eBay

runninginlane4 · ‎01-03-2025

I'm selling off my collection of childhood comics and cigarette cards as auction items and on a regular basis buyers would buy more than one item from me. For me the biggest difference of post 4th Feb and pre 4th Feb eBay is that fees are per item and not per transactions. My items are mostly low value in the range of £1.00 to £2.50 so percentage wise that's a massive increase in fees collected by eBay on an item and if a buyer buys more than one item it gets worse.

Is there any reason why I can't advise potential buyers via the item description that if they want to buy more than one item to let me know and I can create a new single listing for all the items they want and their price will be cheaper?

andha-21 · ‎01-03-2025

No. I actually asked for clarification on this from eBay and Marco replied that combining listings the way you infer is still allowed.

If it makes you feel better I'll find the post and link you to it. That way you can screenshot the reply as a get out of jail card.

https://community.ebay.co.uk/t5/Seller-Central/This-is-going-to-mean-the-end-for-many-small-private-...

andha-21 · ‎01-03-2025

Message 791 is my question to Marco, 796 their response.

runninginlane4 · ‎01-03-2025

Thank you. If eBay are happy with this then they really should have spent a little more time on the algorithm for calculating buyer fees.

Leading up to 4th February I made sure I had as many low value auction items really as possible. I listed about 250 comics with a maximum price of £3.00 each on the 3rd February. Two buyers bought about 60 comics each. If I'd listed them on the 4th February they would have paid over £45 each for buyer protection. Surely scenarios like this should built into eBay's algorithm for the buyer protection fees without sellers having to offer a "work around"?

I'm guessing my two buyers may have been having one last spending spree before buyer protection took hold on auction items as I've never that many in one month before.

andha-21 · ‎01-03-2025

In truth, I doubt they are happy with this. It's why I asked the question the way I did.

The fact is they have messed up on a truly epic scale.

I predicted combined sales would be destroyed by Simple Delivery, I wasn't expecting them to do it with the BPF. But it looks like that's exactly what they managed to do.

But you really do want to screenshot that question/answer because their terms and conditions technically make you/anyone that uses the above workaround liable for reprisals.

twfan11 · ‎01-03-2025

I think this is the way we will all have to do it. I tried for many years to get buyers ask me for multiple items before buying. But 90% of them never did. A few did.

I hope that once they realise they pay 75p per item if they don't they will start taking notice.

runninginlane4 · ‎01-03-2025

@andha-21 wrote:
But you really do want to screenshot that question/answer because their terms and conditions technically make you/anyone that uses the above workaround liable for reprisals.

Screenshots taken. Thanks

runninginlane4 · ‎01-03-2025

@twfan11 wrote:
I think this is the way we will all have to do it. I tried for many years to get buyers ask me for multiple items before buying. But 90% of them never did. A few did.

I hope that once they realise they pay 75p per item if they don't they will start taking notice.

I tried to include vey simple rules concerning combined p&p and asked buyers wait for an amended invoice to give them the best postage price. Only a few waited. I gave refunds but a couple even paid for each item separately and incurred a 30p per item fee as a result. Even they got a refund for the combined postage but no as much as they could have got

irobot100 · ‎01-03-2025

Just thinking about this idea and it really does make sense and i can't see that Ebay can do a legal thing about it other than either than rip up their own rule book.....they quote "Free to sell on Ebay" and they quote the extra

fee now payed by buyers is a protection fee ( nudge nudge wink wink) so they can't object to merging listings for buyers wanting multiple items. Great idea.

andha-21 · ‎01-03-2025

@irobot100

It sounds like you haven't read their new terms & conditions.

They included a very specific threat regarding circumventing BPF fees. It's intention was something else, but it very much does cover this workaround too.

It's why I asked the way I did and why I suggest above that you/anyone that intends to use the above workaround screenshot the question and answer so you have some kind of proof.

irobot100 · ‎01-03-2025

no i haven't read the terms and conditions but did realise it was why you asked in that way and will be sure to take your advice re the screenshot.

i will have a look at T&C but i personally can't see it being anything other than a threat.

suelel1968 · ‎01-03-2025

Hi, i just read the posts you quoted and i find Marco's answer quite confusing. Why would I want to invoice someone if I have just set up a listing with the items they want? I wonder if he misunderstood you?

I tried to add something to a listing (this year, probably January) along these lines and it simply wouldn't let me. It gave me a red warning about policy violation. I think it mentioned trying to sell things outside of the normal process which is definitely not what i was doing. It seemed to dislike the words "contact me" or similar.