Are eBay's Store Subscription Fees & Listing Limits Punitive for Pre-Owned Sellers?

[surplussalesuk]

Hi everyone,

I wanted to open a discussion about eBay's store subscription fees and selling limits, particularly for pre-owned sellers. As someone who sells individual pre-owned items, on another account, (rather than new goods with high quantities and variations), I feel the current system is disproportionately punitive and counterproductive for eBay's stated goal of promoting pre-owned goods.

The Basic store subscription costs £32.40/month (inc. VAT) for 250 listings and it’s worth noting that renewals count toward this limit. Assuming a pre-owned seller sold all 250 listings in a month (which is unlikely given eBay’s slowing sales), I struggle to see how most actual businesses could be viable with so few sales. For sellers who also list on platforms like Vinted, this becomes even more problematic. If an item sells on Vinted first, the eBay listing becomes a wasted cost. With Vinted’s unlimited listings and faster sales, sellers are encouraged to prioritise listing there first, potentially delaying listing on eBay by days or even weeks.

eBay's subscription fees and listing limits are inadvertently pushing sellers to prioritise other platforms. Popular items at competitive prices are more likely to sell on Vinted before they even make it to eBay, meaning eBay misses out on potential sales commission, and buyers move away to get the best deals elsewhere.

eBay holds no inventory of its own and relies entirely on sellers to supply items, yet it imposes barriers like subscription fees and listing limits. With platforms like Vinted offering unlimited listings and lower fees, eBay’s model feels outdated and unnecessarily restrictive. Recent moves, like removing private buyer fees and trialling zero seller fees on pre-owned clothing, suggest eBay is aware of the competition. But why not take a simpler, more seller-friendly approach?

Wouldn’t it make more sense for eBay to remove store subscription fees and/or offer unlimited listings?

As a seller, I don’t mind paying the 12-15% commission when eBay succeeds in making a sale—I simply bake this into the listing price. What I don’t like is paying upfront for the opportunity to sell, especially when other platforms offer better terms.

eBay’s success depends on sellers providing inventory, but the current system feels like it’s working against us. I’d love to hear if others feel the same way or if eBay has any plans to address this in the future.

[blofieldbooks]

I did do some research into this some time back, when a previous topic of a similar nature was raised. eBay (UK) pays more in fees than any other site, worldwide. I'm an anchor shop subscriber, paying over £500 a month, before selling a single item, and that's exclusive of the FVF. Fees have a way of being added stealthily to cover increasing cost too, ie., the 'International fee' to sell to buyers overseas, and the Regulatory operating fee, on top of the FVF.  Though not hitting the limit for forced VAT registration, it has been a necessity to do so just to claim back some of these costs. With private sellers now getting fee free transactions, don't be surprised if business sellers see an increase in FVF percentages or new 'adjustment' fees added to our sales, though as it is the fees imposed on me now account for around a quarter of my takings on an average month.

[reskufashion]

£6,000 per year is frightening, especially with no guarantee of sales and then 15% fees on top of that. 

As OP said this does seem unfairly weighted against sellers with unique/single item listings.

A new clothing retailer selling a new t-shirt in 5 sizes and 10 colours would only be charged for a single listing, and could sell each item hundreds of times depending on their stock levels.

Sellers with individual listings or pre-owned items do not have that benefit which seems to go against eBay's push to champion pre-owned and sustainable shopping. 

[kat@ebay]

Thank you @auctiongabble 

We will feedback the points raised here on shop subscriptions with the relevant department. While we have no confirmation of planned changes currently we will share it for consideration on future changes.

Thank you,

Kat

[rainbowtrax]

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@carrotdrusus2 wrote:

So if you have a shop with 10000 items, you get 250 free each month and have to pay a listing fee for the other 9750 every month? 

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Yep. With that number of listings an anchor shop would be the most cost effective but yes, that's how it works. The upfront fees are crippling, particularly for sellers of one-off items.

[sassie.in.style]

As a business account seller of pre loved clothes, I can no longer compete with the business sellers operating on private accounts. 
Many of these private accounts have thousands of items.  With fees and shop costs it isn't sustainable and I definitely can't afford to promote items as well.
I believe they have destroyed the pre loved clothing as a business on ebay.  I am currently moving stock to another platform and can only hope it works.

[carrotdrusus2]

Many thanks,

thats me stuffed then. I sell everything at 99p !!

[technthread]

I would group £1 free postage stamps together to get the number of listings down to a manageable number.

If you sold a bundle of 5 for £3 with free postage your postage costs remain the same, the buyer gets more for their money and your shop fee could be a lot lower than anchor. I’d sell them in groups of 10 or 20 tbh. Maybe it would be worth getting a basic or featured shop and start over using the BIN and auction allowances to the maximum to work through everything gradually that way. Keep an eye on what your competitors are doing to see who is adapting in the smartest way. 

[carrotdrusus2]

I think my solution may well be opening a store on Ebay .com. 11000 free listings a month for $21.95.I will have to relist everything again but within 5 months or so I can be back where I was enjoying my hobby.

[cernak.m]

You can do that, But if your primary market is UK, you will loose spots in search results, just because you are lasting on a different site. eBay UK search engine will always put UK listings first and then US listings, liek a mix of them but first are UK listings.

[carrotdrusus2]

Its actually a 50/50 split sales wise and I think ebaymag might help me list in 8 other countries, if its still going.

[jokers_toybox]

I never realised there was such a HUGE difference, this is insane. 

I always justified it vs having a physical shop, but that difference between the US and here completely negates that

[brokensoulrecords]

Yes i agree and have posted many times about the shop and listing fees. I sell used Books, records, CDs, DVDs, Games etc etc and now i barely list on ebay better to list on amazon and discogs as fees are similar but no big shop fee or listings fees. It isnt worth listing Books etc that might take years to sell.  I personally think ebay is losing a fortune with the shop fees. Once they put them upto 500 a month for an anchor shop i de-listed 1000s of items and moved to other sites, used to sell 5-6k a month on ebay now down to 1-2 with 20%  of the listings i used to have. Sell far more elsewhere. used media items should be free to list. Been like this for years and nothing has changed

[rainbowtrax]

Yes, I can still remember when virtually any record you looked for, you'd find more copies for sale on ebay than on Discogs - but, my god, it's a dim and distant memory. I don't remember the last time I looked at any title where there weren't far more copies on Discogs than ebay. Most regular sellers with large inventories jumped ship years ago and shifted their inventory over to Discogs.

The upfront listing fees pricing model is a good decade out of date and has long been abandoned by virtually all the other selling platforms, and not just of media items. If business sellers could freely list all their inventory and pay fees on sales instead of on listing, the media category particularly, and any other category with a lot of one-off items, could be revitalised and may just draw back some of the buyers as well as sellers that have been lost to the competition. Who in their right mind wants to shell out over 500 quid a month for something that alternative sites offer for free? At present, the only sellers who can steadily increase their inventory and have an unlimited number of active listings for free are private sellers. And business sellers of single quantity items are the ones at the biggest disadvantage of all.

As an aside, the main advantage that ebay has over Discogs is the ability to add photos of the actual item and a full description (even if ebay do try their damndest to stop buyers from seeing it), so they could easily attract sellers back again - if they had a competitive fee structure and no upfront listing fees. But it always falls on deaf ears. They just want to rinse as much as possible from business sellers to the point where they're driving them away.

[spence0175]

For me the free 50 auction listings are a waste. I never use them. Would be good to have the choice to have those as BINs…

[the_book_seekers]

I use them because I've paid for them. I treat them like a BIN and set the price to what I would like to achieve. If they go for something higher that's a bonus.