I’ve been selling on there since ‘03 and have had good luck overall.. I did have an idiot once buy a Miller welder from me, showed up to get it and I had it plugged in ready to have him test it before he took it...he was in a hurry and said He didn’t need to try it... couple days later I have a claim against me because he claims it won’t work... it was a good welder.... I fought back on it and offered a full refund provided he bring it back.. he wouldn’t do that. In the end it came out that he took it apart to use a spot weld board in it to repair another welder.... took me a month to get PayPal to release the hold on my money... it was like his second or third feedback so I hit him with a negative and he closed his account soon after.. That was back when a seller could give a negative...
What I do for the fees is a few things.. I sell quite a bit on there so I always figure the fees into my prices, and I always offer free ship on small items..they get their 10% anyway so why not let people feel like they are getting something... it helps drive prices up.. I also shop the shipping very carefully and avoid USPS flat rate when I can, especially lately since the rate hike recently.. FedEx is cheap, but watch out, when you use that from the eBay shipping page they just tack the charges onto your monthly invoice instead of billing PayPal on the spot and that adds up quick... what I do to help ease the pain is do a “one time payment” to eBay when an item sells to pay as I go.. it helps.. I also will toss some “sacrificial” items up for sale here or there to serve as nothing more than to pay my fees...
What I do for the fees is a few things.. I sell quite a bit on there so I always figure the fees into my prices, and I always offer free ship on small items..they get their 10% anyway so why not let people feel like they are getting something... it helps drive prices up.. I also shop the shipping very carefully and avoid USPS flat rate when I can, especially lately since the rate hike recently.. FedEx is cheap, but watch out, when you use that from the eBay shipping page they just tack the charges onto your monthly invoice instead of billing PayPal on the spot and that adds up quick... what I do to help ease the pain is do a “one time payment” to eBay when an item sells to pay as I go.. it helps.. I also will toss some “sacrificial” items up for sale here or there to serve as nothing more than to pay my fees...
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Honestly i love ebay. As a buyer where else are you going to find that one super rare part that is keeping you from finishing a complete restoration? I know i wouldn't have been able to do the restorations I've done without using ebay to find parts. And as a seller, the 10% commission really isn't that bad. I would imagine any other auction company would charge a similar fee (don't know just assuming) and where else are you going to get a world wide publication for the items you're selling. Aditionally i find whenever i sell things on ebay they bring at least 10% more money than what i see on Craigslist so really the cost is all in perspective for what you're gaining. For example i sold a rupp primary clutch six months ago on ebay for $128 when i had seen them sell on OldMiniBikes and CL for $50 to $70. I would gladly pay the fee on my $128 because i made out way better anyway. If you just factor the fees into what your selling and adjust your prices and settings accordingly you can do alright. The one drawback of ebay is the feedback, a few other people have touched on this but ebay needs to do a better job of validating legitimate poor feedback from BS.