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eBay Assesses International Fees on Some US Transactions

Ina Steiner
eBay
eBay Assesses International Fees on Some US Transactions

A US seller is baffled as to why eBay is charging them an international fee for a package going to Georgia – the “Peach State,” not the country Georgia.

In the description of selling fees for that transaction, eBay included a section called International Fee where it wrote: “Charged because the buyer’s registered address is in Georgia.”

eBay calculated the fee with a rate of 1.65%, which is the rate it charges US sellers for packages being sent to foreign destinations.

But, what some sellers don’t realize is that eBay also assesses the 1.65% fee on packages being sent to US destinations in cases where the buyer registered their eBay account outside of the US.

On the eBay page describing seller fees, it states the following:

International fee
If your registered address is in the US, we charge an International fee if either:

  • The delivery address for the item (entered by the buyer during checkout) is outside the US, or
  • The buyer’s registered address is outside the US (regardless of the delivery address for the item)

This fee is calculated as 1.65% of the total amount of the sale and is automatically deducted from your sales.

If your registered address is not in the US, please refer to the fee page for your country or region of residence for your International fee information.

Sellers have discussed eBay’s international fee on packages going to US destinations for several years now. While many of posters assume the fees apply to transactions going to a freight forwarder that accepts the package in the US and ships to the end-user overseas, in this particular case, the address of the buyer in Georgia was residential.

When eBay assesses international fees on packages going to individual homes, there’s no way for a seller to verify that the buyer registered with an overseas address – and no way to rule out a possible glitch.

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Ina Steiner
Ina Steiner
Ina Steiner is co-founder and Editor of EcommerceBytes and has been reporting on ecommerce since 1999. She's a widely cited authority on marketplace selling and is author of "Turn eBay Data Into Dollars" (McGraw-Hill 2006). Her blog was featured in the book, "Blogging Heroes" (Wiley 2008). She is a member of the Online News Association (Sep 2005 - present) and Investigative Reporters and Editors (Mar 2006 - present). Follow her on Twitter at @ecommercebytes and send news tips to ina@ecommercebytes.com. See disclosure at EcommerceBytes.com/disclosure/.

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Ina Steiner is co-founder and Editor of EcommerceBytes and has been reporting on ecommerce since 1999. She's a widely cited authority on marketplace selling and is author of "Turn eBay Data Into Dollars" (McGraw-Hill 2006). Her blog was featured in the book, "Blogging Heroes" (Wiley 2008). She is a member of the Online News Association (Sep 2005 - present) and Investigative Reporters and Editors (Mar 2006 - present). Follow her on Twitter at @ecommercebytes and send news tips to ina@ecommercebytes.com. See disclosure at EcommerceBytes.com/disclosure/.

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2 thoughts on “eBay Assesses International Fees on Some US Transactions”

  1. I often have sales involving Shop America Airlines and other similar sites. I tried blocking them but it doesn’t work as each SAA customer apparently has their own unique eBay profile. I no longer sell outside USA. I have not checked but I now wonder if I am getting assessed this 1.65% fee?

  2. that definitely sounds like a glitch, and the CSR or AI or BOTH in Asia can’t tell the difference.

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