THE EBAY OF 2025 - WHAT TO EXPECT AS A SMALL PRIVATE SELLER - SHOULD I STAY OR SHOULD I GO ?

[bittyboy101]

Just as the title says...

Apparently a few disturbing/concerning changes to eBay coming in January & February 2025... 

1) eBay Managed Shipping.

2) Payment Holds until delivery of a sold item has been confirmed.

So I'm a bit confused about number 1 - eBay's managed shipping... Not sure how this is going to work ? and whether it will be something like Packlink (only made compulsory instead of optional) ... or will it be like an "eBay Global Shipping program" type of setup where we send our sold items to eBay's 3rd party distributor and they then forward the item to the buyer by their default postal service ??... something tells me this could be Evri  (Hermes ! )  - Not happy or comfortable with this !  knowing Evri aren't always great !  😞

Moving on to number 2 - payment holds/delays until a sold items has been confirmed delivered (or 14 days have passed since buyer purchased the item and the buyer hasn't opened any cases during that time)... This can now be time consuming to get paid... Like eBay's new managed payments wasn't already slow enough !... now it's getting even slower !... not ideal if you've  got little money in the bank that week and have to 'find money upfront' to pay for posting sold items (this can get pretty expensive if 2 or 3 heavy items which cost £20 to post sell on eBay at the same time to different buyers)... Oh wait a moment... Conveniently eBay now does managed shipping and  they'll let you have an advance on your buyer's payment to cover shipping costs PROVIDING YOU BUY IT AT AN INFLATED RATE FROM EBAY ONLY !... How nice !  😞 

Now the debate of whether I should stay ? or go ?

I have always loved buying and selling on eBay for many years... Would it be worth carrying on with these new changes which are very worrying... or would it be better to do what the old saying says and QUIT WHILST YOU'RE AHEAD ???

All comments welcome - The good, the bad and the ugly - Let's know what you all think !

would a small private seller be skinned alive by the new 2025 eBay ? I wonder ! 🤔 🙄 😁   

[bittyboy101]

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@vintique*violet wrote:

eBay will expect you to keep funds in your " payments" from items sold so you can pay for the " postage" of their choice... That is my thinking, and sorry but it is a big No from me. Part of my experience is visiting the Post Office and chatting with the locals AND choosing the correct service for the item sold. For me, that is RM, and I would not use another service ( and never have)particularly for fragile Items. 

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Totally agree 1000 % !  🙂

I've many good mates at my local Post Office as a regular visitor... back in the good old days when my eBay sales were good and I was selling 4 - 5 items every week... Sadly that all went belly up when eBay decided to change everything recently  😞 

...But even with 1 - 3 items sold every 4 - 6 weeks I was still visiting the local Post Office and also buying brown parcel tape and stationary whilst I was there  😎

I am hoping that eBay won't force this managed shipping on us too drastically as I like things  the way they are now... I.e, the item sells and I post the next morning whilst I'm in town  😎   

P.S, Thanks very much violet for all your kudos on my posts, I'll always do the same for you if I'm online or when I next get back online if I'm out  😉

Wishing you and everyone here a wonderful and happy 2025  😎 😎 😎

[bittyboy101]

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@kempseykate wrote:

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@vintique*violet wrote:

eBay will expect you to keep funds in your " payments" from items sold so you can pay for the " postage" of their choice... That is my thinking, and sorry but it is a big No from me. Part of my experience is visiting the Post Office and chatting with the locals AND choosing the correct service for the item sold. For me, that is RM, and I would not use another service ( and never have)particularly for fragile Items. 

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No, it will be the buyer who pays for postage, then the seller will be sent a label for the service the buyer has selected.

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That sounds awful !

Let's just hope eBay won't let these buyers rule our lives and give us an postage service check list where we sellers can tick which postage options we want available to our buyers ! 

[bittyboy101]

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@kempseykate wrote:

Simple Delivery will only be forced on private sellers.

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That's just great ain't it !  😞

[bittyboy101]

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@thesmokingrunner wrote:

I think you inadvertently hit the nail on the head there, @bittyboy101 , and it pretty much sums up one of the primary issues which eBay will encounter with Managed Shipping.

Your account location shows as Wirral although your more specific location is Birkenhead. Now, your statement regarding drop off points for various couriers is one made with local knowledge - you know the area, you know which courier drop-off points are within a reasonable travelling distance and you know which ones to avoid (the ones which don't collect for 72 hours, for instance).

eBay know none of that, and therein lies the problem. You know precisely where you live; Managed Shipping will simply compile a list of courier drop-off points 'local' to a seller and present that list to a buyer. Granted, a seller may well be able to deselect some couriers when creating a listing but that has currently not been confirmed, and if (again, no information is available at present) Managed Shipping looks at couriers within a certain radius, the onus could be on the seller to identify and select/deselect couriers which they wish to use within that area.

It remains to be seen what eBay will define as either 'local' or 'convenient' or whether shipping options will be based on a pre-determined radius. However, whilst a 5-mile radius of Birkenhead could see you being sent to a drop-off point in Anfield, a similar radius from, say, Edale in the Peak District wouldn't even get you to the nearest town. That might work for you but it won't for a seller in Edale, and whilst the obvious solution would be to give sellers an option to select a radius within which to dispatch any results would be based on a 'crow-flies' radius, not a distance-by road radius, which could be equally as difficult to use as an eBay-generated list of dispatch points.

Personally I cannot see eBay being able to code Managed Shipping for such variations and I suspect a 'one-size-fits-all' approach will be taken. For some it will work, for others it will not. Unfortunately eBay have been less than forthcoming with the detail regarding Managed Shipping and given the lack of information for what is after all a fairly fundamental change in how buyers and sellers interact I do wonder if eBay themselves actually know how it's all going to work.

I suspect they don't but, as usual, if anything goes wrong it'll be the seller who carries the can.

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You're absolutely 1000 % spot on.

It seems eBay just roll out these major changes without any thought or consideration how this will affect ALL their users as people are people and everyone is DIFFERENT.   

[dch2112011]

Stay - think of all the new things you will be able to moan about on this forum - sorry discuss on this forum - for the entertainment value alone it has to be worth it !

[1956glyn]

Again this thread is mostly speculation....just wait and see what happens.  Again no good overthinking things when no one really knows what it going to happen.

[thesmokingrunner]

"Again no good overthinking things when no one really knows what it going to happen."

Isn't that eBay's Technical Department Mission Statement?

🙂

[department28]

Where eBay is concerned, it's always best to panic first, & ask questions later...😄

[kempseykate]

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@department28 wrote:

Where eBay is concerned, it's always best to panic first, & ask questions later...😄

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Indeed!

Of course, it would be useful if, after making his announcement about forced Simple Delivery at the end of October, the CEO had bothered to tell those of us who will be affected by it, how it will work. But as he didn't, we can only speculate/expect the worst at the moment.

[bittyboy101]

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@dch2112011 wrote:

Stay - think of all the new things you will be able to moan about on this forum - sorry discuss on this forum - for the entertainment value alone it has to be worth it !

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L O L   😁 😁 😁

[bittyboy101]

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@1956glyn wrote:

Again this thread is mostly speculation....just wait and see what happens.  Again no good overthinking things when no one really knows what it going to happen.

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You're entitled to your opinion.  That's cool  😎

[roger_roger_over_and_nowt]

After 20 odd years i wonder if it's "E"bay anymore or will it become "O" ...?🤐

[bittyboy101]

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@roger_roger_over_and_nowt wrote:

After 20 odd years i wonder if it's "E"bay anymore or will it become "O" ...?🤐

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Almost 30 years of eBay... Will be 30 years come September 2025

[1956glyn]

9 times out of 10 i actually refrain from being as opinionated as i could be 😁

I do not post that often nowadays on the boards but would still like the option to every now and then.😎

[abrahamtoast]

It is all speculation at the moment, so I don't think it's worth going down any rabbit holes about this at the moment.

One point - when identifying your "local" drop-off points, eBay will surely use your postcode as the starting point, not simply your town name, so it's unlikely to be too bad for anyone living in an urban area.

If there is no option to exclude certain couriers, and unless it is specifically forbidden, I would add a note to all my listings, along the lines of "Please select Royal Mail as delivery agent. No other courier has drop-off points as convenient for me. Choosing another courier WILL have a negative impact on delivery time."

As long as you have enough time on your dispatch EDDs, you should still be able to deliver on time for these few PITA customers who insist on alternative delivery.

[dch2112011]

One flaw - you expect buyers to read your description ?  You expect buyers to select the postage that you request of them by reading your description ?

That will be an interesting change on ebay !

[galloway_cycles]

 Maybe Sellers will have the option to specify courier and the buyer selects the postage method. Even that prompts some questions:
- What happens if the buyer selects an untracked service (eg 2nd class) and the item goes missing? Legally seller is still liable.
- What happens if buyer selects Special Delivery for £10 and then decides to return the item. Does the seller suck that up? (I dont offer SD on my listing because this has happened to me a couple of times).

As said above and I completely agree, too early to speculate (but I will still will not use Evri  😂).  Wait and see.

[bittyboy101]

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@1956glyn wrote:

9 times out of 10 i actually refrain from being as opinionated as i could be 😁

I do not post that often nowadays on the boards but would still like the option to every now and then.😎

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You're always welcome to post your honest opinion on here anytime and no one will hold that against you !  😎😎😎 

Remember on my opening post I said "please post your thoughts on this, Good, Bad and the ugly !"  haha 😆

It's easy to speculate when eBay are keeping us in the dark and don't tell you anything until they spring it on you out of the blue !

All the very best for 2025, 1956... Hope eBay go easy on us ! LOL 😁 

[department28]

I can't help but think there will be many a fine mess where returns are concerned...  At least now, with postage set by the seller, returns are relatively straightforward, but with eBay getting in the middle of it all, like a gormless gooseberry....? 🙄

[abrahamtoast]

True, but it may be the most I can do.