eBay

bikenut1961 · ‎28-07-2025

Hi everyone, I have been a huge ebay fan and user since 2024. Due to simple delivery I have not sold a single item since 4th April 2025. I have listed a couple of items but no watchers or bids on them. It seems not only are people not listing stuff but people are not looking for items on ebay like they used to. I just logged in to my account to relist some stuff but I see its simple delivery or nothing still, so ebay are not changing back to a seller option for postage. I did call them twice back in April and explained that I want to use my village post office to help keep it open, they are struggling to keep it viable so every little helps. Am I right in thinking a lot of sellers have disappeared or is that not the case?

Regards Phil.

thepillenwerfer · ‎28-07-2025

With Simple Delivery you can only use Royal Mail or Evri. Post Offices take parcels for both so you can support yours fine.

As for it putting Buyers off I can't see it as they are unlikely to even know about it if they don't sell as well. The Buyer Protection Fee could be doing so however.

Personally I haven't found a difference to the proportion of things that sell. I do agree that they seem to get fewer Views and Bids though. In the past something may have had twenty Views and got six Bids whereas now it'll get five Views and only one or two Bids but I only need one Bid or one person to click Buy It Now.

Cacas vendit.

suema_62 · ‎28-07-2025

Can identify with the concern of keeping rural Post Offices viable. Have just had an elusive sale and facing driving 2 miles down narrow lanes scratching car sides for one ebay parcel...THEN notice Royal Mail will pick it up from us no extra charge and print the label for it! collection tomorrow so whats not to like? previously a pick up had to be booked and paid extra for. Will see if this works...

thepillenwerfer · ‎28-07-2025

It works very well in my experience. However after you've clicked "Arrange Collection" wait a while to see if you get a confirmation e-mail from RM. If not click the big blue "Get prepaid label" button as that seems to be needed to complete the process even though you don't need to do anything with the label itself as the Postman will bring one now.

Cacas vendit.

department28 · ‎28-07-2025

'...previously a pick up had to be booked and paid extra for.'

Royal Mail collection has been free for quite some time, for custom postage purchased on eBay. RM have only recently reintroduced the 30p collection fee when you buy postage directly from RM online.

If you still have any listings that have not yet been converted to SD, you can still book a free RM collection, unless this has changed recently?

d-o-y · ‎28-07-2025

Hi, I don't think it affects buying. It is the selling and postage which is the pain. Becoming a business seller is the simple solution as the seller fees are the same as what the old private sellers fees were and you can pick and choose postage. If ebay make the business sellers postage SD/EVRI only then they really will lose all their sellers.

It is difficult to go back as ebay have spent a small fortune advertising "free selling" on TV so they would be reluctant to renege on this.

suema_62 · ‎29-07-2025

ARGHHHH I take back what i said. My parcel is still sitting here uncollected! so the process is baulked. I could not arrange another RM pick up providing a label so had to print one and the free collection had disappeared so the 30p charge had appeared. Obviously in a matter of days ebay have had to change things. When originally booked there was no process to pay anything extra. CS are looking into it...haha. Hopefully RM will now collect tomorrow.

thepillenwerfer · ‎29-07-2025

I booked a free collection earlier for tomorrow.

See my post above about the need to open or download the label even though you won't need it.

Cacas vendit.

greenendhouse · ‎29-07-2025

My husband has just sold something which is small parcel but they have sent a label for large letter. Ebay have told him to use this label and it will be accepted as they have an agreement with the PO. Anyone else done this with no issues?

lucy_farmer · ‎29-07-2025

'My husband has just sold something which is small parcel but they have sent a label for large letter. Ebay have told him to use this label and it will be accepted as they have an agreement with the PO. Anyone else done this with no issues?'

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

It *should* go through just fine.

(ebay have a business agreement in place with R.M which means they sort of 'settle up' between themselves at certain points- and they're both banking on the amount of over-weight and under-paid parcels, cancelling out the under-weight and over-paid parcels!)

There has been (and still very occasionally is) the odd post-office staff-member who hasn't had the memo and kicks up a fuss, but on the whole this part of S.D. seems to be working.....

department28 · ‎29-07-2025

I still think this 'recommending' of item weight is very confusing:-

'When you're creating your listing, we'll recommend the weight and dimensions of your parcel, as well as the delivery service. If you think our recommended parcel size is incorrect, you can select a different size from the available pre-set options. If we can't determine the parcel size, you'll be asked to provide the details.'

If you've chosen the correct weight/size for your item when you create the listing, does that mean Simple Delivery will definitely issue the 'correct' label? Or can you still end up with a label that is underweight for the item, but ok to use?

I think many are still dubious about using 'underweight' labels.

wellingnorth · ‎29-07-2025

@lucy_farmer wrote:
There has been (and still very occasionally is) the odd post-office staff-member who hasn't had the memo and kicks up a fuss, but on the whole this part of S.D. seems to be working.....

I'm not sure whether something has changed with how this is working at the Post Office recently, but it seems like the Simple Delivery labels are currently showing a format to the Post Office staff when they scan them.

I dropped off a Simple Delivery Large Letter to the Post Office this morning with the preprinted 'Marketplace Seller' label on it and the person serving did check to make sure it went through the slot because on scanning it the system showed him it should be a Large Letter

I understand that the Post Office are supposed to accept it regardless but I'm not sure that he would have and I was under the impression that these labels weren't even supposed to display a size when scanned (unlike the QR codes which generate a label displaying size + weight)

wellingnorth · ‎29-07-2025

@department28 wrote:
I still think this 'recommending' of item weight is very confusing:-

'When you're creating your listing, we'll recommend the weight and dimensions of your parcel, as well as the delivery service. If you think our recommended parcel size is incorrect, you can select a different size from the available pre-set options. If we can't determine the parcel size, you'll be asked to provide the details.'

If you've chosen the correct weight/size for your item when you create the listing, does that mean Simple Delivery will definitely issue the 'correct' label? Or can you still end up with a label that is underweight for the item, but ok to use?

I think many are still dubious about using 'underweight' labels.

When an item is sold with Simple Delivery I would like to see clearly what size / weight label has been generated and if that size / weight was my choice or ebay's recommendation.

Then if it was ebay's recommendation there should also be a clear statement that you won't be charged for any discrepancy.

On the other hand if it was your choice and you got it wrong there should be the functionality to upgrade the label at your own expense (in the same way as before if you'd charged a buyer the small parcel rate but ended up packing it as a medium parcel)

moonlight-rhapsody · ‎29-07-2025

"after you've clicked "Arrange Collection" wait a while to see if you get a confirmation e-mail from RM. If not click the big blue "Get prepaid label" button as that seems to be needed to complete the process even though you don't need to do anything with the label itself as the Postman will bring one now."

"See my post above about the need to open or download the label even though you won't need it."

You'd expect a major ecommerce company not to have created the need to download an unnecessary label in the first place, but since they have, you would think that they might have put an instruction to this effect into the process. How are people who don't know about this forum supposed to mind-read what ebay needs you to do in order to complete the process.