Ebaypaypal takes 25% of your Sales

[scartacus]

As I'm sure some of you have noticed, I've been selling off bits and pieces of my collection on ebay. I've just done the analysis on my sales and the cost of selling via fees to Ebaypaypal which I thought I'd share: 
 
I received £170 from a bunch of smallish sales. (not including postage)

Ebay listing fees = £28 Paypal fees = £11 So TOTAL SELLING FEES = £39 (that includes some blatantly unfair paypal charges on money received for postage.)

So of the £170, I only get £131. ie I've paid ebaypaypal a whopping 25% in commission. That 25% will be the figure at the forefront of my head next time I price my stuff up on ebay.

[Harry Caul]

Ouch!  With fees like that you might as well send it off for consignment with eMovie or Cinemasterpieces or something.  They'll probably get higher prices than you can anyway!  Then again, if it is low value stuff, they do take a higher commission...

Maybe you should just pile it up in your yard like T and let nature take its course

[scartacus]

unbelievable pics...a vision to haunt every collector's worst nightmare.

PS I did think about sending one or two of my posters to emovieposter but am I right in thinking they take 80% commission if the sale drops below $100?

[Bruce]

You are confusing us with that "other" auction that likes to take the lion's share of every sale (by "spreading the joy" of commissions between the buyers and the sellers).

We DON'T want sub-$20 items, and our commission schedule reflects that. Go to http://www.emovieposter.com/statpages/consign.php?myfrom=menu to see the whole story.

Here are the percentages (and there are NO buyers premiums):

Items selling for:    Pay this rate:
         $1000.00+    20% of the selling price
$500.00 to $999.99    22% of the selling price
$400.00 to $499.99    24% of the selling price
$300.00 to $399.99    26% of the selling price
$100.00 to $299.99    28% of the selling price
$ 70.00 to $ 99.99    30% of the selling price
$ 40.00 to $ 69.99    35% of the selling price
$ 30.00 to $ 39.99    40% of the selling price
$ 20.00 to $ 29.99    50% of the selling price
$ 12.00 to $ 19.99    60% of the selling price
$  8.00 to $ 11.99    66% of the selling price
$   .01 to $  7.99    75% of the selling price

Bruce

[scartacus]

Thanks for clearing that up, bruce. A couple of my posters went in the $40-60 range. Even with a 35% commission cut, it might have made better sense to have sent them your way, than pay ebay 25% and get a lower price.

[holiday]

Bruce, does that commission structure apply to lots as well, like those you sell on Sundays?  In other words, if you can group together 50 onesheets that individually may sell for 4 a pop, but which collectively sell for $200, does the lower rate for the $200 sale apply?

[Bruce]

It is by the item OR lot. So, yes, you are correct in thinking that a $200 bulk lot pays a far lower commission than if the items were sold one by one.

This means that a consignor can get MORE MONEY when a lot of say 50 posters goes for half as much as they would have if sold individually!

So the consignor gets more, the buyer pays less, but we like it because we do less work. Win/win/win!

Bruce

[Ari]

Personally I don’t use ebay anymore, don’t even have an account, don’t care, I think they can charge what they like, use it or don’t, we aren’t talking about water and air or food here. Like it? go…. Don’t like it.. DON’T People need to realize that something like Ebay isn’t a “right” it’s a company to make a buck, and if anyone says posters are an essential then they are nuts. Buy from and where you like, what you can afford, sell wherever you can to make a dollar. Don’t complain . Just don’t USE it..  kinda simple
I dont east Macdonalds because its crap, big deal,

[scartacus]

Personally I always find it useful to share info/hear about people's buying and selling experiences on ebay, the good AND the bad. Before now, I'd always thought the cost of selling stuff through ebay was around 15-18%. I was surprised to find it had crept up to 25%. That level of commission won't stop me using ebay to sell the odd poster here and there though 25% certainly does focus the mind.    

        

[linder1]

Ari, I didn't particularly see this as an "ebay sux" thread, but rather an interesting finding about how the fees really stack up versus other options.  I thought it was pretty useful and not a rant whatsoever.

FWIW

[Dread_Pirate_Mel]

Here's the auction fee structure:



According to this, you only pay 3.5% commission on amounts above $25.  

The more it sells for, the total fee percentage decreases.

If you start an auction at $9.99 - which is what I usually do - you'd pay a total of $3.06 ($0.35 + $2.19 + $.52) in fees if you sold it for $40 - which is an overall 7.65% commision.  

If it sold for $9.99, you'd pay a total of $1.22 in fees, which is an overall 12% commission.

If you sold it for $100, you'd pay a total of $5.16 in fees, which is a 5.1% commission.

However, I think Bruce mentioned that Ebay charges 8.75% commission on the entire amount if you are using the "free listing" option.

[kovacs01]

like scartacus said though, you have to add the paypal fees as well (especially since fleabay owns paypal)

[Dread_Pirate_Mel]

like scartacus said though, you have to add the paypal fees as well (especially since fleabay owns paypal)

True but you don't have to use Paypal - you could insist on payment by money orders or checks - and a 1.5-3% debit/credit card fee is normal (and universally hated by merchants!). According to this article:

According to the North Carolina Office of the State Comptroller and this Schedule of Fees document, a $100 transaction on a VISA card results in fees of $1.62. MasterCard clocks in at $1.80 and American Express comes in a $2.19 (this is for the “best government rate,” whatever that means)

How does this compare to someone like PayPal? If you have their lowest merchant option, sales less than $3,000, you’re looking at fees of 2.9% plus 30 cents. So on $100, you’d be paying $3.20; more than Visa, MasterCard of American Express. (If you use Google Checkout, it’s fee free until the end of the year)

So Paypal is approximately twice as expensive as taking Visa directly - and the Paypal fee includes the underlying VISA fee if the buyer is using VISA.

And finally as a buyer, I'm a big fan of PayPal.  I've filed several disputes with Paypal and won all of them.  So Paypal does offer services above and beyond VISA, which partially explains the fee differential.

[Bruce]

Suppose you CAN get exactly what eMoviePoster.com can for your items (and sometimes that's a big "suppose"). What about all your TIME spent photographing the item, creating the auction, answering questions, collecting payment, going to the Post Office, etc?

Also, if you have a few items to sell, it won't take you that long to get them auctioned. But if you have a few hundred or more, it might take you months to get them all auctioned, and we auction 1,500 to 2,000 items every WEEK.

Bruce

[linder1]

Here's the auction fee structure:



According to this, you only pay 3.5% commission on amounts above $25.  

The more it sells for, the total fee percentage decreases.

If you start an auction at $9.99 - which is what I usually do - you'd pay a total of $3.06 ($0.35 + $2.19 + $.52) in fees if you sold it for $40 - which is an overall 7.65% commision.  

If it sold for $9.99, you'd pay a total of $1.22 in fees, which is an overall 12% commission.

If you sold it for $100, you'd pay a total of $5.16 in fees, which is a 5.1% commission.

However, I think Bruce mentioned that Ebay charges 8.75% commission on the entire amount if you are using the "free listing" option.

No dispute on these facts, but I have a feeling that the gap in the analysis here are all the other "upgrade" fees, plus insertion fees for items that do not sell etc etc.

And Bruce is right on about opportunity cost -- how much time does it take to do all the work to list (getting posters out, taking pictures, writing descriptions, answering questions, packing up a poster or three in each tube etc) and what's that worth to you?  It's a question only each individual can answer but it is certainly part of the calculus.

[Dr Hackenbush]

True but you don't have to use Paypal - you could insist on payment by money orders or checks

No you can't as per eBay's Accepted Payment Policy.  You can accept Paypal or one of the other electronic payment options, but checks & MOs aren't allowed as payment for collectibles/entertainment memorabilia

[Harry Caul]

And as Scartacus mentioned, PayPal even extracts their pound of flesh on money which should be going towards shipping!