Does eBay charge an outrageous fee for ending an item early?
CaptHenway
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An old dealer friend of mine listed a slabbed coin on eBay, and after it was up noticed that she had typed in the grade incorrectly. She ended the item early with the intention of relisting it, and got a $140 charge on her account! Is this standard?
TD
Numismatist. 54 year member ANA. Former ANA Senior Authenticator. Winner of four ANA Heath Literary Awards; three Wayte and Olga Raymond Literary Awards; Numismatist of the Year Award 2009, and Lifetime Achievement Award 2020. Author "The Enigmatic Lincoln Cents of 1922," due out late 2025.
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I have no idea but it is possible they used a reason for the cancelation that triggered the charge, such as selecting the option that they sold it elsewhere, etc.
I have never been charged for ending a fixed price item early.
Was it a auction item with bids perhaps? If you end a auction early that has bids and you don't cancel the bids eBay will consider it a sale and charge the final value fees. If no bids, no charge.
it's crackers to slip a rozzer the dropsy in snide
Yes, they do if this was an auction and there were bids on the item. They charge their standard commission when the item is ended. This has happened to me in the past. I had a coin listed and someone made me an excellent offer. I ended the auction early and then relisted with a BIN and was charged the commission on the ended item.
If it has bids they will charge u.
So a bullion coin I might start at 95 pct BV. Or some other coin start these at like cost plus 10 pct. Intent not get ripped on low bids. It goes thru 3 auc cycles no bids then note from them “your item did not sell.” Then (disgusted) just throw back in store at retail.
Let’s say a particular slabbed world coin a seller running lots of auctions on retail is $75. I use AS and bid $40. Plan sell it for good markup. I lose by 1 bid. Nuclear bidder or shill? If I continually can’t buy it right from that seller my gut tells me its shills bidding it up. Burns me up.
Auction- 1 or more bids with reserve price not met:
You may be charged a final value fee based on the amount of the highest bid.
Auction- 1 or more bids with reserve price met or no reserve price set:
You may end the listing by cancelling all bids. You may be charged a final value fee based on the amount of the highest bid, or you may sell the item to the highest bidder.
From here:
https://www.ebay.com/help/selling/listings/creating-managing-listings/ending-listing?id=4146
First, yes, this is standard. An auction with bids gets hit with its final value fee if ended early. At least in the past you’d get one freebie a year, so inevitably I’d use it in January on something that was at $1.04 when canceled.
Now that said, there are two ways around this. First, after the fact, call in an explain the error. Especially if it’s already been relisted, they’re usually pretty decent s out refunding the fee. The goal is to keep people from ending items because they aren’t selling enough. I’ve decried this as it punishes sellers for fixing errors, where otherwise they’d punish the seller for shipping an item that was sold with an error and then having it be returned.
Second, if the listing is still live, have a friend place a nuclear bid. Then end early to sell to the high bidder (they have now “won” and it isn’t just an ended and unsold item). Now cancel the transaction because the buyer changed their mind (unlike saying the buyer didn’t pay or the seller is out of stock, this reason doesn’t hurt either account). No fees get charged and you go on your merry way.