ANGELFIRE1   10 #1 Posted June 24, 2017 I have been a member of Ebay for many years, likewise Paypal. I have never really examined the "fees" that both charge for their services, until a couple of days ago. It's fair to say I was surprised at how much they both take from a sale. Maybe if your sale is just for a few quid it's not obvious, but for a quite expensive sale it's an eye opener. I realise if you sell at an auction house the fees can be quite high, but they have overheads to consider, wages, rent, storing items and the like.  Flee Bay and Paypal are online services and I guess have much lower overheads than an auction house, yes/no.  So, just flogged an item that made 1.5k. Paypal took close to £50 for the pleasure of having my brass in it's system for less than one day. (transfered it to my bank account the same day). Meanwhile Fleece bay took a few quid for listing the item, and an end of sale fee of £150. So just over 200 notes in total from the sale. It just seems a lot for a virtual auction house.  It's not surprising that when selling many buyers are contacted and asked to complete the sale OFF Ebay. It's something I have never done, but maybe it needs looking at.  Angel1. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites Share this content via...
Lockdoctor   10 #2 Posted June 24, 2017 Just over 13% to pay in total fees doesn't seem unfair to me. Private sellers can list items without paying any fees if an item doesn't sell. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites Share this content via...
tinfoilhat   11 #3 Posted June 24, 2017 I have been a member of Ebay for many years, likewise Paypal. I have never really examined the "fees" that both charge for their services, until a couple of days ago. It's fair to say I was surprised at how much they both take from a sale. Maybe if your sale is just for a few quid it's not obvious, but for a quite expensive sale it's an eye opener. I realise if you sell at an auction house the fees can be quite high, but they have overheads to consider, wages, rent, storing items and the like. Flee Bay and Paypal are online services and I guess have much lower overheads than an auction house, yes/no.  So, just flogged an item that made 1.5k. Paypal took close to £50 for the pleasure of having my brass in it's system for less than one day. (transfered it to my bank account the same day). Meanwhile Fleece bay took a few quid for listing the item, and an end of sale fee of £150. So just over 200 notes in total from the sale. It just seems a lot for a virtual auction house.  It's not surprising that when selling many buyers are contacted and asked to complete the sale OFF Ebay. It's something I have never done, but maybe it needs looking at.  Angel1.  You could always put an advert in the window of your local newsagents for 50p per week and demand cash on collection. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites Share this content via...
alembic   10 #4 Posted June 24, 2017 I have been on ebay over 15 years.  Every couple of weeks or so they send me emails offering £1 maximum final value fees.  I have sold a few items for around £100 and only paid £1 fees, so it does work.  I only sell when these offers are on.  Ebay's fees used to be 5% with a max final value fee of about £40 but now it's 10% and I have no idea what the max final value fee is now.  Ebay is still cheaper than most auction houses who charge 15-20% plus VAT on those fees.  It is still the largest online auction platform by some way.  You can also use Gumtree, but expect buyers to haggle hard.  Ebay can be really annoying, i.e. effectively having to give buyers of second hand items a 30 day warranty (they can dispute a purchase up to 30 days after delivery if they mistakenly think it's not as described).  Paypal and ebay are now separate companies, you can take cash or ask the buyer to pay by bank transfer, but you generally have to offer paypal.  If a buyer is collecting refuse to take paypal, I had a buyer collect a HiFi, then file a dispute and asked me to pay return postage, which was not practical. I ended up having to give a partial paypal refund. All because they didn't read the instruction manual on how to tune the DAB radio and paid somebody £15 to do it. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites Share this content via...