Oh goody! Ebay is going to let you list up to 100 items a month FREE…….as long as your starting price is 99 cent or under. They’ve even reduced listing fees for the other price ranged…….but they’ve also increased final value fees (fvf) – a LOT. Good going Ebay, try to cover up fee increases by making it look as though you’re doing something good for sellers.

Current fees on items selling for over $25 are 8.75% of the first $25 ($2.19) and 3.5% of the amount over that. Example: If you sell an item for $150, you are charged $2.19 for the first $25 and 3.5% on the remaining $125 ($4.37) for a fvf of $6.56.

(Keep in mind that on 2-2-08 fees were increased to the above, from 5.25% on first $25 and 3.25% on the remaining price.
At that time the fvf on a $150 selling price was $5.37.)

Coming in March 2010, fvf’s will be changed from a ‘tiered’ system to a flat 9% of the sale price. This means the same $150 costing $13.50 instead of $6.56, an increase of $6.94, A FVF FEE INCREASE OF 106%!

It appears that around $555, the fee tops out at an increase of 141%. Thanks to the $50 cap they are implementing on fees charged fees start going back down for sales over this amount. At a sales price of around $2000, fvf’s actually drop to below what they are now. (Chart at bottom of post)

The bottom line is, it doesn’t appear that the listing fee decrease Ebay brags about is going to cover the fvf increase. People listing for 99 cent or lower and actually selling for around that price, and those selling for around $2000 and up won’t see much of a change, but everyone else is going to be paying more. I imagine most sellers sell for above 99 cent and less than $2000, so the majority of casual sellers are getting royally screwed. Ebay is going to make (MORE) bank off this.

“Ebay’s Profit Exceeds Estimates After Holiday Shopping Surge” http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-01-20/ebay-s-profit-exceeds-estimates-after-holiday-shopping-surge.html . IMO this says quite a bit. Ebay is growing and while they are at it they are busily digging deeper into the pockets of sellers. Seems to me that as they lose sellers, sellers increase prices to make a little profit, buyers don’t buy as much, then Ebay profits end up going down. I won’t cry if that happens. From my point of view,yet again the ‘rich’ (in this case Ebay and their sellers who can afford to sell $2000+ items) get richer, and the average joe gets screwed again.

Thanks, Ebay, thanks a lot for another slap for many sellers in these rough economic times.