eBay Changes Listing Fees, Rankles Some Sellers

January 29, 2010 By Geoff Duncan

Auction giant eBay well stop charging fees for auction items starting at 99 cents or less...but some sellers will actually wind up paying more to list items.

Online auction giant eBay has announced changes to its auction listing fee structures that will see fees removed entirely for some items…but will leave some sellers paying even to the company when their items sell. Under the new pricing plans, sellers will be able to list up to 100 items per month for free so long as the auction start prices are 99 cents or less; if no one buys the item the seller pays eBay nothing, but otherwise they’ll pay eBay 9 percent of the selling price up to $50. For bigger eBay sellers, the company will offer an “eBay Stores” subscription rate with insertion fees as low as 3 cents for a 30-day listing, which eBay promotes as up to a 90 percent discount on current list pricing.

The new fee structure is scheduled to go into place March 30. eBay has been testing similar pricing schemes in Europe, and claims the overall response has been positive.

“Free—and practically free—is great news for anyone wanting to earn extra cash or build a business on eBay,” said eBay Marketplaces president Lorrie Norrington, in a statement. “Our new success-based pricing makes eBay more attractive and competitive than ever. We are focused on helping sellers win and giving buyers the best deals online.”

However, not all of eBay’s sellers are thrilled with the new pricing plan. Under the new system, sellers who don’t go for the eBay Stores option will pay 9 percent of an item’s purchase price to eBay, up to $50. Under existing pricing, they paid 8.75 percent on the sale price up to $25, then 3.75 percent of any remainder after that. The upshot is that smaller sellers whose items go for moderate prices wind up paying more to eBay, while larger volume sellers wind up with a significant discount.

The pricing changes reflect eBay’s growing focus on larger sellers who move hundreds and thousands of items through the site, rather than on individual users who may post a handful of items on rare occasions.

Showing 10 comments

Palmer at 2:33am 23rd July 2010 So we should start a riot? This is crazy. I could be slighty wrong but this quarter ebay will make 2.2 billion. In one quarter! These fees are insane! Why have these fees for huge profits that arent even necessary...? So we can run for Senator after? Corporate GREED in America is the reason we are all trapped running around with our heads cut off. BAAAAA
Mr. D. at 7:14pm 17th July 2010 Unbelievable, I sold a personal netbook for $270 and ended up paying $24.95 in final fees toEbay! That's about 10% of my profits. Ebay is going down and plunging really fast. It won't be long before people realize that its cheaper to buy from Amazon than Ebay any time. Screw Ebay & PayPal for they are greedy.
Kevin at 1:50am 6th July 2010 The fees are outrageous!
joe r. at 9:45am 25th May 2010 I recently sold some items on ebay and got burned by these HUGE seller fees. 9% to ebay and 4% to paypal. I am definitely finding a new site to sell through next time.
snakepccomp at 10:00pm 26th April 2010 Hello
With increasing the final value fees They do not give me a good reason to keep EBAY account anymore.
Last month for sold item (250605276027)$293.00 they charge me 11.57
This month for sold item (260582878416)$295.00 They charge me 26.55!!!!! 100% MORE!!!!!!!!! PLUS PAYPAL FESS
THEY ARE CRAZY REALLY CRAZY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I THINK SOMEONE WANT TO DESTROY A EBAY COMPANY!
Sorry guys but It's definitively too much for me and for thousand sellers like me on the EBAY.

YOU SEE HOW MANY PEOPLE STOP SELLING STUFF ON THE EBAY BECAUSE NOBODY GONNA PAID THIS MUCH.
FOR ME IS A LAST MONTH ON THE EBAY.
SORRY GUYS.
recon at 8:17pm 9th April 2010 I don't aware about this change until i see my invoice skyroket like hell... i will stop using ebay for good.. waste of time.. loser
adrock at 10:23pm 30th January 2010 eBay's a waste of time and money.. I stopped using them a long time ago.. They charge WAY to much! I'll stick with using Sellbits.com. They're much cheaper and easier to use.
ColderICE at 4:30pm 30th January 2010 After these announcements I decided to put eBay's claims of "lowest listing fees ever..." to the test. We did an in-depth side by side comparison test, the results are ASTONISHING

check it out...

http://3rdpoblogs.com/colderice/2010/01/29/ebay...
Patricia013 at 8:37am 30th January 2010 Right on Isaias - this is a tremendous price increase for MOST ebay sellers. Articles like this do a disservice to Ebay sellers by not researching and printing the truth about Ebay.
Isaias Moises at 7:02pm 29th January 2010 “Free—and practically free—is great news for anyone wanting to earn extra cash or build a business on eBay,” said eBay Marketplaces president Lorrie Norrington, in a statement"

President Lorrie Norrington is either confused or dishonest.

This is a fee increase for the vast majority of ebay sellers on both the front end, the listing fee, and the back end. the "final value fee". The fee increase is spread across all price levels. One price level will be increased by 141%. That is not "free" nor "practically free".

Add to this another type of fee increase that will take place on March 30. Many of ebay's Power Sellers who have enjoyed a 20% final value fee discount will see that dropped to a 5% discount.

Norrington would do herself and ebay seller's well by getting her facts straight.