eBay has shot themselves in the foot and killed everyone's businesses.

[qawra]

On average I sold around £100 worth of items a week of highish value items and had done so for many years being on eBay for over 22 years but their decision to try and compete with Vinted and their like killed my selling stone dead almost immediately - No big deal as I have a full time job but my neighbours had a thriving eBay business selling over 600 items a month but eBay's decision decimated their sales to 200 in the first month of the change now it's down to just 48 sales last month but nearly 500 on Amazon since they moved their business over to that platform two months ago so they could actually earn a living. It's not like there isn't any fees paid to eBay its just the buyer that is paying them now for a protection they already had for free in the past.

 An object lesson on how to destroy a long-term loyal customers business and make them move to a competitor - Mindbogaling as with none of these sellers eBay will disappear or fade into obscurity.   

[ruby*ryan]

There is no extra BPF  for business sellers, it's included in the price. Presumably because business sellers pay fees.

[therenewalworkshopltd]

And presumably because the sellers referenced are actually registered as a private seller.  Hence the BPF is killing their business!  Shame, they have to pay some fees.....

[pmcomponents]

I don't know about others selling profiles but a lot of my customers fund their purchases by selling off old bits of collections.  While I don't have any direct contact with the BPF, a chunk of my customers appear to have quit ebay.  I'm down 30% month on month.

[qawra]

This post wasn't about fees but eBay's decision to make selling for private sellers supposedly fee ( by moving those fees to the buyer ) and in the process killing off nearly everyone I know on eBay sales - My friends next door were business sellers but this action by eBay still killed off nearly all their sales so they moved to Amazon where their sales have now nearly gone back to the numbers they had on eBay before the changes - Yes Amazons fees are more but they are still selling and they weren't on eBay.

As I said they are not the only ones that have seen a massive decline in sales since eBay's decision.

If it ain't broke don't fix it plain and simple - They did and have screwed it for many people. 

[qawra]

My point exactly !

Nearly everyone I know that sells on eBay be it private or business sellers are all saying that their month on month sales are down  and quite a few have now abandoned eBay for Amazon as those business sellers could no longer make a living on eBay and 3 of those were selling on eBay for decades but these changes finished that.

[therenewalworkshopltd]

Amazon's fees are not that different to Ebay at all.  Have you actually sold on there?

And once you add on FBA fees etc, it can be quite a bit more expensive than on Ebay.

I'm sorry, but I have seen virtually no difference in sales pre and post the addition of the BPF.

Sales do go up and down as time goes by, but generally, they are reflected on other sites as well.

I agree that Ebay shouldn't have changed the way it has, but at the same time, to stand still is also not an option.  They do need to come out of the past, but an update, rather than an overhaul is required.

This knee jerk reaction to becoming Vinted is unwarranted.  They need to work on their core business, which is and always has been, the things that you can't buy anywhere else.  Particularly collectibles and second hand.  

What exactly are you basing your statements on?  People on a forum?  he said, she said and so on?

Ebay's actual figures don't follow what you are saying, at least the latest available anyway.

Though it's a relatively small gain, users have actually gone up at the last report.

[designedinashed]

I started selling over on Amazon and the fee's for me are no where near ebays, I post out all my items as 95% are personalized and now in the process of moving all my designs across to Amazon "long process" as eBay for me is no longer viable, I started 4 years ago as a private seller starting a new venture which was a hobby which quickly turned into part time £3k+ a month so for obvious reason had to register as a LTD and change my account to a business account, shop fee's etc not a problem all tax deductible,  but then early 2024 they changed the search algorithm which killed sales by 1/3 overnight, sellers soon worked out what was required to get back in the search results so no major issue.
Then along comes 2025 and eBay see Vinted Etsy Bebop etc taking a good slice of the cake, so eBay in all their stupid wisdom  decide to try compete with the said above, which are 100% a completely different business model doing so have screwed over themselves and both buyers/sellers. 

Soon as the new free to sell for private sellers was turned on most peoples sales dropped week on week,
now they are lubing up anyone who uses PL for listings and spunking them for even more % of your good earnings. 
It's been  good run with eBay but now it's time to draw a line and move to other platforms completely.

[qawra]

As I said before I am basing my statements on the experience of my friends next-door and that of my brother and his close friend that have all moved over to Amazon because their sales took a nosedive.

None of them wanted to do this as they had all sold on eBay for decades and were quite happy doing so but if you are relying on sales for your living then needs must and as I already said '' Yes Amazon fees are higher '' but so are the sales on Amazon. 

Myself personally saw a massive decline in sales but like I said for me it's not the end of the world as I have a good job but I cannot say I won't miss the extra cash but its not what I rely upon for my living like those I have mentioned above. 

It seems you are fortunate if this hasn't affected your sales ( note I am not doubting or questioning your statement ) but you can see from another contributor that their month on month sales are down 30%

Anyway this is my last responce as I have a life outside eBay that is calling.

[qawra]

So it's not just me and those I know as one contributor seems to continually imply.

My neighbours saw a 60% drop to start and that only got worse my brother 40% and his best mate close to 50% and for me well over 50% but that's not an issue as I am not a business seller that needs this to live on.

Yes this could all be related to what you sell but I can only go on my experience and of those close to me and this year it's all been negative with regards to eBay sales.

Anyway thanks to all - I am off out for the evening.

[therenewalworkshopltd]

I merely asked on what where you basing these statements.

And you have replied to say that it was your neighbours and yourself.  Therefore the Ebay is going to die!

Yes, others have reported this, but what you are not getting, is that basing these kind of things on word of mouth, from what has been posted on a forum, means very little indeed.  It is but a tiny sample of the user base.
When Ebay post their next set of figures, it will start to give a more accurate idea as to whether sales/sellers are dying or not.  

[padanpcparts]

I'm with you to be honest. We get a lot of these 'Oh no the world is ending on e-bay threads', and it rarely is. I'm not a fan of the change as it makes competitive pricing harder to do clearly as a private seller. Business wise it made no difference at all, in fact this year has thankfully been far better than the last couple and everything seems to be running along nicely at the minute. 

[karakterondave]

dead right - i was selling a good selection of items before the buyers fees were introduced but this - on top of the moronic "simple delivery " -has lost me 80% of sales so i am closing it down after 10 years and doing more boot fairs ....

[sheba-knows-best]

I agree. Whilst I have found ebay's attempts to  start to deal with the private/business seller mess unsettling it is business as usual for me, albeit tough times for the highly competitive pre-loved market.

My YTD sales are 3% up y-o-y. My YTD profits are 3% down y-o-y.

So I'm obviously feeling the squeeze of ebay's consistent fee push. Having said that, to see sales growth in a recession is not bad (and the total figure is still only a few %pts down from the highs of COVID 2020-2021). Plus I have reduced stock from 1750 (by design) so have accepted a few low offers to clear space. As I say, same old, same old, certainly ebay is nowhere near dead for me.

[qawra]

When I first posted this simple question I got a few eBay cheerleaders berating me and questioning what exactly I was basing my comments on and suggesting the people I was referencing must all be business sellers masquerading as private sellers to avoid fees.

All very passive-aggressive and disrespectful and completely incorrect as the three people I was talking about sold between 35 and 40 thousand pounds worth of goods each year so clearly not private sellers.   

I personally had always done pretty well as a private seller ticking along at around £400 a month for many years with a few highs and lowes. However, I suddenly noticed a massive drop in sales and mentioned this to my brother who informed me of the changes eBay had made and the impact it had on his business and that he was moving over to Amazon as he could no longer make a living on his eBay sales.

I appreciate the impact of these changes probably depends a lot on what you are selling but I can only go on my own experience and that of those I know that were selling on eBay for decades and the other contributors that have posted in agreement here or via my eBay page not wanting to get barated on here.

Pleased to hear that you are still doing OK on eBay but like I said ''Horses for courses'' .

[ruby*ryan]

In your opening post you mention business sellers and the effect of Buyer Protection Fee - there would be no effect. Business sellers are unaffected by the BPF. Of course, if all the unregistered business sellers who are affected by BPF pop of somewhere else, then many business sellers will probably see a rise in sales!

Again in your last post you mention 'all these changes' affected your brother's 'business' . Again, if he was correctly registered as business, the changes would have had no effect.

And if your neighbours are registered as businesses (as your last post suggests), then they wouldn't be affected.

To sum it up, it is only private sellers (selling their no longer wanted items) that are affected by BPF, waiting for payment to clear and Simple Delivery. So no businesses will have been harmed.

[pmcomponents]

I can only speak from my experience, but I know many of my customers fund their purchases by selling unwanted items on ebay.  The drop in sales they are seeing from the BPF has a knock on for my business.  The items I sell are fairly niche so I'm not implying this is the case for everyone but there is a trickle down.

[qawra]

Thanks to everyone that has shared their experiences regarding thier drop in sales since the eBay changes and also those that have been fortunate enough to avoid this issue.

I am a new to this forum so wanted to ask how do I end this thread as I am getting more than a little sick of the eBay cheerleaders not reading my post correctly and only linking this issue to buyer fees and then constantly suggesting the business sellers I have cited must all be dishonestly registered as private sellers. However, they don't ever explain exactly how someone with over 40K in turnover could achieve this magic trick as eBay just would not allow this  - Yes because they would want their fees- Oh no I mentioned fees.

Advice on how to end this post would be appreciated given I have had a gut full of some people trying to make a point and fixating over something that was never stated as an issue for the fully registered business sellers but is presumably just a knock on consequence as confirmed by many sellers on this forum but clearly their personal experiences and opinions just don't count to these belligerent eBay cheerleaders.

[therenewalworkshopltd]

You know what, just because people disagree with you does not make them Ebay cheerleaders.

If you really want to think that kind of thing, then you are extremely short-sighted.

And no, you cannot close a thread.  It goes on, until people stop posting in exactly the same way as it does in pretty much every other forum.  

[jonatjonatjonat]

reading your first post - from the context given you could indeed assume that you were referring to businesses being annoyed by BPF and that those businesses were on private accounts. 

As for how exactly someone with 40k in turnover could be on a private account. Well - there are indeed businesses on private accounts doing turnovers like that! the 3d printing market for a start....