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 ! 🤔 🙄 😁   

[flyty_75]

Tabks for all the positive feedback

[kath3735_wxmjn]

I actually do have one instance (and 3 still currently listed).   I bought a top that i really like and ended up with 23 of them!  Different colours, patterns and the majority in one size, unfortunately that size no longer fits but i did get a lot of use out of most of them.   Only time i have done it but we all have a mad moment, bought the majority off e bay as well!!  Still looking actually for ones that fit but no luck so far...

[incredible_how]

I have done a listing 100% for charity using variations, recycled gift tags, very low selling price but easy to give free postage if you buy more than one, plus discounts for buying more than one. I've also bought from private sellers, for example a range of vintage sewing magazines, embroidery patterns or postcards. People collect similar things then have a clear out!

[incredible_how]

it does say you can opt out - I'm hoping that stays

https://www.ebay.co.uk/sellercentre/postage/simple-delivery

[badge0779]

What I’ve read today about the new payout system will push me away from eBay because the advanced payment as a seller I need to find. It’s just not logical at all. Also the time frame for some items is cough cough 14 days!! Can they would make this stuff up be serious. Sometimes parcels are not scanned in by the courier at delivery, but it’s been delivered and positive feedback has been received. But if it’s not “delivered” no payment for the item, no money for postage costs. How on earth will this encourage sellers to stay on this site. It’s complete nonsense. No sense to it in any way.

what with this change of stalled held payouts for sellers and buyers having to pay a stupid 8% plus 75p per transaction or item (that I’m trying to get my head around). They pushing too many people away from selling and buying. I have been on here 16 years mostly buying as I can’t afford new items from shops or online, this has been my lifeline to enabling me to buy items I need or want, to buy gifts etc I’ve used eBay to have clearouts and sell my unwanted stuff in turn making a some pennies to enable me to buy more off eBay. I’m sure I’m not the only person who does this but it will certainly stop me buying and selling on here. It’s just madness! They stopped cash on collection too which for some people puts people off using local people. Since they stopped cash on collection my collections has majorly plummeted! I always had regular collections but I have to say over the last 12 months I’ve had 1. I don’t use Facebook so I’m limited to where I can sell my unwanted items. I use another platform but it’s not used in my area much at all, so sales are slow and I can’t buy much off there at all. I probably end up taking everything to the charity shops and start shopping there, that’s if I can get out the house! I used eBay also because sometimes I’m housebound so I can buy and sell bits without leaving the house. The categories I buy from I’ve seen a huge massive increase in listings. Which I sure eBay has seen across the whole site. So why keep messing. PayPal was alway great for me it was simple quick and easy to use, I didn’t mind the small fee they charged as everyone was covered if anything went wrong. These managed payments are a pain in butt! But on the flip side I can see my available funds straight away and that gives me a instance limit on what I can buy at that given time. So that does have its benefits. I just can’t see why they have to keep changing things and pushing sellers and buyers away with stupid processes and hiking up fees. it’s a total sham! 

I do hope those people upstairs who are making these ridiculous decisions can wind back and look at the bigger picture for all sellers and buyers and for the platform it’s self, because at this rate eBay will die and that would be a complete shame. All the changes over the last 5 years has take the big popular beast of out of eBay and it’s slowly being stripped away. 

rant over ✌🏻

[megan1512]

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),

[incredible_how]

I would hope returns were only in the case of not matching description. I've only had one request to return because buyer said it didn't match description, but eBay agreed with me that it perfectly matched the description!

With the current Simple Delivery my postcode is excluded from express delivery - not that Simple Delvery has turned up in any clothing listings I have had since it was introduced...maybe I'm too rural!

[da-vids]

As this is all sinking in seems to me the changes simply make it very unattractive to run an actual business with a private account, at the same time makes business account very attractive to run an actual business. There's no way to police so this is the latest evolution, it would be impossible for a human being to make decisions on users activities accusing people of running businesses or not, too many scenarios. An example would be a rich person selling their possessions, they may seem like a business seller on a private account when they are not running business, they are just rich, just who is in a position to decide when every single user on eBay has a completely different situation. Up until now proper business doing everything right by their customers the only difference between the accounts is in one account business name and address must be shown in the other it doesn't need to be shown.

[johnwash1]

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@kath3735_wxmjn wrote:

I actually do have one instance (and 3 still currently listed).   I bought a top that i really like and ended up with 23 of them!  Different colours, patterns and the majority in one size, unfortunately that size no longer fits but i did get a lot of use out of most of them.   Only time i have done it but we all have a mad moment, bought the majority off e bay as well!!  Still looking actually for ones that fit but no luck so far...

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Time for a gym  subscription!  🙂

Sorry, a case of  physician heal thyself.  😞

[da-vids]

My blouses sell more quickly and for more money if I don't wash them.

[parsley2003]

I like that answer

[parsley2003]

Oh hi nice person. I don't sell that much most is going round and round in circles like teddy bears. This is what happens when you list at the free weekends. Don't worry i'll be taking it all off soon have already started. Too old and disabled to cope with the stress any more of nasty people 

[dch2112011]

Do Teddy Bears go round in circles ? 

It's just that you have a large collection of postcards up for sale individually - which swells the listings and at around 100 sales a month it could take years to shift them but you must have the patience of a saint listing that lot !  You must enjoy it !

I wouldn't worry too much about comments about whether you are a business or not - but do keep a record just in case it flags up with HMRC  - the postage pumps up the total sales figure which for personal unwanted items is classed as part of the 'profit'  simply because you cannot claim business costs against the sales because you are not a business - but you are at a low level relatively speaking and don't forget you have the personal allowance and the traders allowance to play with if for some reason HMRC - (not ebay) deem you to be the next Richard Branson !

[sml192]

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@papso22 wrote:

I am struggling to see the justification for different accounting treatment according to category.  Perhaps it's something to do with Packlink's involvement in one of them.

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Packlink's involvement in the initial trial, in the clothing category, is precisely the reason for the current disparity. 

It would appear that when eBay expanded the service to other categories that they made the decision to drop Packlink and go direct to the carriers instead. 

Packlink aren't mentioned in the Simple Delivery Terms & Conditions (only Royal Mail and Evri) and all references to Packlink have now been removed from the Simple Delivery  general help page other than the following bit at the top of the page:

'We launched a limited Simple Delivery pilot with Packlink in summer 2024 for eligible fashion listings. If your listing was included in this pilot, please see our Seller Centre page for more information and FAQs' 

The wording of that suggests that Packlink are already no longer involved so the information on the Seller Centre help page may already be out of date or if not soon will be. 

Simple Delivery - General Help Page:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/help/selling/posting-items/setting-postage-options/simple-delivery?id=5575&st...

Simple Delivery - Terms & Conditions

https://pages.ebay.co.uk/shipping/delivery/seller-terms/

[kath3735_wxmjn]

but that has always been the case!

[kath3735_wxmjn]

not a chance, i will just continue looking for a larger size!!

[lucy_farmer]

'My blouses sell more quickly and for more money if I don't wash them.'

urrgh... vids mate, you are revolting 🤢🤣😂