Well, I think it is totally unfair....I received an email from Ebay, saying that will now not only charge the full selling fee of an item sold, but also with the postage included.

Meaning not only they charge a fee for an item sold, but a fee on top of the postage cost as well. 

I know some sellers put an item in for say, .99c and then charge $80 for postage, meaning that the item really sold for $80.99 and the seller only pays a fee on the .99c.

But, what of the rest of us, if I sell something for say, $20, and it costs $8.50 - $12.50 on average postage (depending on the weight), then not only do I pay a fee for the $20, but for the postage also, this is making it harder for selling stuff, because the postage had already steeply climbed in recent times.

Ebay had made a steady 19% rise in profits last year, so I don't understand why charge on postage, which no one benefits from, except ebay.

Here is an interesting transcript between the CEO from earlier last year.

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/ebays-ceo-discusses-q3-2013-234106703.html

And furthermore, they have bought out their opposition, Gumtree.....now wait for it.....listing and selling fee introduction and structure to change soon I'll bet!

What else did they buy Gumtree for otherwise?

They have charged on total sales/postage in USA for quite some time, so it was always going to be introduced to Australia eventually. Members on ebay have been writing about it and tipping it would come in and it has.

The main point is ebay is trying hard to move away from the casual seller (well, I suspect this is the case) and towards more professional sellers with shops. They are after buy it now as a preferred selling mode rather than the auction format and they give preference to sellers who offer 'free postage' as against separating item cost and postage.

Their main opposition is not gumtree (which they have owned for some time) but the daily deal sites. Gumtree deals with local sales & pickup, whereas ebay is mostly for things posted.

I would say the next move is pretty clear. Most sellers will now move to 'free postage' and buy it now format. There is already a cart available on ebay now. And ebay will then introduce a compulsory immediate payment for buy it now items.
This will be a plus for sellers because at the moment they are getting lots of buyers who press the button to buy but don't follow through and pay. But sellers can't do a thing for days. I think ebay will eventually fix that and move it into line with daily deal companies-you will be able to put it in your cart but won't be deemed to have bought it till you pay.

Ebay is no longer the best venue for small sellers, as far as I am concerned.

I suppose everything changes over time. Ebay has never been perfect and before the introduction of paypal, it was always a risk to pay money into the bank account of a stranger. I am guessing that is why feedback was introduced.
Ebay is an American company, even the maintenance of the Australian site is done in USA, so anything introduced and working well in USA is always going to filter in here.


As you know, I used to sell on ebay a decade ago but since then, things have changed a lot.
Sellers are now no longer able to give any feedback other than positive (which annoys them a lot, because some buyers don't pay etc yet cannot be given a negative).

Sellers now have to be able to show proof of postage, which involves tracking details, so postage costs are sky high, especially from US sellers who use Pitney Bowes to take care of their shipping.

Without that proof of postage or having someone sign for an item, any buyer can just claim they never received it and receive an automatic refund from paypal and apparently a lot of buyers have been doing just that. Some may be genuine but when you get some buyers who have made over 100 claims for not receiving items-well, aussie post isn't THAT bad and it does make you wonder.

So ebay is changing but with all the extra fees, it isn't really worth your while trying to sell small items on it, it is turning into a professional sellers market and I guess ebay must be happy with that-steady fees and less hassle.

Ebay doesn't charge on postage, their sister company paypal does if the buyer pays via.

Ebay charge 9.9% on sales and sometimes a listing fee from $1.50.
Paypal charged 30 cents plus about 3%

Money can be made on ebay as long as sellers do their homework.

Another selling avenue is facebook. Know of some people who turn over large quantities there.

well my Table sold ok but now the buyer has disappeared into thin air...

I've opened a complaint thingo (can't recall what its called now)  but absolutely nothing has happened...

ebay have charged me the fees in selling the table and sherri is right about not being able to give negative feedback on bad buyers...

im ticked off about that.. I might go through the positive button but then bag him in the comments with capital letters.. 

Sophia wrote on Mar 28^th, 2014 at 12:47pm:

Yes, this is a problem that has occurred with monotonous regularity particularly with China based sellers.

What they don't realise, which I put to ebay a few times, is that, for those sellers who use Australia Post, they may be committing mail fraud. If Australia Post only charges, say, $10 for postage of the item, is the seller claiming that he is being charged $80 by Australia Post?

10 years ago I sold around $200K pa on ebay for a fairly moderate profit.  It was fun and profitable but ebay simply kept increasing their charges and actively pursuing sellers as cash cows.

Unlike some large sellers, I declared my profit on my tax return so that when ebay started sending details to the ATO, I was left alone.  I know some however who did not do so well!