How to Avoid eBay Fees to Sell for Higher Profit?

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Despite its humble beginnings in 1995, eBay has developed into a cultural icon. You’ve probably heard people talk about it or used it on TV, in movies, or on the internet, even though you’ve never used it on your own.

This is due to the fact that you can buy and sell almost anything online. Millions of sales are made on a regular basis. In 2019, eBay grossed a whopping $10.8 billion.

And for a good cause, eBay is the top-recommended website for online sellers. There is a lot of traffic on eBay, as we have already listed. It is frequented by as much as 182 million dedicated clients! eBay is a popular distribution platform and shopping site with millions of buyers, billions of listings, and many app downloads.

Anyone can register free of charge with an eBay account. You can sell your things, as well as buy things. There are some related charges, such as listing fees, if you have a vendor account. Depending on the price you sell your products and how long you show them, the costs can vary.

Success on the site all boils down to making profits. To help you do that, we have built this eBay seller fees guide and how to reduce them so that you can improve your earnings and maximize your success.

How much does it cost when selling on eBay?

Just like it takes money for Walmart and Amazon users to gain profit, selling goods on eBay also Costs money. It’s essential to consider eBay’s seller fees and where you can make savings to consistently make a decent profit on the products you sell and have enough money left over to spend on ads, SEO, and business development.

The seller fees for eBay consist of the following four fees:

1. Monthly fee

2. Insertion Fee (Listing Fee)

Whenever you create or relist a listing on eBay, an Insertion Fee, also known as a listing fee, is billed, regardless of whether a transaction is made by that listing.

The insertion fee is determined depending on the category in which the item is classified, with 250 free per month for sellers. Furthermore, the regular entry charge for specific categories is $0.3 per page except for the following

• Musical Instruments & Gear > Guitars & Basses: free
• Men > Men’s Shoes > Athletic Shoes: free for starting prices of more than $100
• Women > Women’s Shoes > Athletic Shoes = free for starting prices of more than $100
• Heavy Equipment Parts & Attachments > Heavy Equipment = $20 / listing
• Printing & Graphic Arts > Commercial Printing Presses = $20 / listing
• Restaurant & Food Service > Food Trucks, Trailers & Carts = $20 / listing.

You also need to consider these facts. Insertion fees are:

• Non-refundable even if the item is not sold
• Charged according to listing and type. If you list your items in two categories, you will also pay an insertion fee for both categories.
• Charged for the original listing and any time you select your item to be relisted
• Charged per listing if you make multiple listings for similar products in the auction format.
• Charged only once per listing for listings with different items.

3. Final Value Fee

When a product is sold on eBay, eBay charges a Final Value Fee Fee.

This fee is measured as a percentage of the sale’s overall cost. The net cost of the sale, plus all delivery and storage costs, is the cost the buyer spends. Sales tax is not part of the equation.

If the buyer does not pay for any reason, to be eligible for a final value fee refund, you need to either terminate the sale or report it as an unpaid item.

The regular final value fee for a majority of categories is 10% (up to $750), with the exception of these categories.

• Books, DVDs, Movies, and Music (except Records): 12%, up to $750
• Musical Instruments & Gear > Guitars & Basses: 3.5% up to $350
• Men > Men’s Shoes > Athletic Shoes: 0% for selling prices of more than $100
• Women > Women’s Shoes > Athletic Shoes: 0% for selling prices of more than $100
• Heavy Equipment Parts & Attachments > Heavy Equipment: 2%, up to $300
• Printing & Graphic Arts > Commercial Printing Presses: 2%, up to $300
• Restaurant & Food Service > Food Trucks, Trailers & Carts: 2%, up to $300.

4. Listing upgrade fees

Finally, when creating a listing on eBay, you can improve your listing by adding and paying for additional features. These include;

• Auction-styled listings of 1, 3, 5, 7, and 10-day duration

• Good Until Cancelled listings

These upgrades are optional, meaning that you have complete control over costs.

Read more:

• How Much Does Ebay Charge?
• How to Sell on eBay?
• Is Mercari or eBay Better for you to Sell On?

How to avoid eBay fees for maximum profit?

Your eBay seller fees will quickly start piling up, as you can see, and that is not included in the price you are going to invest in eBay listing designs, ads, and promotion. Although you can not bargain directly with eBay about its price scheme, there are possibilities you can decrease your total eBay seller payments to raise your profits and return on investment (ROI)

1. Take advantage of zero insertion fees

There are six distinct eBay store subscriptions to pick, each with their own monthly fee. While it can be enticing to go for the cheapest alternative, based on the amount of goods you offer, this may potentially cost you more in the longer term.

This is due to the number of zero-insertion fee listings per month that comes with each membership.

Accordingly, a Starter seller listing 1000 items each month will pay a monthly subscription membership of $4.95 and listing fees of $225 per month. Meanwhile, a Basic seller will have to pay a subscription fee of $21.95 but profit off their discounted listings fees at 0.25$ (and 350 free listings), which is amounted to only 162.5$ for 650 additional listings.

That is why you should select the subscription form ideally matched to the volume of listings you can insert each month if you want to decrease your insertion fees.

2. Take into account Listing Upgrades

With additional enhancements, listing changes such as making news bold, inserting a subtitle, or highlighting the listings, individual improvements that eBay says would help make products sell easier is another way to leverage fees. You should even pay to advertise the listing because in customer searches, it shows up better.

In some instances, the updates to the list are not worth the cost. They will cost up to $0.35 per listing, so first, try them on a couple of listings, then make your pick. Also, be mindful that for $1 on listings, eBay often slips in a “enlarge gallery photo” option.

You should also search the bottom of the page for the cumulative payments before uploading a listing to prevent these costs. Make sure you get whatever is right for your store subscription amount. You will still have to pay if you press send and eBay has popped in an update.

3. Become a top-rated seller.

By being a top-rated seller, retailers can even cut off extra fees. Sellers who meet the required conditions are entitled to earn a 10 % discount on final value charges.

To become top-rated, the seller needs to

• Be a member on eBay for at least 90 days,
• Make at least 100 purchases and producing sales of more than $1,000.
• Conform to a set of requirements including eBay’s selling procedures detect rate, cases closed without seller settlement, and late shipping rate, which means you must not get any return problems for products that are not as defined or unsolved return problems

4. Choose annual subscription

Once you have chosen the right subscription for your expected listing volume, you will automatically lower your monthly fee by opting for an annual subscription. While it can sound overwhelming to dedicate your company for a whole year, it can also give you the optimistic attitude required to carry your company into the future.

5. Reclaim non-paying penalties for bidders

If a purchaser doesn’t pay for their item within the time limit, you will still automatically be made to pay the final value payment. You can settle with the customer to terminate the purchase or report it as unpaid to eBay to earn this chargeback as a refund.

When relisting the item, you can also apply for an insertion fee refund, as long as you fulfill the relisting procedure within 90 days of the original listing closing, retaining the same or lower starting price than the original listing.

6. Simplify your listings

You have numerous choices available for listing updates and end up with a hefty bill at the end. It is crucial to track and measure the Return on investment when choosing listing updates. Compared to non-bold listings, if bold listings don’t produce more than $6 worth of benefit, skip the update.

Who is selling on eBay and why you should too?

There are a few different styles of eBay sellers. You have your newbies or novice resellers who sell a few products at a set price, and then you’ve got PowerSellers. PowerSellers are experienced sellers who spend a great deal of time sourcing merchandise, packing merchandise, delivering and obtaining goods and managing auction.

For starters, Ellen eBay, an amateur reseller, has a lot of fashion. She is a fashionista who quickly moves through stylish clothes. She turns to her wardrobe to make more money and sells her lightly worn designer threads under a fixed-price listing.

Video Game Vince is a collector of games and comic books and a PowerSeller. He is scouring the internet to resell comic book collectibles and video game action figures. He has a flourishing eBay company devoted to reselling rare and hard-to-find products for gaming / comic books.

• International market place: eBay receives a lot of traffic. As many as 164 million engaged customers frequent to it! Not all of these individuals can become clients, but there are plenty of individuals looking for the goods you sell.

• Ideal market place: Customers love the convenience of purchasing everything, all from one place. Also, most online shoppers trust a household name like eBay, instead of a new retailer they have never used or heard of.

Besides, on eBay, you can sell almost everything: household furniture, memorabilia, random trinkets, antique toys, clothes, g

Unlike other online stores, on eBay, sellers can auction off or register their products as a ‘Buy It Now’ listing.

• eBay does not compete with you for customers: Unlike Amazon, eBay does not sell goods on its marketplace, which makes sure that they will not try to promote their products and hide yours

• Phone customer service: When you have an immediate problem, you must speak to someone and get it solved right away. eBay can help you with that. They’re open from 5 AM to 10 PM every day.

• Minimum time investment needed. If you really want to, you can list your things and forget about them. You do not have to invest your time in promoting your goods

Related posts:

• How to Block Buyers on eBay
• 12 Best eBay Dropshipping Tools
• 3 Easy Ways to Find a Seller on eBay
• How to Safely Put Your eBay Store on Vacation Mode

Conclusion

Paying fees is an inevitable aspect of doing business on eBay, and every month there are plenty of fees that can be piled up. There are fees for optional listing updates, advertised listings, and fees for failure to meet expectations as a seller. It is not to mention the necessary insertion fees when you surpass a preset number of listings per month and final value payments on purchases and delivery, which all sellers are subjected to.

Here, we have introduced some particular measures that vendors may take to help minimize their fees. We hope that in such a tumultuous and unexpected time like we are experiencing with COVID 19, you and your bank account can both stay safe and sound