New Fees For Ebay Store Subscriptions - Ouch!

Hey All,
I'm sure many of you have already seen the email from ebay for the dreaded Spring Seller Update. Updates are never good news for sellers it seems. I was planning to resume my mega auctions (3,000+ items) on ebay this spring with a monthly purchase of an ebay Store subscription to help lower the insertion fees and final value fees.

I might have to reevaluate that idea as the store rates are poised to increase next month and not by a small margin. An anchor store is going to jump $199.95/mo to $349.95/mo. It's less if you get the year subscription.

The allotted auction listings jump from 100 to 1,000 and there will 10,000 for fixed priced listings. That would help for those who list a lot. I won't call them free listings - you still have to pay to get them.

The other "carrots" dangled by ebay - a coupon for ebay branded shipping supplies. I hope they have a "Steal Me" sticker on them for international shipments. Most of us use envelopes for shipping which are already cheap and if we need a box then USPS gives them out for free.

They also will provide a 1-800 customer service line. Oh boy! I bet it's 1-800-EBAY-WINS.

Again I will have to determine if it's worthwhile to resume listing on ebay or put my efforts towards Delcampe. I haven't seen too many free auction listings offers from ebay recently aside from the piddly 50/month. I wonder how many other sellers will be closing or downgrading their ebay stores.

Here's the link to the upcoming changes - http://pages.ebay.com/sellerinforma...es-fees.html

There's other changes too involving the descriptions on mobile devices. At least they aren't changing the existing listing or final value fee structure.

Battlestamps, don't give them any ideas!

Peter

Many months I don't have time to use all the so called "free" listings that come with my store, so paying more to get more "free" listings is a bad deal for me.

I have had a "Basic" store for several years. The only reason I have a store is to get the discounted Final Value fees. As I understand it without a store my final value fees would be 10% discounted 20% (for TRS) or 8% plus insertion fees. My March invoice shows I paid 6.8% in total fees for the month. I think that is pretty good when compared to other selling venues.

The new Basic store rate would increase my cost $5/month but getting another 150 free auctions insertions would save me $37.

This is a major auction house in the U.S. ---If I got a stamp that catalogs $300.00 and I consign it to a major firm lets break it down , the stamp gets offered at $100.00 the buyer bid $80.00 and pays $20.00 commission on his $100.00 purchase . YOU GOT THAT BIDS $80.00 pays $100.00 to the firm .
Now as for me the seller it sold for $80.00 right . Now I get to pay a commission as the seller that is 20% or $16.00 so I get from the sale $64.00 .......Thats a $300.00 stamp gets me $64.00
THAT IS IT ----I need to slap anybody who thinks the fees at ebay are too high ....

*** Staff Edit - PLEASE use the quote tags [quote][/quote] so your posts aren't so confusing. ***

Floortrader I totally agree. You also didn't mention that it takes several months between when you consign it and when you get paid.

20%-25% of catalog value is average no matter where you sell. It seems to me at least with an auction house you have much less work/hassle than dealing with ebay.

A stamp that catalogs for $300 might get you $30 on ebay and that's before ebay's and PayPal's cut. If you price it higher it might get you nothing as there's 10 to 100 or more of the same stamp for less. ebay is still the quickest way to sell anything. However the main point of my original post is that ebay is continuing to turn the screw tighter on sellers as they usually do in almost every seller update. Eventually ebay will create a breaking point for most sellers - higher listing or FVF prices, mandatory GSP enrollment, only allowed to use ebay shipping postage & labels, etc. Changes at ebay really have little to do with selling stamps, but for ebay it's about competing with Amazon and other big online retailers as well as grabbing their slice of the mobile online shopping pie. I just get that feeling that at some point stamp and cover sellers will no longer have a place at ebay that's worthwhile. Also I didn't say their fees are too high, but they did just get higher for some people - 75% increase for an anchor store per month without a subscription.

floortrader said: "I need to slap anybody who thinks the fees at ebay are too high ...."

Then slap me :-) I consign to virtually every major public auction house and THEY DO ALL THE WORK...and ALL THE SCANNING...and publish a PRINTED CATALOG & MAIL THEM OUT. For regular/large consignors, they provide interest-free cash advances so you don't have to wait for money. They also deal with the complainers, the unreasonable requests ("Can you scan the back of every stamp in that lot?"), they absorb all the merchant fees, etc. But most importantly, they ROUTINELY get FAR BETTER prices for accurately described, quality material (even adjusting for the buyer's premium). There's no built-in automatic "discount" for something purchased through Siegel like there is for something purchased on ebay...

As a large consignor, I routinely pay no more than 5-10% commissions (sometimes 0%), and even taking the buyer's premium into account, my net is MUCH better than my net on ebay (and requiring 1/10th the work). ebay used to be 75% of my sales (10-15 years ago). It's now <5%. Virtually everything I sell is placed via want list, sold through my webiste, sold via my private lists, or consigned to public auction. eBay's ridiculously high pricing, given what little they actually provide, makes their venue essentially useless to sellers like me.

If you're wondering why all the good material and good sellers are gone, this is it (IMO).

*IF* the material in question is that worthy of major auction house lotting, then yes, you may be correct. However, what most philatelic sellers are selling is not. Either the quality or the catalog value is much lower than a major auction house would ever consider. A seller wanting to sell items cataloging under $100, or more realistically under $500, is never going to be dealing with a major auction house unless they dump all the singles and sets into a bulk lot, in which case they would likely ultimately receive pennies on the dollar.

You are obviously NOT the typical ebay seller.

For the majority of sellers, ebay's fee structure is not "ridiculously high", even with the new increases. It's simply a cost/labor model that no longer works FOR YOU.

P.S. Re: "all the good material and good sellers are gone", that is not the case in my collecting area. I still find gems on ebay. It all depends on the area(s) you collect as to whether ebay is worthwhile or not.

"...unless they dump all the singles and sets into a bulk lot, in which case they would likely ultimately receive pennies on the dollar."

This isn't true either. I can put 50 "quality" low-CV singles in a lot that will realize $1,000, and any auction house will take it. Those same 50 items, offered individually on ebay, won't realize as much (and I'll spend 100x more time selling them). The reason for this is the built-in ebay "discount". Few "serious" buyers remain, and they tend to assume (rightfully so) that nothing listed there is properly described.

And faulty material offered in groups does phenomenally well at public auction. I know several dealers who "construct" lots specifically for this purpose. Properly described, they'd be lucky to net 10% on ebay. However, throw them in a lot, and even with "mixed condition" in the description, watch them realize 20%-25%+. I can only assume that the buyers of those lots are either (a) unable to detect the faults and believe everything is sound, or (b) crooks who know they're faulty but also know what they'll realize if offered as sound (and know that a high percentage will "stick").

I'm sure great items do show up on ebay at good prices (especially in niche areas like revenues), but generally by accident, not by design. For the most part, the "professional" (good) sellers of quality, properly-described material have left, for the reasons I've outlined. It's better for them to sell almost ANYWHERE else (higher realizations, lower fees & much less work) than to stick with ebay.

Not only are these opinions rather than fact, but I happen to disagree with both.

Based on competition I've experienced, there are plenty of serious buyers on ebay in addition to bottom feeders and tire kickers. Moreover, I know some of the parties that I compete with there regularly, and they are the same parties that buy at major auctions.

I get it, you dislike ebay. You're quite entitled to your opinion, but it is just that: your personal opinion. The problem I have is that you're stating those opinions as fact, and as absolutes... and they are neither.

There is an owner of another message board who constantly speaks negatively of ebay, ebay sellers, and ebay buyers. He has a vested interest in talking down ebay in hopes of driving people to him to make their purchases or sales... in my personal experience, those who speak the loudest against ebay frequently have an ulterior motive. I'm not saying that is your motivation, but it does make me ponder.

Yes, all opinions, but I don't think you'll find too many long-time ebay sellers (my registration date is Feb 1996) that would disagree that most of the "serious" buyers have left (long ago). But are there serious buyers still there? Absolutely! But maybe only 10-20% of what there used to be.

Again, I think I understand ebay pretty well. I was the highest-level Powerseller when that program first began. I was a top-rated seller when that program first began. I think I also understand public auctions pretty well (being a regular consignor & buyer for decades).

I don't "hate" ebay (I still sell enough there to maintain both powerseller & TRS status). I've just watched a deterioration that was completely avoidable. As a businessman, it's important for me to know what venue is best. For "professional" sellers of quality material, it's no longer ebay (IMO).

On a related note, is anyone holding their breath thinking that ebay's "branded" shipping supplies are going to be a great deal? Or even a "reasonable" deal, like what you'd pay on Amazon? Let's see. If it's yet another disappointing effort, then ebay's latest announcement will represent yet another fee increase, when their fees (for sellers like me) are already unreasonable...

On a related note, it didn't have to be this way for ebay. They CHOSE to give away 100's or 1,000's of free listings (resulting in the predictable boatload of overpriced, non-moving garbage), they CHOSE to keep pushing FVF's higher and higher (forcing sellers who sell a high percentage of material to move to other less-expensive venues), they CHOSE to ignore rampant fraud (resulting in both sellers & buyers leaving the site in droves), etc...

Think about this - what would ebay be like if they did three very simple things: REVERSED their fee structure (higher listing fees, but low or 0% FVF's), established a legitimate feedback system, and got serious about eliminating fraud? I don't know about you, but I'd much rather participate in that (smaller, but more vibrant & trustworthy) marketplace...

I would like to see the return of a structured listing fee schedule - the more expensive the starting price, the higher the listing fee (at least for auction items). It will get rid of the overpriced items and the "I got a zillion dollar item" seller. The refundable listing fee was actually a good idea on ebay's part in hopes that people would list items that would sell at reasonable prices.