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.

[kath3735_wxmjn]

sometimes it is good to be old!  No tattoos, piercings or smart phone!   Must confess to a visit to the hairdresser once every couple of months and even that is an old fashioned one!!  As for nails, a visit to the manicurist before i go on holiday....

[kath3735_wxmjn]

do you have a smart phone though???   I am clinging on to my golden oldie for as long as possible.  My social media output is non existent.  This forum and one other is the only communication i have with the outside world (if you do not count chatting to the post office staff, shop people etc).

[andha-21]

Yes, I've got one. How I use eBay. But for me it's a tool. I use it. It doesn't use me.

Won't catch me walking through a town centre oblivious to the world around me because I'm glued to a phone screen.

[makem_6182]

I guess it will take time for Ebay to register a drop on site traffic and
sales for the penny to drop.
In the mean time I've cancelled an item that was on a 2nd listing round as
when advertised elsewhere it was sold within 24 hours.

There are other selling options out there

[vintique*violet]

eBays active buyers  in 2025 are almost the same as those in 2018 - considering recent " events" ... I cannot see it improving? 

[johnwash1]

---

@andha-21 wrote:

Yes, I've got one. How I use eBay. But for me it's a tool. I use it. It doesn't use me.

Won't catch me walking through a town centre oblivious to the world around me because I'm glued to a phone screen.

---

Ahah, so you've seen some of my buyers, the ones who bought without reading to the end of the title, let alone seeing the full description.

Things may improve.  I sense a cull coming, as quiet electric vehicles become more popular!

[sammylou40]

If you look at our earlier conversation, the poster asked for my thoughts on the reasons

i suggested there that they were aligning themselves to vin ted with the aim of taking their users and making the transition much easier by having the same model 

the more familiar it is, especially for inexperienced users, the more likely they are to flip. 
ebay don’t want competition from vin ted imo

they would very much like to take them out

Hence this comment 

it’s a follow on from what we were already discussing 

[carrotdrusus2]

It also makes it much easier for Ebay sellers to flip the other way as well.

[sammylou40]

In theory. But vin ted is so much more basic than eBay.  Is very limited in categories etc and has a long way to go before it’s anywhere near catching up to compete if that’s its aim. 

[carrotdrusus2]

I can only suggest that Ebay have copied vin ted becuase they were losing lots of market share.

Will being the same as them bring it back? They were always going to lose some business as the market gets over crowded, but looking at the latest changes I think this ill advised. Let alone the problem with low value orders which I think under £3-4 they have wiped out with the sellers absorbing the 75p where they can, Vin Ted are starting to open up into a lot of other areas, I really think this is an error from which Ebay will never recover the market share they had on 4th February.

[the_book_seekers]

After the publication of a set of quarterly results I think it was the CEO who basically said ebay would be concentrating on high value areas (like trainers, trading cards, luxury handbags and watches) and moving away from low value sales. So ebay may have no interest in recovering these sales if they are at the lower end.

[theelench]

It was a few quarters ago and was part of a "Vertical Strategy" (whatever that means).  The CEO announced that the strategy was working and that 'low value' buyers had fallen in number and had been replaced by higher value buyers.  The strategy was to build relationships to encourage them to buy high value, luxury items several times a year.

I don't recall ever seeing figures to back the statement and after several quarters where growth in higher value item buying was reported (without any figures?), any mention of the vertical strategy faded away.  I took that to mean that any growth had fizzled out.

I thought the whole vertical strategy thing was a 'can-kicking' exercise to explain away falling numbers of sellers and give investors the hope of sales growth somewhere down the road when ebay had established these relationships.

IMO the falling number of sellers was more likely to have been those selling collectables or just unwanted second hand items, possibly because of the growth of FBook.

Ebay seems to be hell-bent on wrecking its reputation as being the Place To Go to find whatever you collect and has done a pretty good job of it.  To such an extent that it now concentrates its efforts on used clothing rather than the larger collectables market.

[sammylou40]

I can’t speak for anyone else, but I’m never going to be using eBay to buy trainers, luxury handbags, watches or anything else luxury 

that has never been what I’ve turned to eBay for 

if I want something luxury, I’d rather save and buy it new with a proper guarantee 

im not risking being ripped off by scams on ebay

[podlingsmum2007]

In the event of a buyers return for whatever reason, is the buyer protection fee portion refunded by ebay to the buyer or does the seller have to refund it? I am questioning whether the buyer protection fee is retained by ebay in a similar way that the fixed fee previously with PayPal was non refundable.

[vintique*violet]

This may help it is in eBays policies. 

Refunds

When you refund the buyer in full for a return or for an item that didn't arrive, we'll also refund the full Buyer Protection fee that was paid by the buyer to eBay.

If you send a partial refund to the buyer, we'll provide a prorated refund of the Buyer Protection fee to the buyer. For example, if you refund 50% of the item price, we'll refund 50% of the Buyer Protection fee back to the buyer.

@podlingsmum2007 

[sharodavie-5]

Is there going to be a charge for this service every time you purchase on EBay every month or it’s regarding the amount of purchases you make from them.

Sent from Yahoo Mail for iPad

[parsley2003]

I have noticed when i do a partial refund of postage they split it between postage and item so the buyer gets refunded part of the BPF. It does not affect what i still receive.

[parsley2003]

Ebay received it so they will have to refund it. The seller never has it and cannot refund it

[parsley2003]

Bloomberg UK "Ebay tumbles after projecting lacklustre first quarter sales (Feb 26th) attributed to soft demand in Germany and UK" Soft demand because of the fees, buyers nor buying  and sellers no longer listing? As you say this is no longer a place to sell collectables and second hand items

[parsley2003]

I agree with you there i just hope for their sakes that enough high value sellers can make up for the loss of the likes of me