I use auctiva, which allows 18 pictures with captions, and I use this site to calculate by ebay and paypal fees: http://www.ebcalc.com/
Money maker or money taker? $800 Ebay Bill! No thank you Ebay!
- Thread starter GUNG
- Start date
I've been selling on ebay for a long time and I like to think that I sell a lot for someone who is not doing it as a business and I have only had about $150 or so in ebay fees for the whole month at most. I sell $300- $700 bags.. WHAT DID YOU SELL TO GET AN $800 BILL?? A MERCEDES?? Unless you are selling $5000 items or thousands of items I don't understand how you racked up such a big bill. Especially since you only sold 30 or soitems.. Enlighten me please!
Sorry to hear about your bill. That's not cool. 
I would look over your past listings to see how you ended up with a $800 bill. Did you use a lot of extra features, pictures, etc.? $800 is a lot, I can't imagine how it could have added up to so much. My highest bill has been around $80. As others have said, using Auctiva or Seller's Sourcebook or another such hosting site really helps you cut down on picture fees because they let you upload pictures for free and use their templates.
I would look over your past listings to see how you ended up with a $800 bill. Did you use a lot of extra features, pictures, etc.? $800 is a lot, I can't imagine how it could have added up to so much. My highest bill has been around $80. As others have said, using Auctiva or Seller's Sourcebook or another such hosting site really helps you cut down on picture fees because they let you upload pictures for free and use their templates.Ebay is definitely a scam! Alot of times, there are Canadian listing specials and that I get credited of the fees immediately but I never see this credit. I almost had all my LV purses & wallets pulled out because of words I used in the listing like "like new" or because they think it's not authentic. I didn't know that they don't refund the fees if they pull it off the listing. I now try to sell locally if I can to avoid all these fees and some scammers out there claiming it's fakes afterwards.
lol! Yes, I have been wondering what was sold too. That seems so expensive. Unless it was a closet full of 30 bags that were top notch designers...
I'm curious too though!
I had sold 30 items and also had to repeatedly relist a few items that did not sell the first few times around. Admittedly, on every auction, I used the subtitle feature, many pictures to show lots of angles of the bag, and I almost always had a BIN price. Most items were high end bags. Im glad to hear about those who use Auctiva to save on fees, I unfortunately have no idea how that works.
Sorry to hear about your bill. That's not cool.
Yep! I did use lots of pics and the subtitle feature but most of the fees came from the Final Value Fee costs. Since most of my items were high end bags, my fees were exorbitant. I understand that with more expensive items, fees will be a bit higher, but Ebay is truly squeezing sellers IMO, and unless you are selling lower priced stuff, you are going to get stuck with a huge bill.
lol! Yes, I have been wondering what was sold too. That seems so expensive. Unless it was a closet full of 30 bags that were top notch designers...
^Yep, thats pretty much the case! They were all high end handbags!
^Yep! There have been many instances where I should have been credited back and had not been.
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This is what I was wondering as well. It shows you how much your insertion fees including all options will be as well as what you can expect for a FVF so I'm not sure where the surprise came in.
I use Auctiva and don't use all the fancy options ebay offers like templates, etc. On occasion I use a subtitle but that is very rare. I pay for only one picture though list several via auctiva.
I wish Google Checkout was available to Canadian sellers but, like so many other things, it is not or I would definitely use it a PP fees are outrageous.
Ebay doesn't return listing fees if they pull your auction. Anyway, I'm sorry about your $800 ebay bill! That would definitely put me off.
What really bugs me is that they don't return listing fees if your item sells but you have a NPB who never responds to the dispute. You get your FVF back, but hello- I need the rest back too! I relist my item (which is eligible for an insertion credit if it sells again), but sometimes it doesn't sell again! Then I have to pay to list it AGAIN! How ridiculous. Sadly, ebay's the only option
I didn't know this until recently, but if you have a NPB you do get your insertion fee back if you relist the item and it sells. It won't show up with your items that are eligible for insertion fee credit, but if you click 'relist' you should say 'this item may be eligible for an insertion fee credit if it sells'. Kind of cool, but Ebay's fees still suck!
Wow, that's crazy!!
This is why I use Auctiva...it's so much better, I was getting sick of ebay tacking on fees for every little thing.
This is why I use Auctiva...it's so much better, I was getting sick of ebay tacking on fees for every little thing.
I'm still utterly confused as to how on earth your fees were so high??
As an example I sold around $5,000 worth of goods on eBay and all my eBay AND Paypal fees came to $400.....on that reckoning you should have sold about $10,000 worth of stuff....
As others have suggested you need to use the likes of Photobucket to host your own pictures for free. I have at least 6 pictures per listing and don't pay for a single one.
Forget things like subtitles as they are not used for search purposes, bolding is also a waste of time. You are best to put the designers name in the auction title in capitals with the rest in lower case.
How many times did you need to relist the items?
As an example I sold around $5,000 worth of goods on eBay and all my eBay AND Paypal fees came to $400.....on that reckoning you should have sold about $10,000 worth of stuff....
As others have suggested you need to use the likes of Photobucket to host your own pictures for free. I have at least 6 pictures per listing and don't pay for a single one.
Forget things like subtitles as they are not used for search purposes, bolding is also a waste of time. You are best to put the designers name in the auction title in capitals with the rest in lower case.
How many times did you need to relist the items?
WOW that is shocking!!! I don't blame you for being upset. I am confused though when as when I list items it tell me how much the listing costs when I post it. Were you know aware how much you were spending.
Ebay doesn't return listing fees if they pull your auction. Anyway, I'm sorry about your $800 ebay bill! That would definitely put me off.
What really bugs me is that they don't return listing fees if your item sells but you have a NPB who never responds to the dispute. You get your FVF back, but hello- I need the rest back too! I relist my item (which is eligible for an insertion credit if it sells again), but sometimes it doesn't sell again! Then I have to pay to list it AGAIN! How ridiculous. Sadly, ebay's the only option
Really? How can they get away with not refunding the listing fee if they don't allow you to sell it? That screams lawsuit.
I thought that we couldn't request that they use Google Checkout. Remember final value fees are dependent on the selling prices. So if you are selling high dollar items the Final Value fee could be between $20-30.
That's seriously crazy, GUNG.
I sold on ebay years ago before fees got so high. I certainly didn't make enough money to support myself solely that way but I made enough to justify doing it.
These days, for me, ebay is only worth it when I need to clean my closet, or when I get a high ticket item that is in so much demand I could make a little money off it. But even then, ebay takes so many fees it's almost never worth the time and effort. I recently got an item that could sell at a $100 profit but after figuring out the ebay fees, the time I would have to spend photographing, listing etc. it just almost didn't seem worth it.
I think that ebay will have to realize one of these days that they are discouraging sellers with the high fees b/c it's not worth it to take the time to list and photograph all these items when you get such high fees taken out by both them AND paypal. I still ebay a bit but nowhere near as much as I used to.
I sold on ebay years ago before fees got so high. I certainly didn't make enough money to support myself solely that way but I made enough to justify doing it.
These days, for me, ebay is only worth it when I need to clean my closet, or when I get a high ticket item that is in so much demand I could make a little money off it. But even then, ebay takes so many fees it's almost never worth the time and effort. I recently got an item that could sell at a $100 profit but after figuring out the ebay fees, the time I would have to spend photographing, listing etc. it just almost didn't seem worth it.
I think that ebay will have to realize one of these days that they are discouraging sellers with the high fees b/c it's not worth it to take the time to list and photograph all these items when you get such high fees taken out by both them AND paypal. I still ebay a bit but nowhere near as much as I used to.