The END of the 0.99 Auction.
eBay has updated it’s fee policy lately, and it’s time to genuinely take a look at how this affects Sports Trading Card Sales
AUCTION LISTINGS
To start, you get 50 free auctions per month:
For 99-cent auctions, you save $5.00 (0.10 x 50) per month!
For $200 start auctions, you save 100 ($2 x 50) per month!
EBAY HAS SWITCHED TO 9% UNLIMITED FEES, THOUGH. MAXIMUM is $100 (or $1111 final price)
EBAY HAS SWITCHED TO FEES ON SHIPPING, THOUGH.
PAYPAL HAS 2.9% + 0.30 (under 3000, non-merchants)
Here’s an example:
You sell a 0.99 card with 3.00 Shipping
EBAY: 3.99 x 0.09 = 0.36
PAYPAL: (3.99 x 0.029) + 0.30 = 0.42
POSSIBLE eBay Insertion Fee: 0.10
TOTAL FEES: $0.78! (with $0.88 potential!)
This is the death of the 0.99 cent card. Fees on eBay have increased from $0.09 to $0.36 on these cheap cards.
Additional Card Fees will also be hit:
You charge an additional (1.00 per card) ,(0.50 per card) or (0.25 per card)
You get changed 2.9% (paypal) and ebay fees $0.09 (1.00ex), $0.05 (0.50ex) $0.03 (0.25ex)
For a total of $0.12 (1.00ex) or $0.07 (0.50ex) or $0.04 (0.25ex)
Thus, two cards, combined shipping at 0.99 each is (1.98 cards) (3.00 Shipping) (0.50 extra) or 5.48 is 0.49 (ebay) and 0.46 (paypal) and possibly 0.20 for listing. Therefore, you close at 0.95 in fees! or make about 1.53 even if you charge 0.50 per additional item!
On 0.25 per additional item, you get 5.23 – (0.47ebay) – (0.30pp_initial) – (0.15) and clear 1.31 for two 0.99 cards!
On Free Combined, 4.98 total minus 0.45 (ebay) and 0.14 (paypal) and 0.30 (pp_inital) or 0.98 CENTS! YOU CLEAR 1.00 ON TWO 0.99 cards w/ free combined!
There is just no reason to ever list a card that may only get a bid or two at 0.99 ever again. I have a feeling that there’s a good amount of moronic sellers that will continue to list cards at 0.99 start price, so buyers shouldn’t suffer too much. But as time passes, I think it’s fair to assume that card prices will slowly approach 1.99 starting price and buyers will suffer.
Player collectors really drive the hobby and as a player collector myself, I’m not exactly excited about having to pay more money to knock off the cheap cards. Yes, there’s COMC and Sportslots, but a lot of player collectors still use eBay.
With only fifty free auctions, I find it pretty difficult to believe that those auctions will be used on 99-centers.
Even some of the cheaper Auctions will be affected.
| Closing Price | Ship | NET | PP_INIT | PP_% | eBay_% | Total Fees | Non-Free Net |
| 1.00 | 3.00 | 0.22 | 0.30 | 0.12 | 0.36 | 0.78 | 0.12 |
| 2.00 | 3.00 | 1.11 | 0.30 | 0.15 | 0.45 | 0.90 | 1.01 |
| 3.00 | 3.00 | 1.99 | 0.30 | 0.17 | 0.54 | 1.01 | 1.89 |
| 4.00 | 3.00 | 2.87 | 0.30 | 0.20 | 0.63 | 1.13 | 2.77 |
| 5.00 | 3.00 | 3.75 | 0.30 | 0.23 | 0.72 | 1.25 | 3.65 |
| 6.00 | 3.00 | 4.63 | 0.30 | 0.26 | 0.81 | 1.37 | 4.53 |
| 7.00 | 3.00 | 5.51 | 0.30 | 0.29 | 0.90 | 1.49 | 5.41 |
| 8.00 | 3.00 | 6.39 | 0.30 | 0.32 | 0.99 | 1.61 | 6.29 |
| 9.00 | 3.00 | 7.27 | 0.30 | 0.35 | 1.08 | 1.73 | 7.17 |
| 10.00 | 3.00 | 8.15 | 0.30 | 0.38 | 1.17 | 1.85 | 8.05 |
| 15.00 | 3.00 | 12.56 | 0.30 | 0.52 | 1.62 | 2.44 | 12.46 |
| 20.00 | 3.00 | 16.96 | 0.30 | 0.67 | 2.07 | 3.04 | 16.86 |
| 25.00 | 3.00 | 21.37 | 0.30 | 0.81 | 2.52 | 3.63 | 21.27 |
| 30.00 | 3.00 | 25.77 | 0.30 | 0.96 | 2.97 | 4.23 | 25.67 |
| 35.00 | 3.00 | 30.18 | 0.30 | 1.10 | 3.42 | 4.82 | 30.08 |
| 40.00 | 3.00 | 34.58 | 0.30 | 1.25 | 3.87 | 5.42 | 34.48 |
| 50.00 | 3.00 | 43.39 | 0.30 | 1.54 | 4.77 | 6.61 | 43.29 |
| 60.00 | 3.00 | 52.20 | 0.30 | 1.83 | 5.67 | 7.80 | 52.10 |
| 70.00 | 3.00 | 61.01 | 0.30 | 2.12 | 6.57 | 8.99 | 60.91 |
| 80.00 | 3.00 | 69.82 | 0.30 | 2.41 | 7.47 | 10.18 | 69.72 |
| 90.00 | 3.00 | 78.63 | 0.30 | 2.70 | 8.37 | 11.37 | 78.53 |
| 100.00 | 3.00 | 87.44 | 0.30 | 2.99 | 9.27 | 12.56 | 87.34 |
| 200.00 | 3.00 | 175.54 | 0.30 | 5.89 | 18.27 | 24.46 | 175.44 |
| 500.00 | 3.00 | 439.84 | 0.30 | 14.59 | 45.27 | 60.16 | 439.74 |
Nice illustration on the fees from Ebay. I agree that it’s getting harder and harder for sellers to list cards at this price and buyers will suffer.
Have you tried SportsBuy?? Free listing fees make it a great option for buyers and sellers.
I know that with my VIP storefront I can offer free shipping (which I have set at $5) so my customers can pick up lots of lower-end cards of their favorite player and team and not pay crazy shipping prices.
I found sports buy too hit or miss when it comes to getting any card that you’ve snagged at a decent price. I haven’t used it in a handful of years, though.
I wish you the best of luck with your store and thanks for the comment.
No problem…I enjoy reading your posts. You’re correct about SportsBuy in that there are some bad sellers/buyers but the same could be said about any site. Ebay, Forums, etc.
That being said, I try to promote my store and show my customers that I treat them the right way.
Thank you for the encouraging words…keep writing! Btw…I really enjoy your posts about breakout players to buy. There’s so many guys out there to collect it really helps to have a guy like you break it down a lil bit for us and point out some good guys to target for the upcoming season.
Please keep writing posts of that nature.
Brady
Brady’s Sports Cards