Lies, damn lies and statistics

[EmpHolisticGifts]

Not sure where to put this so...

*Wave* as many know we are new, and have been warmly welcomed *Thank you*

We have managed to start our listings and have reached just over a *100* but many more to go (like many. time poor)

We have had our first buyer *Thank you*

Like many we have moved over here as TOS changes are too illogical and negative.

Over there we have a shop and so had access to 300 listings for a set amount. (Now we are allowed 100)
Spent lots of time setting up etc etc

When we worked out the new rules and loosing over 200 of our listings we knew it would not be good...

We are nearly down to our allocated 100 for the set amount, selectively renewing each day as necessary.

Things had felt slow, (this is our 'busy' time of year, last Christmas and since had felt as though they never happened!) and we knew with less listings less orders... out of interest, one of us look at the stats for last weeks dates, last year and for the past week / past 7 days, our sales (just sales alone) is down 63%!!!!

Our sales have never been as we would like however cant even see the shop fees being covered!
We know we are not the only ones so - your not alone
For those that took the risk and completely left 'over there' you may well have done the right thing when shop fees cant even be covered...

So cross fingers for lots of sales (with no fuss!) over here, and a thank you again for all who have offered help and guidance, the humour! support and so on...

[HerMajesty]

Why do you say you are limited to 100 listings? As far as I knew, there is no limit.

[emmily121]

Why do you say you are limited to 100 listings? As far as I knew, there is no limit.

That part was about TOS and their recent and on-going anti-seller changes, which has brought many of us here to eBid..

[EmpHolisticGifts]

You are now limited to 100 'free' with your shop fees, anything over is 35pence per listing and if you don't sell any 35 pence per listing for nothing...

So if we had stayed at our 300 listings our fees would have increased by £70 per month and add on the shop fees for the first 100.
Clear as mud?

As with many sellers it was only volume of listings that made it tick over...

So in theory, yes unlimited listings, but not if you have, or need to keep to a budget ;-)

[bunsock]

And on top of all that don't forget the extortionate Final Value Fee over on the other side. Its really killed the collectable market over there.

[EmpHolisticGifts]

No, no, no its not an 'extortionate Final Value Fee;'

You see the propaganda opps the up side is that when we started
10% final value fee
THEN
10% final value fee PLUS 10% on postage (not forgetting the basic 20pence +3% paypal)
= 20% fee

The final value fee is NOW 8% to balance out the 300 to 100 listing allowance (35 pence for new items - which used to be 15 or 20 pence?)

so the end fees are now 18% (unless they have reduced it on the postage too however they only mention final value.....)

so on the sales last week we would have ....
to stay at 300 = £70 increase with saving about £5 on the 2% difference LOL LOL LOL LOL!!!!

I am sure there may be other fees etc however those are ones we have worked out to date ...

So the propaganda is a £70 increase is off set by the 2% (or 4% reduction in fees) LOL LOL LOL

Wonder if it to save them money on server space as people reduce the listings?
as something really does not add up

ANYWAY on the positive it has had many of us looking for other places (we had seen Etsy however the fees did not add up for us there either when we looked a year or so ago, and not keep with what we saw recently either) and we are here ;-)

[rokins_toys]

No matter how you look at it, eBay have the sellers bent over the desk where they like them. On fees, it is a win-win-win situation for eBay regardless. FVF fees may have been lowered to 8% but by the time you divide your shop subscription across x amount of listings (depending on shop subscription price for x amount of listings as there are different tariffs), drop in sales and so on, you are still as worse off as ever on eBay lol.

Be sure to divide your shop subscription by the 100 items you can now only list so you can see what you ARE actually paying to list them per month with the shop subscription price. And to list more than the 100 listings under the shop subscription, 35p insertion fee? So that is only payable upon the item actually selling now over on eBay and not an upfront fee every month anymore?

Under 10% fvf, 10% fee on shipping and paypal 3.2% or is it 3.4% (can never remember) so you would be losing a combined 23 (.2 or .4) per cent plus the basic transaction fee, so that is a lot to lose when your profit margins are minimal.

Under the 8% fvf, 10% fee on shipping and paypal you are still losing a combined 21 (.2 or .4) per cent plus the basic transaction fee which is still a barmy amount to pay out of minimal profit margins especially items that have profit margins as low as £1-£2 even if their retail for example is £7.99 to £9.99.

Most of the action figures I sell only have a limited profit margin of about £1.80 on average so imagine me having to pay eBay/PayPal fees out of that on top of monthly shop subscription - just not worth me being on eBay which is why I quit there completely.

Obviously then you have to factor in what monetary value the 8% fvf is for items say £15+ as people forget that the higher the price of the item the more you pay out in the 8% fvf over on eBay. And the same goes for the PayPal percentage as well which is whatever per cent across the whole invoice total including shipping costs.

As everyone knows, eBay owns PayPal so they have both their hands digging around in your pockets while enforcing fairy tale policies on you as well lol.

What shop subscription are/was you using on eBay, what is its price now?

[emmily121]

I'm a private seller on ebay, so can only say from that point of view. I'm still selling there as it is convenient for me to let my buyers know I'm selling on eBid.

About 6 months ago ebay were promoting a basic shop for private seller at £19.99 per month with 200 'free' listing, any price, auction or buy it Now. I looked into it, but didn't list or make enough on my items to make it worth my while.
One of the recent changes was reducing the 200 'free' listings to 100, at the same time private sellers 100 free listings under 99p auctions per month were slashed to 20 free listings per month at any price auction or buy it now. With a standard cost of 35p listing fee for any over 20 regardless of start price.

Private sellers are paying 10% FVF and 10% on P&P.

I predict come August when the defects kick in proper, they'll be more on ebay looking for somewhere else to sell.

[HaleysComics]

You need to have a store on the other side to get lower fvf but then you have a store fee as well, I still have a shop there but not sure for how much longer. I pay $19.99 a month for the store & my fvf are 4 to 8 percent depending on the category you list in. Collectibles is what i usually list comic books in so fvf is 4 percent. I have been fortunate enough to make enough money from my remodeling business to keep my store up over there, but will be focusing more on my store over here & once it starts getting more sales then I can shut the other side down.

[EmpHolisticGifts]

Yes it was £20 /200 'free' and the 100 for under 99 pence so £20 /300 = about 6 pence per listing...

It is now £20 / 100 'free' so 20 pence per listing.

Yes the 35 pence kicks in for listings over the 100. (it used to be 15 or 20 pence - something they have NOT mentioned to my knowledge!)

Yes we need to keep up over there regardless and are adding in messages that we are over here too ;-)

Thanks for everyones input just needed to huff n puff :-) fee free to join in lol!