Hi all

I've recently been selling some stuff for a mate, so instead of my usual "ignore the fees" attitude, I actually had to work them out so that I can pay my mate his money, minus the fees I incurred. This is what I want to check with you.

So, a guitar sold for £500. So here is the breakdown of fees:

Insertion fee: £1.30
Setting a reserve (of £250 i think) £8.97
Final value (@10%) £49.97
Paypal (for receiving payment) £17.44
Total: £77.68

So I sent my mate £423.

£77 is a big wadge of cash ebay have nabbed, so I just wanted to check that this is correct.

Any views?

Sounds about right, they don't call it "feebay" for nothing.

If you estimate about 14% in fees it's usually not far off.

Yep. If ever the term "licence to print money" was appropriate, this is it.

I found this last month when I started listing a load of old electronics, dvds and console games. In the end I traded them all in at CEX for not much less than I'd have eventually got from eBay, but a lot less hassle!!

I also didn't realise how expensive postage with Royal Mail was nowadays!

not to mention they now include postage in the fees now too. that really is a con.

Don't - I sold a load of excess Alfa parts - I ended up paying a fortune in fees. These days I try to sell less specialist stuff on Gumtree

They have become very greedy, but as with PayPal currently you don't have too much choice as to an alternative!

Yes that was a shock to me, a real stealth tax, plus Royal mail is now a royal rip-off

I haven't used Royal Mail for years - only for very small/very light items or jiffy bags etc.

I use parcel2go or MyHermes, never had a problem, not one parcel has gone astray yet (used over 40 times!)& you can just drop the parcel off at your nearest drop-off point (MyHermes), dirt cheap compared to Royal Mail, options for higher insurance value etc etc

I think anyone who still uses Royal Mail for anything over 1KG is mad

I agree postage is a real issue now. For ebay to maye amark up on this is stretching it way too far.

This a major issue with ALL online business. To be successful you need to gain a monopoly that would not be acceptable in the high street.

I agree, taxing the postage is shocking!

My mrs has been selling a lot of clothes she doesn't wear (has never worn!) on ebay. Alot of it has been going for 99p or not alot more. With some items posting around £3 ebay and paypal are taking 50p of that leaving 50p! Not even worth the hassle. She is giving them all to charity now.

To add: I understand why ebay have done it; to fight off all the sellers that list items with 99p buy it now and £30 postage scams. For the genuine sellers though it isn't fair. Your postage is to cover your costs. Not forr them to make money off!

Its a tax on the honest rather than policing the pre-existing fee avoidance policies which covered this issue.

I haven't sold anything on eBay in a while. I've got some SSDs, other hardrives, and other tech bits which I am probably just going to take to CEX as suggested above. The prices they offer aren't great but with all the fees and added hassle of eBay it looks like the easiest option.

I've used myhermes a couple of times note to send parcels and they have been brilliant, and cheap! Would definitely recommend them!

You can use ebay in the traditional way but there are ways to use the ebay service more efficiently.

Consider 30 day priced listings - allowing offers and cash on collection. You could be shocked at just how well items sell this way.

I listed several item on a 99p auction. Most didn't sell and those that did went for peanuts I re-listed the remaining items on 30 day sale listings and ALL of the items sold at my asking price. Some folks don't even bother to make an offer and pay the buy it now price

My son has listed loads of Music equipment this way too. People made him offers, turned up & paid cash. One chap drove 150 miles to collect an effects unit

On my occasional forays into the world of eBay, I will almost always hit the 'buy now' button in my initial search, along with the 'in the uk' button.

I'm not usually seeking esoterica, I want a particular part, now.

I don't really care for the auction mode in most cases.