Making Sense of EBay Seller Fees Right Now!
Are you baffled by eBay seller fees? If so, this crash course will set you straight and clear out the seller fee confusion. Although running a basic eBay auction is a fundamentally simple task, many eBayers get lost in the maze of seller fees. Not to worry! We’ll show you the basics and have you understanding the fees in no time at all. Many people even have trouble finding the eBay page explaining fees. You can find all the information on fees at pages.ebay.com/help/sell/fees.html. However, if you want to understand the fees, then read on.
The first thing to discuss is that eBay charges different fees for the basic Auction Style Format, Fixed Price Auction Format, eBay Motors, eBay Real Estate, eBay Classified Ads, and eBay Stores. When trying to make sense of the fees, it is essential to start with the fees for the basic Auction Style Format and Fixed Price Format. Once you understand those fees, figuring the other fees will fall into place.
Sidebar: eBay Calculators
Although there are many listings online for free, eBay calculators, I have found only 3 that work and are up to date with current fees. Try one of the following:
- home.windstream.net/micrep/fees.html
- www.rolbe.com/ebay.htm
- www.newlifeauctions.com/calc.html
Basic Auction Style
The Insertion Fee (IF) is what eBay charges to list your auction. For the basic auction, eBay charges a flat amount based on your starting bid. Thus, the IF is zero when your starting bid is $0.01 to $0.99; IF = $0.25 when your starting bid is $1.00 to $9.99; IF = $0.50 when your starting bid is $10.00 to $24.99; IF = $0.75 when your starting bid is $25.00 to $49.99; IF = $1.00 when your starting bid is $50.00 to $199.99; IF = $2.00 when your starting bid is $200 or more. You can find the eBay list of Insertion Fees at pages.ebay.com/help/sell/fees.html#if_auction. If you item does not sell the first time you list your auction, eBay will give you that amount back if you choose to relist your item within a specified timeframe.
Final Value (FV) fees for the basic Auction Style are also pretty straightforward. The final value of your auction is the the value of the winning bid. In other words, the person who bids last and highest gets your item, and that is the final value. The FV depends on the price of the final, winning bid. The eBay page for the FV is at pages.ebay.com/help/sell/fees.html#fvf_auction, but I’m going to tell you what you need to know right here. If your item does not sell, the FV = $0.00. Zero. You pay zero FV. If you item sells, you pay 9% of the final value (the winning bid). 9% is the same as .09 or 0.90. The formula to figure the FV is 0.90 x Sale Price. For example. Your item sells for $100. Your FV is 0.09 x 100 = $9.00. If you have a calculator, punch in .09 x (the final sale price). The answer is your FV. You can find a free eBay fee calculator at home.windstream.net/micrep/fees.html, or do your own Google, Yahoo, or Bing search for “ebay fee calculator.” There is a discussion of the the fees for the Fixed Price auction at proproductsourcing.com.
The Buy It Now Fee (BIN) is also important to understand. The BIN is the fee eBay charges you when you offer your visitors the option of purchasing your item immediately at your pre-determined price. The BIN amount is determined by the fee you want to charge in order to buy your item immediately. The Buy It Now fee schedule works like this: if your price is between .99 and 9.99. the fee is .05; if your price is $10 to $24.99, the fee is $0.10; if your price is $25 to $49.99, your BIN fee is $0.20; and if your price for buying right now is $50 or more, your BIN fee is $0.25. For example, let’s say you are selling chair. You set your starting bid at $30 but offer visitors a Buy It Now price of $35. Because your price is between $25 and $49.99, your BIN charge is $0.20. It is also important to know that the Buy It Now price is an opportunity available only before any bids have been placed. The BIN disappears as soon as the first bid is entered. You can find out more about the BIN at pages.ebay.com/help/sell/fees.html#BIN.
The next category of fees is the Optional Feature Fees (OPF). Under Optional Features we have Reserve Price, eBay Picture Hosting, Seller Tools, Buy It Now, and Listing Upgrade fees. We have already discussed the BIN above, and aside from the BIN, Listing Upgrade fees (LUF) are essential for a newcomer to eBay to understand. The Lisging Upgrade categories include, Value Pack, Gallery, Gallery Plus, Listing Designer, Subtitle, Bold, and Scheduled Listings. Of these options, the only two that are essential for a beginner are Bold and Subtitle. “Bold” simply means the use of bold face type in your auction title as it appears in the eBay search results. This is generally very important, and I consider it an essential cost. The fee for Bold = $2.00. “Subtitle” means the addition of a subtitle to your listing in the auction search results. I also consider this an essential cost, and I would advise that all of your auctions include a subtitle. The fee for Subtitle = $0.50. The Gallery Plus option is also a nice feature. What this means is that when someone hovers the mouse pointer over the thumbnail image that appears in the auction search results, a larger image of your item appears. This is good attention getting device but in my opinion not as valuable as Subtitle and Bold. If you find that you have a product that consistently sells well, then I would definitely add the Gallery Plus feature to that auction. Reserve Price and Scheduled listings are more advanced features that will be easy to understand once you have mastered the fees discussed so far. The eBay page for Optional Features is pages.ebay.com/help/sell/fees.html#optional.
Sidebar: Reserve Fees
This is another optional fee and normally considered to be a more advanced feature. A Reserve Price is a price you set that determines the minimum bid for which your item can sell. For example, let’s say you list your product with a starting bid of $1.00 but have a Reserve Price set at $50.00. That means that bidding must reach at least $50 before your items sells. If none of the bids placed on your item reaches at least $50, then your auction ends without a sale and you can relist or delist your item. The Reserve Price (RP) fee is $2.00 when you set your RP from $0.01 to $199.99. From $200 and above, you 1 percent of the amount up to a maximum of $50.
To wrap up, let’s look at an example that uses all of the fees mentioned that we have examined. Let’s say you are auctioning off a leather chair. Your initial starting bid is $75. The Insertion Fee for this amount is $1.00. Your end if auction sales price is $225; your FV for this amount is .09 x $225, or 20.25. At this point, if we have no other fees, your seller fee total is $1.00 + $20.25 = $21.25. But let’s say we had a BIN of $125.00 and used Bold and Subtitle. The BIN is $0.25, Bold is $2.00, and Subtitle is .50. Thus, your total seller fees would be $1.00 + $20.25 + $0.25 + $2.00 + $0.50 = $24.00.
Fixed Price Auctions
Fixed Price Auctions are really a more advanced sort of auction. Basically, this means you run your auction at a set price for a period of time. There is no bidding; you basically wait for someone to come along and purchase at the fix price you list. Insertion fee for a Fixed Price Auction is $0.50.
The Final Value Fee, however, is more complicated. For complete information, see http://pages.ebay.com/help/sell/fees.html#if_fixed. Basically, the FV for Fixed Price Auctions depends on which category you list your items, and then is a percentage of the sales price up to $50 and a separate percentage for any amount exceeding $50. There is a very clear chart showing the FV at the link above. If you are a beginner and just starting out, do not worry about this at this time. Master the basic fees already discussed above. Once you fully understand the basic fees, the more complicated fees will make perfect sense.
Fees for Other Advanced Categories and Auction Formats
As alluded to above, eBay has other auction categories which have different fees. However, unless you specifically want to sell in Real Estate or in sell vehicles, these probably won’t concern you right at this time. Some of the other categories include Business and Industrial Equipment, eBay Motors, eBay Stores, Half.com, Picture Hosting, and Seller Tools.
Once you get the IF and FV for the basic auction format, things will be much simpler. For example, with Business and Industrial Equipment, the Insertion Fee is a straight $20.00 and the FV 1% of the final sale with a maximum fee of $250.
For eBay Motors, see pages.ebay.com/help/sell/motorfees.html. I’m not going to discuss it here because I don’t think that most reader would be interested or need an explanation. If you disagree and really need help, please leave a comment and I’ll be happy to add a post dealing only with eBay Motors.
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