topic Re: Ebay is dying in Seller Central

Ebay is dying

ezzie58 — Tue, 17 Feb 2026 09:15:31 GMT

We have noticed that our Ebay is dropping off a cliff. We feel that the Buyer Protection, Simple delivery etc is killing it. For sellers with 100% feedback we think that buyer protection should be optional for the buyer.

Simple Delivery has confused combining postage for sellers as we dont know what ebay have done.

We are now starting to look for another platform. With the high street closing its doors we dont think Ebay is invincible.

Re: Ebay is dying

jonatjonatjonat — Tue, 17 Feb 2026 09:24:59 GMT

For sellers with 100% feedback we think that buyer protection should be optional for the buyer.

How would ebay make money off the sale?

Re: Ebay is dying

papso22 — Tue, 17 Feb 2026 09:38:20 GMT

You clearly have no idea what the buyer protection fee is for.

You have sold 13,000 items on a private account so ebay has done well for you so far, but the market for what you sell has generally become very difficult.

Re: Ebay is dying

thesmokingrunner — Tue, 17 Feb 2026 09:49:07 GMT

Nice thought but optional buyer protection is not going to happen.

The Buyer Protection Fee (BPF) was, effectively, introduced as a replacement to seller commission on private accounts, allbeit at a lower rate, thereby shifting eBay's income from seller to buyer. In any event the BPF is something of a misnomer in that a buyer is already protected by eBay's Money Back Guarantee and so does not actually need 'Buyer Protection'.

To allow buyers to opt out of BPF in certain circumstances would only reduce eBay's income. It would make no real difference to either buyers or sellers, other than perhaps prevent buyers from claiming an item sent using Simple Delivery 'arrived damaged' and receiving a refund from eBay and keeping the item whilst the seller keeps the original payment.

BPF and SD only applies to sellers registered as Private accounts. And with respect, @ezzie58 , for a seller with such a wide range of new and used items, including clothing ranging in size from 32" to 52" and footwear ranging in size from 5 to 9, the use of a Private account looks, at best, questionable.

Re: Ebay is dying

mbcrltd — Wed, 18 Feb 2026 18:53:37 GMT

They charge buisness sellers so make plenty of monies of both the per month fee we have to pay and the item % they take which is working out to be over a third now.

Re: Ebay is dying

mbcrltd — Wed, 18 Feb 2026 19:02:12 GMT

When i brought up the fact that the buyer protection fee was essentially a con to the Ebay Representatives at the ebay open all the sellers agreed i spoke to but supprise suprise ebay did not think so,It is 99.9% of the time the seller that refunds the buyer not ebay so there is no need of it.

There are more pressing issues like the scam accounts that are being traded and sold alowing old accounts to be used to buy items when they have been dormant years,

If its a money making option( buyer protection) they are going to get burnt later down the line with the solicitors. I believe there are a few larger legal bods now looking at ebay fees and such in no win no fee type scenarios.

Anyway yes agree ebay is dying and its not anywhere near what it used to be it has been for the last 20 years ive been on!

But

Re: Ebay is dying

jonatjonatjonat — Wed, 18 Feb 2026 19:03:40 GMT

I’d agree. Everyone should be charged the same.

Re: Ebay is dying

trade-price-stamps-2015 — Wed, 18 Feb 2026 21:27:43 GMT

Over the past few years, eBay has had slower growth compared to some flashier e-commerce giants. It’s still a major player, but more niche. Over the next five years, eBay will likely lean deeper into secondhand and collectible markets. Growth probably won’t be explosive—it’ll be steady, focusing on what it does best: a marketplace for unique, hard-to-find, and value-driven items

Yes its being left behind.

It hasn't been a team effort at all, the sellers have been saying for many years now, that its going in the wrong direction but they wouldn't listen.

Re: Ebay is dying

trade-price-stamps-2015 — Wed, 18 Feb 2026 21:32:16 GMT

Buyer Protection, when there's already Money Back Guarantee

Promote your already promoted items

You couldn't make it up, could you

Re: Ebay is dying

gjalp — Wed, 18 Feb 2026 22:31:51 GMT

Buyer protection is incorrectly named. It doesn’t really have anything to do with protecting the buyer per se. Its more a marketplace fee that covers everything from payment processing to customer service. It should never have been brought in and all sellers should pay fees. Problem was, ebay felt Vinted breathing in its ear with their free to sell model and ebay was put under competition pressure with their clothing and accessories categories. This has now been further compounded by Vinted branching out into other categories at a fast pace.

Re: Ebay is dying

theelench — Wed, 18 Feb 2026 22:33:44 GMT

It would be nice to think so but that would mean reversing a lot of the changes implemented over the past decade or so.

Such as again making it easy for buyers and sellers to talk to each other and ask questions about items.

Getting rid of IS and going back to Key Word led searching so buyers can browse what they want, not have to try winnowing what they want out of thousands of, mostly, unrelated items.

Just for starters.

If ebay is to again to attract the masses of sellers buying and selling small numbers of items in a vast array of niches, it will have to go back to being something that is easy, un-complicated and even pleasurable to use. Getting away from systems geared more to the quick turnover of standard products in large numbers and the marketing and research options they need.

I don't think ebay has the time or inclination to even try and too many of those who have been here, drifted away as ebay has gone down the route it has taken will think along the lines of 'once bitten, twice shy'. As the old retail saying goes, "It's easier to keep customers by treating them well than it is to get them back after treating them badly".

Re: Ebay is dying

davismonthanaz — Thu, 16 Apr 2026 12:04:21 GMT

I wish eBay would reverse the buyer Protection & let the seller pay it, Obviously it would cost the seller more but hopefully sales would get back to normal.

All Sales has dropped off since eBay introduced the Buyer Premium since last year.

Re: Ebay is dying

theelench — Thu, 16 Apr 2026 15:00:46 GMT

Just my opinion but I think Simple Delivery is equally to blame for the drop off. There are still plenty of people who, although they have smart phones, may not want to experiment with QL codes or lockers, taking pot-luck as to who delivers purchases and seemingly hit and miss arrangements as to who is responsible for refunds when purchases arrive damaged or not at all.

Yes, all these things are (mostly) avoidable for the knowledgeable who use ebay regularly, read the boards or have extensive knowledge of the Help pages. But again ebay has taken something that was easy and familiar, like reading how the seller said they would arrange for delivery and turned it on its head causing uncertainty and confusion.

Another of those old retail 'sayings' -- Markets hate uncertainty.

Re: Ebay is dying

department28 — Fri, 17 Apr 2026 11:03:40 GMT

'...all these things are (mostly) avoidable for the knowledgeable who use ebay regularly, read the boards or have extensive knowledge of the Help pages.'

Exactly - but for those who sell infrequently, or like many of us, don't have a lot of time to be constantly perusing the Help pages/dealing with 'updates' etc - the recent changes have made eBay a more complicated place, seemingly fraught with traps for the unwary. This does not make for happy selling!

For those new to selling, I would imagine there is a lot of 'going round in circles' trying to work out what you can & can't do - especially with the postage situation. Many have found to their cost that when something goes wrong, or you make a mistake, it can be very time-consuming & stressful to get it sorted. Yes, eBay will cough up for damaged and missing parcels, but I still don't think that compensates for all the difficulties and restrictions of Simple Delivery.

Re: Ebay is dying

pegr-834437 — Fri, 17 Apr 2026 13:08:20 GMT

I've not used Vinted but is the SD on there much different? Nobody seems to complain apart from when people use a bad courier. If they are the same then surely its just change people dont like, you can see it on the many threads on here people saying I'll never use SD for this or that when this or that doesnt actually exist.

With regards to eBay switching it to the seller pays, that would mean they have to drop the its free to sell and considering they jumped 2 feet with this line people will then cry eBay said ti was free to sell and now its not. Its all down to eBay chasing themselves with the promos that were once in a blue moon to every 2 weeks and sellers thinking meh I'll just wait for a promo and now its basically every day.

I much simpler way would have been to have a single charge across all private and business accounts but give private accounts 50 (or whatever figure) of free per year as that would cover about 95% of sellers on here.

Re: Ebay is dying

govee-customs — Mon, 20 Apr 2026 10:30:59 GMT

I agree and also think eBay is dying. I list on other platforms and the views/clicks that my items receive on those other platforms are absolutely slaughtering the number of views/clicks I receive on the same items listed on eBay... For instance on eBays free sister site (not sure if I'm allowed to name it so I won't) I can get 500 views on the same item I have listed on eBay that received just 2 views in the same timeframe.

At the date of making this post (April 20th 2026), I have items on eBay that were listed over a month ago that have literally had 0 views, compared to the hundreds of views the same items have had on other platforms. I think eBay has multiple issues that go beyond just the simple postage and the buyer protection fee issues that most seem focused on.

Re: Ebay is dying

cobwebcottage — Mon, 20 Apr 2026 10:42:07 GMT

Well you are trading on a private account so customers do not have any Consumer Rights. Do you think this may contribute to your sales are slow?

How many private sellers have 4 identical LED brand new cabinets with multiple listings of the same item?

Re: Ebay is dying

theelench — Mon, 20 Apr 2026 11:25:41 GMT

I've never used vinted either, so I really can't help with how theirs works or if it's better or worse. I think people are entitled to complain when something as fundamental as getting a purchase delivered and which has basically remained unchanged since RM started selling stamps at post offices (in about 1840?), is suddenly changed into something more complicated.

I think you meant, ..."ebay switching it to buyer pays,..." ? Not seller ?

But does it really matter whether sellers like the BPF or not ?

Some sellers who don't like it have stopped selling, others who do like it or aren't bothered one way or the other are still selling and it's some of them saying that the BPF has reduced their sales. Not those who have stopped selling, whether because they don't want to use SD or object to the BPF, or because they just don't like what ebay has become.

Your idea of a single charge per listing is going back over a decade to the fee structure when I first started selling. A sliding scale of 'insertion fees' for everyone + FVF. I don't recall there being any great demand for that to be changed, but ebay changed it anyway.

As for free listings, as you say they were 'once in a blue moon' and when those rare "Free Listing Weekends" were dis-continued, ebay gave private sellers 20 freebies per month as compensation.

Why ebay then started increasing that number, I have no idea, again I don't recall any great clamour from private sellers for ebay to do so., but again ebay did it anyway. For years my free listing allowance was 200 a month, far more than I ever used (my record number of active listings stood at 20 something) bt ebay still increased it 1000 and then made it unlimited.

It's always handy to have someone or something to blame when things aren't as good as they were and private sellers with free listing and selling are an easy target which most private sellers can't be bothered to endlessly debate. Did they ask for free listings, free to sell, GTC rolling over listings month after month ? No.

And don't forget that most who abuse whatever ebay decides to give private sellers, are businesses.

Re: Ebay is dying

govee-customs — Mon, 20 Apr 2026 12:18:02 GMT

Before you decide to reply with your smarmy remarks with regards to my account status and items I have for sale, get your facts straight... I wasn't complaining about sales was I? Where did I once mention anything about sales, or once complain that sales are slow? Oh...I know...nowhere!

I was replying in a thread titled eBay is dying and simply added that I agree with this sentiment and tried to add some context as to why I feel that way. As stated in my post, many seem focused on the buyers paying for a protection fee, or the simple postage issue... I was merely stating that in addition to this, unless you are paying to promote your items, the chances are that they are absolutely receiving minimal views in comparison to the views they were receiving before all of these changes kicked in.

I'm listed as a private seller, because that is EXACTLY what I am. I'm not a business and I do not own a business. What I have for sale is none of your concern, whether it be 4 cabinets, or 400 of them. From time to time I may have access to items that I am able to purchase at a lower price than retail, that I am able to resell for a small profit. Why wouldn't I take that opportunity if it arises? It doesn't make me a business. I have a full time job and pay all of my taxes, so before you mount your accusationary high horse regarding the fact that I am a private account, I would like to point out that this has NOTHING to do with the post to which you replied, neither do your comments regarding what items I have for sale.

I can only assume that you are listed as a business account and are merely one of those that are bitter towards the differences between a business account and a private account? To steal a quote from theelench's post below yours...

"It's always handy to have someone or something to blame when things aren't as good as they were and private sellers with free listing and selling are an easy target which most private sellers can't be bothered to endlessly debate. Did they ask for free listings, free to sell, GTC rolling over listings month after month ? No."

Good day!

P.S ...I'll give you a follow though, as you do have some really great stuff for sale.

Re: Ebay is dying

cobwebcottage — Mon, 20 Apr 2026 12:22:14 GMT

'From time to time I may have access to items that I am able to purchase at a lower price than retail, that I am able to resell for a small profit.'

And you can scream and shout that you are not a business seller but that doesn't change anything because it's there for everyone to see.

By not registering correctly, you are breaking the law. Just because you pay your taxes, it does not exempt you from not abiding by business regs and the laws which are there to protect the consumer.