| You don't have to pay eBay anything to browse through items on its site. You don't have to pay eBay anything to bid on an item. You don't even have to pay eBay anything if you actually buy an item (although you will be paying the seller directly, of course). But if you're listing an item for sale, you gotta pay. eBay charges two main types of fees: Insertion fees (I prefer to call them listing fees) 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) 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.
"Mike Sez" | While you have the option of using an automatic checking account withdrawal to pay your fees, I recommend that you go with credit card billing instead. I don't like the idea of eBay (or any other company) having automatic access to my checking account; who knows whether I'll have enough funds on tap the day they decide to make the automatic withdrawal? Credit card payment is easy and just as automatic, with few (if any) hassles. |
eBay also charges various fees for different types of listing enhancements. Table 2.1 lists all the fees eBay charges, current as of March 2006. (Fees for items listed in the eBay Real Estate and eBay Motors categories are typically higher.) Table 2.1. eBay FeesType of Fee | Explanation | Fee |
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Insertion fee | In a regular auction, based on the opening value or minimum bid amount.In a fixed-price auction, based on the Buy It Now price.In a reserve price auction, based on the reserve price. In a Dutch auction, based on the opening value or minimum bidmultiplied by the number of items offered, up to a maximum of $4.80. | Items priced $0.01 $0.99:$0.20 Items priced $1.00 $9.99:$0.35 Items priced $10.00 $24.99:$0.60 Items priced $25.00 $49.99:$1.20 Items priced $50.00 $199.99:$2.40 Items priced $200.00 $499.99:$3.60 Items priced $500 and up:$4.80 | Final value fee | In regular auctions, fixed-price auctions, and successful reserve price auctions, based on the closing bid.In Dutch auctions, based on the lowest successful bidmultiplied by the number of items sold. | 5.25%of the amount of the high bid to $25.00, plus 3% of that part of the high bid from $25.01 up to $1,000, plus 1.5%of the remaining amount of the high bid that is greater than $1,000. | | | | For example, if the item sold for $1,500, you'd pay 5.25% of the first $25 ($1.31)plus 3%of the next $975 ($29.25) plus 1.5%of the remaining $500 ($7.50), for a total fee of $38.06. | Reserve price auction | Additional fee for holding a reserve price auction | Items priced $0.01 $49.99:$1.00 Items priced $50.00 $199.99:$2.00 Items priced $200 and up: 1%of the reserve price (maximum $100) | Buy It Now | Fee to use the Buy It Now instant purchase option in an auction listing (doesn't apply to fixed price auctions) | Items priced $0.01 $9.99:$0.05 Items priced $10.00 $24.99:$0.10 Items priced $25.00 $49.99:$0.20 Items priced $50.00 and up:$0.25 | Scheduled listings | Schedules your item to be listed at a specific date and time, up to three weeks in advance | $0.10 | 10-day auction | Additional fee for longer auctions | $0.40 | Gift Services | Adds a Gift icon to your listing and lets you offer gift wrap, express shipping, and shipping to the gift's recipient | $0.25 | Bold | Boldfaces the title of your item on the listing pages | $1.00 | Border | Puts a color border around your item on the listing page | $3.00 | Highlight | Puts a color shading behind your item on the listing pages | $5.00 | Item Subtitle | Adds a subtitle to your item listing | $0.50 | Listing Designer | Applies fancy templates to your listings | $0.10 | Gallery | Displays a thumbnail picture of your item in the Gallery section | $0.35 | Gallery Featured | Randomly displays your Gallery listing at the top of the category, at a larger size | $19.95 | Featured Plus! | Puts your listing at the top of the listing pages for that category, and also displays your listing (randomly)in the Featured Items section of the related category home page | $19.95 | Home Page Featured | Displays your listing (randomly)in the Featured area on eBay's home page and on the Featured section of the related category page | $39.95 |
There's all manner of fine print associated with these fees. Here are some of the more important points to keep in mind: Insertion fees are nonrefundablealthough if a buyer ends up not paying for an item, you can relist the item and request a credit for the second insertion fee. 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 pricethat is, if your item didn't sell. Note | View eBay's current fee structure at pages.ebay.com/help/sell/fees.html. These fees apply to its primary auction site; other specialty sites, such as eBay Stores and Half.com, have different fee structures. |
It doesn't matter whether the buyer actually pays you (or how much he or she actually pays); you still owe eBay the full final value fee. (You can, however, request a refund of this fee if the buyer punks out on you; see Chapter 24, "Dealing with Non-Paying Buyers," for more info.)
Invoicing on your account occurs once a month for all your activity for the prior month. (That is, you're not billed one auction at a time; all your fees are saved up for the monthly billing cycle.) You'll get an invoice by email detailing your charges for the month; if you've set up your account for automatic credit card billing, bank account withdrawal, or PayPal billing, your account will be charged at that time. (If you prefer to pay by check, now's the time to get out the old checkbook.) Tip | eBay also offers two "feature packs" that offer special combinations of listing enhancements for a discounted price. The Value Pack combines Gallery, Subtitle, and Listing Designer for $0.65 total; the Pro Pack combines Bold, Border, Highlight, Featured Plus, and Gallery Featured for $29.95. |
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