Changes to Buyer Protection fee. How does this help?

[panned2307]

How on earth can this be good news and help me sell things? Yes a reduced flat fee - but look at the total cost in fees when all are added up? Without the ability to add multiple items into the basket, this is getting ridiculous now.

[realspark]

It's even more complication, but to be fair, the fees on items £20 & under will be lower, and the rest pretty much unchanged.

[kake100]

At last ........... something to make selling lower value items more viable.

95% of my items are under £20 and probably 75% are under £5 so maybe finally I will see an improvement in sales as it has been oh so quiet since BPF came in. I list a lot of my old spare speedway programmes gathered over the years and all are under £2. Sales fell off a very hgh cliff when BPF came in as it basically added 50% to the cost and made them no longer worth what the minimum selling price became. Maybe now I can get rid of some more as I was contemplating a trip to the paper recycling bin!

[crafty_cat_lover]

I'm not sure I follow you.

The previous rate for an item sold at £10 was 4% plus 75p so £1.15 and if a buyer bought 2 items in one order from you for £10 they paid BPF of £2.30

With the new rates an item sold for £10 will be 7% plus 10p so 80p and a buyer buying 2 items at £10 each on one order will now pay 7% plus 10p so total of £1.50

By my maths that's a pretty good saving and good news for those with low value items to sell.

[realspark]

It'll make a big difference for items under a fiver, existing fee on a £5 item more than halved.

I suspect lots of sellers have shifted low priced items to other selling places. Ebay do seem to be happy shooting themselves in the foot, then trying to fix it afterwards.

[jonatjonatjonat]

Why is there not the ability to add multiple items to a basket?

[pauuk.35za36]

I imagine the charity shops have never had it so good! 

[panned2307]

I wish i knew the answer to that.

[panned2307]

I am not buying that - If i sell low value items then i agree all is good - but i sell collectables and some are expensive. If i have read right an item sold for £4000.00 that once had a 4% fee now has a much higher fee added - how does that help in a market where prices are so competetive?

Am i missing something?

[thepillenwerfer]

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@pauuk.35za36 wrote:

I imagine the charity shops have never had it so good! 

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I wouldn't be too sure about that as a lot already moan about having rubbish dumped on them.  They are funny about electrical items and certainly wouldn't want "For Parts or Not Working" items even though they can sell well on e-Bay.

[panned2307]

I sell collectables and some are as high as £12,000 - how does adding a fee to that help me sell it?

It used to be 4% = 75p now you have to do a multiple calculation to add the fee which cannot possibly be less than it was before. Please tell me i am not going mad?

[crafty_cat_lover]

So why don't you reduce price of your most expensive items slightly. I'm not sure what the previous rates were as I'd never risk selling something on Ebay for £12K

As private sellers selling of our own unwanted items rather than stock surely it is not about the amount of money we 'make', it's more about getting rid of stuff we no longer want.

[realspark]

You're a private seller?

Buyer Protection Fee on a £12,000 (or £4000) item would be 5p less under the new system.

Fee on the first £20 would be 5p less, over £20 unchanged.

[zachalot]

Why is eBay even telling us this? After all, "it's now free to sell on eBay" (as we keep being told).

"Updated rates on your listings"; "...to better support your sales"?!

That sounds a lot like seller fees, surely. Why weren't buyers been emailed to let them know "it's now cheaper to buy on eBay"? I think we know the answer.

[thepillenwerfer]

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@crafty_cat_lover wrote:

As private sellers selling of our own unwanted items rather than stock surely it is not about the amount of money we 'make', it's more about getting rid of stuff we no longer want.

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Exactly.  Simple Delivery and the BPF aren't much of a problem to such as we, in fact SD is better for me.

A lot of the loudest moans are coming from people who appear to be traders; they only sell one sort of thing in large quantities and give themselves names like Sid'sStampShop.  Of course they could be people liquidating a large personal collection by listing each item in it individually but it seems unlikely.  Some give themselves away by coming on here and talking about Profits, Margins and Stock.  Then there's those selling lots of similar "Brand New" items.  They may be people with a very generous circle of family and friends who are always giving them gifts but are so unfamiliar with their tastes that it's never anything they want.  Again, possible but doubtful.

[susapric-68]

You're not allowed to point out the business sellers on private accounts, eBay will ban you from the forum as they like to pretend it's not happening so they don't have to take action and can make money from SD. I await another ban for pointing out ebay likes to hide this

[crafty_cat_lover]

I'm feel the same as you about BPF and I always shipped using either Royal Mail or Evri so nothing different with SD.

I do wonder about private sellers who actually talk about stock in their item descriptions. How are they going to explain than one to HMRC, but also why don't Ebay make them change their account type as they are obviously running a business.

[susapric-68]

It does not help business sellers , low cost items will be easy for private sellers to undercut again. Will drive them away again like it did last time and eBay will have to make up yet another new fee for businesses to pay like they did just before they brought in free to sell. It's great for private sellers and the business sellers on private account, but shh don't mention those

[zachalot]

I don't doubt this, but for what it's worth there are inevitably people who do liquidate collections. A couple of months ago I inherited some stamps and coin collections from a deceased relative; nothing much worth an auctioneer's time given the efforts required in selling them. I thought about selling them myself as a job lot on eBay, but that would also be giving away a lot of the value.

The most profitable (albeit slower) course of action would be selling the stamps and coins individually over time. But with the 75p flat fee plus the postage, I concluded it just couldn't be worth it. I would be unable to compete with the prices offered by business sellers, who (perhaps ironically) would be paying less in fees than me, a genuine private seller. This change might make me reconsider.

[realspark]

TBH, I don't think HMRC are bothered whether you register on eBay as a business  or not, so long as the income is properly declared to them.

Its more of a legal trading compliance issue, something for Trading Standards - who have very limited resources, and far bigger fish to fry.