# Why does Paypal deduct a fee on EBay sales beyond shipping? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 6, 2015, 1:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-paypal-deduct-a-fee-on-ebay-sales-beyond-shipping/714355 "2015-03-06T13:13:46Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Linden\_Arden](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/53a042/32.png) [@Linden\_Arden](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Linden_Arden)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2015, 1:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-paypal-deduct-a-fee-on-ebay-sales-beyond-shipping/714355/1 "2015-03-06T13:13:46Z")
I understand the 10% fee EBay charges. But I recently sold an item for $210.50 on EBay but only $204.10 was forwarded to my Paypal account. On top of that I paid $5.25 for shipping which is a separate line item. In the future I will pay EBay a 10% commission. Why was $6.40 deducted? Is that typical? I seldom sell items on EBay. Thanks. ---
**Author:** ![JKilez](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e5b9ba/32.png) [@JKilez](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKilez)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2015, 1:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-paypal-deduct-a-fee-on-ebay-sales-beyond-shipping/714355/2 "2015-03-06T13:16:30Z")
PayPal takes 2.9% plus 30 cents. ---
**Author:** ![Linden\_Arden](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/53a042/32.png) [@Linden\_Arden](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Linden_Arden)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2015, 1:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-paypal-deduct-a-fee-on-ebay-sales-beyond-shipping/714355/3 "2015-03-06T13:23:26Z")
> [@JKilez](#): > > PayPal takes 2.9% plus 30 cents. Wow. And EBay is trying to spin Paypal off? They have a captive market don’t they? Thanks. I didn’t know that. ---
**Author:** ![JKilez](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e5b9ba/32.png) [@JKilez](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKilez)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2015, 1:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-paypal-deduct-a-fee-on-ebay-sales-beyond-shipping/714355/4 "2015-03-06T13:24:54Z")
Their fee is really no worse than those of credit card companies. ---
**Author:** ![campp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c5a1d2/32.png) [@campp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/campp)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2015, 1:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-paypal-deduct-a-fee-on-ebay-sales-beyond-shipping/714355/5 "2015-03-06T13:40:28Z")
They are not a philanthropic organization. 🙂 I didn’t know ebay was spinning them off. They aquired PayPal a while back. Don’t forget PP is not just for ebay, but useful everywhere. ---
**Author:** ![chrisk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@chrisk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chrisk)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2015, 2:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-paypal-deduct-a-fee-on-ebay-sales-beyond-shipping/714355/6 "2015-03-06T14:22:46Z")
You probably know some of this already, but: Ebay’s cut is something like an agent’s fee, for letting you use their system to try and find a buyer. Paypal’s cut is payment processing, for taking the buyer’s money in a way that they trust and giving you most of it. ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2015, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-paypal-deduct-a-fee-on-ebay-sales-beyond-shipping/714355/7 "2015-03-06T15:12:46Z")
> [@campp](#): > > They are not a philanthropic organization. 🙂 “PayPal will be free, forever.” - their claim for the first year of existence. Too bad the skim from float didn’t make them rich, so they had to add fees much like any other service. I love how the “free and democratic” net turns most bright ideas to calculating money grabs. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Slant](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c57346/32.png) [@Mr.Slant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Slant)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2015, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-paypal-deduct-a-fee-on-ebay-sales-beyond-shipping/714355/8 "2015-03-06T15:19:19Z")
They’ve got credit card processing fees, so they have to charge SOMETHING. Those run like 2%, so if half of sales are fed by credit cards instead of e-checks, they’d need to charge 1% to break even. They’re the most expensive CC processor I’ve seen, particularly if you’re doing volume, but they have to charge something. ---
**Author:** ![Bones\_Daley](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bc8723/32.png) [@Bones\_Daley](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bones_Daley)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2015, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-paypal-deduct-a-fee-on-ebay-sales-beyond-shipping/714355/9 "2015-03-06T20:14:43Z")
Worth noting that Ebay now charge a fee on the total amount that the seller receives. In the past only the amount of the actual item cost was liable for Ebay fees … the shipping cost was exempt. This previous system became grossly abused by some traders who would sell an item for 99 cents and charge $50.00 shipping. Nowadays , of course, sellers factor in the fee on shipping into the shipping cost, so the upshot is that the buyer ends up paying more than previously. ---
**Author:** ![Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e47c2d/32.png) [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2015, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-paypal-deduct-a-fee-on-ebay-sales-beyond-shipping/714355/10 "2015-03-06T21:27:59Z")
> [@Bones\_Daley](#): > > Nowadays , of course, sellers factor in the fee on shipping into the shipping cost, so the upshot is that the buyer ends up paying more than previously. The seller can’t even do that if selling an item for which eBay decrees a [maximum shipping cost](http://pages.ebay.com/help/sell/maximum_shipping.html). ---
**Author:** ![Bear\_Nenno](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bear_nenno/32/3358_2.png) [@Bear\_Nenno](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bear_Nenno)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2015, 12:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-paypal-deduct-a-fee-on-ebay-sales-beyond-shipping/714355/11 "2015-03-07T00:16:16Z")
> [@Amateur\_Barbarian](#): > > “PayPal will be free, forever.” - their claim for the first year of existence. > > Too bad the skim from float didn’t make them rich, so they had to add fees much like any other service. I love how the “free and democratic” net turns most bright ideas to calculating money grabs. 🙂 It is free for the buyer. There are no extra fees when I shop online with paypal. It is free forever. ---
**Author:** ![actualliberalnotoneofthose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e79b87/32.png) [@actualliberalnotoneofthose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/actualliberalnotoneofthose)\ **Post date:** [March 7, 2015, 2:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-paypal-deduct-a-fee-on-ebay-sales-beyond-shipping/714355/12 "2015-03-07T02:46:47Z")
It’s a bargain and nice benefit. Go get your own merchant account, and see how bad it is. That said, while 99% of my money comes through paypal at some point, I stopped selling on eBay a few years ago. At the time, policies had been getting worse for quite some time. The shipping maximums that are sometimes less than postage, taking a % of the shipping in addition to the sales price (Ihough it was annoying when you would sell an item for $25 plus $5 shipping and your competitor sold it for 99 cents and charged $29 shipping to circumvent fees.), all that stuff sucks. It’s a cost of doing business, and even if you aren’t in “business” and just want to sell your old stuff, paying these fees will net more for your items than the previous alternatives. For a time I had a business just buying stuff from in-person auctions and selling them on eBay. I’d rather sell something for $100 on ebay and get $80 after fees than sell it for $1 at a yard sale (extreme but reality-based example).