The Cost Of Doing Business On Ebay: The Article Ebay Does Not Want You To Read

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352

Summary:
We’ve all heard the stories of people making a surprisingly good living from opening up a business on eBay. Some people have even become millionaires thanks to the ease of use and global reach of eBay. You may say to yourselves, “It seems easy enough. If others can make a nice profit on eBay, why can’t I?” The truth is, eBay is not as profitable as you may think. The escalating costs of fees and marketing are forcing more and more people to shut down their eBay business.

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Article Body:
We’ve all heard the stories of people making a surprisingly good living from opening up a business on eBay. Some people have even become millionaires thanks to the ease of use and global reach of eBay. You may say to yourselves, “It seems easy enough. If others can make a nice profit on eBay, why can’t I?” The truth is, eBay is not as profitable as you may think. The escalating costs of fees and marketing are forcing more and more people to shut down their eBay business.

In August of this year, eBay announced to its members yet another increase in fees. For businesses who make their profit selling more expensive items, the fees don’t hurt as much. It’s the “little guys”, who make up the majority of eBay businesses, which are suffering the most. That is to say sellers that offer goods sold for less than $10.

The current fee structure for cheaply priced items is quite astounding. For this example, we will assume that the item being sold will be $5 or less. For items with a starting price of less than $1, eBay charges an insertion fee of $0.20. For its closing fee, eBay takes 5.25%. Now let’s assume you are using PayPal as your transactions service (this is the preferred method of payment for buyers and sellers on eBay). PayPal will take a fee of 2.9% in addition to a flat fee of $0.30. After all the fees you are left with $4.12. eBay and PayPal take a total of nearly 18% of your profit.

All those fees don’t even take the marketing costs into account. If you want to add a gallery picture, it will cost an extra $0.35. If you wanted to make your advertisement’s text in bold, tack on an extra $1.00. All these little fees add up and take a big chunk out of your profit.

Before spending time and money on starting a business on eBay, be sure to inform yourself on the potential fees you will be paying. The key to success is finding a niche that you can make enough to overcome these fees.