To Ebay or not to Ebay, that is the question

I have done a lot of business with Ebay over the years. Some as a seller and some as a buyer. Over the course of the years, the fees charged by Ebay have steadily climbed. Here is their published fee schedule:

Insertion Fee - If you want to sell on item on eBay, you create a listing using the Sell Your Item form. When you list an item, you are charged an Insertion Fee for the listing. The Insertion Fee is based on what you decide is the Starting Price of your item or the Reserve Price if one is included. For example, you want to sell your Sony camera. You list it with a Starting Price of $60.00. The Insertion Fee would be $2.00 (from the table on the fee page which range from 10 cents to $4.00).

Final Value Fee - If the item sells, you are charged a Final Value Fee. The Final Value Fee is based on the final amount the item sells for. The Final Value Fee does not include shipping costs. For example, your item sells for $153.00. Your Final Value Fee would be $6.67. This is calculated as follows: $2.19 (.0875 times $25.00) plus $4.48 (.0325 times $128.00) for a total of $6.67.

Listing upgrades - Additionally, you may want to add a subtitle or an extra picture to your listing, a charge would be added for each listing upgrade. The charges also depend on the category and format you list in.

PayPal Fee - 2.9% + $0.30 USD

In addition to these exorbitant fees, they are restructering their feedback policy so that a seller cannot leave negative feedback and holding PayPal monies for a period of time.

This is really a story of David Vs. Goliath, but unfortunately, I believe Goliath is going to win.

By the time you actually sell something on Ebay, a large portion of your take are going to fees!

I am going to boycott Ebay for now, but sadly, I'll eventually come back!

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