How Much Does It Cost To Sell On eBay?
Anthony asks, “I’m confused by the costs of selling on eBay. Can you explain eBay fees in a simple manner?”
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There are 2 types of eBay fees. Insertion fees charged when an item is listed on eBay, and final value fees charged based on the ending price.
There are also two types of eBay sellers. Basic sellers, and store owners. A store owner pays a monthly fee and gets discounted final value fees. Basic sellers get the first 50 auction listings free, but pay higher final value fees.
In this answer we’ll only look at basic seller fees because signing up for an eBay store account is something you won’t do until you’ve sold on eBay for a few months. Here’s an article about when to upgrade to an eBay store account.
There are also two types of eBay listings: Auction listings where people bid on the item until the auction ends, and fixed price listings where the seller sets a price and the listing ends when a buyer agrees to the price.
We’ll look at insertion fees for eBay auctions first.
EBay charges a fee for starting a listing based on the price of the item or starting bid. For auctions the fee ranges from 10 cents for an item with an opening bid below $1.00, up to $2.00 for an item with an opening bid above $200.00. Currently (April 2012) the first 50 listings are free.
Reserve fees are charged on auctions where you set a minimum price you will accept for your item. The fee is $2.00 or 1% of the reserve whichever is higher. There is a $50 cap on reserve fees for a single listing.
Along with the insertion fee, there are listing upgrades like bold, subtitle, gallery, and scheduled listings. If you’re first starting to sell on eBay you should not use any of these upgrades. Here’s an article on using eBay listing upgrades. http://www.news.iwantcollectibles.com/ebay-listing-upgrades-options.shtml
The final value fee for auctions is 9% of the buyer’s cost. The buyer’s cost is the selling price plus the shipping cost. There’s a maximum of $100.00 per auction in final value fees.
Now lets look at eBay fees for fixed price items:
For fixed price listings the insertion fee is 50 cents regardless of the price. The listing upgrades are the same price as for auction listings.
The final value fees for fixed priced listing vary based on the category and have a sliding percentage. For example in the electronics category you’ll pay 7.0% of the first $50.00, plus 5.0% of the next $50.01–$1,000.00, plus 2.0% of the buyer’s cost over $1000.00.
Because of the sliding fee structure for fixed price listings, there are points where it will cost less to sell an item with am auction or a fixed price. See When Are Fixed Price Listings Cheaper Than Running An Auction On eBay? for a comparison of fixed price and auction final value fees.
Here’s a list of articles about Getting Started On eBay.
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