Ok so check this out. I listed a bunch of stuff on ebay the past week or so and here is the math for how much money is getting paid out to these companies when you are trying to make a living online. I think this is insane ok.
ok I brought up a total of $116 from selling my personal art through ebay.
I owe Ebay $13 dollars for listing and closing fees on all the items that got sold
total = $103
ok that doesn't sound so bad right at first.
Ebay puts priority on listing items that have free shipping so they show up first in a search on there site. So charging for shipping is discouraged if you want your items to sell. So I listed the items as having free shipping. My total shipping cost came to $17
so now my total = $86
Now of course ebay will only allow you to accept payments through paypal now. you can't take money orders anymore. Pay pay charges you a fee for having money transactions. my fees for this were $4.16
now my total = $81.84
My total fees after everything totaled $17.16
if you add the cost of listing with free shipping it comes to $34 in shipping handling paypay and ebay costs. ANd I don't even list that often. I can't imagne what kind of bill a person my rack up though ebay if they are selling multiple items.
Now image how much more money I would have to charge the consumer if I didn't want to swallow the cost myself. Would have to charge up to $35 for a item I would usually at $25 to actually make the full profit I would have originally gotten if the person paid me with a money order and I sold the item without listing on ebay.
I want to send out well packaged items after all. Heck I can spend $80 on art supplies so I can have something to paint on. It is going to take for ever to make the money for the Baltimore comic con. Guess I better get to the drawing board.
