My thoughts on various things on this thread:
1) Royal Mail have always paid me relatively quickly and in full whenever I've claimed, for selling price plus postage. You need to be sensible when claiming- whenever I've sent a lower value banknote via normal 2nd class postage with a certificate of posting that's gone astray I've always put 'numismatic collectibles' in the item description, which whilst true, probably meant I got paid instead of 'banknote.' In fact I used to make a few pence on missing items as Ebay would refund the fees and I'd be paid in full for postage when I'd bought the stamps for less than face value.
2) The poster who said that ebay want to attract the generation who wouldn't dream of entering a post office, and want a 'simpler' experience, and are priotising these and business customers over people selling off spare collectibles etc. The other poster who said it's all about grabbing more of the postage market are correct .
3) To the person who said they would use local auctions- be careful! I often get lots of stuff that is very underpriced as lazy auctioneers take one photo. Buying banknotes can be great- you'll find high denomination notes hidden inside a pile of demonetised Turkish Lira etc, and you feel sorry for the family member of whichever deceased person didn't get the full value of their collection. If you do use an auction house to sell, check if they offer a convenient, decent inhouse postage. Many don't- I saw a very collectible 1000 Danish Kroner banknote for sale recently that went far under its value as the auction house in remotest Cornwall didn't offer any delivery services. And be aware of that 20% buyers and sellers commission!
4) I can't be arsed to see if my listings have or don't have SD now- too much hassle- I'm out of selling until they reverse it (unlikely) and whilst I am still buying , I will buy less as previously I'd just keep what I want for my hobby and sell on the remainder.
5) I'll keep repeating that no-one should be buying stamps at their full value, even though they are now useless for Ebay. https://www.rushstamps.co.uk/ (postage offers on left) or https://www.philatelink.co.uk/1st-class-and-2nd-class-nvi-discounted-stamps-30-c.asp
Just avoid the fakes on amazon and ebay!
6) I didn't mind paying some commision for the service, even though I would hold out for the reduvced fees offers and sold a whole load of stuff during the no fees period. Even though I realised that couldn't last forever. With the BPF it reminds me of shopping in the States fiddly prices and you're never quite sure of how much the final total will be.
7) Why do I have VAT on some of my UK purchases (all banknotes)? I asked Ebay and they said that BPF shows differerntly on different invoices, although the invoices with VAT are often more than 20% of the BPF!
