Benefits of being a business seller on Ebay in 2023

[british-ceramics-and-paintings]

I have been a business seller with a shop on Ebay for well over 15 years and I would be interested to hear what others think the benefits of being a business seller on Ebay are now ?

[four_mid_able]

Compared to what ?.

A business seller is a business seller.

An unregistered business seller trading as a private seller is something very different 😒

[crg_collectables]

For me its purely cost but also factors into whether an item is worth listing.

If you list more than cost of the shop subscription every month and or have more than that many items listed at all times then its definitely worth it. I think its about £33 so if you currently pay 36p per its around 80 items. Remember it will charge you if a buy it now relists after the 30 days(found this the hard way)

Also I do find myself listing items I probably wouldnt bother listing if I was paying 36p every time so it definitely pushes you to list more.

If you only list say 10 or 20 higher price items a month its probably not worth it until you can take advantage of all the free listings but personally I plan to try and get as close to using the free listings every month as I can going forward.

[crg_collectables]

Oh and yes the difference between business and personal goes far beyond ebay. Personal seller is selling a few unwanted items where a business seller is buying to sell at a profit then declaring any profits in a tax return. Also must accept returns but on the other side can claim expenses.

[exponential_developments]

It used to feel and was the case you could build a business on ebay, you could grow it, your profit margins were worth the time and finacial outlay, but thing have changed over the last few years and investing solely for ebay would feel a very insecure venture unfortunately.

[magpiecorner1]

To me it appears that international selling is weighted towards business sellers, though I suspect because personal sellers simply can't be bothered.  We have one account that has about 4 or 5 business sellers as opposition and dozens of personal sellers, according to 'sold' we outperform most of the personal sellers, even though their prices are about 1/3 of ours.   I am often found sitting on my settee listing and shaking my head.

[iew-signed-books]

Other than complying with UK tax laws, there are none.

[iew-signed-books]

In theory, yes; in practice on here absolutely not.

[papso22]

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@iew-signed-books wrote:

Other than complying with UK tax laws, there are none.

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You can comply with UK tax laws when trading on a private ebay account, but you can't comply with consumer law.

[kempseykate]

Personally, any business seller on ebay now has my utmost respect and sympathy.

I ran a business on here for many years until about 3 or 4 years ago. I don't think there is a day goes past when I see some new announcement/read about another ebay mess up on the boards/hear about more scams when I don't say to the OH how glad I am that I no longer have a business selling on here. At least just selling off our stuff, I can walk away any time. More and more of our stuff goes to the charity shop now - all clothes, anything that's fragile/low value, stuff we have tried a few times. I don't buy very much, but when I do buy new stuff, first post of call is always business sellers on here.

[iew-signed-books]

Thanks for clarifying that. It was probably what I meant but typed in the wrong thing.

[nigel_paul_wright7557]

The taxman only wants to know when you are making a profit over £1000.

[the_book_seekers]

The starting point for the taxman is not £1000 profit but £1000 turnover. 

[iew-signed-books]

The taxman's taken all my dough.

[theelench]

Without doubt some private sellers simply can't be bothered but for others it's the risk of returns under ebays MBG combined with the all too frequently reported examples of buyers on ebay knowing that by returning an item as INAD, they can get the seller to pay for the return.

I used to send glass to Australia, S. Africa, the US and (once) a coin to somewhere in India that I couldn't even find on a map.  All without any problems but feeling it was safe to do so as I would list as accepting returns with the proviso that "Buyer pays return postage".

I simply felt that with the MBG / INAD combination made the risk too great of buyers returning stuff for almost any reason at my expense.   A business seller is far more likely to have the sort of turnover and margin to be able to absorb the cost of the occasional return.  As a low volume private seller that's rather more of a risk IMO, one return from Australia (at a cost of about £25?) would probably cost me not only more than I might gain from that sale, but from several others as well.  

I do still (infrequently) send items abroad that sell on another site, most recently to America, but that site is not so automated.  If I was to get a Return Request from a sale there, that I thought wasn't legitimate, I can appeal to their Support and get the case reviewed by a human.  Not just waved through by a robot.

[don.g.ovany]

One thing I would personally like to see is a default search setting to limit the search to business sellers only. The prospective buyer could change this if they like.

[kempseykate]

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@don.g.ovany wrote:

One thing I would personally like to see is a default search setting to limit the search to business sellers only. The prospective buyer could change this if they like.

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May suit you, but it wouldn't suit buyers of collecable/second hand items, where a large percentage will be from private sellers.

There used to be an option on left hand side/advanced search to select business or private sellers only. It's a shame they removed that. That was ideal - I occasionally used it for stuff like electrical items/stationery. But if looking for a book, a lady's top or another bit of Who stuff for my OH, I left it on all sellers.

[don.g.ovany]

I sell collectibles myself. My gripe is with those businesses who are registered as private sellers. There are plenty of those in collectibles. I think collectors of collectibles are generally canny enough to search everywhere anyway. You make a great point about the LH side tick box. I wonder why eBay hidi it?

[kempseykate]

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@don.g.ovany wrote:

...You make a great point about the LH side tick box. I wonder why eBay hidi it?

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Because it was useful?!

[british-ceramics-and-paintings]

Can anyone please explain the logic here:

Business sellers pay 36p to list each item (if you don't have a shop).

Private sellers have 1000 free listings a month.