Oh ebay - what have you done to the UK site???

[whf-southampton]

This is as much for ebay  to try and absorb as  for anyone else reading.  What have you done to the UK site? You essentially buried it on 4th February, that's what.

Our sales plummeted overnight on this date when the 'buyer protection fee' was introduced' From an approximate weekly payout of £1200 - 1500, we are lucky if we receive £300.

Why oh why, in an economic shock like this one, did you do this?? It was suicide (or greed) and we now, almost overnight, and along with most others  I suspect by all the posts, no longer have a viable site to sell on here.

On top of the promoted listing debacle and 'simple delivery' for private sellers (fortunately we have dodged that bullet as we have a Royal Mail business account')  ebay is dead and buried in the UK.

We have closed one shop, and are now  trying to run this one down (I say trying because we cannot now even sell our footwear for tuppence.)

We have seen the speed in turnover of your board of directors  - as a certified accountant with 45 years experience, i am gobsmacked that one of them cannot see that ebay needs to go back to basics and return to being the great place to buy and sell that it once was, the original and the best in it's field, instead of trying to mimic it's vastly inferior competitors .

[british-ceramics-and-paintings]

I imagine a few of the private sellers have been moved over to a business account hence why sales for business accounts have not dropped as much.

I can only speak from my own experience however this platform has become very difficult to sell art on, the volume of buyers is simply no longer here. 

It's been getting worse and worse each and every year since 2021. Page views on many listings are now woeful compared to where they were.

[jlovie]

I was watching a YouTube video last week which had a seller buying trainers off the V site to resell on eBay.

Reckoned lots of stuff underpriced on V, and they could get much better prices on eBay (they have a business account).

[therenewalworkshopltd]

Your right.  The prices on there can be really silly.

But who has the time to go trawling to find those bargains?  🙂

And you have to know EXACTLY what it is that your looking at.  It's still taking a chance and I wouldn't put too much stock in what your getting from YT.  They have a habit of inflating things to make it look better than it actually is.

The other side of it though, is that though something can appear to be a lot cheaper, can in fact be more profitable on Vxxted.

I sell things on here for £8, but sell them over there for £3 and still make more money over there!

No postage, no fees and you get back exactly what you expect to get back.

There are however drawbacks.....

[art2own]

eBay is no longer a viable platform at the moment for art as far as I’m concerned. The lack of sales, combined with the high fees on the few things that do sell, mean it’s no longer really worth investing time or effort. I came to this realisation last year and haven’t listed any new items since. I’ve also stopped purchasing new stock with the intention of reselling it on eBay.

The active and sold listing figures I recorded show no clear movement of private sellers switching to business accounts since the introduction of the Buyer Protection Fee (BPF). However, there was an obvious shift of business listings to private accounts when eBay introduced fee-free selling for private sellers in October 2024, and those listings do not appear to have returned to business accounts.

Below is a table of the figures I’ve recorded so far, along with a couple of useful charts and a brief analysis created with the help of ChatGPT.

---

📌Info:

I’ve been tracking sales and listing activity in the UK "Paintings" category since eBay introduced fee-free listings for private sellers on 1st October 2024. The data was taken monthly from the left-hand side panel of eBay UK’s search results page for the search term “Painting” in the category Art>Art Paintings. The number of active listings and sold listings were obtained under the filters for “Business” and “Private” sellers. The "sold" figures appear to represent a rolling total for approximately the prior three months.

📌What the Numbers Show

1. 📉 Drop in Business Listings (Oct–Jan)

• Business listings fell ~15% from 90,259 in October to 78,798 in January.

• This coincides exactly with eBay removing listing fees for private sellers.

• Likely explanation: some business sellers transferred or duplicated stock to private accounts to take advantage of the new fee structure.

2. 📈 Growth in Private Listings (Oct–Feb)

• Private active listings rose from ~124k to ~135k between October and February.

• But from March onward, private listing numbers plateaued — suggesting the initial growth surge had limited staying power.

3. 📊 Business Sales Remain Stable

• Business sellers consistently sold around 11,700–12,700 items every 3 months.

• Their sell-through rates (STRs) ranged from 4.4% to 5.5%, and gradually improved — especially from March onward.

4. 📉 Private Seller Sales Drop Sharply After March

• Private sales peaked in February (22,190 over 3 months), then fell to 16,570 by early June — a ~25% decline.

• Their sell-through rates (STRs) started higher than business sellers — around 5.3% to 5.5% — but fell sharply after February, declining to just 4.1% by June.

• This lines up exactly with the point when eBay started showing a Buyer Protection Fee (BPF) at checkout on private listings.

• Buyers may have pulled back in response to unexpected fees or reduced trust in private listings.

✅Conclusion

While eBay’s fee-free policy encouraged more private listings initially, the introduction of the Buyer Protection Fee (BPF) may have reversed that advantage. Private sellers now:

• Sell less efficiently

• Have falling conversion rates

• May be losing buyer trust

Business sellers, meanwhile, have remained stable — and in terms of performance, they’re now outperforming private sellers.

[british-ceramics-and-paintings]

Thank you for taking the time to post this, all the best.

[storage.boutique]

Isn't the fee for private sellers that sell a few items a month?

How can a "private seller" have a feedback rating of 24,159?

If this is a private seller, why have I got a business account?

If this seller is private, I hope HMRC is on top of their NI number to ensure that the revenue from 38k unit sales has been properly accounted for through their self assessment for income tax. 

It does make you wonder how eBay can class the bulk selling of footwear as a private seller in this way. A weekly payout of £1200 seems to suggest a business to me?

Even if they inherited a warehouse full of shoes, it is still a declarable business income. So why a private seller? What am I missing eBay? 

If this is actually a business, selling as a private seller, they should of course be penalised as we business sellers have been subsidising their attempts to deceive for years. If I was HMRC (and I am not) these are the sellers NI numbers I would be looking at first. HMRC should issue a tax assessment estimated on 38,000 pairs of shoes sold (per eBay) profit less any tax already paid, to the person holding the NI number in the seller account. HMRC may end up owning rather a lot of houses from former sellers on eBay methinks.

[dotboutique]

How did you ever get away with being a "private seller" for so long and ripping the rest of us business sellers off? Come on eBay, get this seller onto the correct fee structure!

[vinylscot]

If the two posts above are referring to the original poster, and I think they are, could these posters please take the time to look at one of the OP's listings. You will see that it is a business account. This is covered in the early posts in the thread.

[therenewalworkshopltd]

Wow, talk about going off half cocked!

And you really have a cheek making those complaints about the OP.

One look at your listings and virtually every single one of them has your website address in the pictures.

[storage.boutique]

I think your analysis may be a little incorrect.

I know a lot of business sellers that gave up when the telly adverts hit. 

Private Sellers must now give their NI numbers to ensure their income is tracked, so many have been forced to convert to Business Sellers (correctly).

Fee increases for buyers slows sales.

eBay has always had a terrible reputation for Private Sellers, it would be hard to see how they can be losing Trust. See the very many comedy sketches about buying stuff on eBay.

My view, there should be one fee structure. Everyone, even Ltd Companies, should be forced to give all NI data before selling on any online platforms. 

[therenewalworkshopltd]

Do tell, how does a Ltd company provide it's national insurance number?

Ebay hasn't always had a terrible reputation for private sellers, quite the opposite.  That's exactly what it was built on!

As regards the NI numbers, this is NOT something that Ebay has decided has to be done, it is the government.  Ebay is following the rules and that's it.  Along with that, every other marketplace has to do exactly the same, so this issue, is a null issue.  It effects everyone equally.

The only reason that buyers are seeing more expensive items, is because all of those private sellers out there, simply cannot be bothered to understand how it works and have just continued to sell at the same price, which increases the overall price when they add the BPF on.

Had they used come common sense, they would have reduced their prices and still be making a better profit than previously.

[greencrest-intl]

Your post raises some serious question for ebay.

In 2023 we started dropping parcel size items below £12.

In 2024 we dropped amount of stock we carried for most lines, as sales slowed further.

April 2025 we closed 800 listings, and sold 25% as a joblot.

Mar - Apr - May - Jun 25 we are just flogging a dead horse.

As a business we have no SD, or BPF  to worry about but still couldnt get sales up if we tried.

(We had more sales when switched off "Promoted Listings" and when charging for postage strangely)

Where from here? G-d knows

To wind down faster, would cost as much as it does keeping the dead store open on the chance the odd sale comes thru.

We'd accept 10p in every £1 on the whole lot if we knew where these buyers are lurking.

hard to believe we had our best month on record just over 24 months ago after starting on  ebay in 2008! Its just been downhill since, 14 years of investment upwards , wiped out in just 2.

[dotboutique]

Directors or Persons of Significant Control should supply NI numbers of course.

Agreed about the Government. I feel this is a step forward to cleaning out some cheaters.

I am sorry to disagree about eBay, I am the longest trading business on eBay UK having started in 1999 when it first came to the UK. It has always been a niggle of mine that the reputation (warranted or not) of eBay is that buyers can expect tat from Private sellers.

Not sure I agree with you about dropping prices, that just makes it a race to the bottom.

[dotboutique]

We sell mostly on another platform. I went on a course recently here in Scotland and a guy was on that course with me. He was simply scooping the data and photos off of a well known national wholesale company and putting the  stuff on the website. In a few weeks he had thousands and thousands of SKUs - the same kind of products as you are selling. I think perhaps you are on the wrong website and you should not be racing to the bottom but trying to build your brand. Competition out there is phenomenal now. Fortunately eBay and HMRC will be shutting down a load of private sellers and having their houses soon, so that should make it easier lol. 

[therenewalworkshopltd]

You are of course aware, that a Ltd company is a separate legal entity.

The Ltd company does not need to provide that information about it's directors or shareholders to anyone.
I mean think about it, Argos sells on here, which is owned by Sainsbury.
Do you really think that Ebay would be able to get hold of NI numbers for major shareholders and Directors?

The law about providing this information does not require NI numbers for Ltd companies, in any way shape or form.  And what exactly do you think that it would help by getting this information?
Ltd's report their income separately.  It is not directly attributable to any director or shareholder.
So it's makes absolutely no sense to do this.

As regards dropping prices, that is in regard to the BPF.  As has been mentioned multiple times on the forum, prior to fee free, private sellers where charged in just the same way as business sellers.

So now, all they have done is to move where the fees are paid.  They are cheaper than the previous, by a fair margin.  As a result, anyone with an ounce of common sense should be reducing their selling price to account for this.  By not doing so, they are effectively scalping the customers for additional profit.

[2012leparisien]

Yes you are 100% right. I’m closing my shop too,  it was VAT registered at one point now it is completely dead.