Business account versus Private seller account

[wortheverypennyspent]

Hiya all. I have been selling on eBay for 16 years now with the same user id and account (one of the longest), I still have 100% feedback score and I am proud of that tbh, but it has not been easy. I just wanted to ask you people if you have noticed the lack of views and bids for your listings? I have noticed terribly that views and bids have chronically dropped in the past 6-12 months. I only sell excellent condition clothing, most are like new. This is my job not a side line and I know somebody as a private seller who makes more money than me and sells more than me and ebay in their fees that they charge me also make more money than me for the majority of the time. I have done a lot of research comparing Business to Private and it appears that a Private seller does in fact make more money. I would so appreciate some feedback on this whether negative or positive to me. Thank you

[csyo_games]

good question

[board_game_material]

Yes you are absolutely correct.

Private sellers make more money than business sellers.
As private seler you can list 2500+ items (after your account is pumped up for years)
And you can have mutiple accounts. You sell different items on each of course. All for free.

As a business seller you have to pay for each listing beforehand 30p each, or a monthly payment of £27+VAT = £32.40 what allows you 250"free" listing (actually you pay for them as monthly subscription fee)

or for £77+VAT = £93 you have 1500 "free" lsiting, but again, you pay alrady £94 upfront, so you pay for them actualy

Compare to private sellers, 250 listing is free, 1500 listing is also free

The busines sellers get some "extras" what is really useless.
Shop front - useless, nobody cares
you can BUY ebay branded packaging. (so you advertise ebay and pay for it too)
customer service - why they mention it idk. private sellers got customer care too

There is no benefit to ave a business account at all.

I see others mention HMRC. It is regardless you have a business account or private account, if you sell more thanyou priate allowance you need to declare anyway.

Far as I remember under £1500 per year you dont need to declare. (maybe 1200, or 1000? i dont know)

So again, business account is not worth at all, adds nothing:

Private seller:
- no monlthly fees
- no listing fees (up to 1000-1500-or more)
- each month 100 free listing with 80% off selling fees

Business seller
- you pay monthly £33 or £94
- listings limited to 250 or 1500 (ok, and some auctions you can do as well)

[btr.style]

Hardly anything to be confused about. Let me guess you've had the email forcing you to upgrade to a business account?

Just look at yourself. 790 listings, 4.2k items sold. Almost 3000 items available in total (2700 new). That's a big attic clearout right? 

Evidently you are trading for profit, you are breaking all sorts of trading laws, depriving consumers of their legal rights to return items for any reason and so on. 

One could say you've pushed your luck for long enough with illegal trading and it's definitely those accounts that have really taken the pee with 1000's of items listed (like yours) which would have caused a clampdown. 

[eyeball-industries]

On this platform the total in £ sales is less than £1500 in 90 days, so there is no tax liability in the UK. eBay has really gone downhill over the past year, with about 10-14 sales a month (so many no sale days its downright sad). Thankfully, selling the same items on Etsy, we do about 40 items a week, if it wasn't for Etsy, it would be very sad. Even mt eBay USA store does better than eBay UK.

[papso22]

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@eyeball-industries wrote:

On this platform the total in £ sales is less than £1500 in 90 days, so there is no tax liability in the UK. eBay has really gone downhill over the past year, with about 10-14 sales a month (so many no sale days its downright sad). Thankfully, selling the same items on Etsy, we do about 40 items a week, if it wasn't for Etsy, it would be very sad. Even mt eBay USA store does better than eBay UK.

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This post just proves you know nothing about UK tax laws, or UK consumer laws.

Do you realise this is the business seller board?

[1956glyn]

Ok i fear i am having a blonde moment

How is that member allowed to have an account registered in the Uk..yet everything is sent from Ukraine?     

[eyeball-industries]

wrong thread, sorry...

[lasting-impressions]

Can I ask

When you list a Good Til cancelled item as a Private seller it comes off your listing allowance of 1000 but when it rolls over the next months, (if it does not sell), the relist does not come off your Monthly free listing allowance. So you can end up with 1000's of items online for sale.

Is that the same for the allowance on a business account or are they treating the relist every month as one of your 1500 allowance (If you had a featured shop). 

If so you really wouldn't want to have more than 1500 items on. I know the anchor shops are unlimited listings a month but that costs £437 a month.

[cobwebcottage]

If it rolls over, it comes out of our 1500 listings ( featured shop). Mad isn't it?

[the-ephemera-company]

Wow. 

So you have to cap yourself to just having 1500 items on unless you want pay £437 a month for unlimited. 

With collectable you end up needing a huge stock just to get a few sales. 

My dad has 10, 000 items on and takes about £40-50 a day. It would take him about a third of all he takes in month  just to pay for the Anchor shop.

That's insane. He might aswell give up. 

[therenewalworkshopltd]

I'm afraid that you really don't quite understand how the shops work.

Nobody with any common sense would on the 1501'st listing, open an anchor shop.

When you transition between shops, you need to make an allowance for the extra you are paying and the threshold at which the next level becomes viable.

So on a basic shop, once you reach about 700 listings, it makes more sense to pay for the featured shop.

The same is true of the transition between featured and anchor, though I'm not sure of the figures offhand.

In other words, each extra item you list over and above your allowance is charged individually at the rate for the shop.

[cobwebcottage]

You get 500 auction listings too but most of the time, these are a waste of time and I only use a small amount.

[1128septav]

Hi, i'm a private seller, just selling stuff off mine or that I find & think maybe worth money. I mostly sell by auction, with a minimum start price of £2.99, because of ebay extortionate selling fees. I sell mostly records, cds & books etc & do my research on mainly music site discogs to base my prices on. I would sell on discogs, but their shipping policy set up is so confusing & bad. I have an account with Ebid & paid them £69 to get free listing for life & only 2% selling fees, but have never sold anything on there, probably because they don't advertise on tv. Vinted is ok, but no bidding on it, might start using facebook market place as that is completely free to sell on, but I don't think goes world wide. I think ebay is becoming Pro-Business sellers, which is all wrong. Now they have reduced private sellers 1000 free monthly listings to 300, total GREED by ebay. I refuse to pay to list on top of their RIP-OFF selling fees. 

[therenewalworkshopltd]

Seriously, you sell a few personal items?  411 of them?

From your own words, you are buying to sell at a profit.

or that I find & think maybe worth money.

As such, you should be registered as a business.

Seriously, as a private seller, you really need 1000 listings?

And if you refuse to pay, then remove your listings and go elsewhere.

[1128septav]

411, I have loads like 600 odd to relist too. PS, i am not business seller. Nearly all the stuff I sell is my own. I actually have 2 part time jobs, so don't have the time to live on ebay. Most of my listings have been on ebay for over five years & I just relist all the time. Ebay is becoming like amazon - for business sellers. I do not sell enough to be a business like you, I sell about max 5 items a month, sometimes nothing. Business - yeah right!!!!!!!!! I WISH HA HA

[pg_kicks]

Surely it cant really be greedy as eBay are giving private accounts listings for free, and if its clothing then selling fees are free, the greed is coming from the accounts who are wanting more than others for free? One type of account has to pay for every single listing, be that by a subscription or a 35p per listing and another will get 300 for free, but they are wanting more. 

You will be paying eBay a charge to sell your items on their site (if more than 300 per month), they are offering a service and you are paying for it, wanting more for less is greed surely?

[technthread]

Discogs can be ok for price checking rarer titles but prices achieved on there don't always line up with eBay sold prices.

On here you are going to struggle to sell many lower value CD's charging £3.35 tracked postage. It is more than the CD's are worth and you're up against big sellers like Music Magpie, World of Books, WeBuyBooks etc who will charge half the price including freepost. And tbh I think buyers are a lot more informed now, many will see those postage charges as extortionate

[1128septav]

Hi, the reason I charge £3.35 for tracked 48 is because I lost out by helping a customer with cheaper untracked to Peru & he said he didn't recieve the cd's & ebay gave his money back & i lost out completely. I check all cds & play vinyl and give an honest appraisal of condition & check on discogs for mainly the median price the items sell for. I put £2.99 on minimum mostly on run of the mill stuff, because it ain't worth selling less that with ebay's selling fees 12.8% per 30p per item & postage & packing. I've always said that ebay should have nothing to do with the p&p. Ebay are greedy and alot of people are going off them big time, like amazon. Always had problems with Music Magpie when buying cds from them, they send stuff out that is in bad condition & they put very good or higher & that the items are checked. I haven't had trouble selling cds on ebay, when people realise they are coming back, like vinyl did, i hope to get rid of loads. Got a load of Oasis & Nirvana stuff, hate both of them. But gotta a bid on very good condition Oasis album at £2.99 at the moment, probaly cos they are coming back, so I relisted more of their stuff lol

[1128septav]

They take 12.8% + 30p from the whole amount of item & postage & packing. It's the sellers that are making them money. Noticed they sponsored the McLaren F1 team last year on our selling fees. The only reason I continue with ebay is because of the auction side of it. Now i'm thinking of only putting stuff that is more valuable on ebay & going back to Vinted & FB Marketplace to get rid of the cheaper stuff as sellers don't pay anything lol

[therenewalworkshopltd]

You know what, it never has been and never will be the sellers that are making the money for Ebay.

It is the buyers that are paying, as they are the ones that are charged.

So whether you sell on Ebay, Vinted, Amazon etc, it is always the buyers who pay the fees.

It's the just how it's charged that is different.

As regards sponsorships, the very fact that you noticed that they sponsored McLaren, says that other people noticed to.  Which is actually entirely the point of these kind of things.  No different than advertising at the end of the day.

Or do you honestly think that it's not a good thing for Ebay to advertise itself?