Private seller changes starting October 1st questions

[robcrazee1234]

So i am a private seller currently selling off lots of items for my mother who has been hoarding for years and i have some questions

So i have around 800 listing up atm all are buy it now or best offer

When the new rule comes in will any of the 800 be counted in the 300 free listings?

Reason i ask is the 1000 listings up until now stayed at 1000 when unsold items rotated every 30 days from the 800 items i already had up

Also with the new 300 limit if i list 300 new items after the 1st October as buy it now or best offer and they do not sell in the 30 days are they taken off the allowance in November when they renew? 

[selling-uk]

I don't have time to read all the previous comments here, so the following may or may not have been mentioned already, but I personally think the 100% Off FVF exercise back around March-ish was a test run for this current promotion.

It would have been the perfect opportunity for eBay to use it for data collection to see what peoples' habits were while it was free to list AND with no FVF to pay once sold.

As has been mentioned literally everywhere many times over the years, the unofficial thought is that ending items and "Selling Similar" or to a lesser extent "Relisting", gives items a "NEW LISTING" boost.

So if true and with that in mind, during that "Experiment", someone could theoretically have used "End > Sell Similar" or "End > Relist" with an unlimited amount of items EVERY single day for the approximate two months that the "Experiment" ran, flooding eBay with the same things over and over again.

Around that time, myself and many others I later found out saw their sales "Fall off a Cliff" around mid March 2024.

My thinking is that eBay looked at that data and ascertained that 300 would be a fair amount of listings to offer a Private Seller, which would give 99% of genuine Private Sellers plenty and to also prevent the flooding of eBay with the same items every day

IMPO, except for the rare exception, no genuine Private Seller needs 1000 listings per month, but maybe eBay should have only reduced it to 500.

I would also hazard a guess and think most will agree that those shouting the loudest about this reduction to 300 listings per month are probably not Private Sellers in the true sense of the word.

The masqueraders will undoubtedly find a way around this change and will probably end up with several accounts to make up the shortfall at a guess.

[johnwash1]

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@tommystrezures wrote:

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@2112carl wrote:

Ebay's reduction from 1000 to 300 listings per month will mean I will sell less, so I will pay less fees to ebay. What business school do ebay go to?

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Not sure how you get to that assumption, if its free to sell and there are no fees (unless international and you have added extras eg reserves). You have sold 150+ items in the last three months, so it would appear that 300 items per month is more than enough for you.

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You seem to be assuming that the user sells items the same month that they're listed.  That's a ludicrous assumption.  With old niche items it can take many months to sell an item.  If I had the time to do it, I could list 1,000 items and hope to sell a few dozen of them in any particular month.

[vintagetransportmodelsandbooks]

I'm in a similar situation. I have three eBay accounts for three different types of items. One of those accounts only ever has up to 30 or so live listings running, one has around 300-400 items running, but the account I have for my photographic cards and prints has around 2000 listings running all of which start at £2.50 per item. They are slow sellers, so insertion fees are a killer. I heard NOTHING about this new change until a single email from eBay received at 13.52 ON 1st October (today)! I was so worried that they would have already charged insertion fees beyond the first 300 items on each account that I immediately contacted customer service by live chat. They assured me nothing has already been taken. I immediately checked all three accounts, reduced the account that had 350 listings running to 299 and ended all listings on my photography account as I can't choose 300 images out of 2000+ to leave running. I'll have to create a different type of listing there in future (if ever I list them at all again on eBay) with multiple image choices.  As for items of greater value on my other accounts, no FVFs and no order level charges when you sell will be a real bonus. I just wish I'd known what was coming! Ebay think they emailed everyone with 30 days notice, but they definitely didn't notify me until the actual day when this change had already come into effect.

[johnwash1]

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@vintagetransportmodelsandbooks wrote:

I'm in a similar situation. I have three eBay accounts for three different types of items. One of those accounts only ever has up to 30 or so live listings running, one has around 300-400 items running, but the account I have for my photographic cards and prints has around 2000 listings running all of which start at £2.50 per item. ...

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I hesitate to sound like a lot of the people who come on these boards and instantly accuse people of running a business on a private account.  But those cards and prints, are they just a collection that you're selling off, or do you buy them / create them, in order to sell them?  If the latter, you're a springbok that's shortly going to be surrounded by hyenas! 

[mkutu39]

No fees for private sellers? Stuff n`nonsense. It`s not natural. Utterly perverse. Reduce the fees by all means, but zero fees? That`s sinister. The Site are planning something. And it`s geared up to make the Site to be the winner and the seller to be the loser. Seduction is making fools of us all.

[bojangled]

dave@ebay 

On Reddit there are multiple conversations about this. One poster was advised by CS that it's 300 listings full stop. Anything listed counts towards the 300, complete confusion.

Jo

[tommystrezures]

That poster was wrongly advised.

The first 300 items are free no listing fee Fvf's etc. Thereafter you can carry on listing but you pay the 35p listing fee. However there are no FvF's. However you can only list to the account limit what ever that may be so if your account is limited to 500 listings say for example then thats the maximum items you can sell/have listed at any one time.

[kath3735_wxmjn]

I listed one item yesterday and my figure was then 299 left.  Today i have had a couple of items relisted (auction and automatic relist box ticked) and it still shows 299.

[eyria]

The way I have understood is existing listings are fine if automatic relist is turned on (auction style). Buy it not will not automatic relist (so you may want to convert to auction with offers for quick sale.  Manual re-listings listings you will have use your 300 monthly allowance for or pay 35p for each listing. 

[bonkersbassboy]

I too have phoned Ebay 3 times about this and am still entirely confused.  Like you I had a lot of items listed as a private seller - approx 1200 - but had to cull these down to 300 by 1st October which has reduced my selling drastically already.  I asked if the 300 per month was cumulative?  IE if i waited unitl 1st November, could I then relist some of those I had cancelled -  another 300?  so could I then have 600 in total fee free?  but I couldn't understand the reply! I suppose at the bottom of the listing page it should warn you of the listing fee before you press "List"?  Maybe that is the only way to test???  Can anyone shed any light on this? Please?

[sml192]

Auction style listings will auto relist up to 8 times free of charge.

Buy it now style listings will auto relist at the beginning of each month free of charge. 

Neither count towards the 300 allowance. 

[cernak.m]

Your 300 listing will be free, insertion as well as no final value fees. the rest of your listings you pay insertion fees + final value fee and other fees in case of sale.
Basically only first 300 listing are cmlitely free, rest is with all the fees and you can have as many listings as is your allowance.
NOTE this 300 free lsitings are valid only for the UK residents.

[555njp]

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@cernak.m wrote:

Your 300 listing will be free, insertion as well as no final value fees. the rest of your listings you pay insertion fees + final value fee and other fees in case of sale.
Basically only first 300 listing are cmlitely free, rest is with all the fees

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Not so.

1st 300 per month are free to list, anything over = 35p each.

However the email also says ALL items are now free to sell.
So even if you go over the 300 there are still no FVFs for private sellers.

[cernak.m]

Yes, I wrote that "the rest of your listings you pay insertion fees"

Email was just a big promo, there is a lot which was misleading or left out.

One of it:
"Fees will apply if you list more than 300 items in a month, if you add optional upgrades to your listing, or if you deliver to an overseas address. See our FAQs for additional details."

See more here 

[sml192]

For 'Private sellers' there are no 'Final value fees' to pay on any listings except those in 'Motors'.

The 300 threshold only applies to 'Listing fees'.  First 300 new listings each month are free and then 35p for each additional. 

There are still fees for listing upgrades and a 3% fee for international sales. 

[555njp]

Yes, but the fees are just listing and upgrade fees, zero FVFs no matter how many you sell.

Was confirmed by an eBay rep on another thread.

[cernak.m]

"Fees will apply if you list more than 300 items in a month, if you add optional upgrades to your listing, or if you deliver to an overseas address. See our FAQs for additional details."

I am not a native english speaker by to me this sentence implies that the fees will be applied at least in this 3 scenarios:

1. list more than 300 items a month

2. add optional upgrades

3. deliver to oversees address

By the fees I understand all fees as thee is not written "insertion fees"

And it makes sense, as 300 listings without fees should be just fine for most private sellers. Anything more than 300 could be exploited and eBay will loose money on it, so they want to avoid that, while stay competetive with Vinted and other "free" sites.

[555njp]

OK, so what they mean is the following fees will apply if you list more than 300/month.

Then they list the fees (listing, upgrades etc.) but definitely not FVFs.

We (business seller community) are absolutely sure this will be exploited and there are several threads running on the topic which was also discussed at length in this weeks chat.

The problem is not genuine private sellers but the age old problem as businesses operating on a private account to leverage typically 15% plus advantage over genuine, correctly registered businesses.

The saga continues.....

[sml192]

How much does it cost to sell on eBay?

Starting Oct 1, 2024, it is free to sell for UK-based private sellers. Sellers do not pay transaction fees when the item sells. This applies to all categories, except motors (Cars, Motorcycles & Vehicles listings). You can list up to 300 items for free each month; after that, you'll pay 35p per listing. You may incur additional fees if you add optional upgrades to your listing, or if an item sells or ships to a buyer in a different country.

[cernak.m]

After 300 listings no FVF makes no sense because of the flood of "private" sellers it may/will couse as @555njp  wrote. Hope it is not the case and its just a bad choice of wording on their page.