[TheForge] Why the price has gone up on the Grasshopper plans

[Bruce Freeman]

So, the text below the double line recently came through in an email
from ebay, where I sell Grasshopper Treadle Hammer plans.

Notice the bit about charging final value fee on shipping?  That means
that the money I get to cover shipping -- it won't anymore -- ebay
takes a 9% chunk first.  Of course, since I use ebay's PayPal service,
they ALSO get a ~5% chunk of  both the sales price and the shipping
cost.

For the domestic shipping, there IS no shipping charge -- I just eat
that because I send it Media Mail -- so only the sales price proper is
affected by these fees.  But international shipments cannot be sent by
Media Mail, so

This has got so bad that I am operating at a loss -- my expenses
exceeded my income last year.  Most of the orders were domestic, by
the way.  (And that's before ebay's additional screwing of its
vendors, noted below.)  THEN the IRS steps in and prevents me from
deducting the expenses till they exceed 2% of my income -- meaning I
have to pay tax on money I didn't actually make.

Of course, I could declare myself to be "in business" and file
schedule C, in which case I CAN deduct expenses from income, and also
thereby immediately enter the pool of "most audited" tax returns.

If anyone wonders why the price of the GH just went up, that's it.  It
may go up again when I figure out the effect of this latest BS.  I
have about nine copies of the plans left, and may just call it quits
after those sell.  I can't go on subsidizing the customers.

-- 
Bruce
NJ

===================================================

On Wed, Mar 16, 2011 at 5:31 PM, eBay <ebay at reply1.ebay.com> wrote:
>
> Dear seller:
>
> We're writing with some great news:
>
> 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.
>
> 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.
>