How Much Money EBay Stole From Me In The Last Week!!! This past 7 days I did an experiment. I had not listed on eBay in over two months so I really never had any idea what I was truly spending per item...
News-Antique.com - Nov 05,2008 - How Much Money EBay Stole From Me In The Last Week!!!
This past 7 days I did an experiment. I had not listed on eBay in over two months so I really never had any idea what I was truly spending per item in listing and final valuation fees… until now… My account was paid up and I was beginning from ground zero.
Well I put on 182 items of good to very good antique and vintage costume jewelry with most under $10.00, a number of them under $20.00 and a few under $40.00. None of my auction listings had any extra “bells and whistles” so that most listed for $.35 - $.90. I sold 55 auctions for $1,105.00… not bad for a week’s work? Can’t beat it huh!!! Well the week has ended and let me give you the total breakdown of my costs.
With the cost of 182 auctions’ listing fees, 30 items relisting fees and final valuation fees I owe eBay $305.55. So that means I now made $799.45… still not bad for a week’s work… right? Oh I forgot ebay buyers can now only pay with paypal and this is any estimated $133.99 in Paypal charges (remember this is still going into eBay’s pocket). Well that now brings me down to $665.46… okay not as good as I had hoped… but, oh I forgot the cost of my merchandise which at the low end is about $455.00 and which I also bought through eBay so they made more money from me when I made my bids to win it … now I made $210.46 … well now we are down below minimum wage for my 40 hours of work. And it gets worse, I offered FREE SHIPPING as eBay really like to get buyers and this will be about another $100.00… which leaves me with a grand total for the week of $110.46 divided by a 40 hour week makes my hourly rate $2.76 an hour.
So as you see between eBay and Paypal my original $1,105.00 income was reduced by 40% for their fees. This is higher than the highest tax bracket… this is higher than what an auctioneer would have charged and they would have actually worked for the money and probably sold everything.
Throughout the annals of time, I am sure that Ebay along with its subsidiary Paypal are the greediest two companies to have ever graced the face of the earth. One more point about eBay… when listing an auction, eBay would like to see you contribute a percentage of your sales to a charity from 10% to a whopping 100%. I really hope no eBay seller is under the delusion that eBay is sending a check to your favorite charity with your name on it… wrong …eBay is taking your hard earned charitable contribution and writing it off against their corporate taxes thus lowering eBay’s tax liability. EBay sellers fill eBay’s pockets with tons of cash and then eBay turns around
