Ebay - less n less buying n selling abroad is forecast
Sept 6, 2021 3:13:57 GMT 1
chrisg and oldbritguy like this
Post by JonW on Sept 6, 2021 3:13:57 GMT 1
ok, this is not a thread for venting about how shit ebay is and how you will never use it again. We've heard all that jazz before, so lets not do that again.
This thread is just me highlighting something you may want to consider:
A - selling to people abroad on that platform. Even if you dont have this fee structure now, you might soon.
B - the fees the seller is copping when you buy from another country. Dont be too hasty to moan about how prices have gone up or post cost as they are likely coving their fees.
That said, all ebay local platforms are subtly different and selling to each country is different too as its about their taxes and if ebay collect them.
Anyway this was the breakdown from a sale I made to a guy in the USA the other day.
Considering ebay charge me their full percentage fees on the postage I quote I have started to add a fee to my own postage prices to cover their fees so I dont end up losing money on postage, that started a while back. There was little sense selling an item with $100 postage and then after sending it I only got $86ish for doing it. Thats just throwing money away. Fine if selling junk from your loft like i do, but sellers who buy items to sell have to factor these fees into their selling price.
I now see that ebay has added two things for international sales. A new international fee of 1% and also that they are including the local sales tax of the buyer in the value they use to charge the seller fees! how is the buyer's local sales tax anything to do with the seller in another country? ebay collects that and hands it to the buyer's government, the seller never sees that money at all.
(Also worth nothing as a seller I was charged a fee that was worked on a figure that included the buyers local sales tax and then I was taxed by ebay (for my govt) on that fee... so I seem to have paid a local tax on the buyers sales tax...)
So, to sell abroad and not be going further backwards, Im going to have to add a fee for selling something abroad as well now.
Two way to do this:
1 - up the price of the item - but it doesnt compete with others unless everyone ups the prices. This does happen.
2 - up the price of the post so only international buyers pay more. This is more fair as its their fees that need to be covered, local buyers are incurring those for sellers.
I decided to do No 2. It seemed more fair.
But.... The extra Im having to add to cover all these fees is now making my international post look even more crazy expensive.
And... no one likes to receive a parcel with a label on it with say $33 when you paid $60 for postage.
This is going to start to have buyers giving bad feedback.
So, prepare yourself, I've realised that I'm going to kill off selling abroad now.
Ok, no big deal, no one here buys stuff from me for here on ebay really, but I am one of many who will decide this isnt a useful international sales platform anymore. It does seem that ebays days are numbered.
Anyway, not a whinge. It is what it is. I just wanted to let people know that this is happening. With ebay you can reach the corners of the globe, but its not worth selling with almost 20% of the sale price eaten up with fees, not least when the buyer complains about the postage time/price paid etc. The world is shrinking with fast communications and the net, but the golden days of plentiful cool parts from abroad is coming to a close now. We will need to buy stuff direct from local sellers and transfer money using something else other than the more and more expensive payment gateways. The money transfer sites will pick up that slack.
I'll leave you with the pic, welcome to the modern world!
PS. you may have noted the 'next 3 sales are on us' promotion applied to this sale. Amusing (sigh, not really) that it promoted itself as 'fee free selling' for your next 3 sales. Hmm, obviously not very 'fee free' at all. The final value fees are still there, just the silly incidental fees removed, meh. Why on earth would we ever think ebay would give us something valuable...
This thread is just me highlighting something you may want to consider:
A - selling to people abroad on that platform. Even if you dont have this fee structure now, you might soon.
B - the fees the seller is copping when you buy from another country. Dont be too hasty to moan about how prices have gone up or post cost as they are likely coving their fees.
That said, all ebay local platforms are subtly different and selling to each country is different too as its about their taxes and if ebay collect them.
Anyway this was the breakdown from a sale I made to a guy in the USA the other day.
Considering ebay charge me their full percentage fees on the postage I quote I have started to add a fee to my own postage prices to cover their fees so I dont end up losing money on postage, that started a while back. There was little sense selling an item with $100 postage and then after sending it I only got $86ish for doing it. Thats just throwing money away. Fine if selling junk from your loft like i do, but sellers who buy items to sell have to factor these fees into their selling price.
I now see that ebay has added two things for international sales. A new international fee of 1% and also that they are including the local sales tax of the buyer in the value they use to charge the seller fees! how is the buyer's local sales tax anything to do with the seller in another country? ebay collects that and hands it to the buyer's government, the seller never sees that money at all.
(Also worth nothing as a seller I was charged a fee that was worked on a figure that included the buyers local sales tax and then I was taxed by ebay (for my govt) on that fee... so I seem to have paid a local tax on the buyers sales tax...)
So, to sell abroad and not be going further backwards, Im going to have to add a fee for selling something abroad as well now.
Two way to do this:
1 - up the price of the item - but it doesnt compete with others unless everyone ups the prices. This does happen.
2 - up the price of the post so only international buyers pay more. This is more fair as its their fees that need to be covered, local buyers are incurring those for sellers.
I decided to do No 2. It seemed more fair.
But.... The extra Im having to add to cover all these fees is now making my international post look even more crazy expensive.
And... no one likes to receive a parcel with a label on it with say $33 when you paid $60 for postage.
This is going to start to have buyers giving bad feedback.
So, prepare yourself, I've realised that I'm going to kill off selling abroad now.
Ok, no big deal, no one here buys stuff from me for here on ebay really, but I am one of many who will decide this isnt a useful international sales platform anymore. It does seem that ebays days are numbered.
Anyway, not a whinge. It is what it is. I just wanted to let people know that this is happening. With ebay you can reach the corners of the globe, but its not worth selling with almost 20% of the sale price eaten up with fees, not least when the buyer complains about the postage time/price paid etc. The world is shrinking with fast communications and the net, but the golden days of plentiful cool parts from abroad is coming to a close now. We will need to buy stuff direct from local sellers and transfer money using something else other than the more and more expensive payment gateways. The money transfer sites will pick up that slack.
I'll leave you with the pic, welcome to the modern world!
PS. you may have noted the 'next 3 sales are on us' promotion applied to this sale. Amusing (sigh, not really) that it promoted itself as 'fee free selling' for your next 3 sales. Hmm, obviously not very 'fee free' at all. The final value fees are still there, just the silly incidental fees removed, meh. Why on earth would we ever think ebay would give us something valuable...
