NO LONGER SELLING DUE TO SIMPLE DELIVERY

[rugbyguy1960]

AS OF 15TH APRIL MY DAYS AS A PRIVATE EBAY SELLER WILL STOP AFTER 19 YEARS.

I AM FED UP OF THE GREED OF EBAY AND I HOPE OTHER EBAY SELLERS DECIDE TO NO LONGER LET THE EBAY CONTROL FREAKS HAVE THIS MUCH CONTROL OVER PRIVATE SELLERS.

[lucy_farmer]

'I thought the £1000 limit was for trading not any money earned outside payee '

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You're correct.

 The £1000 limit is a trading allowance . (for people who are trading in a very small way...)

It's not a 'flogging your own personal stuff' allowance!

(there's no limit on selling your own private stuff; unless a single sale is over the £6000. CGT limit. ..But selling something for 6 grand on ebay?  That's just too damn scary to even contemplate 😱)

[inpoughkeepsie]

Posted elsewhere, but this is from the GOV/HMRC website:

If you’re selling personal possessions you probably do not have to pay Income Tax on these.

If you sell an item for more than £6,000, you may need to pay Capital Gains Tax. The £6,000 value for a single personal possession for Capital Gains Tax, also applies to the total value of items which form a set, for example:

• chess pieces

Example — selling unwanted items

You’re clearing out your attic and decide to sell your unwanted items using online marketplaces. None of the items you sell are worth more than £6,000.

It’s unlikely that you’ll need to tell us about this income or pay any tax, no matter how many items you sell.

[edwardian-dreams]

Thanks for confirming that 

[aymanalvi]

There is no right or wrong, Ebay hold on to the money and give it when they want. The clock starts when you are paid and from there 48 hours until delivered.

[richs_outdoor_bazzar]

What a mess for private sellers.

[suelel1968]

Hi AndyF,

Please take this as a kind post. I don't want to try to stop you doing anything, but I do think you are going down a rabbit hole and maybe loosing site of the amount of your time all of this is taking up and going to take up in the future. I have made complaints to the Financial Ombudsman about investments and the response largely comes down to "did you have notice to opt out without penalty before the changes came into play?" and "Did you sign the terms and conditions?"  The fact of the matter is we did and by continuing to sell we accept the new conditions of the platform. The future of Ebay is now in the hands of the buyers. 

Don't let this dislike of the new T&Cs take up any more of your time would be my advice. Life is just too short. JMHO. Have a break over Easter.

[andyf117]

Someone I worked with back in the days when I had a 'proper job' (prior to becoming self-employed and subsequently taking slightly early retirement) tried to dissuade me from taking on the multi-national company who I was employed by over what I believed was a 'flawed' internal policy.

I took a stand regardless, was 'suspended' (on full pay) for five weeks pending the outcome of investigations and multiple meetings with management and HR, and was then not only re-instated, but vindicated when the policy which it was all over was withdrawn, with neither me nor any of my colleagues having to ever be subjected to it again.

So thank you for the kind suggestion, taken in the spirit in which it was meant - but I don't tend to back down; and if it all ends up being pointless and eBay continues its merry way, it'll simply do so without me (and from what I've read on these boards, quite a few others)...

....in the meantime, the CEO of Royal Mail is receiving an email hopefully providing her with some insight of what her organisation's become involved with in their apparent 'partnership'...

[andyf117]

Sorry, but incorrect.

It is not eBay's money to "give it when they want". The buyer has purchased from me, therefore it is my money.

eBay "hold it" ostensibly to give the buyer time to determine that all is well with the delivery and the item, and the "clock starts" when the item is marked as delivered, not when I am paid. That's what they did away with - sellers receiving funds prior to despatching items (and then sometimes not doing so, and keeping the money).

My point with regard to when they release the funds - my money, your money, every other seller's money - is that they are now seemingly delaying that by eight or more hours compared with what they used to do.

If they do that with every seller's money, that's 1,000's or 10,000's or 100,000's of Pounds that are accumulating interest - eight hours doesn't seem much, but multiply that by those huge amounts of money, and it adds up.

[honeymonster007]

Wonder if that's anything to do with America. Their around 8 hours behind us or could be AI maybe

[andyf117]

Highly doubtful - extremely unlikely that UK-based funds are controlled from the US, especially given that eBay's European operation is registered in Switzerland, with its HQ in Dublin, and the UK one in London. 

[the_book_seekers]

ebay will have updated its terms & conditions to cover monetary holds. There is the option to reject the t&cs

but that would involve the end of selling/closure of account. By continuing to sell you agree to these conditions. Whether these t&cs would stand up to a legal challenge or scrutiny by regulatory authorities - i have no idea. There have been a number of posters over the years who have talked about taking on ebay and one that I can remember who reported being successful. 

[andyf117]

Though I may not like it all that much, I've never had an issue with the two-day payout delay, and fully understood why it was introduced, because of some unscrupulous sellers...

....but that's not what this particular discussion was ever about - it's that instead of funds being made available at midnight on the day of release as they were until recently, now it's seemingly not until later, meaning there are additional hours in which eBay is potentially earning more interest on our money...

[suelel1968]

Hi AndyF,

I am like you, I will fight injustice too. So I respect your response and I genuinely do hope your time will be justified.

I wonder if we worked for the same multi national... 3 letters , American. Mine paid me off rather than have a spat over disability T&C's. I can be bought! 

But now I pick my battles and eBay is not worth it. Buyers will either buy or they won't. 

Good luck though, I wish you well and take a break over Easter anyway.

[andyf117]

Delayed

Held

Late

As for this 'battle', and whether it's worth it, only time will tell - the days of the 'old' eBay are long gone, and it's not 'fun' like it used to be, but I'll be damned if I'm going to give up on the place without trying to get these ridiculous policies reversed that are ruining it for the likes of those who built it over the past 20+ years: ordinary, everyday private sellers and buyers without whom it wouldn't even exist.

[lamulady2]

I am downsizing to assist my offspring in having less to deal with when I turn my toes up, so EBay is my main "go to" as they allow a certain amount of freedom for "mixed" lots but they are indeed getting weirdly dictatorial. I am circumnavigating their new edicts &, as we had over 5 months of free selling, I count their so called buyers insurance or what ever, as replaced fees. It is around 10% on low valued goods so more expensive really but  it drops to about 6% on items over £40 & a little less over £90.I have added a rider to my descriptions that I am doing so & so far have sent refunds to about 20 folks, using the "other reasons". I file the email one gets so I can refer if needs be. Awkward with older items...(I have some from 4 years ago & more & over 1200 items in all!!) but am slowly getting round to them. As for the "Simple posting" it is  a nightmare. This evening I discovered that they put £3.44 on a 250 gram book, which will go for £2.10!! It is very time consuming which,  to me is no bother but for others,  younger with families/jobs etc,  it must be quite horrific. It is going to take more time adding provisos & I will be using Royal Mail site for nearly everything that I enter. They have to be used anyway, as they collect any item I send. I have very few orders but it is useful for me as I am slightly disabled. They have a simple insurance & the tracked service is just as good as ebay.

As for HMRC,  that is going to be more of a nightmare as most of my stuff is my own belongings collected over 60 odd years & why shd one pay tax on them?  Enough said.

[rugbyguy1960]

I don't think HMRC get involved if you are selling your own items. I only used RM when I sold something and paying for my postage on their site and using their collection service worked perfectly. You are right about everything has become more time consuming. I'm not selling because I don't agree with this much control.

[rugbyguy1960]

If your selling your own private things it is unlikely to effect private sellers.

[rugbyguy1960]

That really is some great information. I now scrutinise everything that gets announced or changed because so many of these changes have affected me.

[lamulady2]

As far as I saw,  EBay are quite upfront about the added cost...except they did not give  any warning which wd have helped!! When I enter now I check when pricing what their "tax" is,,,at under £15 it is about 11% which is just about the same as their original fee...as the price of the item goes up the % does drop a little until it drops to about 6% on an item over around £50.& a fraction less for an £80 item. I have not checked it yet on items which are even more expensive!!  I am now adjusting my price for any new items to allow for this "refund" which I am giving all buyers. We had free selling for 5+ months so I suppose we had a small relief. Having over 1200 different items however it is yet another nightmare to slowly add riders to them all re this.

[moonlight-rhapsody]

With regard to T&Cs being immutable.  As I understand it, T&Cs can be challenged by anyone who thinks they are unfair.  Laws concerning consumer protection are increasingly favouring the consumer, particularly in circumstances where big business imposes standard terms and the consumer has no right to negotiate.  So it is not necessarily a case of “like it or leave”, more a case of “leave or challenge it” if you don’t like it.  Unfair contract terms would fall under the remit of the Competition & Markets Authority, with the FCA or Financial Ombudsman dealing separately with financial matters such as unjust enrichment.