Ebay's new Buyers' protection fee from the 4th Feb

[rsbrickshop]

I'm a private seller. Items I sell are between £2.90 - £10. Is It just me or will ebay's new Buyers' protection fee from the 4th Feb make it near impossible to sell competitively. A few months ago Ebay got rid of Sellers' fees for private sellers, which was a welcome move. But this new change and getting rid of multi-buy discount for private sellers will make it worse than it was with the original fees.

[karl982uk]

I buy and sell as a private seller but not after 4 Feb. I will leave Ebay completely, no point if I'm expected to wait to get paid or charged a fee if I buy from a private seller. Final straw for me

[mr_aitch]

Remembering all the usual caveats about the reliability of information from the internet, i found this ...

Exemption for Items Sold for Less than £6,000:

If a chattel is sold for £6,000 or less, any gain made is exempt from CGT.
This applies to most personal possessions such as furniture, antiques, jewelry, and collectibles.

Over the last 20 years, i have sold nearly 1500 unwanted 'things' on ebay, mostly in the last few years when decluttering my loft and my mother's loft. Many of these were my old stamp collection which I sold in £1 lots to shift them. With the new buyer fees, I would have to reduce the price to 25 pence to sell at a reasonable buyer-acceptable price of £1, most of which would go to ebay. It no longer seems worthwhile trying to recycle/rehome loft clearance stuff which will now end up in the bin. I am firmly of the belief that a-pound-is-a-pound but I'm not walking to the post office to make 25 pence. But I guess there is not enough profit to be made from loft clearers and declutterers. I'm now trying to work out whether there is enough chance of me living long enough to make an ebid lifetime fee-free membership (£69) a worthwhile investment.

[tsc269]

I had six albums of cycling stamps, a very niche theme of more interest to European buyers than those in the UK. I was lucky in that I'd sold nearly everything a month before eBay added VAT to prices because of BREXIT. There was one Scottish collector who offered to buy at about a third of what I was asking; I said "no", it wouldn't have been worth me putting them in an envelope and walking to the nearest post-box.

The leading light in a (the only?) UK postcard forum is also a leading dealer and is enthusiastic about eBid, but whenever I've looked there for my theme I've been offered only dross - with one exception, when I did recognise the location shown in an "anonymous" card, which I bought for £3 or so.

[vapey_vapey]

Its not rocket science 36p per listing per month as  a business seller if you havent many items for sale ..Thats it and the 12-13 % comission.I tend to pay  16% on a long term basis and thats what I have to factor in as a business.£116 sales = £100 less your own expenses.

[podlingsmum2007]

I'm not sure if this has been mentioned already but this is how it works on vinted

"As a buyer, you pay a Buyer Protection fee on each transaction when using the "Buy now" button. This helps safeguard your money, adding an extra layer of protection to your purchases and keeping your information secure. The cost is 3–8% of the item price (before postage) plus £0.30–0.80. "

But their returns policy is not like on here

"Your order is protected when you pay through Vinted. You’ll get a refund if your item doesn’t arrive, was damaged in transit, or is significantly not as described. Let us know within 2 days of delivery if something isn’t right. Unless otherwise agreed, the buyer covers the return cost"

[ebtyson]

eBay, do NOT treat your private sellers like idiots.

A 4% fee on buyers is 4% private sellers won't receive. It is irrelevant who pays. We know it, you know it, so don't send out mass emails insulting us.

"Free to sell" was too good to be true. eBay now hold onto our money until we manually request it to be paid, thinking they are a bank.

Now a 4% fee pops up. Why not just reduce the seller fee to 4% from the start and avoid all this BS?

"It's now free to sell" is false advertising, a con, and I will be making a complaint about it. This whole thing was designed from the start to trick consumers. Well done.

[the-navigator]

Plus .75p, making the sale of low value items almost futile ~


Sent from my iPad

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[gblcfc]

Private sellers pay tax too

[buffster1963]

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@gblcfc wrote:

Private sellers pay tax too

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Genuine private sellers only sell their personal items so do not need to pay tax. 

[vintagevilarosa]

Business sellers seem to be happy about this from the comments I have read on other posts but I think this will be bad for them...as a private seller and buyer on ebay I use both private and business sellers to buy different things and I think that people will just stop buying from private sellers once they find out that they have to pay fees and they will shift their buying practices from ebay to somewhere else because why should they pay a fee to ebay one that they havent paid before?  It seems to me that ebay are determined to get rid of the very people that started the business. I think the current owners of ebay dont use ebay and so dont understand why people shop here!  If you drive business away from private sellers you will drive business away from business sellers the two are intertwined!

[vintagevilarosa]

Same here we or rather I am trying to get my husband to clear out as much stuff as we possibly can.  We downsized from an 8 bedroom house here in Portugal and sold it 2 years ago a lot of stuff we donated furniture because we didnt have the time or the energy to sell it but the new owners didnt want the 27 chandeliers we owned...(the house was over 4 floors with 64 stairs), 11 of the chandeliers were in the halls alone.  We also have several sets of crystal wall lights all vintage and the crepe we have collected over the years we have been together.  I used to make gemstone jewellery as a hobby and then sell it to make money for  animal charities here in the Algarve and in Cyprus but my eyes got so bad I cant do that anymore.  I have a lot of gemstones and all the tools to make jewellery that I will have to sell...does that make me a business I dont know?

[vintagevilarosa]

It doesnt its clearly a money grab by ebay...they need to keep their shareholders happy! Why would buyers pay for something they already had for free?

[vintagevilarosa]

 Try Discord...there are many groups on there my husband goes on there because he is a collector and fixers of vintage computers! There is also facebook market place they have different groups on there too!

[buffster1963]

You are selling your personal belongings that you no longer have a use for so no, that in no way makes you a business seller. 

[vintagevilarosa]

You joined ebay in 2013 I joined ebay in 2003 thats when it was good this ebay looks nothing like that the ebay from back in the day there have been so many changes and they keep on coming but they have lost the plot!

[vintagevilarosa]

You and ebay have forgotten who started ebay.....you forget that the very people you are talking about are what made ebay interesting and the reason you dont know this is because you are a business...ebay is now all about the business but thats not why it started and all those things that made it interesting and productive was all those things you cant get on ebay those quirky things....my husband used to collect vintage cars from ebay...he wouldnt even be able to find a vintage car on ebay these days because their search is so bad...instead of trying to fix the actual issues all they are interested in is making a profit for their shareholders! 

[robbtyke132010]

From your shop I can see that it is as you say a "hobby" - but you must be selling at a loss - the stamps are mostly 99p with free postage. The time & effort together with stationery & postage costs are staggering. When eBay introduces the 4% fee plus 75p per item fee you will be selling at huge losses - perhaps you need to group your stamps into categories & sell in bulk.

[vintagevilarosa]

Private sellers undercutting business sellers..ebay never started out to have accounts for business sellers like you! It started out by selling the quirky things..things that made it a different place to where it is today! How you forget so easily what ebay was!

[vintagevilarosa]

hahaha thats funny!

[barry.110]

Forgive me if this question has already been asked but there are so many replies to this topic I can't wade through them all.

What I would like to know is if I list something as an auction and start it at £10 do the buyers on the listing see it as £10 or do they see it as £11.15, which is £10 plus 4% and the 75p fixed fee? Or do they just get a shock at the end when the item might have been bid up to £29 but then they get told to pay £30.91?

Also do we know if we list something with separate postage cost does the buyer then also get charged extra on top of that as well?