eBay announced its annual fee changes on Wednesday afternoon. Sellers on eBay.com and eBay Canada will pay a nickel more for items with a starting price of between one dollar and $9.99. All other insertion fees remain the same.

eBay is also raising the Final Value Fees on items that sell for over $25. The Final Value Fees are based on the closing price of a listing and are broken into three tiers, or "tranches" as eBay calls them. The second tranche will rise from 3 percent of the closing price to 3.25 percent. All other tranche fees will remain the same.

To help understand how this affects fees, let's use an example of an item with a starting price of $5 that ends with a winning bid of $50. Under the existing fee structure, sellers would pay a total of $2.41 in eBay listing and commission fees. Under the new fee structure, sellers would pay $2.52, an increase of 4.56 percent. Take the same item, but assume it sells for $1500, and sellers would pay 6.48 percent higher fees ($40.90 instead of $38.41).

The fee changes also apply to eBay Motors Parts and Accessories, but do not affect Store listings. eBay also announced changes to eBay Motors Vehicle listings. Transaction Service fees for Motorcycles and Powersports will rise from $30 to $40, and transaction service fees for Cars & Trucks and all Other Vehicles & Trailers categories will rise from $40 to $50. In addition, the Motors Reserve Fee is changing from a flat $5.00 to 0.1 percent of the reserve price, with a minimum of $5 and a maximum of $10. (The Reserve Fee is refunded when bidding meets the reserve price.)

eBay Senior Director of Seller Development Todd Lutwak said a cross-section of employees were involved in the pricing decision. Phillip Justus, who will head the newly formed Auctions Group, has not yet started in his new position, but he was aware of the changes.

As for whether users could expect any changes, pricing or otherwise, when Justus starts his new role, eBay spokesperson Catherine England said he is an eBay veteran and will take his time with making recommendations, keeping buyers and sellers in mind. He will be focused on building the business, England said.

In announcing the fees to the eBay community through the announcement board, eBay North America President Bill Cobb said he will host a group of eBay sellers in San Jose later this month and will make his keynote speech available via audio webcast. He said the event would be followed with more announcements on specific initiatives. eBay is expected to announce a new feedback system that allows buyers to rate sellers on specific criteria, such as shipping. eBay has already instituted an anti-counterfeiting measure, and Cobb hinted at even more Trust & Safety initiatives on the way. He ended by saying, "I think you'll find we're taking a surprisingly fresh look at some of the old challenges, and I'm excited about the road ahead."

http://www2.ebay.com/aw/core/200701.shtml#2007-01-03144839

Links to Current eBay Fees:

http://pages.ebay.com/help/sell/fees.html

http://pages.ebay.com/help/sell/motorfees.html