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From what originally started as a small company in the 1990’s, eBay has now evolved into a billion-dollar franchise. There’s an old saying entitled, “Absolute power corrupts absolutely.” Perhaps this statement now applies to eBay executives, who over the past several years have kept raising their online auction fees. Whether it’s their item listing fees, item selling fees, or item promotion fees, their prices are getting to be a bit too high for my liking. And don’t forget PayPal, an online money transaction business that eBay recently bought over. A PayPal transaction between the seller and the buyer of an eBay auction is now an extra cost on top of the already-high prices eBay has imposed on its members.

In this article, though, I’m not going to talk about PayPal’s transaction fees. I’ll talk about PayPal’s charges in another article – after all, this article is long enough as it is. Right now, I’m going to talk about the fees a seller incurs whilst on eBay.com itself.

There are three different types of fees eBay charges its sellers for listing an item on their site. Keep in mind I’m only going to discuss the fees applying to “Auction Listings” and not “Fixed Price Listings.” All of these fees were taken as of January 17, 2009.

Item Listing Fees for eBay

As a seller of an item on eBay, you have to pay two mandatory fees – an “Item Listing Fee” which applies regardless of whether or not your item sells, and a “Final Value Fee” which applies only if the item sells.

The mandatory “Item Listing Fee” eBay charges for placing an item on their site depends on the initial start-up price of your auction, and which category your item falls into.

Seller’s Starting Auction Price of $0.01 to $0.99:

· Books, Music, DVDs, Movies and Video Games (not Video Game Systems): $0.10

· Video Game Systems and other categories: $0.15

Seller’s Starting Auction Price of $1.00 to $9.99:

· Books, Music, DVDs, Movies and Video Games (not Video Game Systems): $0.25

· Video Game Systems and other categories: $0.35

Seller’s Starting Auction Price of $10.00 to $24.99:

· Books, Music, DVDs, Movies and Video Games (not Video Game Systems): $0.35

· Video Game Systems and other categories: $0.55

Seller’s Starting Auction Price of $25.00 to $49.99:

· All Categories: $1.00

Seller’s Starting Auction Price of $50.00 to $199.99:

· All Categories: $2.00

Seller’s Starting Auction Price of $200.00 to $499.99:

· All Categories: $3.00

Seller’s Starting Auction Price of $500.00 or More:

· All Categories: $4.00

In addition, if you’re selling your item in one of the following categories, the “Item Listing Fee” is $20.00:

· Agriculture & Forestry > Tractors & Farm Machinery

· Construction > Heavy Equipment, Trailers

· Food Service & Retail > Concession Trailers & Carts

· Healthcare, Lab & Life Science > Imaging & Aesthetics Equipment

· Industrial Supply, MRO > Fork Lifts & Other Lifts

· Manufacturing & Metalworking > Manufacturing Equipment

· Manufacturing & Metalworking > Metalworking Equipment

· Office, Printing & Shipping > Commercial Printing Presses

Based on what we’ve learned so far, it’s best to start your item off at less than $1.00 and leave it up to the bidders to raise the price.

Item Selling Fees for eBay

If your item doesn’t sell, you don’t pay eBay any more money than the “Item Listing Fee” we discussed earlier. If your item does sell, however, eBay gets more of your cash. The higher your item sells for, the more you have to pay eBay.

Item Does Not Sell:

· No Fee

Item Sells for Between $0.01 and $25.00:

· eBay gets 8.75% of the final auction price of your item

Item Sells for Between $25.01 and $1,000.00:

· eBay gets 8.75% of the first $25.00 of the final auction price – this comes to $2.19

· eBay gets an added 3.50% of the remaining price amount between $25.01 and $1,000.00

Item Sells for $1,000.01 or More:

· eBay gets 8.75% of the first $25.00 of the final auction price – this comes to $2.19

· eBay gets an added 3.50% of the price amount between $25.01 and $1,000.00 – this comes to $34.12

· eBay gets another 1.50% of the remaining price amount between $1,000.01 and the final auction price

In addition, if you’re selling your item in one of the following categories, the “Item Selling Fee” is 1% of final auction value (up to a maximum of $250.00):

· Agriculture & Forestry > Tractors & Farm Machinery

· Construction > Heavy Equipment, Trailers

· Food Service & Retail > Concession Trailers & Carts

· Healthcare, Lab & Life Science > Imaging & Aesthetics Equipment

· Industrial Supply, MRO > Fork Lifts & Other Lifts

· Manufacturing & Metalworking > Manufacturing Equipment

· Manufacturing & Metalworking > Metalworking Equipment

· Office, Printing & Shipping > Commercial Printing Presses

Based on what we’ve learned so far, the higher your item sells for, the more money you’ll end up paying eBay.

Item Promotion Fees for eBay

There are various methods you can implement to increase the chance of your item selling for a high price, but guess what? All of these methods cost extra on top of the “Item Listing Fee” and the “Item Selling Fee.” Fortunately, all of these extras are optional, so if you don’t want to pay, you don’t have to.

Reserve Price:

Adding a Reserve Price to your item will prevent it from being sold unless the final auction price exceeds the Reserve Price. Of course, reserve prices aren’t necessarily useful, since if your item doesn’t sell, you’ll come out with a loss due to the mandatory “Item Listing Fee.” Here are the following fees eBay charges depending on the amount of your Reserve Price:

· $0.01 to $199.99 – eBay charges you $2.00 to add a Reserve Price to your item

· $200.00 and more – eBay charges you 1% of the Reserve Price you want (up to a maximum fee of $50.00)

In addition, if you’re selling your item in one of the following categories, the “Reserve Price” is $5.00:

· Agriculture & Forestry > Tractors & Farm Machinery

· Construction > Heavy Equipment, Trailers

· Food Service & Retail > Concession Trailers & Carts

· Healthcare, Lab & Life Science > Imaging & Aesthetics Equipment

· Industrial Supply, MRO > Fork Lifts & Other Lifts

· Manufacturing & Metalworking > Manufacturing Equipment

· Manufacturing & Metalworking > Metalworking Equipment

· Office, Printing & Shipping > Commercial Printing Presses

Buy It Now Price:

Adding a Buy It Now Price to your item gives someone who desperately wants your item the opportunity to purchase it without having to engage in a bidding war with other eBay members. The advantage to this is that if you hit the right buyer, he/she might “Buy It Now” and pay you more money than what you would have gotten through regular bidding. On the other hand, if your item is popular, you might lose money instead. The “Buy It Now” option can be selected to either disappear as soon as your item gets 1 bid, or disappear once the current auction price exceeds the “Buy It Now” price. The minimum “Buy It Now” price you can have for an item is $1.00. Here are the following fees eBay charges depending on the amount of your Buy It Now Price:

· $1.00 to $9.99 – eBay charges you $0.05

· $10.00 to $24.99 – eBay charges you $0.10

· $25.00 to $49.99 – eBay charges you $0.20

· $50.00 or More – eBay charges you $0.25

10-Day Duration Price:

Normally, eBay allows you to list an item as an “Auction Listing” for up to 7 days. You can extend your listing to 10 days, but for an added fee.

· Extend listing to 10 days – $0.40

International Site Visibility Price:

Purchasing this option will display your item in the Search Results of eBay sites in other countries. Otherwise, your item will only appear the Search Results of your default country. The cost of adding this feature depends on the starting price of your auction:

· $0.01 to $9.99 – eBay charges you $0.10

· $10.00 to $49.99 – eBay charges you $0.20

· $50.00 or More – eBay charges you $0.40

Additional Pictures Price:

When you list an item, eBay lets you upload one picture of the item for free. You can add additional pictures, but for a cost:

· After the first picture, every additional picture costs $0.15.

· If you want to include 6 additional pictures, you can save 15 cents by purchasing the Picture Pack for $0.75. Otherwise, it will cost you $0.90 for 6 individual additional pictures.

· If you want to include 7 to 12 additional pictures, you can save more money by purchasing the Picture Pack for $1.00. Otherwise, it will cost you $1.80 for 12 individual additional pictures.

Dutch Auction “Item Listing Fee”:

If you want to hold a Dutch Auction, it’s going to cost you extra. A Dutch Auction is when you want to have 1 Auction Listing selling more than 1 of the same item. For example, if you ever looked at an Auction Listing that said “Quantity Available: 4” in the auction description, then that would be a Dutch Auction. The fee for a Dutch Auction “Item Listing” depends on the opening price of your item. It’s the “Starting Price,” “Reserve Price” or “Fixed Item Price” of your auction (whichever price is the highest) multiplied by the number of items you’re selling (up to a maximum of a $4.00 “Item Listing Fee”).

Dutch Auction “Item Selling Fee”:

Still on the topic of Dutch Auctions, the “Item Selling” fee is calculated by taking the “Item Selling Fee” of the lowest successful bid (as I mentioned above in the “Item Selling Fees for eBay” section) and multiplying it by the number of items sold.

Other Optional Fees:

Suffice it to say, there are other optional fees – too many to list. Some of which include: Turbo-Lister, Featured Plus!, Pro Pack, Value Pack, Listing Designer, Item Subtitle, Bold Font for Item Listing, Gift Services, Border around Item Listing, Highlighted Item Listing, Featured First on Search Results, and Featured on Home Page, among many other options.

Closing Remarks

As you can see, these costs can be quite confusing. At first, they might seem like nothing – 15 cents here, 30 cents there. But once you add up all the charges, you’ll find eBay making quite a healthy income, and you’ll find yourself having a difficult time coming out with a substantial profit. Unless you plan on your item selling for more than $500.00, it’s not worth purchasing “Item Promotion Fees.” And remember, I haven’t even talked about the fees for “Fixed Price” auctions (which are listings selling an item at a specific price), or the fees for using eBay’s money transaction service PayPal. In general, “Fixed Price” auctions are not worth pursuing. After all, you go to eBay to sell your items in an auction format – not to act like a store and just list your items at one static price.

To further confuse you, if you’re classified as an eBay Powerseller – that is, a person who has sold a certain amount of items on eBay – you’re entitled to receive certain discounts on “Item Selling Fees.”

I’ll do my best to keep this topic updated with the latest eBay selling fees, but keep in mind that you can always find the latest fees on the eBay.com Fees Page. All fees in this article and on the eBay.com Fees Page are in U.S. dollars.

To Be Continued…

Read the Epic Conclusion Here:

·         A Complete Seller’s Guide: Part 2 – All of PayPal’s Money Transaction Fees

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