It's still possible to make money on eBay - short their shares on the stock market lol

[cactusinthewindow]

I'm also making my way to other platforms, FB Marketplace, Vinted, Gumtree etc. 

The protection fees are a joke, Simply Delivery is needlessly painful etc.

Interesting to see if the platform will survive, as newcomers won't have known any better.

Best of luck all.

[wyntersemporium]

Vinted also do protection fees 

[cactusinthewindow]

They do, a small breakdown;

Transparency:

Some users have noted that eBay's buyer protection fee is added to the item price without a clear breakdown, unlike Vinted, where the fee is shown separately. 

• Shipping:

  On Vinted, the buyer arranges and pays for shipping, while on eBay, the seller is responsible for shipping. 
• Selling Fees:

  Vinted does not charge sellers any fees, while eBay used to charge sellers fees, but has scrapped them in favor of the buyer protection fee. 

[moldosgifts]

Very soon there will be no difference between vinted and Ebay .

Both will carry buying fees, both the buyer will arrange their own postage.

Both will have no fees for private accounts

There may be a difference in fees but the base principles will be the same.

Gum tree are an ebay company i believe.

The main difference is vinted seems to accepted by its sellers and ebay somehow for doing exactly the same are vilified.

[wintersdawn1]

Just pointing this out as it came up the other day:

In July 2020 eBay sold Gumtree UK to Adevinta ASA in a deal worth over $9 billion

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gumtree

[action_man]

The main difference is vinted seems to accepted by its sellers and ebay somehow for doing exactly the same are vilified.
_______________________________________________

I have no experience with "V", but could it be something to do with the dirty tricks, doublespeak, smoke & mirrors, manipulation, and general abuse? Do they have all of that on "V" too?

[moldosgifts]

Not as much because vinted have charged BPF and managed postage for ages now so its familiar.

Ebay are only just introducing after decades of familiarity and people don't like it .

Ebay have been around along time time now so it was like an old friend for its members and started in 1995,

And the inventor was told to he would need to register as a business which i find very funny

vinted is much younger having its  beginning back in 2008

but not the app until 2012 not sure when it started charging BPF as i joined 3 moths ago with it already in place i joined for selling my old used bits and bobs not connected to my business. Was easier than having a private account on here.

[jonat_broad]

That's it really isn't it. People don't like change. Especially when it disrupts what had worked well.

But for someone new to ebay, it might work well. That might be what ebay is banking on. Replace those aggrieved sellers with newbies.

I would say Vinted's approach to BPF and Simple Delivery is neater (they allow bundles) but it has always been there. ebay are shifting from a decades old approach and its bound to cause friction.

Worth noting for those looking to move to Vinted, BPF is 30-80p + anything from 3-8% vs ebays 75p + 4% and from what I can see, the postage labels are charged at an even higher price than ebay (at least Royal Mail is, but they do offer Yodel at a lower price). Vinted even offer delivery to a local pickup only on some listings - can't see that being too popular with customers mind!

[lucy_farmer]

'.......People don't like change. Especially when it disrupts what had worked well.

I would say Vinted's approach to BPF and Simple Delivery is neater (they allow bundles) but it has always been there. ebay are shifting from a decades old approach and its bound to cause friction.
But for someone new to ebay, it might work well....'

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Spot on; V inted users have been used to the way V works from the word go, and newbies to ebay will be in the same boat.

And V hasn't tried to sell something to it's users with a whole load of biz bullsh** and spin, to make them accept something that is way more unwieldy and difficult to use than what they were used to.

And, (I hope I'm not going to be too offensive here!) V is popular with a much younger customer base. A customer base that has grown up with interent shopping and smart-phones etc. Online stuff is second nature to them.

(yes I know not *all* v's users are 23 yrs old, but I don't know a single one under 30)

An awful lot of the users on here are ,er... getting on a bit. Like me.

Some of them don't have Smart phones. Like me.  This makes simple Del very awkward.

Some of them like going to the postie and keeping them open. Like me. This makes S.D. very awkward.

Some of them have no printer and not a lot of money to buy one. Like me. This makes S.D. very awkward.

(I could go on in the same vein, but I can't be bothered any more....)

What  I really don't understand are the totally opposing statements put out by Ebay big bosses:

"Sellers who also buy are valuable users of ebay" .

Sellers who also buy will be private sellers.

On the whole, when on ebay, business sellers are *working*. (they're not on a shopping trip or buying 'treats' with the money they've made from flogging unwanteds).....and they're pushing those private sellers away with the 'new rules', so we can't be that valuable can we?

'"We want to be a high-end, luxury shopping place"

Then why are they trying to emulate V inted? the stuff selling on v is very cheap; people don't worry about returns policies etc on there. If they don't like it or it's not as advertised, they aren't worried about just sticking it in the bin............ How far away from high-end luxury do you want to get!?

I'm running out of steam for arguing the case on here, positive or negative. It's just becoming depressing.

[akemp1]

I was very pleased to see an item on my ebay wishlist for just £1 at another place and even more pleased to see the protection fee was only 32p. I've also seen on another forum that some sellers are finding items are reaching higher prices at another place however that might be because there appears to be a visibility boost for new members.

I've yet to be able to compare RM prices with ebay's RM+ rates as I cannot find a single seller at that place that's offering RM postage on checkout despite testing with lots of items. I don't know if it's the place that's limiting the options buyers see or if the sellers have deselected RM on their profile or a bit of both.