[OT] TAS continues to screw sellers Message #1 Posted by Michael de Estrada on 17 Mar 2011, 1:15 p.m.
Lately TAS has been changing their seller fee policies to line their greedy pockets at the expense of sellers. I recently sold some items on TAS, and discovered that the final sale price fee has been increased to a 9% flat rate, regardless of the amount of the sale. Previously, it was a decreasing scale based on the sale price, such that it was much less than it is now. Anyway, I received a new "good news" message from TAS stating that they are further changing their policies, as follows:
"Also, because we know buyers take into consideration the total cost of an item, also starting April 19, to encourage sellers to keep shipping costs low, the Final Value Fee will be applied to the total amount of the sale--including shipping."
So now, they are charging a fee for what is actually a cost to the seller. This will be especially damaging to sellers shipping large items or shipping internationally, where the costs are much higher. For example, an HP-81 sold recently to a buyer in Europe, and I suspect the shipping costs exceeded $100, which translates into an additional $9 in TAS fees. Now, I realize that TAS will claim that sellers have been inflating shipping costs, while reducing BIN prices in order to reduce TAS fees, but in reality this is rarely the case, since most sellers such as myself simply use the shipping calculator to determine actual postage and don't charge any additional handling fees.
Basically, this discourages international selling, since any potential increase in sale price will be offset by increased TAS fees. It also discourages no reserve auctions with low start prices, and leaves the buyer with mostly high priced BIN "auctions" from the likes of Mr. C. It is interesting that TAS has also amended their policies to waive initial listing price fee, further encouraging sellers to list their items at high BIN prices.
"Starting April 19, you'll be able to list your items Auction-style FREE, at any start price, up to 50 listings a month. Plus you can add the Buy It Now option to these listings FREE to grab buyers in a hurry. Set the price you want and sell it fast! This is not a limited-time special but a change in eBay Standard fees to help you list more for FREE all the time--even those high ticket items! Pay only if your item sells."
So what this means is that if the items I have now listed in the MoHPC classifieds don't sell, I will list them at higher prices on TAS and won't ship internationally. In the past I sold NR and with a low start price, but no more. I have sold several calcs privately to forum members, and it worked out very well for both of us, so hopefully I won't have to deal with TAS anymore.
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