PRIVATE SELLER STRIKE ?

[mickespana]

As a follow up to my previous post, i wonder if any of you private sellers out there would be interested in refraining from trying to sell for say a month ? If enough people did this then all these recent money grabbing schemes would bring in nothing to ebay at all and maybe just maybe the genius that thought it all up would have to rethink it all and then reverse it.If enough people did this just think of the impact it would have on this company.

[andha-21]

I stopped all my listings on February 4th and won't be relisting again. Initially my idea was to wait for them to stop Simple Delivery but the bigger problem now is that they no longer have to give any notice for changes. It used to be 30 days.

So even if they say they are going to stop Simple Delivery, unless they alter the terms and conditions their words are effectively worthless as they can instantly change straight back.

[moonlight-rhapsody]

I pulled all my items on April 6th, the day before ebay said they were going to start rolling it out to all private sellers.  I'd got no intention then of ever using SD, and everything I've read since has confirmed that I made the right decision.  It's worse than I could ever have imagined.  I'm not buying either, partly because I'm not selling, but I've told family members who I used to buy on behalf of, that I'm not using ebay to buy what they want either.

Ebay will have got too much invested in this policy to voluntarily reverse it, including contracts with Evri/RM.  Many people have already written to the Competition & Markets Authority to ask them to investigate whether SD is anti-competitive, as it certainly seems to be.  The best chance of getting it reversed would be for everybody who feels strongly about SD to also write to the CMA, and if the CMA found against ebay, they could force ebay to reverse the policy.

[roberpalme_236]

Going by the Seller Central and Business Seller Boards buyers have been on strike since early February.

Small Business sellers are not covering their high fees, private sellers are not selling so they are not buying.

I've never seen/heard so many Ebay adverts about how its free to sell - they're on TV, radio. internet etc constantly but the last ten weeks show it's not worth spending the time or effort to list anything new on Ebay.

[plpmr]

another site [D] has/is running 50% off buyer fees to try to get business back.

[jbrusby]

V has been offering free postage on most orders (to lockers or Evri shops) for the last few days too. Seems to have just stopped or paused today, but they're clearly trying to entice the last few eBay users over there as well. 

[eastern_standard_time]

I've kept a half a dozen collection only items on as obvs they're not affected, before that I was using my entire allocation of 300 listings/month. I'm resigned to that state of affairs until things change; sadly I doubt that they will.

[department28]

The question is...'How many private sellers does it take to change eBay'?!  😄

I think quite a large number would be willing to abstain, & it would be very interesting to know how many are already doing so, as a direct result of these recent changes.

The introduction of the BPF must have had a huge impact on small sellers, with many finding it no longer worth trying to sell low value items. Simple Delivery will have made matters even worse, as it is not only proving to be far from simple, but more expensive, with only tracked services available - and even higher prices if you exclude Evri...

Unfortunately, eBay no longer seem interested in 'old fashioned' private sellers, so it would probably need every last one of us to refrain from selling and  buying, to make eBay think again... 

[clearingmyshelves2025]

Had all my listings finish on the 6th - I just could not go through the possible hassle if any of mine were transferred over to SD. No intention of coming back UNLESS postage/packing is put back in the hands of the seller. Lord knows most of us have done it for yonks and know what we're doing!

[godwinson1066]

I pulled my last listings at the end of February as I wanted to see how things went with the new changes. Then ebay announced Simple Delivery.

Having followed the discussions and seen the problems and hassle people now have, I've decided I will no longer sell until mandatory Simple Delivery is reversed.

The proceeds from my sales mostly went to buying items related to my hobby and on books from other eBay sellers. I have, since the end of February, bid on a few items halfheartedly, but none of these have resulted in a purchase. A lose-lose for me, other sellers, and eBay.

[parsley2003]

They do that anyway because the buyer fee isn't working there either

[parsley2003]

I've been on strike selling for weeks buying for months

[selective_distribution]

While I appreciate that `Something Has To be done!`, and I admire your effort to rally the people to take action, I feel that we have to ask ourselves how many people would have to stop selling before ebay takes any notice?.....A dozen?......A hundred?......A Thousand......A million?. If even a few thousand people stopped selling, it would not have even the slightest impact on eBay`s overall results and profits!  The only thing that would get them to rethink this nonsense would be continued bad publicity.

[roger_roger_over_and_nowt]

Where i live there are 12 coffee shops in the city centre.If half of them closed the other half would not follow.They would just be smiling at the extra "kerchings" from the new customers coming in.

[billus89]

@mickespana in just purely a coincidental manner and not related to your post, I have closed my listings now in protest. I also plan to not purchase through ebay anymore. I think theyve just gone too far this time and its not a business model I want to support anymore (not unless things revert back to how they were a few years ago).

Greed over everything and everyone seems to be the vibe of 2025 ebay and it doesn't align with me.

Hope more people can stand up. Just remember, theres more than one place to sell your goods. 

[billus89]

I dont agree with that analogy whatsoever, so I will add a reply keeping inside your theme.

"Where i live there are 12 coffee shops in the city centre.If half of them closed the other half would not follow.They would just be smiling at the extra "kerchings" from the new customers coming in."

The council (ebay) who rent out the physical shops in the city centre (ebay seller accounts) now loose out on monthly rent (buyer protection fees) from the closed coffee shops (closed accounts), and the customers who could previously get 24 different flavours (items on ebay) of their latte now stop coming to the city centre (ebay.co.uk), because there are now only 6 flavours available (less items on ebay). The council (ebay) now have empty shops (no sellers) that generate no money as the customers have decided to shop in local towns or retail parks (alternative platforms and online market places). Ultimately the council (ebay) now generate a fraction of the turnover they did when more shops (ebay sellers) were open. The existing coffee shops (sellers who stay on the platform), have noticed a miniscule increase in customers, but notice that footfall across the city centre (ebay.com) is now down.

Will

[theelench]

I was trying to think of something like your reply.

Excellent post.

Only thing I would add is that in ebays case every sale that goes to a different site isn't just a minus for ebay, it's a plus for the other site and the seller there.  Enough people doing that shows up in site 'rankings'.

Ebay's biggest advantage is that it's size makes it 'the place to go' for many buyers and sellers especially in niche areas.

Etsy overtook ebay years ago in listing numbers of the glass items I buy and sell.   There are other smaller sites taking sellers and their sales away from ebay.  At some point sellers and buyers will realise that ebay is no longer 'the place' to go, that the variety, the best items, best prices are on those other sites, not on ebay.

When that happens it will be a tipping point. 

[moonlight-rhapsody]

Ebay will have got too much invested in this policy to voluntarily reverse it, including contracts with Evri/RM. Many people have already written to the Competition & Markets Authority to ask them to investigate whether SD is anti-competitive, as it certainly seems to be. The best chance of getting it reversed would be for everybody who feels strongly about SD to also write to the CMA, and if the CMA found against ebay, they could force ebay to reverse the policy.

The Competition & Markets Authority may also be interested in how ebay manages search results.   It is already investigating how Google manipulates search results.  The CMA wants to ensure "a level playing field, especially as AI has the potential to transform search services”. Many people have posted on these forums that ebay appears to manipulate search results to the detriment of both buyers and sellers.  The CMA could force ebay to change its search results policy if enough people ask them to look into it.

For Info:  The CMA has enhanced powers to investigate digital services (classed as any business which provides services via the internet) under the recent Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act.  The act specifically empowers the CMA to investigate digital services which are classed as having Strategic Market Status (SMS), which means a business of "significant size or scale, with substantial and entrenched market power”.

[*maetrix*]

I've been pausing my sales for weeks at a time since Feb 4th (to see how things play out).

Needless to say sales have come to a virtual standstill - have sold / posted 1 item in 3 weeks - spoke to the woman on the self service machine in our Post Office this week,she said she's hardly seen any ebay packages coming in recently.

Let's face it - they know they've made a massive error with this - the basic (very bad) idea,the way it's been rolled out,the way that they've lost the trust of the customers.

Will they ever admit it & reverse?...only their tiny little brains know the answer to that.

[moonlight-rhapsody]

"If even a few thousand people stopped selling, it would not have even the slightest impact on eBay`s overall results and profits!"

It’s not just a matter of how profits are affected though.  There’s the little matter of the UK arm of ebay having to meet targets, as it surely has to do.  Let’s say the targets include the following:

No of visitors

No of active business sellers

No of active private sellers

No of buyers

No of sales

Value of sales

etc etc, and that’s just a tiny fraction of the Ebay UK figures that HQ will doubtless be looking at.

If none of those targets are met, HQ will be asking why.  And you can bet your bottom dollar that people in Ebay UK won’t be happy if they don’t get their bonuses for failing to meet targets.  Who knows what might happen.