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.

[seedbankers]

Is that why the seller asked me to send all in ONE envelope? Ah, thank you. I will get £1.99?

[game_raid]

Where does it say a house can't be used as a business? There is millions that have their home as a business address.

Why will your insurance go up? You would be a sole trader, it is up to you if you want to pay insurance. Whether you tell your home insurance is another thing, but if you get a flood and you try and claim and they investigate what you have been doing I'm pretty certain you would be labelled a business and the claim would be denied.

A proportion of  water you use is a business expense.

Welcome to the real world of being a business, no one is guaranteed a income.

Maybe you should think before you write!!!

[goodibags]

For info, it was the Tory govt that introduced mandatory activity reporting by ebay. After all they're the ones that traditionally like to keep us *bleep* in our place, scrabbling over scraps. If you have millions in your bank then you're more likely to be a friend or a donor.

[seedbankers]

Yes, those who squandered millions on PPEs, PFIs,  £45m pay rise for the ultra rich,and then pinch us for pennies.

[kath3735_wxmjn]

i think a lot of people on here are on here because they do not want to have to go trawling around shops only to find they cannot find what they want, are unable to physically do so or simply because they know that they will find what they want.  My hobby is doing jigsaws,  i also like going around car boots so i normally get all my jigsaws from   there because they are cheaper and i am there selling anyway.  I usually pay no more than £3 for them.  Charity shops are usually £4 and e bay varies from 99p upwards but you have to add on the £3.75 postage (the service i use).  I will buy through e bay occasionally if it is a particular brand and the picture really grabs me AND if it shows the completed puzzle not just the box!  

[1956glyn]

Just to add for others benefit......if your home is Council or housing association it usually says in the tenancy agreement that you are NOT allowed to run a business from it without their authority (quite often denied)

[goodibags]

Which is why hobbyists who sell the occasional bottle of homemade lavender oil or a small bundle of rose petals are clearly NOT running a business.

[g1dgl]

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@game_raid wrote:

I bought an item from a private seller before xmas and the exact same happening, when I questioned the seller they said they hadn't had time to post yet but had marked it as dispatched,

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This seems like an odd and slightly dishonest thing to do, but there is a related "marked as dispatched when it hasn't been" problem caused by eBay themselves.  If you buy postage through eBay then your item is automatically marked as "Dispatched" the instant you do so even though obviously you haven't posted it yet.

I've now started to make sure I wait to purchase postage until I am ready to go to the Post Office.  I also manually change the status back to "Not Dispatched" until I have actually done so and sometimes even send the buyer a message to tell them what is happening.

For some reason I can't seem to revert the Dispatched status of GSP sales even though the package is still sitting in my house and not yet even on its way to Litchfield.

[seedbankers]

And someone sold 111000+ said I should be classified as a business trader. Over 25 years 1180+ items. 

[g1dgl]

Although I am keen not to be dragged into arguments over whether a particular eBay member should or should not have a business account - I think that is a matter for eBay to decide - it occurs to me that this argument might partly be affected by confusion between "Trading" and "Running a Business".  I'm not an expert, but I suspect that legally they are not exactly the same thing.

I'm reasonably sure that someone could be "Trading" but not "Running a Business".  If you look at the case law on the relevant HMRC guidance pages you will find some example which very much seem to fall into this category.  It might also be possible to be "Running a Business" but not "Trading" although I'd have to think about this one for rather longer.

[lucy_farmer]

@psmi4290 and @goodibags

The new rules about giving your online sales info to the Taxman is NOTHING to do with either 'this punitive Labour Govt.' or 'the Tories keeping us in our place'.

Europe wide, govts. have got together to get anybody making money on online platforms pay tax on their earnings- if income is over a particular level.     (not just ebay; includes AirB+B, all the other auction/sales site, Uber etc...)

This isn't a left/right issue.

This is an issue of officialdom's technology catching up with online business' users technology,  and squeezing their pound-of-flesh out of them....

[polarlight3]

I recently started selling on eBay again after many years away. I used to sell anything and everything back in the day and never had issues with items not selling so I started an eBay shop and gladly payed the fees.

This time my hope was to “Test the waters”. See if there’s a market for my products first before I commit to opening a store or becoming a business.

Im pretty sure this is how most businesses start.

But if eBay or whoever are dead set on making selling private difficult then how are people supposed to start out?

I not greedy and if  I was selling anywhere near 300 items a month I would gladly pay for a business account as that was my aim.

As things stand I’m not selling anything even though I have promoted my items and it looks unlikely that this business idea is going to work ! 😞

[dantwocats]

Ebay are now saying 14 days for delivery ? if not tracked ,and then you get paid, royal mail allow 14day before a claim can be made ? for lost items are Ebay now allowing 14 days before undelivered claims are allow ? as never have before ?

[mr_aitch]

Does anyone know if the buyers fees will be waived for charity sales? Over the last 2 years I have been decluttering my loft and my mother's loft and sold several hundred items with 100% of the proceeds going to charity which meant zero seller fees (when they were in place). Will ebay waive the buyers fee on charity sales to increase the chances of making a sale?

[jow1995]

Best bet is open a business account, with 22k  it sales maybe a good idea. That way you will get your money next day

[dyingcult]

It will all depend on how buyers react to the extra charges- as this is not something being massively advertised, rightly so because the optics of it are terrible- you will now pay a fee for something you already had-buyer protection, but i think alot of buyers will be unaware of this change until it comes into force, with 'buy-it-now' items  its being baked into the sellers pricing so probably won't be noticed by many buyers-it will greatly affect auctions though as buyers will see their final fee accumulating as the auction proceeds. Ebay's control over postage rates is unclear as they will determine their own costs with a profit motive in mind.. but i expect they will incentivize whatever company they have a better contract with, at the moment the cheapest method would probably be-evri, buyers are still guaranteed instant refunds if the courier chucks it in the neighbours hedge, but i expect RM will fall into line with Ebay and they will get a bulk/discount rate with them aswell but still charge full price to ebay customers.

[carrotdrusus2]

As Ebay will then have a monopoly on the items delivered, they will be able to charge whatever they like. Wouldnt be surprised to see 10% above actual prices.

[the-navigator]

Your comment makes no sense ~

[dyingcult]

buyer fees- makes ebay more money

a hold on private sellers funds- more money for ebay investment accounts

they control the post- going ahead they decide the prices

dont like all this

then become a business an ebay can extract further fess

[game_raid]

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@g1dgl wrote:

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@game_raid wrote:

I bought an item from a private seller before xmas and the exact same happening, when I questioned the seller they said they hadn't had time to post yet but had marked it as dispatched,

---

This seems like an odd and slightly dishonest thing to do, but there is a related "marked as dispatched when it hasn't been" problem caused by eBay themselves.  If you buy postage through eBay then your item is automatically marked as "Dispatched" the instant you do so even though obviously you haven't posted it yet.

I almost left a negative but have only left 4 in 22 years, I think this is what eBay is trying to get rid of and simple delivery is the way to do this, it's not a very good experience no matter how you look at it.

For some reason I can't seem to revert the Dispatched status of GSP sales even though the package is still sitting in my house and not yet even on its way to Litchfield.

On GSP orders the international leg tracking is added instantly when it's marked as dispatched, because the tracking number is active you can no longer mark as not dispatched, if it was possible to revert a new tracking number would have to be issued and I guess it must causes issues and confusion as the parcel as already been booked in once.

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