There are actually some changes in there that are good! Particularly the one about removing multiple identical fixed-price listings; I do find that annoying.
Ebay will start to include shipping cost in the final value fees! eBay: 2011 Spring Seller Update - Fee update
Final Value Fees for all sellers will be applied to the total amount of the sale. Including shipping. Just read this in their spring seller update. I'm guessing ebay decided to no longer miss out on that chunk of the money.
This is what heppens when you have a monopoly on the market. Oh well... *goes off to buy and sell on eBay*
Yeah, I saw that this morning. None too happy either. I think I will try to sell stuff on these boards, craigslist and eBid now. I'm getting sick of eBay's lies. They are trying to claim that these new policies will help the eBay buyers. Couldn't be further from the truth. All the good sellers are getting punished because a few tried to skirt eBay's fee system by charging absurd shipping amounts (paired with a very low final value amount). Utterly ridiculous.
They will also be offering 50 free (any price) auction style listings. I might take advantage of that. I've been selling on the boards, ebid, and ebay a lot lately. The fees suck but can be handled if you include that in your price.
Don't be fooled by the 50 free listings. Example: I list a RotF scout class figure on eBay with a starting price of $4.99 with a BIN of $8. Because of the "free" listing, I save 35 cents (listing fee and BIN fee). When the auction ends, the item sells for $4.99 plus $5 for small flat rate shipping. Originally, the final value fee would come out to be $0.45. Now? It will be $0.90. Well look at that. You just lost $0.45 even though you were allowed to list the auction for "free." Even if you factor in the money you saved for the "free" listing, you are still losing money. So you want to try and get around the fees by including that in your shipping price? That just feeds the fee beast and ensures you will pay more fees on PayPal.
You know, as much as I hate Ebay having a monopoly and feel that they abuse their power, I actually agree with this change. I'm really tired of seeing $5 item price + $50 shipping fee for a deluxe or $45 item price + $45 shipping for a leader figure. I always think of the cost of the item as item price + shipping, but many people don't look at the shipping cost and get screwed.
