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 ! 🤔 🙄 😁   

[valueaddedresource]

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@da-vids wrote:

Great posts / poster 👀

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@da-vids thanks, I strive to live up to the name. 😉 

I have a background that spans 17+ years in medium-large ecommerce business operations and while all of that experience has been in the US/ main eBay.com site, I try to keep an eye on what's going on in other markets too and happy to put that experience to use wherever it might be helpful.

[da-vids]

Interesting and insightful !

For me I'm just trying to empathize with what eBay are doing, best guessing. Must say eBay changes always get the same reception but are usually good evolutionary steps. Also bet their staff who make the decisions get paid too much to which I say... Giz a job 😁

[patchdog51]

I just wrote a long reply and ebay ate it 

In a nutshell I am a small private sellers making small profits and £6 items.  It's barely worth doing it now . Since using royal mail 48 tracked I have not had a single customer claiming my item never arrived and ebay giving my money away . Royal mail 48 tracked is the only reason I've stayed on selling , that and HAVING THE MONEY IN MY ACCOUNT BEFORE I PAY FOR POSTAGE . 

My sales trickle in and I generally get a £45 top up tank of petrol in my car moat weeks from it , it's worth it for me . 

I've been with ebay 14 years .

With this new system where I don't get paid untill after the item is confirmed delivered I almost stopped immediately,  it's not sustainable,  I can't work like that . Out of a £6 sale I have to pay £2.70  for royal mail tracked . Do the maths after all my work sell 15 items a week it's a tank of petrol on tbe car,  it's enough to keep me engaged. 

For now I'm goimg to keep selling and see how long it is before payments stop flowing smoothly . I doubt it will work , if the money for items I've sent doesn't flow smoothly that's it I'll stop 

IF EBAY INSIST ON A EBAY SPECIFIC POST SERVICE.  then thar will be it I'm definitely out it's simply not sustainable for me to do it . I was losing sone money before royal mail tracked 48 , a dodgy buyers would say item didnt arrive and ebay give my money away. Since royal mail tracked 48 I've not has a single customer say item never arrived.  My customers love my items they go as far as the outer islands of Scotland 

I thoroughly expect I will be leaving ebay , after 14 years , I expect I shall be leaving abay within the next few months 

If the money flows isn't smooth if I can't use royal mail tracked 48 IM OUT

[patchdog51]

This is exactly the same position as me,  I  want the payment ( usually £6) in my account so I can pay the £2.70 postage abd there are other costs , boxes etc. I make a small margin on my sales it's ( usually) enough to keep topping up petrol for my car. The new changes are a disaster for me just like your situation.  For the time being ill keep posting as I've already got boxes ready to go. If the money doesn't flow I'll be out. I'll already be out of pocket as I've got to pay for the postage of probably quite a few items before I get any money back in . Its simply not sustainable I expect I will be out of ebay very soon 

[patchdog51]

100 % that's my position exactly and you sum it it perfectly . I'll be voting with my feet very soon I expect 

[patchdog51]

100. %  agree same position as me 

[patchdog51]

Agreed same boat as me 

[basherbaz]

Yes the no fees when you sell has caused this imo, have to wait till get paid longer, perhaps if they’d have reduced selling fee to 10% and left it as it was would have been better ?

Use royal mail collect and hopefully this option will still be available.

[da-vids]

Yeah luv Royal Mail 48, proper stress free service, their 2nd class service is good also with it's confirmation of delivery but for a little more cost RM48 all day long !

[scooter_boot_sale]

Im not worried about using ebay for postage, I do this already and its very easy to use and to print labels for Royal Mail 2nd class.  My problem with the changes regarding postage is this insistance to use Tracked - which costs a lot more. I sell mostly items under 10gbp, and the vast majority are under 3gbp, so the 2.75 I charge now, would have to jump up to 4 if I wanted to send tracked, for quicker payouts. Im just going to leave it at the way Im doing postage now, and see how many buyers actually bother to mark the item as received. I have around 60% of buyers who cant be bothered to leave feedback, so getting them to mark an item received is going to roughly be the same - so Ill be waiting 14 days for around 60% of my sales.  If that happens, Ill be closing the store with all the lower end items, it just wont be worth it. I can use facebook sales groups and facebook marketplace and get better results than that.

My main issue is the flat rate 75p fee. I dont care about the 4% that is not a bad rate. All my 1GBP items now will cost the buyer 1.79 (plus higher shipping rates if I want faster payment)   I cant lower the price on my 1gbp items.  Previously, these 1gbp items I would lose 10% fee on, so 10p.  Now eBay want to make 79p on my 1gbp item (75p flat rate + 4%).  

When I raised this issue with an eBay rep, he basically claimed I wanted to sell for free and buyer pay nothing, which is the stupiest response from a rep I could imagine.  Im fine paying 10% fee on my sales and charge my rates for postage and ship my way, which brings in more buyers - his response is that I can now sell for free so I shouldnt worry about what the buyer was paying as I wasnt paying it. I had to explain to him I would be paying for it with less sales! 

I will most likely close my low end store and keep my other one open, although expect sales to drop (as I wont lower my prices) and Ill just put more inventory up on my webstore and do more promotion there. 

One thing I am unclear about - there is the ebay protection fees, but is there also an ebay fee for the sale for the buyer? if there is both, then I'll prob close both stores.

[johnwash1]

@scooter_boot_sale 

I'm guessing you're an enthusiastic collector, now selling off your collection, is that so?

Though with so many 'new' items, in your shoes I'd be wary of posting on these forums, where business sellers would understandably have little sympathy for your outrage, mistaking you for someone running a small business.

[scooter_boot_sale]

Already getting that from some.  Im sure there are lots of people selling items they are constantly rebuying to list again, which Im not doing.  Came here for help/advice/chat, but looks like these forums are as useless as most on the internet. 

[buffster1963]

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@scooter_boot_sale wrote:

Already getting that from some.  Im sure there are lots of people selling items they are constantly rebuying to list again, which Im not doing.  Came here for help/advice/chat, but looks like these forums are as useless as most on the internet. 

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These forums are usually pretty good and helpful. I think its just the last couple of days they have been inundated with unregistered business sellers complaining and you have got caught up in it. 

[scooter_boot_sale]

ya. Im gonna look if i can delete a thread up above. was very angry at being blown off by a rep, and it looks like the ebay fan boi crew are more worried about how many items Ive sold than the poor communication from ebay. 

[collyers_mansion]

I'm a private seller, and only sell a few inexpensive items per year (postage rates make them more expensive though).

I will probably stick around on eBay after the buyer fee introduction, but probably won't waste my time listing any new items as I expect to sell nothing that I currently have on the site.

I will also probably reduce to zero the amount of items I buy, as my eBay pocket money will cease.

[scooter_boot_sale]

Simple Delivery is an option. as a private seller you dont have to use it. it just means waiting longer for payout.

[kath3735_wxmjn]

nice to see someone happy and living in la la land!   I have been lucky so far in my dealings and never had a lost or damaged parcel as a buyer or a seller but plenty have, only have to read threads on here that it is pretty common.   Do you really think that e bay are going to suck up all the losses/damages??   One thing i do know is that i will not be using simple delivery when it becomes mandatory.

[kath3735_wxmjn]

so you are not even in the UK and therefore have no personal knowledge of our couriers/delivery services?

[bojangled]

@scooter_boot_sale at the moment it is optional.

Private sellers will be required to use Simple Delivery, as announced in the

Q3 2024 Earnings call. 

“Private sellers in the UK will be required to use eBay's Simple Delivery Managed Shipping service for eligible items starting in Q1 2025 as part of larger consumer to consumer (C2C) initiatives.”

[kath3735_wxmjn]

in my years on this forum i have never seen so many people so in agreement about upcoming changes.   I cannot even get through all the threads as they are coming fast and furious.   E bay really did themselves a disserve by putting through so many changes in a very short period of time.