Changes to your Multi-buy discount tool access - Private sellers can't offer multi-buy

[aksluk]

If adding one more fee wasn't enough they are now taking away multi-buy features from private sellers. 

"We’re writing to let you know about a change to our Multi-buy discount tool, which you’ve used in the last 6 months. As a reminder, the tool allows you to offer discounts based on the number of items a buyer selects from your listing. From 20 Jan 2025, Multi-buy will become exclusive to business sellers, and no longer be available to private sellers."

[papso22]

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@the_book_seekers wrote:

How about rogue sellers?

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Or that old favourite 'rouge'.

[kempseykate]

I just refer to them as unregistered business sellers.

[zoomingmouse]

Ebay have not helped over the years by creating blurred lines between private & business sellers - giving private sellers pages a 'Shop' being one.

[1956glyn]

Just take everything away from a private seller...simple

No shops

No multi buy discounts

No variation listings

Any genuine private seller (in my opinion) will not care

I have been on Ebay for many many years and not once used any of the above.  Genuine private sellers should not need to.

[1956glyn]

and a minimum of 300 free listings a month is still way too many 🙂   I know people go on and on about collections.......then do what i do list items over months  BUT in our case its actually being around lately or bothered to list 🙂

[1956glyn]

Sorry just thought of something else.....

Maybe stop private sellers only listing in the one category ever .   We have all seen them selling/listing  hundreds of items in just one category every month.

[kempseykate]

The main thing they should have stopped is multi quantities. There is one unreg business seller of knitting patterns who has sold just under 1000 of the same item on one listing. They are (illegal) photocopies, so she has an unlimited supply. This also keeps her near the top of Best Match.
I used to have a business selling patterns on here, and used to complain regularly about illegal copies (I was booksandpatterns then!). I spoke to various ebay staff about it who all agreed it wasn't allowed - was anything done.? No. So because of the copies and the unregistered sellers selling them, I gave up. That was about 4 years ago, and neither illegal copies or unregistered sellers have been clamped down on since.

It makes me laugh when ebay staff say they, and other staff do read the boards - I think one of the ex-big bods also said he used to monitor the boards. If that's the case, why is nothing done abut the 2 biggest continuing gripes on the boards - including the weekly chat - unregistered business sellers and EDDs?

[1956glyn]

With respect to those at Ebay that run the weekly chat....i think its just a waste of time now

We need staff members from specific teams to also attend so we can get a proper reply/explanation

One example is.......get someone who can actually fully explain "simple delivery" and all its implications.

[zoomingmouse]

I remember reading your posts over the years about it, but Ebay never have policed their site, only really seeing it as an opportunity to make money by adding fees to postage etc. 

Ebay are at fault for most, if not all of the current problems, but it's easier to blame other users & create bad feeling when the chips are down.

[kempseykate]

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@zoomingmouse wrote:

I remember reading your posts over the years about it, but Ebay never have policed their site, only really seeing it as an opportunity to make money by adding fees to postage etc. 

Ebay are at fault for most, if not all of the current problems, but it's easier to blame other users & create bad feeling when the chips are down.

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This is the bit I don't understand. When I was selling as a business, those unreg business seller paid less fees than I did - now they don't pay ANY fees! So, if ebay are looking for a new revenue stream, there is one that has been there for years, that they just don't want to bother with 😞

[1956glyn]

Last night i listed a few items..........all over them is plastered "promote this listing"

I do believe that in Ebays eyes this is their "new revenue stream" which they are pushing hard 😞

No way will i promote.

[zoomingmouse]

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@kempseykate wrote:

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@zoomingmouse wrote:

I remember reading your posts over the years about it, but Ebay never have policed their site, only really seeing it as an opportunity to make money by adding fees to postage etc. 

Ebay are at fault for most, if not all of the current problems, but it's easier to blame other users & create bad feeling when the chips are down.

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This is the bit I don't understand. When I was selling as a business, those unreg business seller paid less fees than I did - now they don't pay ANY fees! So, if ebay are looking for a new revenue stream, there is one that has been there for years, that they just don't want to bother with 😞

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You would think that AI would be able to pick out the accounts selling hundreds of new items with multiples.

I think that most genuine private sellers will be gone soon <& I've never thought that before>… what that will mean for the content available only time will tell.

Ebay used to have a USP, but I’m not sure what they are these days.

Innovation creating growth is what’s needed, not more fees as they are pricing themselves out of the market IMO.

[ett1954]

"I just refer to them as unregistered business sellers." - whilst that is accurate it wouldn't resonate with buyers; just call them what they are: 'Traders selling illegally'

[theelench]

Neither have I and agree with you that private sellers wouldn't care about their loss.

Neither do I particularly care what others call business sellers operating on private accounts, just so long as whatever they choose doesn't include - private - seller.

[theelench]

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@1956glyn wrote:

Maybe stop private sellers only listing in the one category ever .   We have all seen them selling/listing  hundreds of items in just one category every month.

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I do think that's going too far!!

A great many people collect one thing, sometimes for many years.  E.g myself collecting Art Deco Glass,  must I only sell most of it off 1 piece at a time?  If I can't list more than 1 item in the same category?

Please don't forget it was largely collectors that made ebay such a success by creating the market place that freed them from the shackles of only having access to a tiny local market for their buying, selling, trading and swapping.  These days many would probably be accused of being a business, but for so many the idea of 'business' in the sense of 'profit' never came into the equation.  It was all about growing and improving their collection.

Things have been changed by ebay.  When I started collecting glass, I was limited to what I could source locally, so tended to buy anything I could find.  I was even more limited when it came to I.D-ing and judging the rarity of what I bought, because books on glass were equally hard to find.  Ebay, the inter-net and those that used them vastly increased the knowledge base and that in itself allowed and even caused the growth of commercialisation of "collecting" that we have today. 

[kath3735_wxmjn]

nor will I which is probably why i have not had even one sale in 22 days!.

[kempseykate]

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@zoomingmouse wrote:

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I think that most genuine private sellers will be gone soon <& I've never thought that before>… what that will mean for the content available only time will tell.

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I think so too, and I have also never thought that the many times over the years it has been suggested on here.

I'm probably off if the Secret Simple Delivery means I have to offer more choice than I want. I can car boot some of our stuff, the rest will go skip or charity shop - a shame because (violins out everyone!) being a Waspi, losing the winter  fuel payment AND prices rising left, right and centre, it would have been good to get a little bit back for the items, but hey-ho, I'm not going to do it if I have to take parcels here there and everywhere.

[1956glyn]

Snap i too am a Waspi and we have lost the fuel allowance.  As we claim zero benefits we get zero help

[1956glyn]

Hi

I was referring to hundreds of listings in the same category.   Maybe 50 in the same category every month may be more appropriate?

[lucy_farmer]

'Please don't forget it was largely collectors that made ebay such a success by creating the market place that freed them from the shackles of only having access to a tiny local market for their buying, selling, trading and swapping.  These days many would probably be accused of being a business, but for so many the idea of 'business' in the sense of 'profit' never came into the equation.  It was all about growing and improving their collection.'

I'm with you here elench. Collectors need to be able to use the same cat. many times. But it's not just recently that accusations of being an underhand business seller used to be thrown around.

Anybody remember the days of 'AYRAB' (i.e. are you really a business?)

The very first time I came to these boards (about 15 years ago) wondering why I'd been left a very unfair neg, the first answers were along the lines of " well, you're obviously a business trading as a privateer, so you're his competition and he wants to make you look bad"

(I was selling part of my husband's coin collection, so all the lots on there were coins...all in the same category, obviously!  He just wanted to get rid of some 'unwanteds' and 'upgradeds' . Apart from selling them on to other collectors, what was he supposed to do with them? Melt 'em down?...)

But, what proper private seller really doesn't need and really shouldn't be using is a 'Shop' .

A Shop is just another name for a business in a lot of ways.

There was a thread on here fairly recently from a very new seller who was registered as private and had a 'shop' .  OP appeared to think that having a shop was enough to *be* a business. Which I think is how a lot of buyers see it....