eBay can be so damn confusing - help, please?

[Flaxbee]

I want to sell a few domain names via eBay, if possible. They're good, pretty simple .com names. So I'm trying to figure out what my fees will be if I request a reserve, and the eBay Insertion Fees explanation page is giving me a headache; I'm hoping experienced eBayers might offer some help.

This is the page I'm looking at: http://pages.ebay.com/help/sell/fees.html

At first, it says items with a Starting or Reserve price of $500 and up, the Insertion fee is $4.00
Say I'd like to have a start price of $500, with a reserve of $5000. Would that be $8?

And then further down the page, it lists "Optional Feature Fees", if you click on Reserve fees, it says a Reserve Fee of $200.00 and up is 1% of Reserve Price (up to $50)

So excuse me, what the f*ck is it? Is it $4? Or is it $50, if we're going for 1% of $5K?

Can anyone please help?

[1]

1. the easiest way to determine listing fees...

start the process of listing the item ("sell an item") from their menus. you don't need to to fill things in fully, just the basics, and its only a few pages.

when you get to the end page that has the "list item" button (you haven't listed the item yet) you are shown exactly what the listing fees are.

you can then choose "edit listing" and change the starting price and reserve (and/or "buy it now") to see how they effect the listing fees.


its not the ebay listing fees that screw you. its the "final value fee". that is 8+% last time i looked.

[Flaxbee]

2. sigh. I thought that might be the only way to figure it out ---

and probably the best way, too. Thank you for the input, though.

Yikes - seems like their final value fees have really gone up - I've sold sporadically on eBay over the years (obviously not enough to remember the fee structure) and don't remember being dinged on the sale price that much.

[SoCalDemGrrl]

3. Remember that the reserve fee is refunded if the item meets the reserve price

[1]

4. really? cool...

i didn't know that (i don't use reserves).

still on the final "fees" page, they break down all of the "listing fees" into categories (starting price, photos, reserve, etc.) that you will actually be charged, so its worth the effort to determine the charge.

and ebay is always attempting to entice sellers (because they are losing so many) with all sorts of discounts and special deals that its hard to determine actual listing costs unless you go through the listing dealio...


good luck!