eBay sellers flee amid 20% fees and low sales

Up to 20% in fees and four days with barely any bids on eBay

Listing an item on eBay has become a bureaucratic hurdle with a trap at the end. You must submit your ID and date of birth; then, when you think you are done, a screen appears that defaults to promoting the listing on other platforms and adds a fee of up to five euros if not disabled. With listings posted, the balance after four days is few visits and a single bid. The diagnosis circulating among private sellers is blunt: second-hand platforms have killed the business before it starts.

How much does eBay take per sale?

The most repeated figure is 11.5% for private sellers, regardless of category, with insertion fees of 0.35 euros applied only after 150 monthly listings. Other estimates raise the bar to 20% in categories considered most abusive and calculate that a fixed amount of 0.35 euros per sale and 21% VAT on total commissions are added to the base commission. The classic 12% on price and shipping costs is now the cheap tier.

There are more layers. If the buyer's delivery address is outside the Eurozone, an international fee ranging from 1.45% to 3.99% is added. For professionals, certain categories like technology drop to 5%, fueling suspicion that individuals pay the bill shops do not. The full breakdown by category and country leaves an uncomfortable conclusion: selling expensive items still pays off, selling cheap ones is giving away money.

The two-euro item that ends up losing money

The hardest hit goes to low-value items. Selling a pin or Playmobil for two euros can result in losses after adding commission, fixed fees, and shipping costs. The consequence is a mass exodus: those who sold loose collectible pieces have also blocked international sales because they ended up losing money due to currency exchange and additional fees.

Some do the math aloud and find that earning two euros for a magazine requires two hours of preparation between photos, measurements, weight, and description. At that hourly rate, there is no business. And without business, the goods end up in the trash or in a closet, which is exactly the opposite of what digital second-hand promised.

Unpaid bids and phantom returns

The second front is non-payment. Winning a bid and disappearing leaves the item locked, unable to be relisted, and the sale stalled. The usual response is to activate automatic cancellation of unpaid purchases after four days, report the breach, and block the buyer, hoping that a second offense builds enough history to get their profile closed.

On the other side of the counter, the seller is exposed during disputes. Losing a dispute can cost the item, the money, and an extra commission, with a negative account balance as the final straw. Regarding organized fraud, stories circulate of empty returns on coin and high-value piece purchases, always from the teller's perspective and with no known resolution.

The era when eBay generated 10,000 euros a week

Nostalgia is its own literary genre. There was a time when buying denarii for 25 or 30 euros at a flea market and reselling them for 200 or 300 on the platform was routine. People speak of weeks of 10,000 euros net and a cohort of professional sellers today counted on one hand, according to those who knew them.

In between, everything peine: the obligation to use a payment gateway with its own commission, the removal of the ability to leave negative feedback for buyers, automated support with copy-paste responses, removal of listings and accounts without explanation, and absurd episodes, such as Sasanian coins blocked for belonging to an embargoed country. The result was a wave-by-wave exodus accelerated after the pandemic, when new payment methods and fees arrived.

Wallapop has traffic, not the solution

The natural alternative is the second-hand app with the highest visibility in Spain, but there the problem changes shape without disappearing. Its payment service adds a commission with insurance, haggling is constant, and questions ignore what is written in the ad: measurements, weight, availability, and non-negotiable prices are asked anyway. Is it still available? has become the most sent and least answered message in the country.

Even so, there is consensus on one point: without traffic, there is no sale, and that traffic exists. For bulky items or local pickup, it still works, with the ritual of meeting at a gas station with cameras at odd hours to close the deal before work.

Correos and packages arriving from China for less than 5 euros

The last link remains: shipping. Postal rates have ruined sales as much as commissions, and the contrast with packages arriving from Asia including the item for less than five euros is devastating. If moving the package costs more than the value inside, no platform fixes the problem.

That is where everything gets stuck. With these numbers, half of Spain would have a closet full of unrealized cash and no profitable way to convert it into money. The conclusion of those who have been in this for years is not a complaint: working for the platforms and the courier is directly more expensive than not selling.