eBay – Out of Control!

September 8, 2023September 8, 2023Chris and Carol 3 Comments

I hadn’t looked at my selling fees on eBay in quite a while and with the recent sale of a classic Tomioka lens, I was shocked when I looked into the details of the sale. They charged 13.25% on the total amount collected which included shipping and taxes.

Yashica-Tomioka Auto Yashinon 55mm f/1.2 M42 mount lens.

The lens sold for $689.00. Shipping was $19.00 and sales tax was $70.62. My actual shipping was about $25.00. Instead of charging the 13.25% seller’s fee on just the $689.00, they charged 13.25% on the total of $778.62 which took $103.17 from my potential profit. In my opinion, this is outrageous since I don’t make a profit on shipping and certainly no profit on taxes. This is the last time I’ll sell something like this on eBay and will concentrate my selling on my Etsy site (www.ccstudio2380.com) and on Mercari. Goodbye eBay!

I originally purchased the lens many years ago for $600.00 with $50.00 shipping from Japan. As you can see, eBay’s fees for reselling it resulted in a slight loss. I did get to enjoy the lens for all of those years so at least it hadn’t resulted in a greater loss in value.

Thanks for stopping by. Do you have an eBay horror story? Share it here. – Chris

Follow me on Instagram at @ccphotographyai

Comments are always welcomed as I’ve learned quite a bit from reader feedback. As always, thanks for stopping by, and while you’re at it, feel free to visit my camera shop at http://www.ccstudio2380.com (CC Design Studios hosted by Etsy). – Chris Whelan

Please respect that all content, including photos and text, is this blog’s property and its owner, Yashica Pentamatic Fanatic, Yashica Sailor Boy, Yashica Chris, Chasing Classic Cameras with Chris.

More eBay nonsense

June 27, 2022June 27, 2022Chris and Carol 2 Comments

I’ve been active (very active) on eBay since 2003 and a seller since around 2008. I’ve purchased hundreds of items through eBay and of course, I’ve sold hundreds of items too. Here is eBay’s latest message to me about my performance.

**What gets me is the “what happens next”. See my current feedback below.**

My latest seller “dashboard”. I have purposefully cut back on listing items on eBay over the past 6 months or so and the decrease in sales is obvious. I have no negative comments and my ratings are all 5 stars. So, exactly where am I failing and why the threat of “further action”?

Ebay’s fees are getting out of hand especially since they divorced PayPal. It’s actually much more difficult to post a new listing as you have to answer a zillion questions about the item before it can be listed (as if you were there when it was made). And the final reason is this nonsense. I’m doing very well on Etsy (I have two shops) and I also do well on Mercari. Is anyone else having difficulties with the “new” eBay? Oh, I forgot about eBay’s constant push for 30-day free returns and free shipping. I’m not Amazon and I don’t own a shipping company so I don’t know how to ship items for free without raising my selling price just to cover costs. “Free returns” is a joke as guess who gets to pay that? If you don’t offer those options then your listing kind of exists without eBay ever promoting it.

Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful day (or evening)! – Chris

Follow me on Instagram at @ccphotographyai

Scams on eBay – beware of the too good to be true offer!

January 15, 2020January 17, 2020Chris and Carol Leave a comment

It’s always good advice to beware of the so-called “too good to be true” offers no matter where you encounter them, especially on eBay. I’ve alerted eBay about these messages but to no avail. They said that they would look into them but since I still receive them it’s unlikely eBay did much about it.

As you’ll see in these four messages from what looks like legitimate accounts an obvious trend. I’ll add that these messages are for the same item I have listed on eBay and the messages cover about a two month period. The item lists for around $1,800.

ebay msg

ebay msg 2

ebay msg 3

ebay msg 4

I believe that the scammer(s) hijack legitimate accounts that haven’t been active in a while so as to appear to be legit offers. I’ve never responded to any of these and I’ll never do so. Please, never engage a scammer as they are capable of almost anything and may be able to glean something of importance from any conversation that you may exchange with them.

I once had an offer to mail a full-size piano to Nigeria!

Thanks for stopping by! – Chris

Please respect that all content, including photos and text, are the property of this blog and its owner, Yashica Pentamatic Fanatic, Yashica Sailor Boy, Yashica Chris.

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eBay – Out of Control!

More eBay nonsense

Scams on eBay – beware of the too good to be true offer!