# I really need to keep better track of what eBay is charging me to sell stuff! **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [July 30, 2011, 11:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-really-need-to-keep-better-track-of-what-ebay-is-charging-me-to-sell-stuff/590872 "2011-07-30T23:38:53Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2011, 11:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-really-need-to-keep-better-track-of-what-ebay-is-charging-me-to-sell-stuff/590872/1 "2011-07-30T23:38:53Z")
I sell stuff on eBay all the time, mainly thrift finds, but it more of hobby than anything else so I haven’t really been keeping up with all the little internal charges the apply against the sale until the other day when, as a favor, I sold a watch for the head of my real estate firm. I then had to break out the charges for him to tell him how much it cost him to sell it … and wow! I thought my total transaction costs would be around 7 or 8%, they are actually around 12%. I also see they snuck in a new fee to charge me a percentage on my shipping costs! What bastards! Watch - Sold - (290.00) $ 1.00 for pictures – eBay charge $ .45 final value charge for shipping $ 26.10 - eBay final selling fee charged by eBay 8.85 - Paypal fee charged by Paypal 36.40 – Total cost to sell Net $ 253.60 ---
**Author:** ![OpalCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/8edcca/32.png) [@OpalCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OpalCat)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2011, 5:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-really-need-to-keep-better-track-of-what-ebay-is-charging-me-to-sell-stuff/590872/2 "2011-07-31T05:15:38Z")
YIkes! I thought they just charged a percentage of the total selling price! ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2011, 1:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-really-need-to-keep-better-track-of-what-ebay-is-charging-me-to-sell-stuff/590872/3 "2011-07-31T13:51:17Z")
It’s become painful to use, particularly for more costly items. I gave up selling coins of any value on there. The only way you can recoup your costs is to set a reserve price that includes all of those expenses, but that really limits the number of bids you’ll receive. ---
**Author:** ![voltaire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voltaire/32/313_2.png) [@voltaire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/voltaire)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2011, 2:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-really-need-to-keep-better-track-of-what-ebay-is-charging-me-to-sell-stuff/590872/4 "2011-07-31T14:00:27Z")
Hence, the nickname FeeBay. ---
**Author:** ![iamthewalrus\_3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/258eb7/32.png) [@iamthewalrus\_3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iamthewalrus_3)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2011, 12:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-really-need-to-keep-better-track-of-what-ebay-is-charging-me-to-sell-stuff/590872/5 "2011-08-02T00:11:59Z")
> [@astro](#): > > I also see they snuck in a new fee to charge me a percentage on my shipping costs! What bastards! To be fair, that’s because it became routine for people to charge outrageous costs for shipping because there weren’t any fees on it, to try to hide as much of the item value in the shipping cost as possible.