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.

[theelench]

It could well be, I doubt that the increased and strange prices will help sales.  Neither will ebay telling buyers that private sellers are not to be trusted and that they're paying extra for being protected from them.

But perhaps it's also worth thinking about how private sellers mindsets towards ebay have changed in the last week or so.  The increase in negative feeling towards ebay must also be playing some part in any sharp drops.  Disgusted sellers won't only have stopped selling, they'll very often have stopped buying as well.   

And of course even for those private sellers that are trying to continue as if nothing has changed, ebay has turned off the tap of cash flowing into their pockets and diverted the flow towards its own interest bearing bank account so that's bound to slow sales.  Unless you're lucky enough to sell something that business sellers might buy I think you might as well forget sales for the next couple of weeks.

[g1dgl]

The BPF has just started to be added to some of my listing (many are in Business, Office & Industrial) and the loony way that eBay are calculating this and showing it to buyers seems calculated to just make the situation even worse.

Example:

Supposing I am selling a pack of 10 electronic components for £4 and I have 20 packs available.  This pack is now listed as £4.88 (not entirely sure how eBay calculate this but it is approximately 4% & 75p).  This is expected, but:

a) What about someone who wants to buy two packs?  They are going to immediately think that they will pay £9.76 (2x £4.88) whereas I believe that the 75p charge is only applied once for multi-item purchases so they will actually pay about £9.  So, this immediately makes the BPF look even more expensive than it really is.

b) The second issue affects "Packs".  If I sell a "Pack of 10" then I mark the item as "Unit Quantity 10".  This used to mean that the item would list as "£4.00 (£0.40 per Unit)".  My item now lists as "£4.88 (£1.13 per Unit)" which is clearly nonsense.  I have absolutely no idea where the £1.13 has come from, but it is a bit like (40p + 75p)+4%.  Obviously a "Pack of 10" for £4.88 is £0.49 per unit.  Hopefully this arithmetic nonsense will be obvious to potential buyers, but it isn't helping and reinforces the view that eBay really just want to get rid of Private sellers.

A note for the fools who will now shout that I am really a business:  I've had my boxes of electronic components for about 40 years.  Back when I was a student I either picked them up cheap at electronic component fairs or was given them by kind friends as leftovers from the end of production runs.  They were not purchased with the intention to sell them and indeed not only did eBay not exist back then, but neither did the internet.  I am therefore a genuine "Private Seller".  I could open a business account if I wanted, but I only make a few hundred pounds a year (clearly even less now) which business account fees would almost completely consume.

[taffrikaner]

It might take that long to sell the items I already have listed !!
Sent from iPhone

[jasonsdad]

I think you have highlighted and summarised issues which will cause confusion and mistrust, never a good thing if you are selling. For a multi-national mega Billion Dollar Company to make banner announcements about significant changed from Feb 4th 2025, then fail to implement them across the board. Then crashing their own App. as they scramble to regain the steering of the ship as it careers towards the rocks; Is giving an impression of a badly thought out strategy and a fairly amateur management. Am I misinterpreting this somewhat ? has all of this been planned perfectly and tested/proven in order to remove long term and loyal EBay members ?

I was thinking of asking the Donald if he could help in gaining the release of my confiscated funds.

[gblcfc]

I have seen a very sharp drop (c. 75%) in the last week but as none of my items have had BPF added yet so it's all a bit strange

I am anticipating that BPF will kill my market for many months. Eventually Collectors will understand that if they want an item the 'market price' has risen and they will have to either pay it or not get what they want

I also firmly believe that the economic conditions and buyer confidence are driving the drop. There was an opinion poll last week which said 80% of people are expecting their financial circumstances to get worse over the next 1 2 months. I believe that people are pulling entrenching so discretionary purchases are sure to suffer. Times are getting more difficult and are only going to get a lot worse 

[andha-21]

They blocked alot of users from the app with their last update. Loads of threads here about it and I wouldn't be remotely surprised if that is just the tip of the iceberg.

I don't know Apple models but when Galaxy S8 users are blocked you probably have a problem. That was a huge seller. I wouldn't be surprised if they blocked around 6 figures worth of users that day.

[london805]

It stinks, absolutely stinks, if I were a buyer I would be put off. They have to compete with Vimto, but I hope they realise this is a really stupid route to take. My private sales have  dropped from 25 to 3 since feb 4th!!!!!

Colin

[uk-specials]

Selling birthday cards sounds like a business, so you should have a business seller account. The fees are slightly higher but ultimately you will make more money, especially now following these changes.

the old days of being able to run a stealth business as a private seller are over.

[london805]

I’ve never sold a birthday card in my life!

[andha-21]

Yes, but then you are just resetting your time frame. If you sell today you have to wait 6 months from today. If you sell in 5 months, 27 days you have to wait 6 months from then.

Basically if you continue selling, you cannot close your account. A vicious loop. 

[jasonsdad]

Hi Colin,   seems you are not a fan of these new, exciting improvements to enhance you and your (non-existant) customers EBay experience.   

     As was stated, these new changes/rules would be applied to the platform on 4th February;  as the platform didn't seem to work properly afterwards it was limited to just the Electronics category, with the rest following, to be fully implemented by middle of this month (Today is 14th).

            I for one didn't agree with the enforced improvements and didn't feel my buyers needed protection from me.   I did note that they were able to immediately implement the confiscation of my sales funds, but promised that after 14 days they would be paid out.  Also saying they would be released after 1 further day after confirmed delivery or positive feedback (now 2 days).  This was another programme which didn't work and was then shunted back to the end of this month.   

            I'm not suggesting for a minute that a company cannot make changes and/or improvements to their offerings. However,  a cynical person may ask and/or observe that the planned/stated implementation hasn't happened in a professional manner and seems to have alienated a lot of buyers and sellers.  

[jow1995]

doubt they are a business seller, only sold 17k of cards, probably inherited a job lot

[uk-specials]

“Only” 17,000 sales, not a business! Is the craziest thing I’ve read today well done.

As someone that switched my account to business sales over 10 years ago I can tell you it’s nothing to be scared of. I still make decent margins on everything I sell and I don’t have to keep some shaggy dog story at the ready for when someone challenges me on why I’m buying things to resell and being accused of operating a business.

it doesn’t matter if you do it part time for a few weeks a year, a business is a business. EBay have been turning the screws on stealth business sellers operating as private accounts for years and it feels like they’ve really nailed it this time, it’s fun watching all the cockroaches crawling out of the woodwork to complain and spit the dummy.

you guys are hilarious, 1,000 replies and counting! Keep going!

[jow1995]

My reply was sarcasm, but totally agree with what your saying, spot on.

[papso22]

---

@london805 wrote:
I’ve never sold a birthday card in my life!

---

They were not replying to you.

[jasonsdad]

You appear to have had 6 sales in a year and are paying for a business account here,  is there any chance you may not be all you claim to be ?

[moldosgifts]

Having the business account costs you nothing, it's a shop the cost you the two things are totally separate.

The fees but if you don't sell anything your still a business so costs you nothing.

They may sell elsewhere they may not but they are happy with it and clearly from what they say they BUY to SELL. So should be a business that they are. 

[jow1995]

Buying to sell = business seller.  The number of sales is here nor there. 

Your 19k of private sales = private seller   The number is here nor there

[uk-specials]

I don’t buy things to resell at the moment, I’m just using my business account to offload stuff I don’t need from my IRL computer repair business and a few personal items as well.

And you don’t “pay” for a business seller account, dingus. It’s literally just a tickbox on eBay, that’s it. No forms to send off to inland revenue, no monthly subscriptions, etc. just a different set of terms and conditions and a different fee structure, that’s literally it.

if you’re a good seller and get a lot of positive feedback etc, the fees actually end up being lower than if you were private. It’s so idiotic to continue to try and run a stealth business as a private seller in 2025, especially now with these updated payment terms and the buyer protection stuff happening. Just take the plunge, it’s honestly nothing like as bad or expensive as you think.

[dillybaggins]

I agree , i have tried to compete with  cheapest price , but now my listings have gone up 74p to £1.34 more  for the buyer to pay , this means i cant really sale these items  at a competative price ,  so i will get  next to nothing for cheap items being a private seller , i would rather go back to paying fees at lease i knew what my prices were  then and could compete