Should I sell clothing on eBay or Vinted as a small private seller as both charge fees pros and cons

[tulipsorange12]

OK since the eBay decision to add buyer protection fee to private sellers items I am thinking of other places to sell. I have a fair amount of clothing to sell (much of it is BNWT or lightly used) that accumulated over the years. Is Vinted where everyone is buying their clothing from nowadays rather than eBay because that is what I am reading on various boards. As there is no difference between eBay or Vinted now I don't feel I should just stick to eBay anymore. eBay did not have to blindly follow Vinted but they did. They could have had a lower fixed fee, it could have been a sliding fee, or even no fees for items under £20. But they have chosen a painful approach. So is Vinted a better place to sell clothing?

[mawels_87]

Royal mail will show it as delivered when it gets to the store, but eBay will show ready to collect "not delivered". I don't think it's classed as delivered until it's collected from the store. Royal mail will send it back to the seller if it's not collected within about 8 days. Anyway I've really noticed sellers not using Click & Collect since the news. I purchased 5 click & Collect items on Vinted over the weekend. I would have purchased some items from  eBay, but no-one had the Click& Collect option.

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@*vyolla* wrote:

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@maw

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[*vyolla*]

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@mawels_87 wrote:

Royal mail will show it as delivered when it gets to the store, but eBay will show ready to collect "not delivered". I don't think it's classed as delivered until it's collected from the store. Royal mail will send it back to the seller if it's not collected within about 8 days. Anyway I've really noticed sellers not using Click & Collect since the news.

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It's classed as delivered when tracking updates to show delivery to the address shown on the eBay order details.

Why would Royal Mail send it back if it's at the store? It's nothing to do with Royal Mail at that point. Once delivered, it generates a collection code for the buyer, if they don't collect it then the store may dispose it of, which is why eBay Seller Protection kicks in for the seller as soon as the package shows as delivered to the store.

Royal Mail will return the package to the sender if the seller has forgotten to add the eCP code and the package will then be refused by the store. Then it's not 'delivered'.

As for sellers removing Click & Collect, it only takes a bit of murmuring and then the FaceBook mill springs into action. 

[anne.craig]

The response was in this short thread:

https://community.ebay.co.uk/t5/Seller-Central/Proof-of-Delivery-vs-Click-and-Collect-collection/m-p...

[pillarboxred]

Everyone starts from a different place. Find out for yourself: list an item on eBay and a similar one for a similar price on Vinted and compare results. I've stuck with eBay for 24 years as a business seller. The secret is listing things people want badly. These things are hard to find. Otherwise, charge as little as possible.

[*vyolla*]

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@anne.craig wrote:

The response was in this short thread:

https://community.ebay.co.uk/t5/Seller-Central/Proof-of-Delivery-vs-Click-and-Collect-collection/m-p...

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Yes, I did search for that and added to it.

[mawels_87]

I've clarified this with eBay specialist. Items won't be classed as delivered until items are collected from the store. Sellers will not get paid until the buyer has collected. It could be days before they do. Because of this I will be turning my Click & Collect option off if I decide to sale anything else here. I'm more likely though now to sale on Vinted because of the changes here.

[*vyolla*]

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@mawels_87 wrote:

I've clarified this with eBay specialist. Item won't be classed as delivered until items are collected from the store. Sellers will not get paid until the buyer has collected with could be days before they do. Because of this I will be turning my Click & Collect option off if I decide to sale anything else here. I'm more likely though now to sale on Vinted because of the changes here.

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If that is the case, I fully agree there is absolutely no incentive for sellers to offer Click & Collect, why would they? That's just bonkers. 

I'd be interested to know how eBay's Seller Protection is being tweaked to accommodate this. 

[sewingbase]

I put 30 items of clothing on Ebay and also on Vinted. In one month I  sold 16 of the items on Vinted and nothing on Ebay. I also get lots of views on Vinted. Zero views on Ebay.  Ebay is becoming obsolete by the looks of it. Things are on the change.

[lucy_farmer]

Interesting... is there a type of 'age-range' in the clothing you are selling?

Is it fashionable for younger people?

or is it M+S type stuff that somebody my age (ahem...58) might like?

From what I know of people who use vinted, they are all young (20-35 ish).

[mawels_87]

I'm in my 60s and use Vinted far more than eBay these days. Even my old mum in her 90s could use Vinted. So many different things to buy there, Far more than just cloving. In fact I haven't purchased any cloving on Vinted yet.

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@lucy_farmer wrote:

Interesting... is there a type of 'age-range' in the clothing you are selling?

Is it fashionable for younger people?

or is it M+S type stuff that somebody my age (ahem...58) might like?

From what I know of people who use vinted, they are all young (20-35 ish).

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[lolobaby26jm]

There are an awful lot of scammers on V.  Never had it myself but if you read V groups on FB so many people loose out.  I would say anything of value, try and sell on here.

[treemas]

Vinted buyers choose the postage. I found this to be difficult because I had to search for where to post items of their choosing, it is not all at the post office so you could end up trailing round. Also I know how to contact ebay should things go wrong I am not sure about vinted.  In my opinion, despite all the unwelcome changes. I would choose ebay.  You could sell on both platforms of course but vinted sells for little money.

[suelel1968]

Hi mawels_87

I just got my first Vinted sale collected from the store and it will be paid into my account in two days, if the buyer doesn't raise an issue with it. I guess that is not unfair. EBay so far seem to be following Vinted in every way so it will be the same. 

Whatever happened to point of difference? 

If private sellers move to Vinted, foreign sellers with dodgy UK addresses are scared off by the VAT & tax man and anyone wanting to start a business on Ebay is crippled by relisting fees or a shop subscription full of auction listings they don't use and all of the legit foreign stuff sent from Hong Kong etc is now cheaper and quicker on Temu where will it leave them.  Well perhaps I will be able to find my own items in a search in future!

I can put up with some of what they are doing, but i can't see how copying it is a sensible option for the future. 

[crg_music]

Yeah its true but only really relevant if browsing suggested items(AI) or searching for something specific in which case you'd compare by price and condition. And its not like they are gonna suggest socks from a private over a football shirt from a pro just because they are a pro when the buyer is interested in 90s football shirts. Personally I always search sites by newly listed or lowest and im sure a lot are the same, either way a business seller will be naturally listing more often + have more items + I suspect they are encouraging using upgrades + saves getting banned.

[bojangled]

@crg_music I agree it does depend how you search. 
What is interesting me at the moment is the way the two platforms are playing the game.

Vinted encouraging business sellers over but stating in the the T&C that pro sellers are at a disadvantage on visibility. Whilst eBay seem to be getting rid of the low value private sellers. 

Feels like a game of Runaround with Mike Reid! (Age reveal!)

Jo

[lucy_farmer]

' I agree it does depend how you search. '

When I search on ebay, my favourite method is 'Nearest First'.

Not because I want to collect whatever-it-is, but because it puts all the 'sent from China' stuff at the back of the list...👍

[tressygirl]

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@lucy_farmer wrote:

' I agree it does depend how you search. '

When I search on ebay, my favourite method is 'Nearest First'.

Not because I want to collect whatever-it-is, but because it puts all the 'sent from China' stuff at the back of the list...👍

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Oh what a brilliant idea!  I must remember to do that too!  😊

@lucy_farmer 

[moldosgifts]

Vinted also charge a buyer fee and they get the buyer pay for postage so exactly the same really.

Stick to what you know.

[crg_music]

I'm honestly not surprised that vinted are nobbling business sellers, its just how it is in the world, businesses are never really protected like individuals legally or ethically, its just assumed they can just look after themselves so tough. They assume businesses will just spend on upgrades which they do. I honestly noticed no change in sales when changing to pro, I guess im listing a bit more but not always the same quality. Feels more like they are just saying if there are 2 items the same we'll show the private sellers first which is what it is. Its their terms so accept it or dont all there situation.

The thing people forget on Ebay is business sellers pay to list and it hasn't been worth listing cheap stuff for a long time, 35p to list or shop subscription and shop subscription has limited free listings so you wont be wasting them on sub £5 junk really, final value fee and most businesses promote.

Pretty sure private sellers would still pay less on any sale of equal value.

In reality nothing has changed other than ebay converting the buyer fee to seller fee, the huge error they made was giving private sellers 3 months of free selling. Had they just flipped from seller to buyer fees overnight nobody would have cared but in giving th free period buyers now feel robbed.

I think its still worth listing very cheap items as a private seller, its going to cost almost the same to sell on Ebay as vinted, if the buyer wants to pay all associated fees on a £2 item then thats great, most businesses wont be going near that same item just unfortunately it will cost an extra quid but thats how it is.

[crg_music]

*converting the seller fee to buyer fee

oops, early