Unless you're going to be selling a lot of items, I'd say you're better off using craigslist or the local flea market rather than ebay. Those fees are too big of a deterrent for people looking to sell just a few items.
Yeah, it is a little steep. If you're selling just a few items some of the ways you mentioned may be better. I myself don't mess around much on craigslist, strange place. I do have friends that have used it.
I've been selling on Ebay for a long time and experienced its growth and "improvements" in its attempts to take over the internet. Alas, as ebay grew, so did its fees, rather exorbitantly, as we all know. I think at one time it was only 1 or 2 percent. Recently there have been a few improvements. They have free listings now and no fees for photos up to a certain limit. They may be experiencing less profit these days.
As with many of the comments, I've sold on eBay for years and watched them hike fees over and over. As noted, the fee is now 9% of the selling price INCLUDING the shipping amount, so the total they charge the 9% for is on the total amount of money transferred - then Paypal get about a 3% cut. Their latest 'improvement' includes the first 50 listings each month are free of listing fees (still get their cut after the sale), and up to 12 free photos per listing. Sometimes you have to adjust the category you list in to avoid special rates. EBay is good for the size of the marketplace; folks like me that live in the country don't have a lot of buyers anywhere nearby. But you have to base the price to include the fees you'll get stuck with. They also own Half.com, though nearly no one uses it anymore, I think. They do have eBay Classifieds, which are a decent free alternative to Craigslist - but I use whatever forum will bring the results. Stuff too heavy to ship goes in the local classifieds first.
I have tried Craigslist but haven't had a huge success. I did sell some furniture but for little items like books, etc I have had zero luck. Also, it's scary having strangers come to your house to view whatever it is you are selling. I think Ebay shot themselves in the foot when they changed their feedback policy. A seller is no longer allowed to give negative feedback to a buyer. A buyer can give negative feedback to a seller though. Also when they raised their fees it got rid of all their "little" sellers who sell things from their home. There's very little profit to be made after ebay and paypal fees are taken out.
Because of all of the different fees, selling on eBay is only good if you're POSITIVE that you're going to make a really good profit. That's coming from an eBay seller who has sold for many years too.
Nobody is going to be happy with the fees. Obviously I don't like paying out what ends up being almost 15% of my profits by the time all the fees through ebay and paypal are done. However, you've also got to remember that you are getting access to a marketplace that gets millions of views every day. For someone that lives in the middle of nowhere, a 15% fee to get something sold in a few days on ebay is worth it rather than waiting 2 months to find someone that wants to come to my house from Craigslist... Plus you've got to give em credit, at least now they let you have free listings. It's like 50 a month or something huge like that, which is fine by me since I only list 2 or 3 things a month anyway.
I've sold on eBay from just about the beginning of their operation. They have continued to raise they rates to a point many sellers left. As stated, after you pay all the ebay fees, you still have to deal with 2 paypal fees. Unless you are selling a rather expensive item, it becomes really a nonprofit proposition selling on ebay. That is the bad news. The good news, if you find some cheap quality items to sell, your items will get seen by more eyes on ebay than any other medium.
Ebay is certainly a buyers market nowadays. There are not many incentives for the seller with the numerous charges you now have to pay. I have sold items on eBay but I wouldn't do it again because of the extra costs. I remember when it used to be FREE, those were the days!
I don't sell much on eBay. When I do it is usually big selling items that I cannot sell on Craigslist or at rummage sales. I have sold a few unique items on eBay after several failed attempts on Craigslist. The fees on eBay are ridiculous. I know they have to make money too, but the fees that they charge seem to be outrageous. If you want to save money, I would have to agree and say that you should try Craigslist, flea markets and rummage sales.
I've sold on eBay for years and they have made it increasingly difficult for small sellers. The fees that are taken out mean it is not worth selling low value items, especially when you have PayPal fees to pay as well; they cannot justify some of the massive increases in charges either. The DSRs haven't helped either. I am frequently getting marked down on shipping, but have only ever charged what it cost to post and shipping charges are displayed in item descriptions. I don't charge for the packing materials or the time spent packing even though under eBay guidelines I could, I would just hate to see what my stats would look like then. I think it is better to sell some items offline. If an item is too heavy then it won't go for much as people don't like paying the postage so going to a car boot sale or selling it through the classified sections is a much better option. They seem to be squeezing the smaller sellers out. At least with Amazon, the small sellers and bigger sellers can sell alongside each other.
I agree with. Not allowing the seller to leave negative feedback is a big mistake. This just presumes that the seller is always in the wrong no matter what they do, yet if a buyer takes forever to pay you then they can still leave you a negative for taking too long to send an item even if you haven't done anything wrong. The increase in listing fees hasn't helped small sellers and it is now clear the direction eBay is going in. Whenever you see the home page it only advertisers brand new goods from high volume sellers and it's the same with their adverts. I think eBay ought to remember how it first started, and it was the small sellers selling their collectables and used items that made eBay the success that it was.
I agree! I totally agree with you. I recently sold some items I had no where else I could sell them. At the end of the day E bays seller fees took a big chunk of my tiny profits. E bay is not what it used to be.
