Buyer fees 2025

[tulipsorange12]

If I sell something for £1 is it true that the seller is charged a 75p flat fee? That is so  off putting as a buyer and seller. 

If I send an item via Royal Mail's untracked service when will I get paid - will it be 48 hours after the estimated delivery date. 

These changes are rubbish for everyone.  Surely they will impact sales adversely.

[jesso1]

Crazy indeed. Sometimes you do need to adjust the postage especially when giving postage discount for multiple items purchase. Not that it would affect me, regular bds have dwindled to zero since ebay changed things in february.

[theknittingandsewinglady]

So if they already tried it in the US and it didn't work, why would they think it would work here in the UK? 

I sell mostly knitting patterns and try and make them as cheap as I can. The price has now gone up plus postage. I've not made a single sale since this was implemented. I've just introduced free postage to see if that works, though it really eats into what little profit I make.

I also sell on Etsy. Now looking to see whether it's worth continuing on Ebay or just transfer everything to Etsy or transfer to a professional seller on Ebay. 

Been with Ebay for many years, it stinks what they are doing to us. 

[jonat_broad]

Given you are selling a lot of brand new items, and multiples of them. Some would suggest that you are a business as per ebays policy. Especially as profit shouldn't really matter if they are your preowned goods.

[vintique*violet]

It is now becoming tiring that others are still trying to "police" other members over what account they are using... that is eBays job and personal to that individual to ensure they are correctly registered.  It has been going on for many, many years with businesses on private accounts some showing over 5K or 10k sales - ebay have had plenty of time to " remedy" on a mass scale, and have not done so, even when reporting them it has made little or no  difference.   For sure, point to the relevant "laws and/or "policy" to assist those that may not fully understand the issue, but really it is no one else's business, and is creating a divide and discourse. 

[*devils.advocate*]

Those creating a divide are those chancers who know full-well what they're doing.

As a buyer, why anyone would want to stick up for them, or support them, is beyond me.

[jonat_broad]

Opinions opinions I suppose. If my suggestion that someone selling hundreds of 'new' sewing patterns might be a business is annoying I'd suggest you just ignore my post.

[kath3735_wxmjn]

given that on another post you were saying that people are allowed their own opinions why should it bother you that someone is actually giving it?

[vintique*violet]

Oh please - I am not bothered, I was expressing that it is getting tiring going over the same things when we cannot do anything about it and eBay should have sorted it out a long time ago.

[buffster1963]

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@vintique*violet wrote:

Oh please - I am not bothered, I was expressing that it is getting tiring going over the same things when we cannot do anything about it and eBay should have sorted it out a long time ago.

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Yes, they should have sorted it out but these sellers should take responsibility for their own actions. Just because Ebay have been slack about it does not make what they are doing right. I probably would not care so much if they did not have the cheek to keep coming here complaining about changes that should not even apply to them. 

[vintique*violet]

A relative collected thimbles many antique silver others were  brand new in packets and untouched... there were 1000's of them...she passed away and they were an "inheritance" to her son... the selling of those would  not make her son a business , people collect all sort of things, and I am not "suggesting" that the seller in question is a business or not a business, I very rarely click on posters accounts to view their listings anyhow... and it really is not for us to keep pointing out to people that they are or could be a business /trading or whatever etc particularly when there are some really " brash" comments or " sour grapes"... there is absolutely no need to be rude, or harsh to anyone..( I am not even remotely suggesting that you are!) . We are all human, all with our own daily challenges and  compassion , kindness and  understanding go a long way...the suggestions could be  to assist them to research HMRC and eBay policy for them to determine for themselves... The reporting rules now will probably " sort" it , and none of us will be any wiser as that is  an individuals "private" circumstances. 

I will refrain from commenting an opinion further on any of your posts. Thank you. 

Edit - spelling. 

[vintique*violet]

Agreed it is the sellers responsibility also, but not everyone is trading or a business - no-one knows that persons individual circumstances and as it has been noted on many occasions there are accounts selling their own personal collectables who are being " targeted" and pushed to a business account when no requirement to do so -I totally get the thousands of " masqueraders" and they are easy to spot ( I do not understand why eBay have not "cleaned their act up"  so to speak) but there is nothing anyone can do about it - even reporting the answers come back " no violation"  even though I was not a business, I believe in fairness and it was obvious the " level playing field" for businesses was being "abused" ...  You would think by not " weeding" them out, and eBay do have the " necessary" to have sorted this years back and for newly opened accounts  too.. .that there was a different " corporate" reason being played out ? Who knows? As for those who keep complaining about the changes, maybe some really are unawares they are trading due to " business activities"... it takes all sorts. 

[goldenwolfman]

I said very early on in this debate that there was a wedge being driven between private and business sellers - one that was almost deliberate in order to cloudy the waters around the 'new buyers tax' topic. I also pointed out that ebay have the opportunity to sort out who is who quite easily - 'should they choose to' but obviously they may have an ulterior motive in not wanting to? It becomes more apparent by the day that there is a gap between private and business which seems to grow wider by the day....

[theelench]

I would be truly amazed if the "ulterior motive" was anything other than the usual and most obvious one  --  money.

ebay is further loading the dice against genuine low volume private sellers, the majority of whom don't promote their listings.  While ignoring the businesses pretending to be private sellers, the majority of whom probably do sponsor their ads. and quite possibly at higher return rates to ebay than correctly registered businesses, given that the pay no other fees.

See:  BSB "Ebay Forces Up-Grade To Business Seller" #294.

[rupert606]

No, that's wrong. 

There are many many reasons why people sell on eBay.  Yes, ultimately it's about money but a buyer is far more likely to find a bargain from a private seller than from a business seller.  Think about it - that private seller is therefore unlikely to be coining it, often they don't really know the value of what they're selling - or maybe they just want to recycle stuff as quick as they can.

In media categories, I find I'm often buying from other collectors, or I'm buying from somebody who is selling a relative's collection.  These people aren't running businesses and eBay understands this.  They also realise that these sellers with their unusual or collectable media items are the heart and soul of eBay and attract buyers to the site. 

I've been buying CDs from a particular collector from my earliest days on eBay, in fact we knew of each other right back in the 1980s.   I imagine he sells about 20 CDs a month from his collection, everything is very reasonably priced.  I don't want sellers like this to be penalised, he is by definition a private seller and I think it's petty minded to think otherwise.  And I'm saying that from somebody that ran a serious book business for 35 years.  

[theknittingandsewinglady]

Thank you for responding

[*devils.advocate*]

I was responding to a comment about these pseudo-private chancers who game the system and why anyone would want to support them - and there’s so many of them crawled out of the woodwork moaning about how hard done by they are.

These chancers are most obviously businesses but deliberately trade under a private account to avoid fees - those fees which you paid in the past and which my BH and other properly registered businesses still pay.

Yes, eBay does nothing about it but that doesn’t make it right - this type of seller doesn’t take any responsibility for their deliberate action in the first place and needs to be avoided.

And while some find it boring that others keep pointing it out, it might actually help someone, who only reads the Boards, do the right thing?

I, like others, have absolutely nothing against genuine private sellers who give as good a service as many businesses (far better, in many instances) but who have, through no fault of their own, become entangled in this sorry mess.

Regretfully, these genuine private sellers will also have to deal with Simple Delivery - which will likely mean that some/many will just give up and these bargains, to which you refer, will just disappear.

It’ll mean I’ll buy less on eBay and more from other sites (as will others?) but I’ll never buy from these chancers and I hope others do not as well.

[handmade_by_me]

Yes I thought it was too good to be true when ebay said we could list and sell with no fees.

They are actually taking fees off the seller because even though they put a fee on, that the buyer pays, its ends up being paid by the seller. You have to drop the item prices to make up for the buyer fees that go on top of the item price. I put an item on for £8.99 and it went over £10 which is too much for the item so I had to drop the price so the seller is losing out.

[kath3735_wxmjn]

They have not taken any fees off my sales as i have not lowered my prices.    

[leca_8538]

Not everything's about you. They're on about in general, even though ebay has "free listings" you'll still end up lowering your pricesin order to make sales. 

For yourself, because a lot of your items are auction the buyers fee is added on at the end and because it's a variable fee your buyers are either going to be paying extra. Or they'll just say they don't want it any more as the price is different to what they're were expecting to pay and you'll lose the sale. 

[buffster1963]

The buyers fees are added to each bid, they are not added after auction.