Understanding eBay's Fees If you're going to be a successful seller, you'd better get used to paying eBay. That's because they get their cut every time you list or sell an item. Every time . It may be a few pennies here and a few pennies there, but eBay's fees add up quite rapidly ”and become a significant expense if you're selling a lot of items each month. For that reason, you need to understand the costs involved before you put any items up for auction. eBay charges two main types of fees to sellers: -
Insertion fees (I prefer to call them listing fees). These are what you pay every time you list an item for sale on eBay. These fees are based on the minimum bid or reserve price of the item listed. These fees are nonrefundable. -
Final value fees (I prefer to call them selling fees, or commissions ). These are what you pay when an item is actually sold to a buyer. These fees are based on the item's final selling price (the highest bid). If your item doesn't sell, you aren't charged a final value fee. eBay also charges a variety of fees for different types of listing enhancements, such as bold and highlight. You can view all of eBay's fees at pages.ebay.com/help/sell/fees.html. As you might expect, there's all manner of fine print associated with these fees. The most important to keep in mind are the following: -
Insertion fees are nonrefundable. -
You will not be charged a final value fee if there were no bids on your item or (in a reserve price auction) if there were no bids that met the reserve price ”in other words, if your item didn't sell, you don't pay a final value fee. -
It doesn't matter whether the buyer actually pays you; you still owe eBay the full final value fee, even if you get stiffed. Invoicing on your account occurs once a month, for the previous month's activity. You'll get an invoice via email detailing your charges for the month; if you've set up your account for automatic credit card billing or checking account withdrawal, your account will be charged at that time. (If you prefer to pay via check, now's the time to get out the old checkbook .) |
