eBay's Dirty Little Secret

I used to run an eBay store. My friends in college would joke about coming into my room and seeing brown boxes stacked high along the walls. I bought and sold electronics, and made pretty good money at it. And through that, I found out all about eBay, and all about its problems.

You see, they want to make you think that all you pay for in an auction is the listing fee. The listing fee is meaningless unless you are selling something very very cheap. What really screws you is the final value fee.

Here's how it works: eBay never talks about the final value fee. They hide a little notice at the bottom of the page you use to create your listing which says "final value fee will apply" or something like that. You list your item, thinking that eBay makes its money on the $0.10 you paid for your listing, the $0.35 for the gallery fee, and the $0.50 for a subtitle. They make you give them a credit card so that you can pay this fee. This is all bullshit. What really happens is that they then have the credit card on file, which means that at then end of the auction, eBay charges you 9% of what the item sold for AND THEY NEVER TELL YOU ABOUT IT.

Seriously, they just charge your card with the fee. Unless you check your car, you will never see how much you are really paying to eBay.

For me, I just sold a digital SLR on eBay. I got really fucked, because it sold for just over $500. And here is why that screwed me:

How do I know what the final value fee will be?

To see how final value fees are calculated for these listing formats, see fees for selling on eBay:

• Auction-style: The final value fee is based on the final sale price.

• Fixed price or Buy It Now: The final value fee is based on the final sale price and category.

• Reserve price auction-style listings: The final value fee is based on the final sale price when the reserve price is met. There's no final value fee if the reserve isn't met.

• Auction-style or fixed price listings in Business & Industrial categories:The final value fee is based on the final sale price and category.
  

Here's an example of a final value fee calculation for an auction-style listing:

1. You sell an item for $100.00.

2. Your final value fee is 9% of the final sale price, which is $9.00.

The maximum final value fee for auction-style listings is $50. For example, if you sell an item for $1,000, you’ll pay only $50, even though 9% of $1,000 is $90.

Here's an example of a final value fee calculation for a fixed price listing:

1. You sell an item in the Electronics category for $1,500.00.

2. On the first $50.00 you pay 8%, which is $4.00.

3. On the next $950.00, you pay 5%, which is $47.50.

4. On the remaining $500.00, you pay 2%, which is $10.00.

5. Your final value fee is $61.50 ($4.00 + $47.50 + $10.00).

Yeah - so you see, I paid the maximum possible on an auction pretty much. So with my camera selling for $515, it means I paid eBay $46.35 to eBay in a final value fee. I knew this would happen, so it pissed me off, but I accepted it before I ever put the camera up for sale. But most individuals who sell on eBay have no idea that at the end of the process, eBay will bend them over and tithe them like Pope Alexander II (yeah - I will post about him next).

The kicker? At the end of the process, you are now REQUIRED to accept payment through PayPal - which takes another 3%. And yes - eBay owns PayPal.

Basically - eBay are a bunch of assholes. If there were any other options, any at all, that I could use for this, I would. And it is why people who regularly sell items (except for the Chinese) have completely abandoned eBay and all sell on Amazon - who don't actually treat their sellers like shit.