eBay UK hikes auction fees

Going, going, gone up

By John Leyden • Get more from this author

Posted in Small Biz, 6th January 2004 21:12 GMT

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eBay is to raise fees for many big ticket UK auctions - in some cases doubling commission. The revised tariffs also see some price cuts.

From January 20 there will be a £100 fee for running auctions with a reserve price of £5,000 or above and a two per cent charge for running auctions with a reserve price of between £50 and £5,000.

Currently it charges one per cent of the reserve price for auctions above £100. This means that for auctions between £100 and £10,000 eBay's charges will double this month from one per cent to two per cent (e.g. fees for a £500 reserve price auction will go up from £5 to £10 from January 20). Conversely the cost of selling goods valued at over £10,000 will drop.

eBay is revising fees for auctioning motor vehicles and real estate on its UK site, as explained here. The current reserve price fees structure for real estate will be replaced by a flat fee of £2. The final value fees in the motors categories will be changed from a flat fixed fee to a scale based on the final value of the item sold, increasing the cost of selling more expensive motors.

The reserve price fee for items in the motors categories will be increased from £2 to £3.

But there's better news for users of eBay's online sales management tools.

The monthly subscription fees for Selling Manager Pro will be reduced and Selling Manager will be free from January 20. The monthly subscription for Selling Manager Pro, which is currently £6.99, will be reduced to £4.99.

All quoted fees include VAT.

From February 2, the fees eBay levies for auctions on its US site will also go up (by around 45 per cent) as explained here.

In a statement, eBay said its fee changes will "help us continue to sustain and develop a thriving global marketplace, while balancing the needs of our buyers and sellers around the world." ®