers refuse to ship internationally, to their own detriment. I've seen auctions for identical gear go for much less when restricted to the USA.

Any USA 'power seller' has 'expanded seller protection' and can ship to any address, confirmed or not. But not everyone is a 'power seller.'
 
digitalintrigue said:
Ebay is the world's marketplace for photographic gear, they've done a great job; if they hadn't, they wouldn't be the world's marketplace.

Where else are you going to get so many people looking at your stuff for sale?

I had a Summicron-C 40 listed on RFF and got zero inquiries at $339. It went on ebay and reached $495. So, about those fees again? ;)
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Exactly. I had the same experience on photo.net and subsequently eBay. A brand-new CV 35mm Ultron didn't budge on PN, but on eBay it sold for more than the PN asking price. The interest in the lens was very high, and that is what you pay for, a guaranteed sale at a generally decent price, no endless emails with lowball offers, and provided you strictly follow the payment & shipping rules (of course you have to read them first) - you get paid and get to keep the money. With respect to the fees I sold several items on eBay in the last month from a few hundred $ upward and all of them were charged at a Final Value Fee of 4%. How I managed that I don't know but given that I got excellent prices for my stuff I can certainly live with it.

I also don't understand the issues people have with PayPal. Most people just don't seem to read the policies and requirements of services they use, then get upset when something "unexpected" happens. They're too lazy to do their due diligence in the first place. The other thing that irritates me about PayPal use is that sellers want buyers to pay the PayPal fee, at least on forums like RFF. Build expenses into the sales price and don't nickel & dime...
 
The 10% fee only applies to auctions (in the UK), If you use "buy it now" the fees are much lower. I 've sold quite a bit on ebay recently, all with BIN, sometimes with best offer, and the only one that got hit with 10% was the one auction I used.
 
I realize Meg Whitman isn't CEO of ebay anymore. But her arrogance was really quite astounding when she said she was qualified to be President, but neither Obama nor McCain would be qualified to run a company like she had.
 
It's just that here in the US the banking system sucks, they are charging fees for wire transfer so you don't have any other option than to use paypal. In Europe wire transfer is pretty much free and many people avoid paypal with a good reason.

Ebay has monopoly so they can do whatever they want, and of course, there are no government regulations that control this.
 
Good, there are already enough government regulations, from toilet size to gas mileage, and if you are lucky enough to live in NYC, trans fats. :)
 
It's pretty easy to mark customs at whatever, and insure through a third party, to most countries. That said, after hundreds of packages, not a single one has been lost...including to the known problem countries like Italy, Russia and Ukraine. The best way to grab unwanted attention shipping to those countries is a high declared value...I just shipped a lens to Moscow and marked it at $20. The corrupt customs official is probably not going to bother with that one.
 
One can also fool around with insurance bought from the shippers, that's somewhat of a crap shoot in and of itself. :) Luckily I haven't had to file any claims, and many boxes are self-insured.

Lots of stuff to Hong Kong, Japan, Europe. Nothing to Africa yet.
 
crawdiddy said:
I realize Meg Whitman isn't CEO of ebay anymore. But her arrogance was really quite astounding when she said she was qualified to be President, but neither Obama nor McCain would be qualified to run a company like she had.
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LOL!

A little arrogance, maybe, but combined with a large dose of common sense. Very few of our Washington politicians have the qualifications to run a major corporation - and definitively neither of "those two"!
 
Paul T. said:
Ah. So you have no resentment towards a 40% hike in fees.

Where do you live? I shall open a corner store near you.
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I do and I am a buyer: fewer articles for sale, higher starting prices, maybe putting the added fees into shipping, and soon decreased profits for EBay (which might be good). It reminds me of Maryland (the state); they saw a taxing opportunity on the 3000 returns that were over 1 million in salary or income. So they increased the tax on these 3000, except the next year there were only 2000 such returns AND the revenue from this tax decreased.
 
Living were I do (a small Thailand village) Ebay is a Godsend to me. ALL of the equipment I've bought in the last 6 months came from Ebay. I know in some cases I've paid over the odds but when an item is not available in your Country (and that's often the case here) Ebay is the answer. Transactions are simple and delivery is as quick as the in-country delivery. I've just had a Minolta Multi Pro scanner arrive from the states in 6 days.

Long may they survive I say!
 
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charjohncarter said:
I do and I am a buyer: fewer articles for sale, higher starting prices, maybe putting the added fees into shipping, and soon decreased profits for EBay (which might be good). It reminds me of Maryland (the state); they saw a taxing opportunity on the 3000 returns that were over 1 million in salary or income. So they increased the tax on these 3000, except the next year there were only 2000 such returns AND the revenue from this tax decreased.
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They never learn! http://www.jewishworldreview.com/cols/will102899.asp
 
....and to think here in China, taobao, the Chinese equivalent to ebay because no one uses the Chinese ebay because its a rip off....anyway taobao is free to list and free to sell, send, receive money and so on yet makes ridiculous amounts of money.


After I sold my mamiya 6 on ebay and got stung pretty hard by those fees I will never ever ever again sell anything on there
 
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