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.

[papso22]

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@gblcfc wrote:

I don't think that you have fully understood the charging model

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I don't think you have fully understood the table, which is what you seem to be relying on for your assertion that the cost of a shop would be over £1,000 per month.  The only mention of £1,000 + on the table is a comparison and not a charge.

However, perhaps you are including selling fees in your costings?  In which case could you share your calculations so we can see where you are coming from?

[theelench]

Not sure if it was on this thread or not but a few days ago I replied to you about the state of play on one of my 'Saved' vintage glass searches.  Very collectable items usually with New Listings and regular sales daily.

I said that listing numbers were down a bit as were sales.

Reading your post I had another look.  Live listings down by 2, only 3 New Listings so far today.  But not a single sale since 24/2, the same as when I last looked.  A rare figural table-lamp base with what looks like its original shade and gallery.  Not at all surprised it sold.    That was the only sale that day despite the weird price with odd pennies. 

So sales in that usually popular search for the last week.  21st = 3.  22nd = 0.  23 = 0.  24th = 1.  25th = 0.  26th = 0.  27th so far = 0.

Things aren't looking too good for sellers of vintage glass.

[andha-21]

I only look at the stuff I buy/am interested in, so basically certain books, certain hiking boots, certain outdoor gear and models but the auctions are down on everything.

A set of Hanwags Banks near mint has been relisted on auction 3 times that I've seen. First time £49, second 43, last 32 off memory. 

These boots have RRP north of £200, normally sell for around £100 secondhand and can't get north of £50 now. Something big has happened here.

& there in lies the problem. Auctions basically define the BIN price if they are popular items. Why is someone going to pay a BIN price of say £100 when auction history shows they are bottoming out at £50?

They've killed themselves.

[jasonsdad]

Let's see what the stock price does in next 3 months. Not sure you can stir up the long term pot without some issues. Currently the sales are the main issue.

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[sid.123]

Most of my sales are from promoted ads. I promote everything I list at the minimum of 2%. They seem to get the same exposure as listings with the standard 12-17%

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[sammylou40]

I’m not getting anything other than 15% to promote 

[the_book_seekers]

ebay gives its assessment on what sellers should set their promotion percentage to. Sellers can ignore it and set their percentage to anything from 2% and above.

[sid.123]

On the app, under the preselected value box you can enter your own value. Minimum is 2%.
Should be the same on the Web but I don't use that very often.

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[sharodavie-5]

Last year I tried selling on eBay for the very first time I then took my item off and didn’t want to sell it anymore hence after that I got an debt collector after me for £146.40 I paid it on the 20/12/24 and was informed by them that I wouldn’t be hearing from them again, then eBay came out with a no fee charge for selling on eBay when I mentioned this to the debt collectors was told that was this year it came out, now I’m informed that I owe them for purchase fees if that is the case they’ll be ending up with no Buyers or Sellers in the future.

[23sandlane]

sharodavie-5
Please explain more. You didn't sell an item but Ebay chased you for the
cost??

[papso22]

When fees were charged there were a number of ways sellers could still be liable for fees, especially if they decided not to sell for some reason but had a buyer.

I think some of these are still referenced in the user agreement. 

[sharodavie-5]

The item I purchased was an Apple 11” 2024 which I tried selling online after I had purchased the Apple I realised that I had the same model only 2 years older and I didn’t require it and that it was pointless for me to purchase, I purchased the iPod on the 4th August 2024.I realised  that if I was to sell it I would end up losing out to eBay regarding the percentages I would have to pay them for it I would be out of pocket of £150.00 the payment I ended up paying the Credit Company was £146.40.
Sent from Yahoo Mail for iPad

[papso22]

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@sharodavie-5 wrote:
The item I purchased was an Apple 11” 2024 which I tried selling online after I had purchased the Apple I realised that I had the same model only 2 years older and I didn’t require it and that it was pointless for me to purchase, I purchased the iPod on the 4th August 2024.I realised  that if I was to sell it I would end up losing out to eBay regarding the percentages I would have to pay them for it I would be out of pocket of £150.00 the payment I ended up paying the Credit Company was £146.40.
Sent from Yahoo Mail for iPad

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That doesn't explain why you got charged fees.  I would guess that you had a buyer, or buyers, and either cancelled a live auction with bids, which means you owe fees based on the highest bid at the time, or you cancelled a sale as a change of mind, which also meant paying fees at one time.

So fees were legitimately charged and due.

[caraciola]

Ebay's generous removal of selling fees was clearly a massive Trojan horse. In reality, the buyer protection fee that has replaced it is much much, much, much worse for private sellers. Firstly, business sellers now have a huge advantage. Secondly, at least we often got offers of 70 or 80 percent off selling fees, which there's no equivalent off now. Thirdly, it's a huge pain calculating a price to give the viewing buyer a nice round number.

They must have been laughing themselves silly when they came up with this. It really does show just how deeply they now despise the private sellers that created their business in the first place.

[23sandlane]

As I keep saying, what is needed is an entrepreneur who can provide an
alternative for private buyers. Ebay have created a tremendous opportunity
for them. Please forward this message if you know any.

[andha-21]

I totally agree with you. Outside of Amazon what I'm seeing are clean kills everywhere if someone opens a fair and fairly transparent site.

All they need is to not openly shaft buyers and sellers and have a usable CS and they basically have an advantage over all the competition.

[cobwebcottage]

'Firstly, business sellers now have a huge advantage'

Today is the 1st of the month. So for many of us business sellers who you state have a huge advantage, our shop fees are due.

Plus we pay a FVF too.  Meanwhile, you are still listing your new goods for free and not paying any fees so please explain the advantage.

[caraciola]

Yes, absolutely. If it could just get up and running, and reach a critical mass, I suspect there'd be a serious exodus of private sellers from ebay.

[papso22]

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@caraciola wrote:

Yes, absolutely. If it could just get up and running, and reach a critical mass, I suspect there'd be a serious exodus of private sellers from ebay.

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I wish many of the  businesses illegally trading on private accounts would go now.

They are having a detrimental impact on the livelihoods of properly registered business sellers.

[buffster1963]

With the new “weird” prices on private sellers items, the fake private sellers will stand out a lot more. Hopefully buyers will avoid these once they know they are paying a fee that should not be needed on those items.