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eBay/PayPal Commission
Wannabeoldschool
Posts: 5 ✭
I'm trying to get back into the collecting world and since I've never sold anything on eBay I did some research on what eBay's commission would be and PayPal's. What I've read is that eBay takes 10% and PayPal gets 2.9% + .10 cents per transaction.
So my "take home" is roughly 87.1% of the final price. Then I need to factor in shipping & handling and packaging material, subtract that from my "take home" price to get my so called "profit"!
Is my calculation correct? Also, is there a way to minimize eBay and PayPal's commissions?
In advance thanks for any assistance.
So my "take home" is roughly 87.1% of the final price. Then I need to factor in shipping & handling and packaging material, subtract that from my "take home" price to get my so called "profit"!
Is my calculation correct? Also, is there a way to minimize eBay and PayPal's commissions?
In advance thanks for any assistance.
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I don't think you can reduce your PP fees selling on eBay but you can reduce the eBay commission from 10% to 8% by being a top rated seller. I believe a couple stipulations to being top rated are: must accept returns (I think it's 30 days) and must ship within 1 day on 90% of your sales. Look up the top rated program and you can see for yourself. eBay also had buying and selling promotions so be sure to set your preferences on there to accept those emails as they can be valuable.
Good luck and welcome back to the hobby and these boards!
You can sell on the Buy Sell Trade forum on here to avoid some of the fees. Of course, the expectation is that you also offer a slight discount over normal eBay pricing. You may net a very similar amount but you are more likely to have less headaches on here vs. potentially shady, flaky or scamming eBay buyers. That said, I sell a fair amount on eBay and have been lucky and not really had any problems with bad buyers but you hear stories.
I don't think you can reduce your PP fees selling on eBay but you can reduce the eBay commission from 10% to 8% by being a top rated seller. I believe a couple stipulations to being top rated are: must accept returns (I think it's 30 days) and must ship within 1 day on 90% of your sales. Look up the top rated program and you can see for yourself. eBay also had buying and selling promotions so be sure to set your preferences on there to accept those emails as they can be valuable.
Good luck and welcome back to the hobby and these boards!
There is one other Top Rated Seller requirement...
To be a Top Rated Seller, you must have at least 100 transactions and $1,000.00 in sales during the past 12 months
So you want start getting the 20% discount (that brings your percentage from 10% to 8%), until you've sold 100 items at the 10% rate.
Also for the OP's original inquiry. The Paypal rate is 2.9% + $0.30... not $0.10
I'm trying to get back into the collecting world and since I've never sold anything on eBay I did some research on what eBay's commission would be and PayPal's. What I've read is that eBay takes 10% and PayPal gets 2.9% + .10 cents per transaction.
So my "take home" is roughly 87.1% of the final price. Then I need to factor in shipping & handling and packaging material, subtract that from my "take home" price to get my so called "profit"!
Is my calculation correct? Also, is there a way to minimize eBay and PayPal's commissions?
In advance thanks for any assistance.
Sounds right. Don't forget to add in any listing fees....if you do larger images that's $0.35 there. When I take into account packaging material, Listing Fees, final value fee, PayPal fee, and shipping my profit is between 70-75% of final sale price.
If you charge shipping fees accurately, there is nothing to subtract it from since it is not part of the sale price. I usually charge $3.25 shipping which covers all shipping costs, plus the transaction fee.
Shipping fees are part of the sale price and are dinged by ebay as such. They changed to this policy years ago to stop people from listing items for 1 cent with 19.99 shipping charge.
If you charge shipping fees accurately, there is nothing to subtract it from since it is not part of the sale price. I usually charge $3.25 shipping which covers all shipping costs, plus the transaction fee.
Shipping fees are part of the sale price and are dinged by ebay as such. They changed to this policy years ago to stop people from listing items for 1 cent with 19.99 shipping charge.
What Dusto is saying is that if you add the appropriate shipping charge to the auction, it will cover the cost of shipping as well as the 10% (or 35 or so cents) off the shipping charge, as well.
Collecting 1970s Topps baseball wax, rack and cello packs, as well as PCGS graded Half Cents, Large Cents, Two Cent pieces and Three Cent Silver pieces.
What Dusto is saying is that if you add the appropriate shipping charge to the auction, it will cover the cost of shipping as well as the 10% (or 35 or so cents) off the shipping charge, as well.
In theory, anyway.
I would think that a good percentage of buyers do what I do. If I'm willing to pay $20 for an item, my bid will be $20 if shipping is free, $15 if shipping is $5, and $10 if shipping is $10.
If you charge shipping fees accurately, there is nothing to subtract it from since it is not part of the sale price. I usually charge $3.25 shipping which covers all shipping costs, plus the transaction fee.
Shipping fees are part of the sale price and are dinged by ebay as such. They changed to this policy years ago to stop people from listing items for 1 cent with 19.99 shipping charge.
What Dusto is saying is that if you add the appropriate shipping charge to the auction, it will cover the cost of shipping as well as the 10% (or 35 or so cents) off the shipping charge, as well.
If you charge shipping fees accurately, there is nothing to subtract it from since it is not part of the sale price
What Dusto is saying is that if you add the appropriate shipping charge to the auction, it will cover the cost of shipping as well as the 10% (or 35 or so cents) off the shipping charge, as well.
In theory, anyway.
I would think that a good percentage of buyers do what I do. If I'm willing to pay $20 for an item, my bid will be $20 if shipping is free, $15 if shipping is $5, and $10 if shipping is $10.
Agreed. In cases where shipping is about $3.00 or $3.50, the ebay fee on the shipping cost is fairly negligible (about 30 cents) in any case.
Collecting 1970s Topps baseball wax, rack and cello packs, as well as PCGS graded Half Cents, Large Cents, Two Cent pieces and Three Cent Silver pieces.
It would be interesting to see if auctions that sell for $20 with $3 shipping sell better than $23 with free shipping. As far as eBay is concerned, they will take the 10% (in this case) from $23 no matter how you add it up. In my opinion, shipping is part of the business and I still consider it an expense no matter if I do free shipping or charge shipping. It still comes off my bottom line.
It may make a difference to some bidders who will go a bit higher on the item if shipping is free, but many other bidders will bid the same if shipping is free or $3.50, as long as shipping is reasonable, depending on the item and how readily available it is.
Collecting 1970s Topps baseball wax, rack and cello packs, as well as PCGS graded Half Cents, Large Cents, Two Cent pieces and Three Cent Silver pieces.
If you charge shipping fees accurately, there is nothing to subtract it from since it is not part of the sale price. I usually charge $3.25 shipping which covers all shipping costs, plus the transaction fee.
Shipping fees are part of the sale price and are dinged by ebay as such. They changed to this policy years ago to stop people from listing items for 1 cent with 19.99 shipping charge.
What Dusto is saying is that if you add the appropriate shipping charge to the auction, it will cover the cost of shipping as well as the 10% (or 35 or so cents) off the shipping charge, as well.
If you charge shipping fees accurately, there is nothing to subtract it from since it is not part of the sale price
You stated in successive posts "shipping fees are part of the sale price" and "shipping fees are not part of the sale price."
Collecting 1970s Topps baseball wax, rack and cello packs, as well as PCGS graded Half Cents, Large Cents, Two Cent pieces and Three Cent Silver pieces.
It would be interesting to see if auctions that sell for $20 with $3 shipping sell better than $23 with free shipping. As far as eBay is concerned, they will take the 10% (in this case) from $23 no matter how you add it up. In my opinion, shipping is part of the business and I still consider it an expense no matter if I do free shipping or charge shipping. It still comes off my bottom line.
That's what I do. Factor the shipping into my starting price when I sell. I think it just looks better and is more appealing to see the "free shipping" to buyers. I've actually had someone leave me feedback and all they said was "I love free shipping!" lol
It would be interesting to see if auctions that sell for $20 with $3 shipping sell better than $23 with free shipping. As far as eBay is concerned, they will take the 10% (in this case) from $23 no matter how you add it up. In my opinion, shipping is part of the business and I still consider it an expense no matter if I do free shipping or charge shipping. It still comes off my bottom line.
That's what I do. Factor the shipping into my starting price when I sell. I think it just looks better and is more appealing to see the "free shipping" to buyers. I've actually had someone leave me feedback and all they said was "I love free shipping!" lol
That's how dumb some people are. They'd probably rather pay a higher overall price as long as they got that free shipping.
In card categories, if you are a power seller. the final value fee's are 9% minus the 20% discount off the final value fees.
So a $100 sale would be:
100.00 gross
-9.00 Final value fees (20% off of this fee would be $1.80)
so $7.20 would come off of the $100 gross.
Net would be $92.80 .
For shipping say you charge $4.00,
ebay takes 9% or .$036 off of this amount
so that's $3.64 the seller, then out of that comes your postage, cost of box/mailer, any packaging materials,
cost of printing out label, paper for label, etc......
Paypal takes $0.30 off of every payment as well, in addition to their 2.9 % fee off the total paypal charge.
I've found you need to charge $3.50 for shipping to about break even on that, assuming there's no need for insurance
or the item is very heavy and runs into priority level shipping (over 16 oz.).
It's best to factor your selling costs in at 12-15% overall off of the item you're selling.
........When I take into account packaging material, Listing Fees, final value fee, PayPal fee, and shipping my profit is between 70-75% of final sale price.
So you get all the items you sell for free?
........When I take into account packaging material, Listing Fees, final value fee, PayPal fee, and shipping my profit is between 70-75% of final sale price.
So you get all the items you sell for free?
Good catch. I should have said revenue.