eBay.com.au Fee Increases from Sep 22

Lmorpheu on 27/07/2011 - 16:53

well, seems 'another month another ebay fee' grab! last time it was the sleight-of-hand "free listings for 99c items" but on the other hand jacking up final value fees!

this time they will increase the final value fee for other items from 5.25% to 7.9% for non store items as listed below

Changes to fees on eBay.com.au – from September 22

Changes to non-Store fees

Eligible sellers will be able to list up to 30 single quantity listings per month in any format with zero insertion fees (excludes Powersellers, Stores or sellers registered as a business on eBay)
Final value fees will increase from 5.25% to 7.9%, capped at $49.95 for each of the first 30 listings per month
Insertion fees remain as they are today for sellers who have exceeded the monthly 30 free insertion fee limit as well as PowerSellers, Store holders and sellers registered as a business on eBay, with no cap or sliding scale on the new final value fee of 7.9%

why are they doing this?"eBay needs to better differentiate between professional, business and consumer sellers. The price changes outlined below are therefore designed to help encourage professional and business sellers to list items primarily in the Fixed Price, Buy It Now format using eBay Stores" ebay doesn't want auctions any more, just buy it now! if it was up to them everything would be BIN in 12 months time!
personally, given the current retail sales slump and loss of jobs with the closure of many retail stores this is crazy and irrational behaviour by ebay, they need to encourage more sales not drive sellers away, yet again it seems ebay is putting short term profitably gains ahead of long term sustainability…

opinions?

ps the only good aspect i saw from this update is that listing titles will increase from 55 to 80 characters-about time! reading some acronyms can get mind boggling lol oh and i'm surprised ebay didn't slap a new fee for this new feature

General Discussion

Comments

  • scotty on 27/07/2011 - 17:44
    +1

    given the current retail sales slump and loss of jobs with the closure of many retail stores this is crazy and irrational behaviour by ebay

    I think this is actually a rational behaviour for eBay, if their sole purpose is to make their share holders happy. People dump retail shops for online shopping, which means eBay's traffic is going up — they are just trying to squeeze out more profit from their users, as they really don't have a choice (at least over here in Australia).

    :(

  • Trance N Dance on 27/07/2011 - 19:38

    They're not raising final value fee for everything.
    They're only raising final value fee for the first 30 free listing per month. Any listing that attracts a listing fee will still have the old final value fee of 5.25% for the first $75 and etc
    Only down side here I can see is that anyone with a personal account and doesnt operate an ebay store or is a powerseller cannot list multiple items in one BIN listing (and it takes $3k in sales a year to qualify as a powerseller, good thing I did that ages ago).

    They're encouraging BIN for businesses and auctions for the little casual seller from down the street. This is in fact quite rational that is a win-win-win, casual sellers win in the fact that they can now list risky items that might not sell for free even if it doesn't sell, businesses will offer BIN so consumers can purchase quickly and from another option, and eBay makes money out of it. Sure some sellers might lose a little but it is IMO a change for the good in a capitalist market.

    • llama on 29/07/2011 - 03:49
      +2

      They're not raising final value fee for everything.
      They're only raising final value fee for the first 30 free listing per month. Any listing that attracts a listing fee will still have the old final value fee of 5.25% for the first $75 and etc

      NO NO NO NO NO - That is completely wrong!

      The FVF WILL BE 7.9% FOR EVERYTHING

      Up to $75 = was 5.25% -> now 7.9%

      $75.01 to 1,000 = was 2.75% -> now 5%

      over $1000 = was 1.5% -> now 3.5%

      There will be a FVF cap of $49.95 for the first 30 items.

      http://pages2.ebay.com.au/News/InsideSelling/September_2011_…

      • Trance N Dance on 29/07/2011 - 10:03

        Well I'll be damned, they are.
        Well there goes my little side business. Was a little nifty 15% profit too.

  • morpheu on 27/07/2011 - 20:37
    +3

    yeah i'm looking at things from the smaller seller's perspective, which is what i typically do! and scotty, i know ebay as a listed company needs to listen to it's shareholders, but where do you draw the line between shareholders and sellers' interests?

  • drdolphin on 28/07/2011 - 17:02

    When you have a monopoly, you can do whatever you want! Closest competitor (in Australia at least) is Gumtree, and they are a minnow in comparison

    • scotty on 28/07/2011 - 17:40

      Gumtree is owned by eBay. D'oh :(

    • bb_hunter on 28/07/2011 - 19:15

      I thought Gumtree is free listing only. What about Quicksales (Oztion)
      I stopped list on ebay 4 years ago due to the fact that they only encourage power sellers (especially ones from overseas) not small sellers like myself.

      • leonheart1 on 28/07/2011 - 19:19

        Ah darn it, oztion/quicksales still has quite a bit of fees. =(
        You gave me hope for a minute there..

  • dy4me on 29/07/2011 - 09:24

    its about time we get a competitor to ebay. Every time i sell on ebay i feel like i get shafted!

    First i pay listing fees, then final value fees, then pay pal fees. All that can account to 10%. not to mention shipping if you provide free shipping.

    i dont know about you but 10% is a lot! thats why these days i prefer selling thru deals made in forums and elsewhere! ebay is a rip

    • morpheu on 29/07/2011 - 11:16

      i've felt like this for quite a while too!
      btw, is there a good reason why we can't have a 2nd hand trading post for individuals right here on Ozb? something like the Overclockers forum

      • zhenjie on 29/07/2011 - 12:34

        Moderation and security nightmare.

        • scotty on 30/07/2011 - 22:15

          Yeah. Spammers and sockpuppets are already giving us enough headaches. Now we have to sort out all the disputes between buyers and sellers. Arghh.

          But wait, we do have a selling/swapping forum here. Just needs to get that more organised.

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