Regulatory operating fee

[btr.style]

Cheers eBay. An extra 8p to pay (Inc vat) per £20 sale (40p per £100). 

The rinsing people's pockets continues. 

Oh as for the rest of the stuff in the update email today..... Something about being able to create a sale section in shops and forcing people to have more generic tips on how to sell the items quicker. Amazing. 

[devon-artificial]

I've just lost all trust in them...when they introduced the advertising fees I gave in and accepted one of their '£100 off' promos and tried it.

When never got it,  when I asked I was told we didn't qualify or use it in time or some other excuse even though I had a message that said we did.

Plus sales never improved via promoted listings.

So I don't trust that this new feee won't become the new normal fee that creeps up every few months.

[tribalgiftsuk]

What they forget is many of us also sell on Amazon and other platforms where we can now keep our prices lower than on Feebay. Savy shoppers will find our items cheaper elsewhere and many already are.

I buy a lot of stuff online and used to buy so much on Ebay, but i am now finding Amazon cheaper most of the time and it used to be the other way around.

So well done, hand it all over to Bezo's.  Ebay will now work best for sellers of unique vintage items. BTW Amazon have already started on selling Vintage/Pre owned Designer Handbags so it wont be long before they open the doors to other 'collectables'. Just saying.....

I am so annoyed just had the news of 2% increase on Jewellery and now this. Perhaps i should get on with my Etsy shop and my own website and stop trying so hard on here.

[lord_and_lady_m]

Isn't this that govermental fee that was imposed on online platforms over a year ago. Most passed it on to sellers and ebay shouted out about how it was not passing it on .........

[petstation1989]

In my category it's so much cheaper to sell on Amazon now and my listings appear on google etc with them so I make more sales 
I remember when I used to have to charge more on amazon than ebay to cover the costs and now it's the other way around.

I don't even understand what this new fee is supposedly paying for?

[litp*records]

---

@devon-artificial wrote:

I've just lost all trust in them...when they introduced the advertising fees I gave in and accepted one of their '£100 off' promos and tried it.

When never got it,  when I asked I was told we didn't qualify or use it in time or some other excuse even though I had a message that said we did.

Plus sales never improved via promoted listings.

So I don't trust that this new feee won't become the new normal fee that creeps up every few months.

---

When I saw they were giving us £100 off my first thought was it must be really expensive to begin with for them to give us that much off..

Indeed paying for an Ebay shop is like having a shop in the middle of the desert.  You are meant to pay more for Ebay to actually signpost your shop to customers so you get virtual footfall.  Then when they get to your shop and look at your items they see loads of ads on it for other items ("Get it faster from these other sellers...")

I refuse to play the promoted listings game so I guess that makes me a less valuable member in the eyes of shareholders. Oh well, there are lots of competing platforms now and I predict when V**ted goes pro in the UK that's gona take a lot of customers. 

Other than that there are boot sales, pawn shops, cash converters etc.  Real life auction houses. Lots of options. Ebay needs to remember this.  Make ebay worth my time without nickel and diming me for more money.

Speaking as a member of 20 years (on main account). 

[papso22]

I don't even understand what this new fee is supposedly paying for?

It's to cover the costs ebay incurrs in complying with regulations, inlcuding the costs of providing sales data to HMRC in January 2025 and onwards.

[litp*records]

---

@tribalgiftsuk wrote:

What they forget is many of us also sell on Amazon and other platforms where we can now keep our prices lower than on Feebay. Savy shoppers will find our items cheaper elsewhere and many already are.

I buy a lot of stuff online and used to buy so much on Ebay, but i am now finding Amazon cheaper most of the time and it used to be the other way around.

So well done, hand it all over to Bezo's.  Ebay will now work best for sellers of unique vintage items. BTW Amazon have already started on selling Vintage/Pre owned Designer Handbags so it wont be long before they open the doors to other 'collectables'. Just saying.....

I am so annoyed just had the news of 2% increase on Jewellery and now this. Perhaps i should get on with my Etsy shop and my own website and stop trying so hard on here.

---

I don't get the @mazon love, I really don't.  There is 10x more Chinese junk on there.  The process for signing up as a seller seems complicated, I hear fees are higher, then you are competing to get in the "buy box".  Got to say, I seldom buy from there and when I do, there are always problems.  Out of date stuff being the main one. 

Also Jeff Bezos no longer has anything to do with it, as far as I'm aware.

I love Ebay, but it needs to get its act together. Private sellers, EDDs, broken search, and the gambling mechanics of PL.  Watching the decline is like seeing a dear friend slowly go mad.  I want Ebay to do well.  Genuinely.  @mazon however... couldn't give a stuff about them, sorry

[crystalcharmz_uk]

For me, it's another nail in the coffin that is ebay, I was weighing up shutting my shop and this has pretty much sealed the deal. I have been an ebay seller since 2008 when it was very profitable but these days, Amazon accounts for  95% of my sales.  For me,  Amazon has: lower fees, less time spent pleasing the algorithm god and comes with the added benefit of not having to deal with Royal Mail either!

Sorry ebay, you have helped me make my decision 👋

[tribalgiftsuk]

I have always been very loyal to Ebay, dont get me wrong. But my fee's are now cheaper there. About the Chinese stuff i would say its now comparable. It depends on what your looking for though.

All i was saying is people will shop around and if sellers can have a better price point there than here with less selling fee's then they will make more money selling on there. Its sad but true.

[padanpcparts]

Every time I see a Business Seller Update I hold my breath waiting for the s*** to  hit me. 

[btr.style]

Amazon I'm impartial with. I don't pay for prime or anything. Quick deliveries are good but I just don't like it. Prices are all that great and it's not like you can see in full what a seller there is selling by clicking their name and seeing (maybe there's a way but all I ever get to is having it where their username is imported to the search bar). 

With eBay as a seller (as I don't sell on Amazon), they just treat people like idiots, ignore suggestions and yet still claim it's a 'community'. I know I mention it a lot with private business sellers but it's almost funny the way eBay word stuff. A report is done (reporting a private business seller), the automated message is they will remove it depending on how it affects the 'community'. Then it's back with no action taken. I'm sure undercutting businesses so they can't be in business affects the 'community'. 

[crystalcharmz_uk]

Also, I have reported listings in the past where there is clear search and browse manipulation, using a brand name in the title and description for unbranded items.  The bot always comes back with there is nothing wrong with the listing 🙄

[exponential_developments]

Yep, done the same several times, waste of time bothering, so i won't be doing it again.

[british-ceramics-and-paintings]

"Improved tools to help you promote and grow your business"

i.e.

Sell it for less !

Such wisdom.

[btr.style]

Thanks to tommystrezures for the pub embarassment earlier. I was there enjoying a quick pint and I saw in the live chat asking about no fees for private sellers for 2 months, and would business sellers be getting something or diddly squat like clarksons farm. I couldn't stop laughing. The sad thing was even when my phone battery died, this still tickled me and the laughter was still happening. I had to grab some magazine to read and pretend I was laughing at things in it. 

It wasn't a very good time for the community team in today's chat was it? Copying and pasting to the extreme. 

eBay have more diddly squat in them than anyone. Probably general fee increases soon too after this regulatory fee (they couldn't break both bits of bad news at the same time can they?)

[btr.style]

---

@british-ceramics-and-paintings wrote:

"Improved tools to help you promote and grow your business"

i.e.

Sell it for less !

Such wisdom.

---

I dread to think. eBay's idea of a tool is 'to create your listing, press the list item button' or 'improve your items to help them sell' (improve how? By updating the listing to say it's made of gold instead of plastic)

[exponential_developments]

Ebay's results for the last quarter are due on the 27th.............

[the_book_seekers]

I laughed out loud at this bit 

Insertion fee

One of the two main fees for listing and selling on eBay is the insertion fee. It is non-refundable, and the amount you’re charged will depend on the monthly fee entitlement you can benefit from as part of your store subscription. There are also a variety of solutions to list for free on eBay.

As business sellers there are no free listings on ebay. We pay our shop subscriptions for an allocation of listings which equates to cheaper listing fees, but by no means free. All the link does is take a person to the list of business fees.

Calling it the Regulatory Operating fee makes it sound like something governmental rather than what it is, ebay passing on its costs to us. The timing of this is interesting coming on the back of the start of the new HMRC regulations and the totally free listings for some private sellers. I wonder how much of a hole the new legislation has put in ebay's revenue.

[devon-artificial]

That's me decided, soon as I get home from the warehouse I'm getting right back into perfecting my website, photos, meta tags, descriptions, videos, barcodes. I already take a lot of pride in making sure it's a great site...but I've had enough of ebay telling me that lowering prices is a great selling tool while they increase fees.

My website sales are up 498% in 12 months...time to step it up a notch...thanks for the nudge I needed ebay 😂

[btr.style]

Me too. I've already expressed the intent. It may take another few weeks or so but alas, nobody can go on like this.