PRIVATE SELLERS NOT WANTED ON EBAY

[plantsandsucculents]

The new regulations on ebay to arrive in February just prove that they are trying to convert Private Sellers to Business sellers.  Buyers will noe have to pay ebay for expensive postal and courier rates which I know that I can get cheaper through Royal Mail or Yodel.

So we will be priced out of the market and I think buyers will be going elsewhere probably to Amazon to get better deals.

Not sure how this can improve ebay for buyers or sellers frankly.  Very disappointing.

[classicaled1]

Its thanks for much now there's the door cya 👋 you really think ebay gives a fig about private sellers its been slowly heading this way since around 2018 they really do not like private sellers even though the company was founded on them! at one time you could literally find anything on here by interesting sellers today all those sellers have left or stopped selling, i list items mainly out of a bit of interest i make a sale every couple of weeks i don't expect much i used to be a power seller with 1000's of items not anymore packed it all up years ago i'm one of the ones who stopped selling due to seeing where ebay's policies where heading -  try selling facebook marketplace its free and you feel like your an adult back in control i've made plenty of sales on there yes you have some time wasters but you can find them on ebay also, all the best to you!

[reasonable-robert]

and what good is waiting 14 days to get paid how do you restock or pay postage on other items.

you will be laying out more than you are getting in.

who will be left after feb 4th very few buyers and a lot of scammers

i,ve thought about this long and hard even looked at becoming a B.S but personally i dont think it will be viable to sell after the 4th of feb on e bay there isnt a lot of buyers now those who are watching the an item in your auction are hanging back and not bidding untill the end so if you have say 6 watchers you are hoping most of those 6 watchers will bid.

i,ve had lots with 8 or 9 watchers sometimes more but only got 2 bids on the item.

my auctions end tuesday and i think i may trade on up to the 3rd subject to aquiring stock or depleting the stock i have any leftovers will go into the british toy auctions at runcorn or bank hall auction at preston 

or if possible buy in and sell at the above auctions i havent decided yet 

what i do know is after the 3rd i wont be selling on e bay i,ve alreaded dumped my vinted account 

and i,ll be another lost seller to be honest i think this will be a total disaster as PS leave in droves 

and believe the platform will be so devoid of buyers it may force some BS to also think of giving up the ghost.

then will e bay attack the B.S with another wheeze to raise money to make up for the loss of PS 

only time will tell...

[frizztops0]

Absolutely agree. I'm a private seller and thinking of giving up. The trouble is I have no time to promote myself on other sites as I work full-time in admin. Selling on eBay is a hobby that started in 2020 and I made jewellery in lockdown! It makes me really angry that Ebay seem to hate us private sellers.

[*vyolla*]

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@frizztops0 wrote:

Absolutely agree. I'm a private seller and thinking of giving up. The trouble is I have no time to promote myself on other sites as I work full-time in admin. Selling on eBay is a hobby that started in 2020 and I made jewellery in lockdown! It makes me really angry that Ebay seem to hate us private sellers.

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You're not a private seller though, albeit you are trading on the wrong account, so the new changes shouldn't affect you.

A private seller is one who is just selling off their own personal items such as clothes from their wardrobe, bits from their loft/garage etc.

A Business seller is someone who buys or makes items to sell on.  They need to be registered as a business to meet the requirements of UK law. They need to declare income to HMRC once they reach £1,000 worth of sales (eBay will be providing HMRC with your details anyway so it's vital to keep correct accounts for your tax return). You can obviously offset more expenses as a business seller, but can't offset any at all as a private one.  

To correctly register as a business seller simply go to your Personal Information in your account and to the right of Account Type, which will be showing as 'Individual'  you'll see an Edit option.

https://accountsettings.ebay.co.uk/profile

This doesn't affect your feedback profile or any current listings, it merely upgrades your account so that you're compliant with current consumer and eBay policy.

If you're also selling your own items, just open another eBay account (you can have more than one).

[johnwash1]

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@frizztops0 wrote:

Absolutely agree. I'm a private seller and thinking of giving up. The trouble is I have no time to promote myself on other sites as I work full-time in admin. Selling on eBay is a hobby that started in 2020 and I made jewellery in lockdown! It makes me really angry that Ebay seem to hate us private sellers.

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So by your own admission, you're making to sell.  Ebay don't hate you, but the business sellers do.

[papso22]

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@frizztops0 wrote:

Absolutely agree. I'm a private seller and thinking of giving up. The trouble is I have no time to promote myself on other sites as I work full-time in admin. Selling on eBay is a hobby that started in 2020 and I made jewellery in lockdown! It makes me really angry that Ebay seem to hate us private sellers.

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Out of interest why do you think you are a private seller?

[lucy_farmer]

'......and what good is waiting 14 days to get paid how do you restock.....'

You shouldn't need to 're-stock' as a private seller. Private sellers are only supposed to sell what they already have.........

I think this is part of the point of the new rules. (as well as getting interest from or making use of, the held money!) Making life awkward for private sellers in an effort to make those who *should* be registered as business sellers, actually register as businesses.

Then you'd get your money immediately and could re-stock as fast as you liked.

Unfortunately it's making life just as awkward for genuine private sellers, who are trying to empty their garages or get rid of piles of inherited stuff.. 😒

[things4all.2008]

Hi
Like you I do this a bit of fun, ebay have totally ruined it now. All extra postage costs for tracking will be passed on to buyer.



Sent from my iPhone

[robbtyke132010]

These "private" sellers think that just because they operate from home & not in some huge industrial unit then they do not need to register as a business - they restock, then re-sell & squeal like stuck pigs when eBay nudge them towards upgrading their status. I do however have genuine sympathy for those who are just de-cluttering or selling off their collections. These are genuine private sellers & eBay has treated them very badly indeed.

[rnt475r]

Do you know you can claim for items delivered signed for but not showing on delivered on tracking. Failure to obtain a signature is a claim.

[adrian_in_the_uk]

I don't have a problem with business sellers being on here, I think it encourages more people to buy from eBay.

The thing I don't like is for example music CD businesses who charge less for a CD than it would cost a private seller to even post the exact same CD - this is unfair on private sellers and was happening for years before the free for private seller listings came in.

I don't have a problem with paying a fee when I sell an item either - private sellers not paying any fees is unfair on business sellers.

I just think that the fee you pay should be the same whether you are a private seller or a business seller, this way the field is more level.

[classicaled1]

Yes you have no chance as a private seller on postage costs compared to a business seller's who can seemingly post items like you describe for peanuts - i still think ebay should have stayed a private platform it was ebay themselves who introduced business seller which to my mind completely ruined ebay i am sure there is more to it than that as it would be hard to regulate i'm sure.

[littlemissrach1]

I'm am the same, been with eBay for years, no issues ever until end of December.

I am tring to sell my children's pram and I was contacted and told I must convert to a business account otherwise they will not allow me to sell it. 

I just want to get rid of some baby things we no longer need. 

The original email said it was a car seat which it is obviously not allowed due to safety reasons, I understand that that, but it is definitely not a car seat, it is a normal pram but they won't listen .

They tell me it is under Crib in the product eligibility help guide, but crib doesn't even appear in the document.

Any suggestions as to what I can do please to prove it is just a pram?

They originally told me is had been recalled by the brand, I contacted the brand, they said it had not. 

Hundreds of other prams on sale currently, exactly the same as mine.

Do I just go elsewhere?

Thank you!

[felinesrfun1]

I agree. I was looking for a specific item and all that came up was business sellers and those from China.

Few private seller items were visible.

[c-foreman-2008]

Many private buyers leaving have near enough forced off the platform, they won't come back onto eBay to buy anything anymore. I don't know if eBay will reverse this decision after a few months, maybe they will after seeing profits nose dive. I will hang on to see for 6 months or so and will dump eBay if nothing changes after the stupid updates. They should have left Private sellers alone before they did the free-for-private sellers. I feel that many business sellers have abused free private selling by opening private accounts to save money. I was Ok with free listing and paying my way once items sold as before, and have never sold above £700 in sales, in fact, this year has been terrible with less than £400 in sales for the year. Private seller since 2008 and each year eBay has got worse and worse since managed payments and Item Specifics came onto eBay. I will wait and see what happens, I feel that sales will plummet to next to nothing from now on and I will leave like many will be. eBay has put a noose around its neck and the will  

[parsley2003]

Time away for me today. They have already interfered with my post and after spending hours trying to fix it many are still wrong. The whole world is £4.80 for large letter 100g and some countries are a lot more like Switzerland £5.91. The whole plot has been lost and i can't trust to leave things on sale not knowing how they have messed with it. So will check some listings tomorrow. SD will be the end for me anyhow and that will be mandatory within the next few weeks

[crg_music]

Most business sellers cant even compete with these sellers on postage or cost. These I believe are linked to musicmagpie or those other apps and they tend to run purely on barcodes  and catalogue images so in my experience you dont need to undercut these sellers, they will either sell out and then you will sell yours or buyers will spend more because they get an actual image with better packaging + better customer service. 

Thats not a diss at these businesses btw, they work on quantities over quality and it works.

[tallulah555]

I agree totally. I have been a buyer and a seller now for twelve years and I will now close my account. Now that private sellers are not paid until two days after delivery the onus is on the couriers to deliver a first rate service. Frankly we all know this is not the case and at least 50%  of my deliveries are late.

ebay seems to be doing whatever it can to make life more difficult and expensive for private sellers.

Recently they decided to block my payments recently as I changed my bank account for payment from one Uk bank to another one, both well known. Firstly I had a message telling me because of this they would block my payment for 48 hours then they changed it to one week which expired yesterday and still they hold my money! After a call with an inept advisor from Germany who told me I would probably get it tomorrow!

Ebay never used to be like this, I wonder is there a way to make a complaint or should we justwalk with our feet to other platforms. 

[rockriff777]

I have stopped selling my private items on ebay now. Permanently...

[c-foreman-2008]

Private sellers haven't been wanted for a long time on eBay, that's why many weren't able to sell many items in the last 3 years or so. Pushing private sellers onto business accounts won't work with most private sellers. They don't sell enough and many were or are on benefits, just selling the odd items, You are not allowed on benefits running a business account. So why is eBay pushing private sellers off the site, small-time sellers were paying sold fees before the big free selling for private sellers, this didn't last long did it. Leave a limit of £500 for private sellers and let them pay their fees, we part-time sellers are or were in vast numbers on eBay, making eBay money. Change it back or profits will nose dive big time for eBay for the next year's profits.