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 ! 🤔 🙄 😁   

[da-vids]

Thanks for reading it and providing the short version of the agreement, thought it might be bias somehow 👍

[da-vids]

You are right, indeed how many who say they are leaving actually do, we all love it really, what it enables us to do is ultimately a good thing 🤑

[charliethestardog]

This not paying out until after delivery is too much for me, I'll be leaving 

[lord_whiteley]

This has got to be the Billion $ question. If you only get paid 2 days after delivery and eBay effectively tells the Seller what postage to use and the Seller proves they have posted an item (due to the provided label or QR code being scanned). Surely, it’s eBay’s responsibility that the buyer gets the item?? The scheme claims that everything posted is fully covered????

[lucy_farmer]

Yep. Ebay say that  'once the item has entered the system, the seller is covered'.

(which is why everything sent needs some sort of tracking. Otherwise how would ebay know anything *had* been sent at all..?)

So ebay pay the refund for item-not-arrived out of their own coffers..

[da-vids]

You still get paid it's not like eBay are going to run away with your money, not implying eBay have legs and would run away if they could, delayed payment is part of bigger picture, you won't have to deal with problems like before, swings and roundabouts, see how it goes eh!

[lord_whiteley]

Well that’s good to know. I only ever use Special Delivery just because it’s actually one of the cheapest ways of sending stuff fully insured

[vintique*violet]

Actually I will and stand by my word - eBay  have pushed the goal posts too far now, and I no longer can  actively and safely conduct MY account  and provide a service for MY customers - I have already stopped buying ( being that I actually buy more than sell ) and sourced elsewhere... eBay are putting profit over people for Stakeholder Capitalism, and I no longer want to play their game, and it is a game with us being the pawns! 

There are plenty of other options available if need be, and where there is a will there is a way. 

[lucy_farmer]

Well, according to the vague ebay-speak of the Simple Delivery rules, it looks like, if you are sending something expensive that really should have SD, Special Delivery will be the the one the buyers are 'allowed' to choose. (it won't be you picking the service they are allowed to choose, it'll be ebay's algorithym making the choice)

Well, as far as can be worked out yet!

We are all just going to have to wait and see 😁

[department28]

'Sorry to be a bit pessimistic here, but I don't believe ebay will change anything *even* if the masses do vote with their feet and leave.'

It would be interesting to know how much of an impact it could have, if the masses did vote with their feet. It sounds like many have already left, or are on the very edge of doing so.  It's been one thing after another, and people can only cope with so much disruption caused by too many unwelcome changes. 😠

Personally, I feel very disillusioned & fed up with the place.  I would've been busy browsing, bidding & buying etc, if all this wretched 'Buyer Protection Fee/Simple Delivery/Payment Holds/Ebay Balance/New Look Messaging' stuff hadn't been inflicted on us...😫😢

[vintique*violet]

Yes this is before I looked into it more as it was not clear - eBay and the Buyer will control what  postal service is provided - how kind... not... 

It is still a No from me. 

Ordered Chinese for tonights dinner -  They will keep it warm for delivery in 5 days as their  " courier "  is off sick, but for an extra 75p and 4% of  the order total they can offer express delivery by carrier pigeon guaranteed hot and in time for Sunday lunch!  🙄🤣😬😜

[ctscalemodels]

I'm having trouble seeing how an extra surcharge to the buyer will boost buyer confidence because in reality when it goes wrong its the seller that pays anyway by way of the imposed full refund.

[da-vids]

"putting profit over people for Stakeholder Capitalism"

Yes that seems the only game in town for all companies these days, if a good company the money should follow and everyone happy but defo too many examples of passive shareholders running the world, shortermism and the like. eBay and shareholders have money printing machine and still want more more more. In my case everyone goes to eBay for what I sell. Would like real world sales ideally, selling specifically what I sell eBay works perfectly for better or worse.

[*devils.advocate*]

And just how is that different to days gone by?

[da-vids]

Wonder what eBay are going to do when an expensive item is sent and buyer claims nothing in the package, also what will they be doing when someone buys an expensive item and returns an onion instead of the original item 🤔

[valueaddedresource]

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@da-vids wrote:

Wonder what eBay are going to do when an expensive item is sent and buyer claims nothing in the package, also what will they be doing when someone buys an expensive item and returns an onion instead of the original item 🤔

---

@da-vids  expensive is relative when you're a ~$30B market cap corporation. 😂

Jokes aside though, eBay is smart enough to have done the math and that's likely why current eligibility for Simple Delivery is capped at a price point with which they are comfortable - ie. they are not paying for anyone's $10,000 Rolex.

What listings are eligible for Simple Delivery?

Simple Delivery is currently available to private sellers in the UK selling:

• Clothing items that have a ‘Buy it Now’ price, auction starting price, or reserve price of £500 or less
• Items in all other eligible categories that have a 'Buy it Now' price, auction starting price, or reserve price of £750 or less   

[da-vids]

Indeed I shouldn't have used the phrase 'these days' my mistake!

[lucy_farmer]

Ha! that had occured to me as well 😂

(there's bound to be some 'small print' on this subject somewhere which nobody's spotted yet....)

[valueaddedresource]

Also to be clear - the coverage being discussed is specifically only for claims of loss or damage in transit on Simple Delivery items.

Returns are a whole other ball game and yes, sellers absolutely should read the full policy on that too - especially the part the says you may have to pay back the shipping cost to the buyer even though that shipping amount isn't paid to you. 👀

What happens if the buyer wants to return an item?

Should the buyer request a return, you may be responsible for refunding the buyer any outbound delivery costs for the label provided to you (including for express delivery), in addition to the item cost. See 'How to handle a return request as a seller' for more information.

[da-vids]

Maybe certain parcels will get routed through their authentication warehouse and catch some of the thieves at it, a bit of random entrapment could be good deterrent for the dishonest out there.