The New ebay: The Official Guide to Buying, Selling, Running a Profitable Business

Chapter 28

eBay and PayPal fees

Now we’ve covered how to establish a professional presence on eBay it’s important to understand how eBay and PayPal charges sellers. Over the years I’ve met many sellers who have criticised eBay fees, but in my opinion they represent great value for money when you take into account the 7 million–plus Australians who visit the site every month and the other options online businesses have, such as creating their own website from scratch and paying for an effective search engine marketing campaign (such as Google advertising). I think of the overheads my own father had to outlay in creating his small (offline) business. Had eBay been around back then, how much more efficient his business would have been, and how many more potential customers he’d have been able to tap into 24 hours per day, seven days a week!

Whatever your view on the value of eBay’s and PayPal’s fees, it’s important to consider all the benefits selling on the site brings. If you investigate other options you may find cheaper alternatives, but you’ll struggle to find a larger customer base than eBay’s. eBay fees tend to change on a fairly regular basis — at least annually — so make sure you continue to check the site for the latest information. As covered in chapter 22, eBay and PayPal fees are one component of your cost per sale. Look at all the options offered by both companies to ensure you have optimised your profit and elected to pay the lowest fees possible.

Fees also vary ...