New Buyer Fee = Good News For Private Sellers!

[the-bee-keeper]

Now that ebay are adding this extra fee maybe they will actually allow private sellers to sell!

Now that the buyer has to pay a buyers premium, ebay will be making money off the private seller from the sales!

The more ebay push private sellers to reach the public the more money ebay will make! 

It couldn't be a better time to be a private seller!!

So come on ebay now is your chance to make more money!!

The private seller pays the way forward! 

[vintique*violet]

Absolutely it affects, especially SD, there are plenty of posts about this on the board. 

People who can no longer sell due to the imposition of SD due to their personal circumstances... it is not manageable on many levels, which is why they have had to draw the line through no fault of their own. 

[lucy_farmer]

Yes, I think I'm with you on this ; it's not ideal having to wait so long for the money, but we can live with it....

The BPF is a bit of an insult to honest private sellers, but we can swallow it if we have to.....

But the game changer is going to be the part where you said  'If you arrange your own postage, as before'.

Once we can no longer do that, a lot of us *aren't* going to be able to live with it/swallow it ☹️

[being37]

The point is that it’s therefore not ‘fee free’ to the seller they have just shifted the charge, the seller reduces their price by the corresponding amount - it’s a fee, whether it’s nominally applied to the seller or buyer is irrelevant - the buyer has no choice to pay the fee and the seller has no choice but to reduce their price if they want to sell. It’s just added complexity as you need to calculate the selling price when you list to correspond to other similar items and you need to do the same with buy it now and offer prices - it’s a deceptive tactic and it’s losing eBay sellers and buyers.
Sent from my iPhone

[goldenwolfman]

The 75p per item+4% has indeed wiped out cheap low value items at a stroke. At that point it made it questionable whether obey is the place to shop - buyers will now look further afield! That can only hurt business sellers, it will not be a boost as they 'think'. Private sellers of collectibles will disappear elsewhere and with it take their spending power. 

But then along comes 'Simple' delivery - and whoever thought it up must be simple!  Because Simple delivery is the real killer, it will then wipe out all the philatelic stamp sellers in a further blow.

No one can deny it because stamp buyers are collectors of stamps - why on earth would they want a label and have Evri deliver it? They want stamps on their delivery and not a sticky label produced so obey can make an extra 50p.

'Good News for private sellers' - who wrote this nonsense, someone with a red nose in obey towers maybe??

[kath3735_wxmjn]

i agree with your whole comment although with the proviso that i can see there could be problems for those selling off cheap individual items like stamps and postcards.  I am selling off family items (because i have the time and inclination and they do not) and it is not for 'income' it is to get rid of stuff and if we get something for it then all to the good.   All of us are working or retired so do not rely on the money but if i did i would have saved a little at a time in the months prior to the changes to be able to pay for postage for items when this started - one of the big moans that some use about it.    I already spend my april/oct sundays selling on the car boot.  When SD comes in i will either find another site that lets me post myself or just try to sell the items on the car boot (not that i can envisage selling anything over a couple of pounds on there - tighter than e bayers!)

[kath3735_wxmjn]

reducing the price is up to you as an individual.  I have not reduced mine but am still selling.  I do realise it depends a lot on catergory but as is often suggested, in some cases putting a few items together helps.

[lucy_farmer]

'No one can deny it because stamp buyers are collectors of stamps'

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I know exactly where you're coming from ; my husband is a stamp collector (along with coins, audio, tech, tools, etc etc.... ok , he's a hoarder 😆)

to

'Good News for private sellers' - who wrote this nonsense, someone with a red nose in obey towers maybe??'

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No. The poster who wrote this was a little , er.... odd.  (to the point of being worrying) I think he was taken away to a place of safety after a while....

[stevecoles2023]

It does effect the seller as the buyer now has to pay more so buyers will buy less..

[to_be_frank87]

My sales have dropped off a cliff!

I was buoyant before the start of February,  selling an item a day - now, it's an item a week. I'm fortunate insomuch that it's not an income I rely upon but the additional buyers fee seems to have had a  detrimental effect in my case.

[lucy_farmer]

Oh... hullo again bee/sky/dragon....

I hope you're feeling better this time around?

[quickdispatch]

Sounds like they have taken advice from an entrepreneur; although he might be busy trying to takeover a few countries at the moment. 

When we paid a double fee, sellers plus PayPal  cost us around 15% to sell private items. I think most of us accepted this as fair considering auction houses charged sellers and buyers fees equating to at least 30% and often more. 

Their stupidity was the recent removal of sellers’ fees. I think we would have been delighted to be told Sellers fees are halving to 5%, effectively where we are today with the new buyers’ premium. 

What we don’t like is being given something great to have it snatched away a few months later - total madness and a clear indication that they have lost the plot.

I’m old and loathe social media, I will continue with eBay and hope they sort out the mess they are in. 

[strangelysane]

I'm not seeing how this is "good news for private sellers".
The fee bumps up the price beyond what I consider a reasonable sum - so I'm obliged to reduce my selling price to compensate for eBay's "seller protection" fee.  Otherwise, my listing will be up for months awaiting a buyer.
Also, as we sellers know well, if a buyer raises an issue and wants a refund, eBay ALWAYS sides with the buyer, often when it looks like the buyer is gaming the system.  It matters not if whether the seller doesn't accept returns or not.  The seller's account is held to ransom until the refuund is issued.
So the protection fee is a con, frankly.

I'd have been happy had eBay had kept the seller's fee but dropped the fee on postage - which I always found outrageous as it meant that I was subbing the buyer's postage cost because I always charged the same amount the courier charged me.  I didn't include the materials for shipping as they are largely recycled boxes and envelopes I've hoarded.

[thestagemanager]

Hi strangelysane,

I agree with everything you say. The reason Ebay started charging fees on
postage was because some sellers who thought they were being clever started
bumping up their postage charges and reducing the price of the item to
avoid the selling fees. They would list an item for 1p and have £6.50
postage. This impacted on all sellers when Ebay had enough. I have
reduced my prices to allow for the protection fee but sales have still
slumped. I'll give it a couple more weeks then it will be off to a boot
sale for me.

[beachbay22]

I agree with all you put. I noticed on my few recent sales ebay are
charging the buyer protection fee to the buyer and also a small protection
fee off the money paid to me - surely that's considered 'double' fee?

Also ebay isn't releasing money to sellers until items have been delivered
- that is so WRONG.

[papso22]

---

@beachbay22 wrote:
I agree with all you put. I noticed on my few recent sales ebay are
charging the buyer protection fee to the buyer and also a small protection
fee off the money paid to me - surely that's considered 'double' fee?

Also ebay isn't releasing money to sellers until items have been delivered
- that is so WRONG.

---

Could you post a screenshot of the fee you say you as a seller are paying?

[radiospace]

Sell on ebay, buy on Amazon, Vinted etc. Simples.

[akira181]

That's just flawed logic, the buyer only cares about the final price, not how fees are packaged.  The seller doesn't think "That's a bargin at £1" if P&P is £500 for example.

If I sell something for £199, it's because £199 is an attractive price point that I'm also happy with the price. If eBay then advertises said item at £218.90, it's not that appealing anymore, so I'd need to list at £180 to have the same appeal. Then eBay takes a final value fee to add insult to injury, making it not worth selling in the first place.

It's just eBay copying Vinted's model but at a higher rate and double dipping with a final value fee. After 2 decades, it's time to try other marketplaces.

[strangelysane]

I also object to having to wait two days for my payment.  The buyer has paid eBay. Tracking on eBay shows the parcel has arrived. Why should I have to wait whilst eBay creams interest off of my money?

My sales are mostly items emanating from my hobbies that are no longer required, or from my frequent house decluttering.  It's not a business, although I take the trouble to be business-like in my dealings.  It used to be fun turning odds and sods into cash instead of just binning them or giving them away.  Now, thanks to eBay continually changing the rules, it's become a bit of a chore with, thanks to dodgy buyers gaming the system, extra stress thrown in.  I have a job lot of spare parts I need to list that doesn't easily fit in with other selling venues, but after that I think I'm going to try other platforms, especially forums based on my hobbies that I can sell on for free using PayPal for dealing with the money side of things.

[vintique*violet]

It is more than 2 days...as it is after delivery... so possibly  14 or more - now amended to 8 ( under certain criteria) and immediate payment if buyer leaves positive feedback if a single item sells for £25 or less...( unsure if this is for those using their own postage system or SD?)  I agree the fun of it has disappeared , and all these changes and "jumping hoops"  has left some people unable to manage their account to satisfy their buyers if at all, creating far more stress than necessary. 

Nothing seems " simple"... it is a convoluted mess in my opinion. 

[beachbay22]

Yes I'm thinking the same. Ebay eliminating fees for private sellers was
initially a great thing but this adding buyer protection fee plus release
of money AFTER delivery is a double gut punch.