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eBay Now Charging FVF on Postage!
 

As it they didnt have enough money or didnt cause enough problems...

http://www2.ebay.com/aw/uk/201308.shtml

They are now charging FVF's on postage! Its unfreaking real!

This has been the case in the USA for awhile. They charge FVF's on the total price. I don't know if they finally changed it in the UK.

The reason for this was...for many years, sellers would get away having a listing sell for pennies and make up for the value by inflating the shipping costs. So to get rid of that, ebay charged FVF's on the total price. And they promote sellers who offer Free Shipping by placing them higher in the search queue.

Ahh, the good 'ole days :bounce:

Exactly. We all remember the listings... BRAND NEW HARRY POTTER DVD COMPLETE COLLECTION, JUST 1 CENT! Plus $49.95 shipping & handling.

When did this change for you guys?

It has been happening here for a while now.

Wondering myself if it is even legal for them to charge you fees on actual US Postal cost or the UK mailing cost.

Yea a while now which should definitely be illegal but I guess not, I just don't get why they need to do that now. Before DSRs I could see the reason but now shipping is free or discounted or we get killed on DSRs so since that made it under control ebay shouldn't take that cut any longer, but they aren't going to go backwards

I'm sure it is legal. eBay, like any other large company, has lawyers reviewing everything they do to make sure they are not exposing themselves to any liabilities.

Why did they do it? Simple. It is one more thing that encourages sellers to offer "free" shipping. To a buyer, few things are more annoying than to find an item they like at a decent price, only to find a huge shipping & "handling" fee is charged.

Of course, there is really no such thing as "free" shipping. The shipping cost is simply a part of the item price. It is a psychological thing. Like pricing at $1.99 instead of $2.00.

It's just hard sometimes to add the shipping to the cost of the item because the competition is always low balling so prices keep dropping . But I started free shipping most my items lately so I get 5.0 on shipping DSRs it's worth it and less money for ebay to take

Yea, fees suck.

There's always selling on your very own website. Even to think how much ebay charged then and how much they charge now - makes we want to never give them another fee.

I'm a firm believer in a free market. Someone who charges more in postage will usually have less sales anyway, so I don't know why they practically force you to offer free shipping. I guess they think they'll collect more in seller fees and more items will get sold.

Heres their update:

Notice how they want us to experiment in selling high value items, so have kindly given us lower listing costs... Yet these high value items usually have a £10 shipping charge... So more fees for their them! I hate how they give a little with one hand but then take away a chunk with the other :heh:

Here it is...

Hello,

From 4 September, final value fees for all private sellers will change, as well as insertion fees for private sellers with a Basic Shop on eBay.co.uk

Final value fees change for all private sellers

Final value fees will be charged based on the combined value of the item listed plus postage. For example, if an item sells for £20 with postage cost of £4, the final value fee will be charged based on the combined value of £24. This will not apply if the listing offers collection only.

Insertion fees changes for private sellers with a Basic Shop

Private sellers with a Basic Shop subscription will not pay insertion fees on their first 200 listings per month. This is an increase from the previous 20 listings. Insertion fees for subsequent listings will be £0.20 for all categories - media items will no longer be priced differently.

Additionally, insertion fees for auction-style listings will be reduced and the number of bands will go down to two.

Auction-style listings with a starting price between £0.01 and £0.99 will still receive the monthly 100 free insertion fee allowance. From the 101 st listing, the insertion fee will be £0.05 for all categories including media (a change from £0.05 for media and £0.10 for all other categories).

For listings with a starting price above £1.00, the number of starting price bands will reduce from five to one. These items will be charged an insertion fee of £0.15 for all categories.

These changes will simplify the fees for sellers, allowing you to list more fixed price items at no additional cost and experiment with selling higher value items in auction format.

Regards,

The eBay Team

@ebanned

This has been the practice of ebay uk for years.

Anything they give to sellers is to their advantage first.

Time to recalculate costs

:juggle:

I know Greenbean... Everytime they word it as though its good news, its nothing like the old days... When selling on ebay was enjoyable!

Just thought id post the news of the fees, just in case anyone hadnt already seen it.

Actually works quite well with me on some of my accounts that list lots of low value £0.99 items. Insertion fees just got halves for me (soon anyway).

Further intensive to offer free postage now due to the FVF change, something I was thinking over.

there is still advantages for being insertion fee free up to 99p and then have heftier postage. Depends on catagory, some are capped. I think some catagory caps are unfair, nowhere near the cost of sending it...and I do not think it is ethical (and pretty sure legality could be challenged) the postage should be free of any fees and capped to a reasonable amount, then it is up to buyer to decide if they want to buy.

There are some idiots who will buy / bid up to £10 with free shipping, but for the same item, if the postage is £2 they will only go up to maybe £6. OK there may be other factors but I have observed this in several buyers from their feedback etc and to a limited extent on my own sales

This could also be to do with best match rankings.

Items with free postage get a lot more views and get high rankings than items that charge postage.