Fees and VAT, when selling on Amazon and Ebay

Individual seller

[LegendPanda]

Hello, I'm looking to sell on Amazon or Ebay, but I'm completely new to ecommerce. I'm not a business and I have no previous experience of selling. I'm only looking to sell my own personal things.

From what I've read on Amazon help pages, I have to pay VAT at 20% (in UK) on the price I'm selling it at. Also, they take, for example, 11.50% (for consumer electronics) from the same price and a small fee for listing the item.

So if I'm selling an item at £340.00, I'm left with 68.5%, which is £232.90? Is this right?

On Ebay, they charge 10% from the listing price, including postage, and 15% VAT for EU residents as well as a PayPal fee that varies? Which would leave me at £255.00 without the PayPall fee?

Can anyone please clarify this as the fees are incredibly high and I think I made a mistake somewhere.

Thank you.

[topr8]

afaik, on ebay the vat applies only to the fee, therefore: 10% + VAT which at 15% gives an effective charge of 11.5% (according to your figures, i haven't checked them)

i know nothing about selling on amazon, but unless you are registered for vat i shouldn't think you have to charge it on goods.

... if you think the fees are high, and i hear people saying this all the time ... then set up your own website, get it to rank, and pay no fees at all (except card processing fees, which for a newbie could easily be around 2-3.5%)

[not2easy]

Hi LegendPanda, and welcome to the Forums, I'm not sure if this suggestion would fit your situation or not. It depends on what kinds of things you are trying to sell as "my own personal things" whether a look at Etsy could be any help. They let you set up a little place to sell your things through their service, but it allows only handcrafts or certain purchased goods over 20 years old (as collectibles). Sorry I don't know their fee structures but it seems to be an active place.