eBay

books4uk · ‎02-08-2013

The fee increases just announced (Final Value Fees extended from item sale price to the price the buyer pays including any postage option) is a particularly bad move for international sales, the heavier the books the worse the impact, and unless you sell really high value books eBay is making itself a less viable venue.

Take a typical £5 hardcover book weighing 800g.

Royal Mail quote £12.60 for their cheapest airmail service.

Current FVF = 45p

Future FVF = £1.59 (assuming packing is free)

Over 250% increase in FV Fees (and the heavier the book the higher this increase will be).

Will also affect services such as Special Delivery.

This has to be paid for and will result in higher costs to buyers on eBay.

fish-slapping-dance · ‎03-08-2013

Hello all -not been here in ages - so hope you're all keeping well!

My mission is serious - I have had a quick scan of the board and this seens to be the only thread here mentioning this issue!

The variable fee on postage - dependent on the place the buyer is and service they select; is going to be devastating for all sellers,but probably very much for booksellers.

There is a discussion board open on this topic, click here.

Ebay have been known - very occasionally, to U turn - if an overwhelming number of sellers rebelled. It really is worth putting your views where they have high visibility to ebay management!

In effect, this is bringing back "free postage" on books - as any item sold will have to allow for the possibility of a premium domestic service ( ie Special Delivery) - especially if the seller is attempting to stay Top Rated - or of an overseas cost - ie £26 for near-2kg to Australia.

Remember, Ebay UK did change their minds on compulsory free postage. But it would appear that much of the senior management has changed and they have short memories around this issue.

In my opinion it would be really useful for as many sellers as possible to remind them about it - on a board they will be monitoring.

All the best.

********************

🙂

books4uk · ‎04-08-2013

Thanks. I had raised it on that board, now lost on page 18, but no response, as usual.

At the time I tried to open a specific thread, but that board appeared to have been locked from the start to the opening new relevant threads.

I have, however added it again to the Fees as well as the International Selling thread, to give one more opportunity.

There is very little chance of eBay doing a U-turn at this point, they are probably at the point of no return. That will come if and when what happened last time with the compulsory free P&P for Books happens again.

A significant drop in fee income for eBay in this area as a result of high prices putting off relevant buyers, drops in sales and haemorrhaging of sellers to other sites. Last time it took about 3 months before a rapidly announced U-turn. By then a lot of damage had been done.

books4uk · ‎21-08-2013

The nearest thing to an answer is a general statement today

on ‎21-08-2013 10:41 AM

The concerns raised on this thread have been fed back in to the business, thanks for taking the time to give us your feedback.

The changes to our Fee Structure will be implemented on September 4th, this is not going to change, members should use this time to review their business model and make any changes that they feel are necessary before the changes are implemented.

Thanks,
Alan

So, as expected. Big hike in fees on international postage, and they are happy to live with that. As far as I can see this only applies to international sales on ebay UK (and I think Ireland?) but not other sites. Does anyone know better?

ryalto-books · ‎29-08-2013

looks like it will be uk only for me in future then

staybright0 · ‎10-09-2013

Did anyone get a realistic believable answer to the question why they take the 10% full value fee to include the p&p after all that is money paid to the post service and not profit into our pockets. In future I will only be listing books for sale to United Kingdom as no-one would pay the p&p required to mail/ship large and/or heavy books Worldwide. It would not be feasible to deal with Worldwide as the ebay listing and full value fees swallow up the low prices at which we are offering the books, often leaving us with only pence. Better to give good condition, pre-enjoyed books to charity. Ebay should return to using only the item sale price to calculate their final value fee. With one hand ebay promote worldwide to sellers then with the other they remove it by the current fvf system. Staybright0

staybright0 · ‎10-09-2013

I agree with your comments entirely....couldn't have put it better myself. See my comments jyst posted.

staybright0 · ‎10-09-2013

Where do I find the boards which ebay monitor?
Iv'e just added my comments re book final value fees.Would like to post my views on a board they monitor.
Also I have strong objections to the change in calculations in positive feedback and the star ratings. I cannot
believe they drop to zero at the end of each 12 months. just spent 1 hr with cs only to be told that the points
and calculations where changed to the current system as it is what the community wanted!!!!!!! Been buying and selling
since 2004. Have been given several reasons by cs but none make sense. I bought and sold
86 items alone last month and should be well on my way to beyond a blue star but still sitting at a yellow star. Comments would be
appreciated. Staybright0

booksandpatterns · ‎11-09-2013

@staybright0 wrote:
Where do I find the boards which ebay monitor?
Iv'e just added my comments re book final value fees.Would like to post my views on a board they monitor.
Also I have strong objections to the change in calculations in positive feedback and the star ratings. I cannot
believe they drop to zero at the end of each 12 months. just spent 1 hr with cs only to be told that the points
and calculations where changed to the current system as it is what the community wanted!!!!!!! Been buying and selling
since 2004. Have been given several reasons by cs but none make sense. I bought and sold
86 items alone last month and should be well on my way to beyond a blue star but still sitting at a yellow star. Comments would be
appreciated. Staybright0

Ebay do keep tabs on all the boards. If you really want to make sure they get your views contact them directly.

I'm a bit confused about your issue re feedback/ratings. You may have bought and sold 86 items recently, but not everyone leaves feedback.

Your feedback score of 36 looks about right. Since Sept 2005 (your first feedback received) you have received 84 feedbacks - BUT many of those are multiples for items from the same seller/s bought at the same time (or within 7 days of each other). The repeats are not counted, so if you buy 10 items from one seller at the same time, and they leave you 10 feedbacks, whilst all the ratings will show, your feedback number will only increase by 1.

I notice that you have responded to some feedbacks with this:

Please vary wording in feedback.Repeat wording doesn't count for points .Thanks

That is wrong, I'm afraid. It doesn't matter what the wording is - the same phrase or different - as I said above your feedback number will only increase by 1 per transaction - whether the seller leaves you 1 feedback, or feedback for each item you bought.

It also may put people off leaving you feedback - it makes you look a bit obsessive about it! These sellers have been good enough to take time to leave you positive feedback, and you are complaining about the comments being identical!

If you are keener on buying feedback, rather than the items, make sure you only buy one item at a time from each seller - with at least a 7 day gap inbetween each item. But even then, there is no guarantee that they will leave feedback anyway.

Although the number showing in the feedback box only shows 12 months figures, the total number feedback (in brackets) is carried through all the time.

For instance - I have another ID, which I don't currently use very often. If you look at it, the Recent Feedback Ratings for 0/6/12 months show 0/4/4 BUT the feedback number in brackets next to my ID shows 1558 - the total number of all unique feedbacks I have received since November 2002.

This link will probably explain about feedback numbers better than I did!

http://pages.ebay.com/help/Feedback/howitworks.html