Minimizing ebay fees

[DavidOly]

I've used ebay a fair bit over the years, with a sales total there of around $7,000. Most of that was about 10 years ago, when I was selling some large woodworking machines prior to moving across the country. I had not sold anything on the site for about 4 years, until last month, when I sold a cable modem for $47, including shipping. When I sold the big ticket items years ago, my finances were better, and frankly I didn't pay that much attention to the fees. With the modem, I was immediately charged $4.70 upon listing the item ($35 "buy it now" & $12 shipping), which supposedly included a $0.50 "promotional savings", and $1.66 upon sale (sold very quickly for the $35 + $12). That's a total of $6.36, or 13.53%, which seems awfully bloody STEEP! I was paid via Paypal. Are these costs typical of ebay now? Are there any ways I could have listed this item for LESS??? Hardly seems worth the trouble, at this rate.

TIA

[DavidOly]

No one has any thoughts on this? Really?

[pirate1122]

Originally Posted by DavidOly

No one has any thoughts on this? Really?

Can't expect immediate answers but yes. If you sell an item for $10 , you are charged 10% for ebay fees ($1) and 2.9%+ $0.30 for paypal ($0.59). If you open a store the fees are less, from what I hear it's 4-9% depending on the category.

[rsot]

Welcome to the forums - sadly with pp and eb each taking their cut....you really have to analyze your profit margins

Typically eBay and paypal take around 14% off the total selling fee (can be more or less depending on what category you sell in)

There's not much you can do other than sell elsewhere if you don't like the fees. Facebook selling groups work well.

[DavidOly]

Thanks for the replies. I have an Etsy page right now, I recently sold a set of Soviet diplomatic coins for $300 with free shipping (light item), Etsy only took $9.25 from the sale, or about 3%. I've had the page since June 2015, but have only sold 4 items totaling about $550. Main problem there seems to be getting traffic. Interesting about Facebook, hadn't thought of that, any particularly good sources of info on using FB that way? Anyone had good luck with Amazon (selling there)?

I'd love to hear any feedback anyone might have on my Etsy page, it's called "Artocracy!!!", if anyone wants to give it a look, just search "Artocracy!!!" and etsy.

Thanks again for the input,

David