One of the most voted for suggestions in TameBay’s Skribit is “How can i pay less Ebay fees?”, so we’ll be running a series of three articles over the Bank Holiday weekend, with some ideas to do just that.
Firstly though you need to know what you already spend. Hand on heart how many of you know what you spent on Gallery fees last month? What about Bold, Featured Plus, Highlight and all of the other eBay listing enhancements? Do you know what you spend on insertion fees and what your final value fees cost you?
Unless you have a good understanding of where you’re spending your fees already, it’s nigh on impossible to identify how you can save money. eBay have made this easy with downloadable invoices, in your – Select your latest eBay invoice and download it into a spreadsheet program such as MS Excel. Then sort the entries by the fourth column – Fee Type, you’ll now be able to total up exactly what you’re spending for each type of eBay fees.
This should immediately give you some instant feedback on how you can save fees. The only good fees on your invoice are the Final Value Fees, as you’ll only incur those when you’ve made a sale. Scan down the other totals you’ll easily identify where your money is being spent.
Now you know where your money is going you can start to identify where you can cut back, and how to deploy it more strategically. Did you for instance discover as I did that you’ve a couple of relists that have Featured Plus on them? Are you spending a large amount on Bold or Highlighted listings? Just how much a month are you spending on Subtitles and are they all essential?
Examine your eBay invoice and you may be surprised to see just where your money is going. Tomorrow we’ll look at how to set a budget to ensure you deploy your funds effectively.
23 Responses
Am looking forward to this, thanks. Something positive!
Oh this will be ace stuff…:D
So come on then…. what was the biggest shocker on your invoice when your realised how much you were spending – or do you have everything under control? 🙂
Could be interesting to see, but the only way I could save much is by not listing as I don’t use any of the extras apart from gallery.
Chris – I’ll do a bit of adding up after I finish listing!
ebay fees are such a small part of our expense
we dont even look at the invoice
TIP,
Some downloadable reports are inclusive of vat others not so you could be spending 15% more than it seems at first sight.
I think it’s only downloaded Invoice data that includes VAT.
For example if you want to check FVF’s from 20th feb to 15th march and/or FVF’s for whole of march (these ranges are needed when checking discounts) then I you may need to Add VAT before getting the right answer.
Final Value fees are 42% of my invoice
Insertion fees 29%
Gallery also 29% (insertion fees higher by 35p, so get ranked 2nd 😆 )
Love some advice on how to improve that (rubs hands, Fagin fashion)
TC I am mathematically challenged… I DO know somewhere in the back of my feeble mind how to work out a number as a percentage of another number, but I can’t remember… can you remind me please?
thanks !
Fee Type x 100 divided by total invoice = % Fee Type of total invoice
9# Josordoni
Me too, that’s why I LOVE Excell 😆 (I always say I am maths intolerant)
Ha @ TC – Excel will only do what you tell it to…. you still have to know the formula to put the right one in!!
Thanks Chris…will do the maths later!!
dosh in the bank is the only equation that I know how to do 😀
For eBay TRUST seems to be a one way street!
Question?
Who checks their invoice?
And I mean checks not just the spend but the listing detail.
Answer: probably nobody.
You trust eBay then?
Probably you should not.
I have just, well few days ago, had my 15/5 invoice.
In that invoice I have 3 discount credits, being a PS of good standing with quali for 25%.
These discounts are for:
20/2 – 14/3 backdated (or should it be 15/3?)
March ‘double’
16/4 – 15/5 normal
I have checked my FVF for the relevant periods and the only correct one is for 16/4 – 15/5.
I have been given short discounts by a total of £34 for the other 2.
Rang PS Support, quoted me ‘discounts in your invoice will be right’
Said no they are not.
Quote ‘We will put you account under review’
Promised a reply within 30!!!!! days.
Got a quick reply ‘your invoice is right’
Well it simply is not. I know my relevant FVF’s (from eBay of course, oh dear !!!)
And the discount is just wrong. £34 short.
Will be ringing PS Support on Tuesday.
And this is just part 1 of were I think I am being ripped off by eBay just now.
I will sort part 1, give eBay the chance to sort part 2 (quickly please eBay and I know that you are watching!)
And then post somewhere here again.
In full support of a better eBay
John
You can actually sort the various types of fees right on the invoice on your invoice page, no need to download or use Excel, it even totals the figures for you too.
Go to Seller Account, on the gray line that shows your current balance, click “Fees” link.you can then sort by date, fee type or Item Number. select by “Fee Type” and hey presto all nicely laid out for you with totals of each fee type. it even splits up final value fees for Auction, BIN and SIF. you can even specifiy a bigger date range up to four months.
See, not as daft as I look. 😀
Thank you Richard – I didn’t know I could do this. Mind you having looked at the percentages I wish I hadn’t looked now!
29% Gallery
24% FVF
47% Insertion including shop
profit is the important criteria there is no profit in being paranoid
ebay fees are only expensive or worth saving if they dont work,
Richard, Am I right in thinking your method only includes fees since the last invoice so no good if you want a whole months figures?
Last month I downloaded and checked an invoice for the first time ever (looking for PS discounts) and discovered I had been spending £70 a month approx on featured…. Never intednded to put it on there so must have been accidently ticked in TL 😳
Naturally as I have taken someone on recently I blamed them and told them to be more careful when listing in future 😆
Ed, I thought that too, but then found a box at the top of the invoice listings at the right hand side, not apparent immediately, but there is a drop down menu so you can change from Since last invoice to a custom date range – click on the Four months bit, and then you’ll get the date range boxes.
They could have made it a bit more obvious, but hey! this is the World of eBay!
Using the short cut to fees doesn’t give a totally realistic view as it doesn’t include credits. You’ll receive insertion fee credits for relisted items that sell the second time of listing, and by referring to your downloaded invoice you don’t have to switch between the two views using the short cuts 😉
It’s not bad for a quick and dirty view though, so thanks for pointing it out Ed 😀
so thanks for pointing it out Ed
Waves frantically ’twas me. 😀
Using the short cut to fees doesn’t give a totally realistic view as it doesn’t include credits.
Home > My eBay > My Account > Seller Account > Account Status
and click on the “Credits” tab.
Apologies Richard, it was indeed you 😀