Selling gadgets to cost less on eBay from May

Selling your old gadgets on eBay is a great way to get some cash for the kit that’s simply sitting unused in your cupboards. No matter what you have, you’re virtually guaranteed someone will buy it thanks to the millions of people that browse the site every month.

Currently there’s a tiered final-value fee system, which means it’s hard to work out in advance exactly how much you’ll pay to list and sell your item. For example, a tech item selling for between £100 and £200 would have a final value fee of £3.67 plus 2.5% of the sale price above £100.

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That will all change from May 2011, as there will be a fixed final value fee of 3 per cent for categories including computing, consumer electronics, photography, mobile & home phones and video games. This means an item selling for £100 will incur a £3 fee, and one selling for £200 will have a fee of £6. This will apply no matter whether you choose an auction or fixed-price sale. The bad news is that most other categories will switch to a 10 per cent final value fee, with clothing and shoes being the hardest-hit at 12 per cent.

Insertion fees will remain tiered to persuade sellers to start their auctions at a low price, and costs will vary between auction and fixed-price sales, so you’ll probably want to bookmark the fees changes page to ensure you don’t pay too much. Annoyingly, there won’t be a way for private sellers to list items for free – even an item with a 1p start price will cost 10p to list. Fixed-price items will cost 40p to list.