This has been the case for a long time (as mentioned above it is because many sellers put up a high postage to bypass fees)
They would also charge a listing fee in the past as well, so if it didn’t sell you would keep paying again and again on each relist
Until recently you would have paid eBay sale fees and PayPal transaction fees. With separation and eBay now having its own payment processing you pay one combined fee of 30p plus 12.8%
It’s not a con as they show this in their terms stating that fees are calculated against the full total including postage before you submit the listing
In effect for the 99p item element you paid the 30p and 13p (12.8% rounded up) - a total of 43p on your item sale, then for postage of £3.50 you’ve paid 45p (12.8% again rounded up)
(You can treat the 30p fixed fee as going against the item or postage depending on how you feel)
At least you had thought to make an allowance for fuel, packaging etc - if you had just gone for the postage price itself then you would be at a loss
The big problem with starting at 99p is that many items don’t really sell on an auction basis any more, and you’re starting off badly losing a third of that to the fixed element of the fee
Take it as a lesson learned. I did make the same mistake starting at 99p and found that I was almost paying to give the item away
For your next sale start it off with the minimum that you are willing to take
(With the old listing fee structure they charged you more depending on the start price which is why people started at 99p)
Estimate your actual postage cost based on size and weight (remembering to allow for packaging weight) and also take into account sundries such as packaging costs if you aren’t recycling Amazon boxes etc
Once you have the minimum amount you want for a sale, and postage expenses then remember that the fee is taken from the total (don’t just add on 12.8%)
eg if it was £1.13 then 12.8% is 15p (rounded up) so you would lose 2p
You need to take into account that the amount you want to end up with is 87.2% of the final value (…. And we still need to add on the other 30p)
So if you want to end up with £1 then add 30p and divide £1.30 0.872. Which is £1.49
If we say that you wanted £4.49 (or £4.50) then:
First we top that up to £4.80
£4.80 divided by 0.872 is £5.50
To check that, 12.8% of £5.50 is 70p (or 70.4p)
Leaving £4.80 or £4.79 depending on rounding
Then the extra 30p and you are left with £4.50 or £4.49
It’s much easier in a spreadsheet
www.ebay.co.uk/help/selling/fees-credits-invoices/frais-pour-les-vendeurs-particuliers?id=4822