Yahoo Revamps Its Auction Fees
- Share via
SUNNYVALE, Calif. — Yahoo Inc., owner of the second-largest online auction service, is reducing fees to list items for sale on its auction Web site and imposing a new fee for sellers based on the selling price of an item.
The company said it will charge a fee ranging from 0.5% to 2% of the final sales price, starting Nov.20. Fees to list items for sale will range from 5 cents to 75 cents, depending on the item’s starting price. The listing fee previously ranged from 20 cents to $2.25.
Yahoo, whose network of Web sites also includes the most-used Internet search service, is trying to take customers from EBay Inc., the world’s most-used auction service. The listing fee at EBay ranges from 30cents to $3.30 an item.
“I don’t think anything’s going to help them against EBay,” said Jeff Fieler, an Internet analyst at Bear, Stearns & Co. “It’s hard to be a distant No. 2.”
Fieler rates Yahoo shares a “buy” and doesn’t own the stock personally.
Yahoo executives wouldn’t say how much revenue Yahoo generates from its auction business.
The Sunnyvale-based company’s shares rose $1, or 8%, to $12.99, while EBay’s rose $1.83, or 3%, to $55.68, both on Nasdaq.
Kevin Pursglove, a spokesman for San Jose-based EBay, declined to comment on Yahoo’s new auction fees.
Inside the business of entertainment
The Wide Shot brings you news, analysis and insights on everything from streaming wars to production — and what it all means for the future.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
