eBay has been this way for some time now -- the shipping FVF (final value fee) was their answer to the people who were trying to circumvent fees by overcharging for shipping, so you can thank those jerks for that one. You can avoid most listing fees by using your 50 free listings per month and by taking advantage of listing specials.
I've been selling a lot on eBay over the past few years, and I've kinda learned how to massage the system to get the most from it. Here's what I do:
1) I'm a top-rated seller (and power seller), and by offering a 1 day handling time & a 14 day return policy (mine return policy is crazy strict, which is basically my way of saying don't bother trying to return anything unless I goofed), I get 20% off the FVFs on items where I meet these criteria, which is pretty much all of them.
2) Build domestic shipping costs into your item prices (and thus offer "free shipping") so you don't get the shipping FVF tacked on in addition to the regular FVF. This is what eBay wants you to do anyways. The rate should be the same either way, but it can help you control your overall costs -- you win overall when the shipping cost is lower to someone who's closer to you or you have someone buy multiple items and thus combine shipping -- saving you some cash. This also puts you in control of how you ship, so you can use USPS flat rate or regional rate packaging (or not) to your benefit where it saves you money. As long as the shipping method is what you state in your listing, you're good to go.
3) eBay's shipping calculator is right on with USPS rates -- it charges the counter rate, not the online ones (commercial base or commercial plus). If you can become a top-rated seller, you qualify for eBay's USPS shipping program that gives you the commercial plus pricing, which is even better than what you get through PayPal or USPS.com. eBay has lowered the criteria for being a top-rated seller so that more people can land in the program than when I first got in.
4) Take advantage of the 50 free listings per month & any listing special deals when they come up, which is pretty often. This at least keeps you from paying insertion fees & buy-it-now fees.
I've never bothered with sites like iOffer or any others because well... they just don't get the traffic that eBay does. If I want to sell stuff to the largest possible audience -- eBay is pretty much the #1 game in town, like it or not. I wish eBay would quit raising the overall fees, but unfortunately, we're a captive audience since there's just so few alternatives.
