Ebay and Paypal Extortion!

for the audience of potential buyers i think that the commission you paid is not bad really. The thing that i personally find annoying is the Postal cost some sellers charge.
 
Aod said:
you'd only have similar charges if you sold at a normal aucition.
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Actually, a normal auction would charge between 15% and 20% commission plus VAT - and then charge the buyer VAT as well.

9% for exposure to millions of potential customers is a bargain.

So the OP's item, in a normal auction house, with about 100 people might have fetched £150. 15% = £22.50+VAT = £26.44 - OP gets £123.56. On Ebay, he gets £246.10 - nearly double.
In the unlikely event he managed to get £270 in the normal auction, fees would be a minimum of £47.59 or as much as £63.45.

I know where I'd rather sell the item.
 
Bigstan said:
Actually, a normal auction would charge between 15% and 20% commission plus VAT - and then charge the buyer VAT as well.

9% for exposure to millions of potential customers is a bargain.

So the OP's item, in a normal auction house, with about 100 people might have fetched £150. 15% = £22.50+VAT = £26.44 - OP gets £123.56. On Ebay, he gets £246.10 - nearly double.
In the unlikely event he managed to get £270 in the normal auction, fees would be a minimum of £47.59 or as much as £63.45.

I know where I'd rather sell the item.
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thanks :D
i stand corrected!
 
Aod said:
thanks :D
i stand corrected!
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Bitter experience mate.

I put some stuff to an auction house years ago (long before ebay was even considered). It sold for a fraction of what it was worth and by the time the auctioneers had taken their cut, I was left with barely enough to cover my petrol bringing the stuff there.

Never again.
 
furnace said:
Use eBid instead! That place will only grow and get better if more people use it
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Had a lil look on there just now, seems mainly full of rip off sellers.

One example: £118 for a 7200.10 500gb HDD :eek:

Go to pretty much any online retailer and there £65-80 delivered :p
 
vonhelmet said:
People keep paying the fees, myself included, because the service is generally excellent.
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This is the ebay who don't give a flying **** about your problems unless you're a power seller?

And don't get me started about Paypal.
 
ebay fees I can live with, they aren't that bad. You can always wait for a free listing day and then list loads of stuff.

I hate Paypal though. Absolute scum. And I hate the way ebay push you into using it. I only use it for very cheap items (like £20 or less) because lets face it, who wants to send out a cheque for £5 for a T shirt, £7 for some tennis racquet string etc
 
If you think the fees are expensive or not - they are up front about them, there are no hiden costs so you know what it is going to cost you before you place your add.
You won't find anywhere else that can offer you hundreds of thousands of potential buyers for the pretty minimal fees they charge.
You want to pay less then you can - however your potential audience of buyers will be a lot lower, it is your call at the end of the day.

I'm more than happy to use EBay - I usually take the fees into consideration when I'm pricing up items to sell.
Very rarely have I had something go unsold and I've always made a fair amount even after all of the fees have been taken.
 
stoofa said:
If you think the fees are expensive or not - they are up front about them, there are no hiden costs so you know what it is going to cost you before you place your add.
You won't find anywhere else that can offer you hundreds of thousands of potential buyers for the pretty minimal fees they charge.
You want to pay less then you can - however your potential audience of buyers will be a lot lower, it is your call at the end of the day.

I'm more than happy to use EBay - I usually take the fees into consideration when I'm pricing up items to sell.
Very rarely have I had something go unsold and I've always made a fair amount even after all of the fees have been taken.
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Its ok to personally like them, but for the first time user the fees are not transparent; also first time users are likely to make mistakes such as cancelling a bid without following the rules, making the free re-list nullified. ALso things like multiple catagory listing, there are no warnings tell you that you are paying 2 listing fees before you click this button. All to easy to waste money without realising it with ebay. Paypal isnt such a good deal either.
 
I think eBay fees are actually quite good, it's the paypal fees i dislike and it seems if you want a decent price you have to use paypal :(

MM market is good for buying but i find it poor for selling on. I get far more for my items even after all the fees on eBay.

I really do think Google should start up on online auction as i beleive it's the only company big enough with enough presence to be a serious contender to eBay and the competition can only be good for us :)
 
Wasnt google going to setup a payment system or was that just for businesses

Buyers like paypal because they think its safe and instant

Anyone want to explain what this is about for example
One of the benefits of using PayPal is that we make every effort to alert
you to potentially problematic transactions. Our goal is to help you make
sound business decisions.

>From time to time, we request additional information about PayPal payments.
This is a security measure meant to protect you from problem transactions.

We would like to learn more about this transaction. Please log in to your
PayPal account and provide some information.

We strongly advise that you do not send the item until our investigation is
complete. If you have already sent the item, please log in and let us know
where you sent it.

We have placed a temporary hold on the funds until the investigation is
complete.
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Anyone got a telephone number for paypal as the emails are all computerised and useless
 
Last edited:
Google did set up a payment gateway - it's called Google Checkout. :)

eBay predictably banned it from being used in auctions by sellers, citing that it was "an untested payment method". The funny thing is "Google Checkout" is listed on eBays website among a whole raft of obviously dodgy sounding names.

A more cynical man might think that eBay only banned it because they knew it would cut into their Paypal profit margins.....
 
Bigstan said:
Actually, a normal auction would charge between 15% and 20% commission plus VAT - and then charge the buyer VAT as well.

9% for exposure to millions of potential customers is a bargain.

So the OP's item, in a normal auction house, with about 100 people might have fetched £150. 15% = £22.50+VAT = £26.44 - OP gets £123.56. On Ebay, he gets £246.10 - nearly double.
In the unlikely event he managed to get £270 in the normal auction, fees would be a minimum of £47.59 or as much as £63.45.

I know where I'd rather sell the item.
Click to expand...

Can't believe it took 22 posts before somebody pointed out that for the exposure you get on ebay the fees are dirt cheap.

Also you can reduce your fees by only selecting what is needed. I find the Reserve Price to sting the most but is also needed on expensive itms... :(
 
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