Having scrapped fees for private sellers how do eBay make their money?

[dancewithadingo]

Surely this will mean a substantial drop in their profits?  Where is the shortfall in revenue coming from?

[crash_salvage_repair]

sellers are leavin the site in there droves espeically in used part market im also gonna b closin the business as sick and tired of being ripped off by fraudulent buyers and to top it off charged 4% extra on fees that comes to alot when you sell 20k+ a month as ive had several cases all fraudulent, so there way of thinkin is that if they let private ppl sell for free those will start also buying, well im cuttin my losses and sellin the parts for 1/2 the ebay price on other sites , less profit but less hassle and less losses, they done the same with clothes sellers , whom were gettin ripped off to epic levels e.g.  women buys a dress/ jacket for wkend wears it and sends back claimin not a described seller suffers loss of new item which has been used buyer gets free clothes for a event, now they offer free sales for that industry to try tempt back them sellers, doubt it will as once u get ripped off u wont come back unless ur massive business who can factor in them losses 

[1902elder]

It is only on pre-owned clothes, not on other listings.

[cooksongold]

free listings now applies to 'almost' all categories.

[tressygirl]

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@jma2815 wrote:

I was about to list a few things to make some room, and a bit of extra money for Christmas. That's not going to work now, is it, unless I spend it on eBay. 

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You don't Have to spend it on eBay,  eBay are just hoping you will / might.

Instead of the money being paid into your bank directly as per Managed Payments now,  it will go into an  'eBay Balance'.

You can request a withdrawal for it to go into your bank at any time,  or leave it to mount up, to go into your bank at a later date.  Leaving it there for longer , then eBay will send it on a quarterly basis.

If you wish to sell items, and save a little for Xmas to spend where you wish,  you can do.

[halcyon_2000]

it says that if you leave automatic relisting that does not count. So it will take few months to load up all your listings in that way by changing the relisting option to automatic. 

[vintagefunk01]

They plan to charge buyers a fee in the new year, it's in their press reports and also SEC filing here:

https://investors.ebayinc.com/financial-information/sec-filings/sec-filings-details/default.aspx?Fil...

Talks about how they plan to introduce a buyer-facing fee in early 2025 

[Anonymous]

Firstly, as someone on another thread mentioned... eBay are going to add a buyers fee, so you price your item at 9.99 + free P&P - the buyer will pay £10.50 or something like that.

So basically eBay will become a bit like UberEats, you add items to your basket and total it up in your head, then you get to the checkout and realise you forgot to include the service fee in your calculations.

Secondly, I won an auction this morning from a private seller so have just been on to pay for it... after clicking pay... the checkout complete page loads up.

However, now, a pop up comes up a split second after that saying... "order placed successfully! you might also like... which displays an item plus a blue button underneath that says "pay for this additional item"  - the item they are showing is a business sellers item.

So that will also increase sales,  be interesting to see if after clicking "pay for this additional item" a confirmation box comes up or if just places your order.

[ett1954]

I know it has been a frenetic day on the boards today but do try and keep up.

[the-layer-laboratory]

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@vintagefunk01 wrote:

They plan to charge buyers a fee in the new year, it's in their press reports and also SEC filing here:

https://investors.ebayinc.com/financial-information/sec-filings/sec-filings-details/default.aspx?Fil...

Talks about how they plan to introduce a buyer-facing fee in early 2025 

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Maybe it will be buyers' insurance for extra protection when purchasing from a private seller?

[vintagefunk01]

That would actually make sense and work for both private and business sales, I'd be happy if that was the case 

I'm far too cynical these days though to get my hopes up 

[555njp]

And surely having forced most legit businesses out of business, that move will kill off the remaining handful of buyers?

So, eBay into administration by Q2 2025 then.

[erfi.chy]

I love the idea . I stopped selling expensive item on eBay because of FVF which is so high . Imagine me selling a £1500 personal MacBook Pro and I had to pay in the end nearly £200 in fees so I always end up selling in facebook or gumtree even for £150 less but still cheaper then ebay  

[crg_music]

And you just know every other buyer on those sites in those catagories is a scammer. Please 'send to my aunt, i'm currently travelling.." 

[crg_music]

I guess cash on collection is ok but I swear every time I put anything electronic up I got bombarded with scammers

[papso22]

Wouldn't this techniqually be a breach of governmant tax law? According to Gov.UK you must register with them if "you earn more than £1,000 in a tax year (from 6 April to 5 April)" and subsequently Sole traders are treated as business and "are responsible for following business law".

As usual ebay (or at least that rep) has completely ignored Consumer Law which has no monetary threshold for trading.  

[millies_store]

I have noticed that private sellers NOW only have 300 free listings per month which, to be honest, is more than enough. You can still list up to 1000 items per month which, after you have used your 300 you will incure listing fees. That sorts out the business sellers trading as private sellers. On the other hand, there are no fees on children's clothing which, eBay hoped you would stay with them instead of migrating to Vinted as an example. Vinted are clever East Europeans. They make their money from the postage, InPost for instance is one they force you to use which is also East European. The upshot is, I can see eBay moving on to this format in the near future making money from the postage.

[ett1954]

"I can see eBay moving on to this format in the near future making money from the postage." - you missed out the word more (i.e. more money).  Business sellers already pay fees on the cost of postage.

[millies_store]

You forgot to add: "a must have" which is a clear givaway that AI wrote it.

[theelench]

So do private sellers, but business sellers usually get their postage cheaper because they post more than private sellers who can't benefit from discounts for bulk.

[irt303]

@theelench - Hi there, unless I've made a major error in comprehension, the removal of fees for private sellers includes the cut eBay used to take from postage (good news).

You're still right in saying that private sellers can't get bulk discounts on postage, although I can't see that this is something that genuine private sellers would need - if they were dispatching orders at the number and frequency required to qualify for them, then their private seller status would be questionable (plus I believe that only registered businesses can apply, anyway).