This is such an important topic and the majority of sellers dont control their ebay fees. Are you completely aware about the costs involved when you are selling on eBay?

Have a look at John:

John has bought a nice antique vase on a garage sale for $55 US. What a bargain, since he knows that on eBay he could sell it for a big profit. He makes 3 beautiful photos and John wants to use one of photos as a gallery picture, because he knows that without a gallery photo it is hard to sell your items.

So, he starts to create his auction listings.

The auction starting price should be $55, to break even. John also ads a 'Buy it Now' price for $110 and an additional subtitle. As John is not satisfied with the first look he decides to add the 'bold' feature as well and finally he submits his auction. This auction looks perfect now, but does John really know how much he paid on eBay fees just for this listing.

Let's do the math:

Insertion fee: $2.40
Buy Now Price: $0.25
Subtitle: $0.50
Bold: $1.00
Gallery Photo: $0.35
2 Extra Pictures: $0.30

John finally sells his vase for $98 as the highest bidder so John pays additionally:

Final value Fee: $1.31 (5.25% for the first $25)
and: $2.19 (3% of $50 ($75-25$)
= $8.30 just on eBay fees!

But this fee journey is not over yet...John receives payment from the bidder of $108 ($98 for the item and $10 for shipping) The bidders pays via PayPal and John has to pay PayPal fees of 2.9% + $0.30 US = $3.13 +$0.30 = $3.43.

In total John has paid $11.73 just on fees. He has already paid $55 for the vase plus the $11.73 in total for listing = $66.73. And almost forgot! Yes, John needs to pay the $10 for shipping. Therefore, total costs are:

Buy merchandise: $ 55.00
eBay fees: $ 8.30
Paypal Fees: $ 3.43
Shipping: $ 10.00

Total Costs: $ 76.73
Received: $108.00
Profit: $ 31.27

Well, John has made a profit. Thats pretty good anyway, but I think John could save massively on his ebay fees. Here some tips how to save on eBay fees:

John could easily host his own pictures through his internet service provider, through some online pictures services. In fact he could add unlimited ebay pictures as he wants without paying additional cents. John would have saved $0.30 on this additional picture hosting feature. Then, John could have easily removed some special features like 'bold' and 'subtitle'. John could have come up with a more descriptive and detailed main title with some snappy keywords to attract more buyers. John could have also started with a lower price to decrease the insertion fees, yes even a a starting price of $1 No reserve'. The positive effect with these $1 starting auction is two fold; Firstly, you save on insertion fee and secondly more buyers place a bid if the starting bid is low. This increases dramatically the number of bids and this attracts even more buyers because they think 'When so many people place a bid, then this item must be really cool' and they bid as well.

In summary: Keep your eBay fees in mind and don't guess how much your listing will cost. Sit down and do the math before you launch your auction listing. It's worth and maybe saves some surprises at the end of the month when the monthly bill from eBay is waiting in your mailbox.