Ebay Stores - The Rising Fee Cost
I recieved a letter in my Ebay inbox (Back in 2006) and after reading it I was quite shocked... The letter was pertaining to yet another in a long series of rising fees. When I first opened my store in 2004, after being on ebay for many years, it was $10 a month + $.02 per item + $.02 per gallery image per month + you still pay the Final Value fee. not to shabby considering auctions start at $.30 and go up! Then the store fee rose to $13 a month a short while later... NO BIG DEAL... Then to $16 a month (The current price) also no big deal. At this point I have 1170 items in my store, Most under $5 each so while it's not the best of prices it's not to horrible either, It left my total monthly fees SomeWhere between $100 and $150 with an average sales of aprox. $700 a month . THEN:
The GREAT RATE HIKE of 2006
Ebay decided this still wasn't enough fees. so they came up with a new per item per month fee structure AND a raise in the Final Value fee structure. This structure I am listing below:
Insertion Fees:
Starting price New insertion fee Old insertion fee
$.01 to $24.99 5 Cents 2 cents
$25 or higher 10 Cents 2 Cents
+
+
+
+NEW FINAL VALUE FEE :
Selling Price: NEW FEE OLD FEE
$0.01 - $25 10 Percent 8 Percent
$25.01 - $100 7 Percent 5 Percent
$100.01 - $1000 5 Percent 5 Percent
$1000.01 and UP 3 Percent 3 Percent
While this structure has changed and insertion fees have gone down now, the final value fees are up too 12% now so they get an even bigger chunk + with the new rating system and the penalties that coinside if you get anything less than 5 stars, which ebay discribes as the perfect expiriance (and lets face it the post office messes that up for us) you deffinstly cannot make a buck anymore on this site...
Why I must now close my store!
These new fees are, While seemingly small, are a huge drain on my already small profit margin... My fees (Currently $100 to $150 dollars) will surly Double ( now triple) to Between $200 and $300 and with no increase in sale prices! (in fact many ebayers have seen drastic decresses in sales due to search penalties becouse the post office delivered slow) as is of the $700 as month I average My estimates are after the $100 to $150 dollars fees, The cost of the items sold that month (average $300) and Taxes on the profit I maybe get $200 for my efforts -- Now ebay wants another $100 to $150 a month... Maybe they should change the name from ebay to Feebay as thats what they truly are --- On the Brite side I have found a Fee Free alternative ... eCrater is a free ecommerse store -- You pay no fee's, no listing fees, no final value fees, $0, Nada...
ANYWAY.............
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