Hello Jewels- you pretty well have it figured out. The advertising levels make a difference in how your many of and how many times your items are presented to the search engines (3.5% goes every time you update your booth but only to Google organic, not Google Products). I have found that I am rarely charged the full amount I choose (I am on 13% right now) but found as the busy season comes a long all of a sudden everything is the maximum level you choose). I’m not sure how the amount is determined when they charge us less (so far this month I’ve been charged from 10-12% rather than the actual 13%)but I have learned to expect the most and be happy when it is less, lol. I also found out last week that the fees are also charged against your shipping which made me very unhappy. I think that is a terrible policy and have requested that it be reviewed as we do not make any profit on our shipping charges to customers and would price ourselves out of the game to make sure that it covered. Not a huge deal for me as we only charge shipping on international orders, but then of course the shipping charges are high(cost $4 extra fees when charge included shipping even with an allowance Bonz gives- long explanation, won’t even try). So… all that said, you understand the process and now know that shipping is included in the total amount the fees go against. I’ve been here 7 years and it’s always a learning experience. Just have to learn to plan on adjustments. Work to do every single day but it pays off- still recommend Bonanza over anyone else for my needs. Good luck and happy selling here :-)

Advertising is based on click ads…when you choose your percentage, based on the amount you choose, ads are placed online at various places and at various times, and some ads will cost more than others.

Once an ad is clicked, it has to be paid for…bonanza pays for that ad until your items sells…so if your item has 10 ad clicks on it before it finally sells, and if it is only a portion of the ads available, you pay for those clicks used through your FVF and the fee will can be less than the percentage that you chose.

If the item never sells/or is deleted/removed for some reason then bonanza has paid for all those ad clicks and you are never charged.

As to shipping, sellers are given a $10.00 shipping ‘allowance’ so shipping up to $10 is deducted from the total cost before FVF is calc…

Item costs $21, shipping is $6.50 the fvf is only on the $21.00
Items costs $21 and shipping is $12.00, then fvf is calc on $23.00 ($21.00 + $12.00 – $10.00 = $23.00)

At one time $10.00 covered most of the shipping costs except international..unfortunately with USPS and others shipping increases…$10 doesn’t cover as much…and perhaps it is time to increase our “allowance”

As to Item Sort other than the default of Popularity…that is a booth membership option…

Used to be newest, and least cost and Highest cost (seems to change every few years)…now it Popular…

Also know that it really doesn’t doesn’t matter all that much what you set it at, each person can choose how they wish to view a booth…so the buyer can change the arrangement anytime they enter a booth…

Hi ccmom,
Thanks for the explanation, it helps a lot. Do you see in your dash board how many clicks you are getting on an item from ads. Also how many ads do you get for each percentage that you purchase?

You said,“As to Item Sort other than the default of Popularity…that is a booth membership option…” I thought I was a member of Bonanza. Do you mean I have to get there webstore before this will work for me?

Thanks again, Jewels