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.

[Anonymous]

Not seen anything on any item yet. Indeed I temporarily relisted some of my items and nothing has changed. I include instant payment for Buy It Now and specify 2 days for payment on all auction items. That's still there 3 days after the supposed roll out, no BPF on anything. Needless to say I've removed all items for sale and will not even be purchasing anything from this joke of a site. Not sure their software is up to it. I've also removed all funds from the holding account.

[wendiesanyang]

The seller fees on postage sucks - I only charge what it costs me and have to take the hit.
I already have people messaging me to explain why something will cost xyz - buyers often have no idea how much Royal Mail costs. I won't use carriers as I have had nothing but grief from them.

Can't wait until October when I get my retirement pension and this is behind me.

[vintique*violet]

BPF is on the electronics section only as from today... other categories will commence when eBay decide to roll them out, no confirmed date as of yet. 

[papso22]

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@wendiesanyang wrote:
The seller fees on postage sucks - I only charge what it costs me and have to take the hit.
I already have people messaging me to explain why something will cost xyz - buyers often have no idea how much Royal Mail costs. I won't use carriers as I have had nothing but grief from them.

Can't wait until October when I get my retirement pension and this is behind me.

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Private ebay accounts do not pay selling fees at all, including on postage, and haven't since last autumn.

[papso22]

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@toptap1 wrote:
I want to buy things on an auction website.
I shouldn't need an Excel spreadsheet to do that.

Sent from Outlook for Android<>

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For goodness' sake what is all this hysteria!

No buyer or seller needs a spreadsheet to work out anything.  

A seller still starts the auction (on the listing form) at the lowest they are prepared to accept for the item and the bidder simply decides the highest amount they are prepared to pay for something.  Both of these are exactly the same as they were before, the only difference is the buyer's highest price does not all go to the seller.

The maths is all done by ebay.

Not picking on you @toptap1 , you are just one of the posters who seem to have a bee in their bonnet about spreadsheets and I had to reply to someone.

[toptap1]

I was responding to this post.

 

[jma2815]

@papso22 You’re not wrong but both sellers and buyers will really struggle with seeing that. New ones to the platform maybe less so. 

The real problem will be that prices are highly affected by psychology. The buyer fee works on vinted because even though people dislike the concept of ‘paying to buy’ the already very low prices with last minute discount culture there negates it, making a buyer feel like they’ve ‘won’ if they can get that fee (and maybe more) taken off.

I don’t know how many times I’ve heard younger friends and colleagues say ‘yeah, I got *some old rubbish*  on vinted. The seller ripped me off and I can’t return it but she accepted £2 for it so I’ll just bin it’. 

I know I said I’ve stopped selling because of the BPF and SD but really when it comes to buying I’ve stopped because there’s so much ex-Vinted dirty, damaged tat being sold on ebay for the high prices I used to pay for good quality stuff I just can’t deal with it any more. In short, Vinted (which I don’t use) and ‘free to sell’ ruined buying on ebay for me.  This new stuff is by the by. 

[zillabudgie]

I'm not sure whether to ditch international shipping. I have to pay around £36 to send 6 CDs to the USA. As there is no tracking with standard Royal Mail, then it will be a minimum of 2 weeks before I recoup any funds. Basically these are 99p CDs with £6.99 postage. Is it really worth the wait/hastle?

[toptap1]

I can't use couriers, as all of my deliveries are only the size of large letters, and every courier I've tried have lost some of them.
If you're sending something the size of a microwave, couriers are fine.
I don't have an RM account, simply pay as I go at the local post office, which is about 5 mins walk from my house.
Saving 50p on postage is irrelevant if it doesn't get delivered...

Sent from Outlook for Android<>

[Anonymous]

Are you sure. I have checked mobile phones, computers and washing machines. Not on any of them

[snowylilliput-0]

I have sold two items today , both have buyers fees on . Also listed a item and it also calculated the fee before listing 

[papso22]

I have seen loads of examples of odd prices in the electronics category, these can only be the result of the BPF being applied.

[tcs-topquality]

Thank you I can confirm buyer protection fees was added to your listing and passed on to your buyer to pay here is snowylilliput-0 example for others to get ideas.

[thesmi42]

I've also seen items that show as being sold before 4 February which included BPF, which does seem a bit puzzling.

[papso22]

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@thesmi42 wrote:

I've also seen items that show as being sold before 4 February which included BPF, which does seem a bit puzzling.

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Absolutely nothing surprises me about this site anymore!

[toptap1]

I've sold two items today.
No buyer BPL added, just the promo fee as normal...
It's a shambles isn't it?

Sent from Outlook for Android<>

[vintique*violet]

Me neither... I am off for a refreshing brew  ☕

[toptap1]

It's a shambles.

Sent from Outlook for Android<>

[toptap1]

I've always seen a lot of listings with random prices on them.

Every time I looked they were normally listed in the US or the EU and Ebay did the currency conversion.

Every listing will be like that soon then...

[toptap1]

This is interesting.

You are "also" covered by the Ebay money back guarantee.

So buyers were covered anyway, now they just have to pay for it!