eBay fee's resonable?

TransAmDan

Forum Admin
Staff member
We have all used eBay, and if like me mainly buying stuff rather than selling.

Well I wanted to sell a computer part, all in its original box, and about 1 month old. The listing was fine, and all went well. They said its 50p to advertise it. After 6 days bidding started happening. Finally it sold for £450 which is a fair price. Hoping for £400+. The seller pays, including the £10 postage. All going well soo far. It didn't come via PayPal but it in a ebay account.

Anyway, looking at the eBay summary of the sale. Yes indeed they took 50p for listing, then a whopping £48 for selling. Apparently they take like 11% of the final value price. Wow that is high. You would think there would be competition for eBay of other companies starting up with reconable fees. I dont see that as reconable at all.
 
We have all used eBay, and if like me mainly buying stuff rather than selling.

Well I wanted to sell a computer part, all in its original box, and about 1 month old. The listing was fine, and all went well. They said its 50p to advertise it. After 6 days bidding started happening. Finally it sold for £450 which is a fair price. Hoping for £400+. The seller pays, including the £10 postage. All going well soo far. It didn't come via PayPal but it in a ebay account.

Anyway, looking at the eBay summary of the sale. Yes indeed they took 50p for listing, then a whopping £48 for selling. Apparently they take like 11% of the final value price. Wow that is high. You would think there would be competition for eBay of other companies starting up with reconable fees. I dont see that as reconable at all.

That does seem very steep for a mainstream internet auction site. All that is going to do is to drive keep driving prices up.

I know its less than a lot of other auction houses that charge between 10 and 20% commission to both buyer and seller (plus VAT), but for larger items, like cars, it is getting prohibitively expensive. It could explain why people are reluctant to use FleaBay to sell classic cars and why the prices are getting stupidly high!
 
The charges do seem a lot sometimes, but this is how I think about it. Could I have sold it to any of my friends, could I have sold it locally? The point is, that with ebay you have a larger audience and there is more chance of a sale. I still don't like paying though!
 
Yeah true, there is no where that would give a huge coverage of people like eBay does.

Someone mentioned they do special offers, reduced fees. I'll keep a look out for them in future.
 
Keep an eye on the messages for special offers, usually at the weekend, especially Bank Holidays. Also look on the Overview page under Promotional Offers, sometimes they sneak one in there. Good luck.
 
I agree, eBay is expensive. The last time I sold something they took around 10% of the final price, so that sounds about right. Not wanting to repeat what's been said, but it is probably the biggest shop window for selling pretty much anything.

(Well, apart from a 2001 Pontiac Grand Prix it would seem! 🙄 Lol).
 
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