eBay increasing listing fees for bullion

[pmbug]

They are more than doubling the listing fees for bullion to 7% (for dealers with a store subscription - it's 10% for individuals with no store subscription if they sell more that 50 items a month).

Details: http://pages.ebay.com/sellerinformation/news/springupdate2013/springfeesimplification.html

This might drive dealers out of the eBay market if they can't see enough margin to turn a profit.

 

[swissaustrian]

Aren't there other p2p networks for small dealers that have lower fees?
If not, this might be worth creating one...

 

[ancona]

It appears that E-bay simply does not want gold and silver sales on their site. who in the world would pay 7 to 10% more for metal if they didn't have to? That's just stupid if you ask me. Greedy as well.

 

[pmbug]

They aren't adding the fees to sale prices (ie. the the buyer doesn't notice them). They are taking their cut from the sellers. It's likely going to drive a lot of sellers (high volume dealers) out of their market.

For example, a gold eagle auction is won for total price of $1,600. The buyer pays the $1,600, but the seller ends up receiving about $1,400 after ebay, paypal and shipping/insurance fees are subtracted.

 

[swissaustrian]

Shitty deal for the seller, why would anybody offer bullion on Ebay?

 

[DoChenRollingBearing]

...

Another effect: the eBay / 24hgold gold price widget will get wrecked by this. The widget is one of the few (but very imperfect) ways to gauge premium of physical Gold Eagles vs. spot price.

 

[mmerlinn]

I played with the fee calculator some. It looks like dealer costs to sell 1 ounce of gold go up about 50% ($72 old, $105 new).

 

[Unbeatable]

Is it possible that Ebay bullion sales are harder to track, keep account of?

Maybe easier to drive buyers to the big suppliers so if your total purchases equals an amount worth confiscating, be easy for them to find out.

 

[bushi]

They aren't adding the fees to sale prices (ie. the the buyer doesn't notice them). They are taking their cut from the sellers. (...)

...well, since no dealer/company is here for the charitable purposes, guess who's the final tag is going to be passed on?

It is quite often that we see that "reversed logic", when some fees/taxes/tariffs are being imposed, by whomever - it is never "the small folk/consumer", who is being intentionally targeted, always these "greedy bastards" (who provide them products/services, that everybody else agrees voluntarily to part with their money for), yet in the end - it is always the small folk, where the buck stops - sellers will simply up the price to compensate for their lower margins.

Of course, some of the sellers might not make it through the transition, therefore, it lowers the competition, and because lower competition among the sellers, the "small folk" gets double-whacked, but hey, who cares.

 

[pmbug]

Having watched auctions on ebay before, I can tell you that buyers there know what the going rate is for physical delivered from an online retailer. Most auctions end on a price very close to what it would cost to buy from a retailer.

Sellers are going to have a hard time selling on ebay if they raise reserve limits on their listings to accommodate the fee increase.

 

[Cybrsk8r]

I don't know

I'm not sure I really believe that. Looking at the auctions for Scotsdale Silver, a lot of the buyers overpay. 10 5-gram bars typically go for over $90 and I've seen them over $100. I was bidding on some of Scotsdale's auctions. I'd bid a dollar or two above the price point based on the weight of the metal (since they offered free shipping, it was still an alright deal for me). I got outbid 95% of the time.

 

[pmbug]

Don't know how it is now, but a while back, ebay was allowing people to earn "ebay bucks" on bullion purchases. Folks in the know could use coupons/programs to get bonus "points" in the system and thus they were able to pay a little bit more for things than folks who weren't hip to the game.