Hi Ebayers, eBay is a great platform for both buyers and sellers with over 183 million active accounts worldwide (as per the 2019 3rd quarter report). There are few facts which most of the eBay buyers not aware of;
- Seller not going to get the full amount you paid! Yes, it’s true; for each transaction, the seller has to pay PayPal and eBay fee. PayPal fee is 2.99+30 cents. eBay fee is 10% for a regular account (no store). If you sell a $1 item or a $10,000 item, the fee is the same! There are 3 different store categories with a monthly subscription fee (Basic, Premium & Anchor) and will get discounts on final value fee based on their store category, Here is the link to eBay fee page for your reference
- Shipping - Do you know the same PayPal+eBay fee applied for shipping fee too? Yes! 2.99 PayPal fee (as you are paying the shipping fee with the items purchase it will be considered as a single transaction so the 30 cents not applicable for shipping) and 10% eBay fee for shipping amount collected as well.
Check the final fee calculator here to get an idea of what the seller could get from your purchase.
- Scammers– In these 183 million users there are many bad apples too. As per eBay and PayPal Buyer protection policy if the seller couldn’t provide a tracking ID the seller has to refund the full amount to the buyer in case of a dispute/item not delivered claim. The scammers take advantage of this and scammed 1000’s of sellers. For most of the sellers for a low-cost item (say below $30-$40) they can’t force the buyer to pay the tracked shipping fee (which will be 40%-50% of the actual item cost) and if they do, the item won’t sell for sure!. So regular shipping is gambling for any seller and has to wait fingers crossed.
On the other note, there are no restrictions on the number of eBay accounts one person can have, you need different email addresses for each. As per the response from - eBay support they got a screening system but in our experience, it didn’t really worked. So the scammers create a new account when they get blocked and continues to collect their freebies and refunds.
- Mail Carrier – There are occasions the mail carrier itself screw-up the shipment. So the above eBay and PayPal Buyer protection policy are applicable here too.
- Feedback – Some buyers immediately leave negative feedback for a seller even without trying to resolve the issue by contacting the seller. To keep 100% positive feedback is a mammoth task challenge for any seller. So please contact the seller to resolve the issue and most of the sellers will work with you.
These are some of the challenges an eBay seller faces on a daily basis. If you have any comments/questions, please let us know.
