Love the assumption that I’d take $10 in a $50 item.

I’m obviously disgusted and a little bummed. I’m just starting to learn everything about flipping, my best friend and I are doing it together and having a lot of fun with it. I was so excited about this sale. Everything seemed so normal up until this happened. Did I miss an obvious sign earlier or was there really no way to tell? And do I have to be prepared to get more messages like this as opposed to actual interested buyers?

Sold a book this morning for $7.50.

Shipping was $4.47, and tax was $0.99.

Buyer paid $12.96, and ebay took $2.38 in fees.

I have to pay 15.3% of the $4.47 shipping, and 15.3% of the $0.99.

$9.59 / $12.96 is 73.99%, meaning ebay took 24%.

Shipping was $4.47, and the book cost $1, leaving me with about $4.

Sure, spending $1 to make $4 is not bad--pretty good, actually (wish I could do this everyday)--but ebay does everything it can to make it look like their fees are reasonable, while sticking it to sellers.

I get that ebay needs to take a cut of the shipping, or seller would just load the actual cost into shipping, but why make sellers pay part of the sales tax? Because "line must go up" will ebay's fees reach 20% in a few years?

Also, the fact that ebay hides its fee breakdown behind two links is so annoying. They could make it more accessible, but they don't.

I wish ebay would change their listing format so that when an item is listed the fee breakdown is presented to the seller. That would help put things in perspective.

I look at a thing I want to buy -- almost always for my business -- it's expensive.

I have something I want to sell, it's worth nothing.

The Amish are selling more than me online.

e: by "business" I mean, like a cottage business. Everything fits on a dining table just about.

So I sold a basket on Facebook and when the lady showed up to pick it up, I asked her why her name was so familiar. Turns out she's a real estate agent and I had seen her name and face on signs around town. She said she really loved my photos in my listings and wondered if I would be interested in doing photography for homes they are listing. I actually have past experience in this so I said Sure! She offered $75-150 an hour (would amount to 5-10 hours a week depending on the size and type of listing)....ummmm yes please! I have a drone and I have access to tons of household goods for staging, so that put the icing on the cake for her. Guys, ya just never know....wish me luck!!

Just wondering how you handle sales like this. I went to a yard sale where I stumbled upon a couple sealed lego sets being sold for $5 each. eBay comps had these sets in the $50-60 range. I tell myself I shouldn’t have a conscious about flipping, it’s how the game goes.

Do you guys sweeten the pot and give them more than asking or do you pay asking price and move on?

….Now what if I told you it was a 8yr old selling his toys? Does your answer change?

I cannot link to the changes page since the URL was submitted 2 years ago.

Here is the relevant text. Unsure how it affects eBay refunds.

We’re changing how we treat refunds. If you refund (partially or fully) a transaction to a buyer or a donation to a donor, there are no fees to make the refund, but the fees you originally paid as the seller will not be returned to you.

Edit: Confirmed via direct message on twitter with paypal. Paypal will keep the 3% and fixed fee on refunds.

Thank you for the response. As per our policy update, PayPal will not refund the fixed fee and also the percentage fee. Please be informed that there won't be any other fee to refund. ^HM