That’s been my opinion for a while, now confirmed.
First they remove the ability to set reserves on auctions (only in Australia though, not the USA) so you are forced to list at a higher start price to ensure you get the right money. Why, because they charge you more if you make the start price more. They make more money than if it lists with a reserve price and doesn’t sell. Because they make more money if it sells.
I just sold my U101 on fleabay. I made it a decent looking auction and paid for bold and stuff, then it sold for a decent amount. Charges to me $55.
Then I have to accept paypal to get the money from an Overseas buyer. A personal account won’t do it so i have to upgrade to a premium account, thereby allowing them to take fees from every stage of the process.
Why did ebay buy paypal? Because they could make heaps of money, that’s all. They charge you to accept payment, they charge you a cross border fee, they skim off the exchange rate by giving you a worse than market rate and then charge you to take it out into your bank account.
Charge: $68
So i’m out $123. I’m trying hard to think where else you wold pay such an amount to sell such a thing. Newspaper ad, $10, market stall on the weekend $40. Geez, $123, we’re approching 10% here. I could probably have bought a 1/4 page ad in PC User magazine for that money!
It sucks and i’m cranky. Feel like just chucking the whole selling on ebay in.
I was actually impressed by your thorough description. Well done. Ye I hate those hiked up fees as well. But I guess we have to bite the bullet and allow this happen because no newspaper will give you those millions of buyers out there on the net that Ebay has. I hope there will be a competative site that will offer us sellers/buyers better rates.
Wow, that really sucks for you. Sucks to be an Aussie Ebayer then. :(
Unfortunately, its pretty hard to beat Ebay’s advertising capability like the previous poster said. Do they even have a reason as to why you cannot set a reserve price?
The thing I like about Yahoo Auctions is that its free I think.
Unfortunately, that shithole is just full of fucking scammers. I’m sorry for the crude language, but I feel thats the best way to describe it.
I swear to god, at least 80% of the laptop sellers there are complete and total fraudsters, especially concerning Sony laptops, its disgusting I tell you. They really need to clean that shit up.
I was watching your auction, I thought you were going to tell us the money didn’t go through or something. Yeah selling internationally isn’t the best…there are too many fees that go along with it.
I’m curious as to why you guys don’t have reserves anymore…did eBay give a reason or just pulled them?
Unfortunately this is why you see $0.99 items with $20.00 shipping…to get around a lot of those fees and help make up some of the paypal fees you get.
[quote author=“tifosiv122”]I was watching your auction, I thought you were going to tell us the money didn’t go through or something. Yeah selling internationally isn’t the best…there are too many fees that go along with it.
I’m curious as to why you guys don’t have reserves anymore…did eBay give a reason or just pulled them?
Unfortunately this is why you see $0.99 items with $20.00 shipping…to get around a lot of those fees and help make up some of the paypal fees you get.
Erik
They didn’t really give a reason that made sense. They sent out an email that said they had found your auction had more chance of selling if you didn’t set a reserve….duh.
The only auctions you can still set reserves on are cars I think, all other types of stuff you can’t. And you’re right, heaps of people now list for $1 and charge postage and handling(?). For that handling it had better be by 20 virgins! But the downside is that you’re not abe to get any sort of buyer protection on postage. I recently got burned by a powerseller with 3000+ positive ratings who turned sour and took my money. The refund I got from ebay minus their $25 fee and not covering the $20 postage meant i was out $70, some protection.
I agree yahoo has soooo many scammers on it. But the inetresting thing is that it’s not like that in Japan. Japan yahoo took out ebay japan and are the only auction house running there now - go figure.
right on dude, always love/hated bleakbay. but what to do? i have had a paypal account from day one, and althought the prices for transactions are stiff, the service is invaluable for an expat living in podunk. oaky, now everyone shift gears and help me with my ipod-to-TR3 conversion!
thanks!
