eBay

affinity_books · ‎05-02-2025

Three weeks ago I sold a box of 42 magazines to a buyer in the States. The GSP charge for the buyer (Sales tax, transaction fees, postage label) was £43.23. The buyer wanted 4 more magazines, which would obviously be less bulky to send, and I set up a new listing for just those 4. However their Checkout amount show just the shipping coming to $115.84. Anyone have any idea why the cost of sending to the same person is that much higher?

goodibags · ‎08-02-2025

If only Ebay had a million dollars or 2 that it could throw Trump's way so he could 'be nice' to us users?

Maybe that's where this new 'Bank of Ebay' solution comes in?

valueaddedresource · ‎08-02-2025

@goodibags wrote:
If only Ebay had a million dollars or 2 that it could throw Trump's way so he could 'be nice' to us users?
Maybe that's where this new 'Bank of Ebay' solution comes in?

@goodibags eBay founder and still major shareholder Pierre Omidyar has billions of dollars that he very often uses to grease political wheels through his "philanthropic" organization - problem is he is far on the other side and in fact was even one of the largest backers of "the second Trump Resistance."

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/investigations/3235838/billionaire-musk-foe-bankrolls-second...

Fun fact - he also funded Lina Khan's "hipster antitrust movement" which relentlessly targeted Amazon over the last few years while she was Chair of the US Federal Trade Commission - and she's not the only one at FTC with close ties to Omidyar.

Also fun fact, a petition to investigate eBay for anticompetitive practices was filed with the FTC early last year and was completely ignored by the Commission under Khan's leadership.

Omidyar may no longer be active on eBay's board, but the culture he built is very much still there and he still carries a lot of quiet influence at the company - in fact there's at least one board member, Shripriya Mahesh who has worked directly for him at his various organizations for almost 2 decades.

So yeah....I wouldn't count on eBay ever being particularly on Trump's good side 😂, but the upside might be this administration might have less regulatory capture at FTC and other agencies and might be more inclined to investigate eBay's business practices.

goodibags · ‎08-02-2025

Yes, the like of Zuckerberg and Bezos were staunchly 'anti' until one day they woke up and were miraculously 'pro'.

If there's no possibility of repentance perhaps Ebay can produce some sort of Trump Index Tracker (or 'TIT') to monitor how the prez is feeling when he gets out of bed in the morning? To forewarn sellers and their buyers whether tariffs are likely to double today or halve?

lucy_farmer · ‎08-02-2025

'....Trump Index Tracker (or 'TIT') to monitor how the prez is feeling when he gets out of bed in the morning?....'

😂🤣😅

Thank you.... cheered up a gloomy ol' day

valueaddedresource · ‎08-02-2025

@goodibags wrote:
Yes, the like of Zuckerberg and Bezos were staunchly 'anti' until one day they woke up and were miraculously 'pro'.

If there's no possibility of repentance perhaps Ebay can produce some sort of Trump Index Tracker (or 'TIT') to monitor how the prez is feeling when he gets out of bed in the morning? To forewarn sellers and their buyers whether tariffs are likely to double today or halve?

@goodibags yeah Zuckerberg and Bezos motives are much easier to understand as is their flip flopping - it's all about the money.

Omidyar is a different animal all together - of you spend anytime researching the causes he has funded/championed either personally, through Omidyar Network, First Look Media, Democracy Fund and more, it's very clear there's a deep ideological drive behind everything he does and those orgs make no bones about explicitly saying their goal is to remake the world under his vision.

He also funds a variety of "tech accountability" groups who all somehow magically never mention the word eBay in any of their critiques of the tech industry. 😂

But anyway, back to the topic at hand. I expect eBay will do all they can through their government outreach initiatives to try to advocate for a resolution to the tariff issues out of self interest, not seller interest - China is eBay's third largest market based on seller location and most of those sellers are selling into the US, so if it's not resolved, it will be very bad news for eBay's financials.

eBay of course doesn't hold a lot of sway with the Trump admin for all the aforementioned reasons, but others who do are also in the same or even more precarious financial boat and will be bringing their influence to bear as well - and if they are successful then eBay gets to pat themselves on the back and tell their users and shareholders how they advocated for whatever probably would have happened any way. 😉

*vyolla* · ‎08-02-2025

@valueaddedresource wrote:

@wellingnorth wrote:

Not sure if this a factor in this case, but had this from Interparcel today:

The US has introduced new tariffs on goods imported from China, which

may affect your shipping costs. Here's what you need to know:

A 10% tariff is now applied to all goods made in China, regardless of where they are shipped from.
The de minimis rule (duty exemption for goods under $800) no longer applies to Chinese-made products.

@wellingnorth you're definitely on the right track here.

The de minimis exemption applied to shipments from any country and basically allowed any shipment under $800 to come into the US exempt from taxes and duties - that exemption was removed earlier this week, which would cause GSP rates to be higher for all items under $800 because they would now have taxes and duties applied that they did not previously.

Thought that the de minimis removal was just for China and Hong Kong, and that it shouldn't have affected UK to US?

wellingnorth · ‎08-02-2025

@*vyolla* wrote:
Thought that the de minimis removal was just for China and Hong Kong, and that it shouldn't have affected UK to US?

It's up in the air obviously, but the interparcel email I pasted above stated made in China rather than shipped from, and this link suggests either shipped from China or made in China:

https://www.avalara.com/blog/en/north-america/2025/02/how-to-handle-us-china-tariffs-de-minimis.html

valueaddedresource · ‎08-02-2025

@wellingnorth wrote:
@*vyolla* wrote:
Thought that the de minimis removal was just for China and Hong Kong, and that it shouldn't have affected UK to US?
It's up in the air obviously, but the interparcel email I pasted above stated made in China rather than shipped from, and this link suggests either shipped from China or made in China:
https://www.avalara.com/blog/en/north-america/2025/02/how-to-handle-us-china-tariffs-de-minimis.html

@wellingnorth yep it's all in a state of confusion right now with some interpreting things as either/or and others interpreting things differently.

I'm not going to weigh in too deeply on what I think it all means because I can honestly admit, I'm just as confused as a lot of people and don't want to get out over my skis. 😂

But interestingly, US buyers who are discussing this UK GSP issue say they have seen some additional changes which indicate something has happened since yesterday.

https://community.ebay.com/t5/Buying/Sudden-dramatic-increase-in-global-shipping-price-after-winning...

One poster there said "I've been tracking the shipping price on the same item (a $25 Nintendo Switch game) and it's gone from $20 5 days ago, to $123, then back down to $50, and now just tonight it got back down to $35."