I recently sold a couple of items on eBay. One went for $10+$6 shipping, the other was $20+$6 shipping. These were my first sales in nearly a year.
I just got the bill for these two sales – In addition to the Final Value Fees that I was expecting, there were “Final Value Fees on shipping” that were introduced last April, when I wasn’t looking.
eBay’s justification for these new fees was that some sellers were abusing the system by selling a $200 item for $1 and charging $199 for shipping.
I hate it when sellers do that. I generally try to charge less than a dollar above actual shipping. Actual postage cost $4.90 and $5.83 respectively. But since I shipped using eBay’s built-in shipping mechanism, eBay knows exactly how much I paid for shipping… and they charged fees on it anyway.
What they should have done is calculate the fee on the difference between shipping charge and actual postage cost.
Thanks eBay, for reminding me why I stopped selling through you a year ago.
It is not a mistake I will be making again – I’ll be selling elsewhere in future.
eBay/PayPal is in desperate need of some serious competition to keep them honest.
Jan 05, 2012 @ 22:06:19
A day later, I’m done selling on eBay
I just closed my seller account on eBay. I’ll still be buying stuff there, but I won’t be selling anything there. Ever. I feel strangely liberated.
It’s not even the fees; it seems that, of late,eBay’s policy seems to tend toward making things easier and more convenient for the buyer by screwing the seller.
Shame that such an idiotic policy has bought an end to a ten-year relationship, but that’s just how we roll around here.