As from the first of May, Ebay ups their commission from 7.9% of the final sale value to 9.9%. The last change 12 months ago, that made them a flat 7.9% changing from a multi-tier system, which was arguably cheaper for lower priced items.
The move is slowly changing EBay from an Auction site into a browsing to the instant purchase. Insertion fees are all but gone for the casual lister, even for the Buy it Now option. Sellers must consider the GST level of tax when selling items. And thats before you pay quarterly GST if you are a business. There will be a lot more Buy it Now buttons on items come June, just to ensure the margin necessary to cover all these fees.
EBay's profits are down on last year, but their PayPal system brought in a larger portion of the firm's profit. So if you sell on EBay and receive monies via PayPal, you'll be slugged another 2.4% on your sale. Gone are the days when you spent a half a dozen dollars to get an entry put into the old Trading Post.
Don't begrudge a monopoly player acting like one, but there are a set of free listing me too sites in Australia to choose from, that are becomming quite popular:
gumtree.com.au - Free to list, free to sell, but feature advertising spots are a dollar or two for a range of, front page, front of search list options.
tradingpost.com.au - An old timer which recently stopped its fortnightly issue dead tree edition. Free to List, free to sell. Mainly listings for cars, boats and caravans.
craigslist.com.au - Underused in Australia, but not dead. Each major Australian city is prefixed before craigslist in the URL. Free to list, free to sell, no fees at all.
There are dozens of others that don't get any exposure, because frankly they aren't used. One can list their item for sale in twelve different places. If its rare, or unique you might have people stumble upon your hidden gem. Alternatively list on EBay at a price that won't sell, with the realistic price inserted for the same item elsewhere.
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