New buyer fees confused ?

[jactac7]

Please could someone explain in simple terms how this new buyer fee thing works.

I'm a private seller who lists the usual used clothes, plus the odd bits & bobs that are no longer required or needed.

When this new buyer fee thing was announced I read the info that ebay released, and after reading it my take was that, if I list something for say  £2 as a bid or buy it now, ebay would then add their fees to that amount and the buyer would see the increased amount on the listing, but all my listings are still showing the same amount that I listed them for ?

Theres no added fees showing on the amount, at least not that I can see ?

I've asked a friend to look at my listings to see if they can see something different but apparently they are seeing what I'm seeing, the original amounts with no added fees ?

They've even clicked on one of my items to buy but the total amount stayed the same ?

Am I looking at this all wrong or just not getting it.

Any advice appreciated.

Thanks.

[tressygirl]

Nope you're not seeing anything wrong with your listings,  because originally it was to be the 4th of Feb for a rollout for items sold by Private sellers,  to have a Buyer Fee added to the listing price of the item of $4 of item price, and plus 75p.

However, it has only initially been added to electronic items.  Take a peek at some MacBooks / laptops you'll see those being sold by Private sellers the sale prices end in odd pence,  32p  ,  74 p etc.

So,  for a few more weeks unless the date is pushed back again, your items may be safe from BP until the end of this month ?

@jactac7 

[jactac7]

Hi,

thanks for your reply.

I've just clicked on a few private listing for macbooks but still cant see any added fees to the listings ?

do the fees show at point of sale or on the listing before selecting to buy ?

[tressygirl]

You may be looking at Business sellers selling those items, they are not affected by this BP.

The top ones usually are from Business sellers,  scroll down the page,  you'll come across Private sellers and those odd amounts.

So what happens there,  the buyer pays that amount they see on the listing,    then at eBay checkout they can see the breakdown,  that is,  £*** amount to the seller for the item ,  and £** amount in Buy Protection fee to eBay.

I'm certain that sellers will be inundated for explanations as to what this fee is actually for, best be braced with a repeated  stock answer me thinks !  🤔

@jactac7 

[moldosgifts]

Your referring to the buyer fee protection fee of 4% + 75p.

If your selling the only thing it effects is the price displayed to that buyer. it is already a thing on vinted and doesn't seem to effect them.

But it only effects electronics (computer and the like) at the moment with other categories added later.

As you don't sell any of that a i wouldn't worry at the moment wait and see what the feedback is on that category, then will be able to give feedback on whether  it  is a success.

If worried when it is live on your items you can adjust your asking price down a bit.

If selling very cheap item it will have a bigger effect because of that 75p fixed fee.

E.g. you sell for £2  your buyer will see £2.83 and pay that but you will still get £2.

You sell for £20 your buyer will see  £21.55 and pay that you get £20.

So as you see your cheaper item is almost 50% more expensive to the buyer just like vinted 

[jactac7]

Ok thanks.

Personally I think this will kill off private sellers.

You cant blame buyers who are looking for a bargain, shifting away from private sellers when the cost of something has increased so much.

thanks again

[tressygirl]

You're welcome, and yep it's a real wait and see what happens !  🤔

[parsley2003]

I have just explained to a buyer who is also a seller who had no idea about any of this and have screen shot my reply because i guess i will be asked over and over. The public unless they read the news will not know about it and probably a lot of sellers too

[jactac7]

Yeah thats what I though.

I mainly sell used clothes that my son tends to wear once or twice and then just forgets about them.

I list things very cheap just to try and shift them to make room.

But as you say, the cheaper listings will now look far less appealing once the fees are attached, even though as in my case the clothes I sell are like new and on many occasions well know branded items. 

[myriad*seller · Accepted solution]

The fees don't show until the final checkout page 

I just tested it

All buyers see is an odd price that is the sellers price + a few pence 

So now instead of items being eg £12 they are £13.37 

So prices now look weird but this is reason

It makes them look like prices that are converted from another currency, instead of round numbers or 99p/49p/00p they end in silly prices like .13 or .37 

[jactac7]

I did try testing on a few listing by adding to my basket but the price stayed the same, I'm probably not selecting an item that is effected yet ?

[tressygirl]

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@parsley2003 wrote:

I have just explained to a buyer who is also a seller who had no idea about any of this and have screen shot my reply because i guess i will be asked over and over. The public unless they read the news will not know about it and probably a lot of sellers too

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Yep, if you think about the number who actually come to these boards to see any new updates / changes on eBay,  or to click on eBay Announcements, I'm betting my last Rolo, that the majority of peeps,  buyers and sellers alike may not / will not,   know all the details/ costs of Buyer Protection.

Once that's explained,  Simple Delivery may hit to be mandatory for Private Sellers!  😐

Never a dull moment here! 🤗

[jactac7]

I new about it and it's implications, I just couldn't work out why my listings were still showing the original listed prices .

I'll be honest though, I didn't know it hadn't been rolled out across the board yet.

From what I can recall, the info ebay initially put out was that the BP fees would kick in from 4th Feb 2025 for ALL private listings. 

Have they put something else out saying it was going to be implemented in stages ? 

[tressygirl]

This was in eBay's Announcements a few days ago:

Starting from 4 February, Buyer Protection will be live to give buyers more peace of mind when shopping on ebay.co.uk. To minimise any potential disruption on our platform, the Buyer Protection fee will be gradually rolled out across items listed by private sellers, starting in Electronics and coming to all eligible categories in the following weeks.

@jactac7 

[jckl1957]

Listings with the new buyer's fee are showing it as a separate amount, like this, with a link to explain the new charge:

[faceache65]

I revised a listing ,(to drop the price) earlier today and the Pricing section showed me how much the buyers fee was. I found that useful.  

[jimthing]

NOTE: There's currently a bug in how the fee is applied on the List An Item/Revise Item page. See here: 

https://community.ebay.co.uk/t5/Seller-Central/Buyer-fee-how-to-calculate-total-Shipping-charge-sepa...

Suggest waiting until fixed before re-setting pricing you may want.

And perhaps remove postage from listing price too, as this is not charged the fee on, so reduces prices by proxy. 

Please comment on this on that thread above, for conciseness. 😉

[parsley2003]

They are already messing with the postage tried to list and and some new thing came up like they put me into before and i got rid of, make a postage thing and it changes all other listings to the same, i got rid of that then no RM tracked large letter so i had to use RM 48 and put £2.70 on. Monday will be a disaster i think will have to have time off again

[wintersdawn1]

What exciting new Ebay development is happening on Monday 10th February?

[myriad*seller]

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@jactac7 wrote:

I did try testing on a few listing by adding to my basket but the price stayed the same, I'm probably not selecting an item that is effected yet ?

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you see it on the next page 

Only currently on electronic items from private sellers

I searched for used mobile phones to check as most come from private sellers

You can spot the ones from private sellers easily by the strange price points