That's on top of final selling price charges.

Kona, you can depend on 12 to 15 per cent of your selling price plus shipping cost to go in the pockets of eBay and PayPal.

Also, if you are not a frequent seller, they may place a hold on your funds for a period of time.... 14 days, I think was what the email from them said.

Thanks Kevin.

So if my drums are $400 to ship....and the buyer pays the shipping...why would eBay charge me the shipping cost when it's already paid by the buyer?

If I get $3000 for my drums eBay's fees are $450 + the $30 Reserve Bid charge..............and the shipping fee! So I get maybe $2500 of the $3000? Wow - no wonder folks do not like selling on eBay. It's a buyer's world there for sure under those circumstances.

I'll take my chances on Craigs, Kijiji, the local papers and Forums such as this one thankyou.

eBay would charge you a percentage of the shipping fee. They take the entire amount due you by the buyer and charge you 9% of that, I believe. I believe PayPal charges 3% of the total also.

If you selling price is $3000 and shipping is $400 they add the two together to figure your final selling fee.

Whatever the exact percentages are I couldn't tell you, they change so often, but I know in the end you will receive about 85 to 88 per cent of your selling price.

Gary, This is what the Ebay fees are .They take 18% of total selling shipping cost.I just sold a 16x16 floor tom.The winning bidder was in italy..:(...I don't like shipping to Italy..My listing states this No Shipping to italy..My cost was 70.00 i change them 100.00 the drum sold for 49.99 so total was 149.99 ebay got 27.00 of the total..Shipping was 70.00.My Total cost was 97.00.Take 150.00-97.00 i made 53.00 total..My listing fees are Free but i have to pay 15 cent's per a photo in my listing..I only posted 4 photos total of 60 cent's in cost....Mikey

Mikey - those are exactly the same kinds of numbers that motivated me to close my ebay and Paypal accounts. It takes longer to sell stuff without them, that's for sure. But when I do make a sale, I don't have to give a cut to the ebay/Paypal Mafia-style blood-suckers. I'm a small item seller usually, I just couldn't afford the ebay fees and I had enough with the account freezes at Paypal. Not worth it anymore. Oh, by the way, add 'taxes' to the fees!

Ebay/Paypal = The 'Dark Side' Of The Force

John

^^^^ x's 2 what John said. Ebay and Paypal fees = pure BS. My son and I used to sell a lot on there. First Paypal fees and account freezes then ebays % went way up. Just not worth the hassle. You could maybe try Amazon to sell? I never sold anything there but have bought quite a bit off there. I'm not sure what the fees are there though.

I'm NOT a fan of eBay and their fees, BUT I'm in a rural, small-town setting and have little choice. Around 70% of my total sales are eBay sales, and most of the rest come from this forum; I have a very small local market.

So, for me a necessary evil (John, I loved your dark side comparison!).

I'm not quite sure where everybody is getting this 12-to-15% though. The most I've been hit with is around 10%, and it's usually in the 7-to-8 range. And that includes listing fees, which will vary with how many listings you have per month (the basic, bare-bones listing fee is ALWAYS free on your first 50 listings per month), how many pictures you use, how many days your listing runs, whether-or-not you use a BIN, etc., etc., etc. To be on the SAFE side, when I list something I figure it's going to cost me 10%; so I figure that "in" when I set a minimum bid. In other words, when I figure what the lowest price that I have to get on any particular item, I'm figuring in ahead of time the fees and whatever else so that I know I'm going to get what I need.

Now, if you don't get FANCY with your listings, it doesn't have to cost you a penny IF YOUR ITEM DOESN'T SELL. Like I mentioned above, your first 50 (basic) listings per month are free. One picture is free. Keep it auction-style only, and it's free. That means IF your item don't sell, it don't cost you anything. BUT throw in extra pictures, gallery views, BINs, set reserves, and yes it costs you fees even when you don't sell.

I do have some of my stuff for sale at a local (well, next town over) music store on consignment. Guess what? The fee structure is this: 20% on any sale up to $500, 15% on $501 to $1000, and 10% on above $1000. I've checked around, and that's pretty standard on consignments in this part of the country... so I have to ask myself, "is eBay really THAT bad?" And guess what else? They charge ME the 3% if the customer uses his credit card!

And yes, Paypal cost you about 3%, on top of what eBay charges. But it's about the same cost that banks charge businesses to use credit cards, so IMO that's just LIFE; it's the way it IS. Ever been to a convenience store that requires a $5 minimum purchase before you can use your debit/credit card? That's why -- it's costing them 3%. I usually have that in mind when I set my minimum bids, too.

Well, enough for now as I've got a wiring project to do (no kids in school today due to snow). But just had to put in my 2 cents...

Bill

BTW -- one more thing:

EBay only bills you once a month. Paypal deducts their fees with each transaction. I've had to learn that the hard way, as one time I had an exceptional month's worth of eBay sales, and I pulled money out of my Paypal account to go on a trip -- only to get socked with a huge eBay bill that I hadn't prepared for. Won't do that again...

So again, to me it is what it is. Just do your homework first and be prepaired. I couldn't do what I'm doing without the Dark Side (eBay).

Sorry if that upsets anybody's apple cart. But to me the bottom line is this: IF you don't like eBay and their fees, find another avenue. They are NOT going to change, as they are making a ton of money and so are a LOT of their sellers. And like it or not, MONEY drives our world.

IF you have to use eBay, prepare for it...

Bill