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 ! 🤔 🙄 😁   

[kath3735_wxmjn]

the reporting figures are 30 or £1700 and even as a seller of low value items (the majority clothing) i went over that within months, the 30 items that is definitely not the £1700.  

[theelench]

I'm in the same boat, not even full rate of the Old State Pension, small works pension, plus I still (at 71) do a 10 hours a week cleaning job trying to ensure that my savings keep up with inflation on the bill foe re-roofing my leasehold flat.

My work pension still has a low "T" tax code (whatever that means), my job after a couple of allegedly "generous" increases in the State Pension has gone down to "BR".

So I'm paying tax on everything apart from the Old State Pension, reduced because I was stupid enough to follow Govt. advice in the 80's to contract out of SERPS .

I only have to be accused by HMRC of Trading and I will be deemed to owe tax on my on-line sales (minus expenses) unless I can prove that I'm not trading.

Fat chance they will believe me, selling here and on ebid for over 10 years.  32 sales in combination up to 31/12/24, although nowhere near the £1700 threshold.  (Ebid sales 28.  ebay sales 4.)

So far all I have done to protect myself is.

Cease selling on ebay as it's the weaker site for me.

I will be giving ebid my NINO when asked as it has seen stronger sales for the past few years and is now my only selling site.  It is, to my mind, safer to give it to them as they are UK owned, have UK citizens as directors and are HQ'ed in the UK and I think fully covered by UK Data protection laws.  No chance of legal battles in USA over who has jurisdiction over my data.

If HMRC does get around to questioning whether I am trading or just getting rid of 50 years of collected glass, I will have all my recent sales activity on one site and due to the different way ebid works, I will be able to show that some of pieces have been listed for sale since about 2013.  Something I cannot do on ebay because neither ebay records or GTC re-listings are available back that far.

Doing so also precludes HMRC adding the visible listings on ebid to any records of no longer visible listings on ebay together and thinking that I have double the number of items for sale.  They are, in fact, the same items on both sites but at different times.

Personally I think it is iniquitous that HMRC has moved the goal posts in this way and now expects our generation to produce records for purchases 40/50/60 years ago when the rules at the time clearly stated that as a consumer, buying with already taxed income, no records needed to be kept.

This measure, drafted to catch tax evasion now, should have been started this year and only going forward, not back into the distant past.

[lardzeppo]

Me too. Use up my 300 free listings then off I go. Will sit and wait and watch and hope the penny (dollar ) drops and eBay wake up and smell the coffee. It will take something for them to reverse this latest bonkers decision. They are worldwide so what we say in the UK is really only a grain of sand in the bigger picture.
Sent from my iPad

[lardzeppo]

You are worrying yourself unnecessarily into an early grave. We know this lying government are into creating pointless civil servant jobs but they would need to recruit tens of thousands of this type to even begin to look at your selling. They have much bigger fish to hook..all those daft and unpaid covid bounce back loans for a start. There are hundreds of millions to get back so I believe you are free to carry on as before. Sleep well !
Sent from my iPad

[flyty_75]

Having not gone through everybodies replies the following may have already discussed!

Having opened an ebay new account in my wife's name I noticed that all the changes due for February 2025 are already there for all to see when creating a listing.

I realise thta the multi buying discount for private sellers will no longer be available but did not realise that ebay have removed the faclity to create variations. This means that if you have an item with six different colours you will no longer be able to create a drop down box for buyer selection.  The way it is set up will mean you will have to create six differnt listings.

Mentioned this to a very nice lady who made an enquiry with the selling team to be told that if it not showing it must not be available to private sellers.  What a reply!

Surely the taking away of the multi-discount facility should not effect the private sellers ability to create variations. 

[millcottage]

I guess having multiples of an item aka various sizes and colours is something a business seller would have rather than a private seller.

In my 21 years of selling as a private eBay seller I can’t think of one instance where I have had a variety of an object to list. 
Yes I have had duplicates however, in my case collectible coins where I purchased two or three of same type from royal mint aka Sovereigns,  it I sold them as separate listings. 

[*devils.advocate*]

Surely the taking away of the multi-discount facility should not effect the private sellers ability to create variations.

I've posted before that it's a step in the right direction - a small one but a right one.

Still able to create such listings under a business account which will be unaffected by the forthcoming Buyers Fee.

[flyty_75]

Thanks for your reply.

The multi buy facility was set in the variations section which no longer exists on the new lisitings page.  Instead of just deleting the multi buy discount they have deleted the complete variations section which does not make any sense as the system will now be clogged up with more listings.

I would suggest that your last sentence is rather smug as due to the inevitable drop in business they will incur in the next few months they will be looking to make up for the lost reveue by imposing similar fees on the business accounts. Be careful what you wish for!

[*devils.advocate*]

I was merely making an observation on "what is" rather than "what we would like it to be".

Nothing else.

[papso22]

Out of interest, why would a seller getting rid of their own unwanted personal possessions have 6 identical items but in different colours, for sale?

[flyty_75]

Probably because I have 6 identical items in different colours

[the-layer-laboratory]

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@flyty_75 wrote:

Probably because I have 6 identical items in different colours

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Is that on top of the 908 listings for brand new items in multiple quantities?

[buffster1963]

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@the-layer-laboratory wrote:

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@flyty_75 wrote:

Probably because I have 6 identical items in different colours

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Is that on top of the 908 listings for brand new items in multiple quantities?

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And i bet they will still insist that they are a private seller. 

[papso22]

Over 1,200 new items for sale on that account alone.

[dch2112011]

And all with the blessing of ebay !

[papso22]

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@dch2112011 wrote:

And all with the blessing of ebay !

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Or at least apathy!

[dch2112011]

You have a generous heart !

[the-layer-laboratory]

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@buffster1963 wrote:

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@the-layer-laboratory wrote:

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@flyty_75 wrote:

Probably because I have 6 identical items in different colours

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Is that on top of the 908 listings for brand new items in multiple quantities?

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And i bet they will still insist that they are a private seller. 

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Most likely, yes.

The cognitive dissonance displayed in these forums since last weeks announcement is absolutely breathtaking. I can only assume that the reality of their situation is subconsciously more difficult to process than the knots they are currently tying themselves up in.

[dch2112011]

Have you swallowed a dictionary ?

[the-layer-laboratory]

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@dch2112011 wrote:

Have you swallowed a dictionary ?

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Is there anything in particular that you need help with, or further explanation of?