I decided to verify that the new policy will be a fee increase for me. Since I use only auctions, the final value fee is not going to be reduced. It will remain at 9% for me. That answers my question, but I wanted to see what the exact impact will be.
I recently sold $217.21 worth of books on eBay. I was charged $19.55 in fees. If I had paid a final value fee on my shipping fees, I would have paid an additional $4.27 in fees for a total of $23.92 in fees.
This is actually not that bad, in my specific case. One reason I am impacted less is because media mail is a less expensive shipping method, so that reduces what eBay will take in the final value fees. I am also impacted less because I use the free listings and am not charged a listing fee for my items.
If I were still a regular eBay seller, my fees would be outrageously high. I was only charged for the items that sold. If all 700+ of my Bonanza items were on eBay, I would have to pay a $49.95 monthly store fee plus insertion fees for all of my items. Ugh. That is why I am no longer selling in volume on eBay.
During the same time period that I sold the above amount on eBay, I sold $524.75 worth of books on Bonanza. I was charged $23.00 in fees. I did not pay insertion fees on Bonanza either, so $23.00 was my total amount in final value fees. I have over 700 items in my Jennifer's Series Books booth on Bonanza. Which would you rather?
While I admit that the change to the final value fees is not going to have a big impact to me, this is only because I have already moved my items off of eBay. I only use eBay to move extra books that I want to sell fast. I also have purposefully chosen to list only cheap items on eBay due to how much more I would have to pay in final value fees on eBay if I were to sell expensive items.
I refuse to allow eBay to victimize me. I felt used and abused at the end of 2008 when I had listed a large quantity of items, most of which did not sell. I was out a large amount in fees, and I swore that I would never let that happen again. And I have not allowed it to happen again.
For sellers who have remained on eBay, the new policy of taking a final value fee on the shipping will have a profound effect. Many sellers are just now thinking of leaving for another venue. My advice is to remain on eBay with a few listings while building a following on the new venue of your choice. The task will not be easy, but it can be done. There is no one venue that will work for all sellers. I have found Bonanza to be a good fit, but others may find another venue more suited to their needs.
If you are an eBay seller looking for a way to deal with these upcoming changes, you might want to check out the new Facebook group eBay alternatives-leaving FEEBay behind. The sellers who have joined are brainstorming what to do and which other sites to try.
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