This is going to mean the end for many small private sellers. "Buyer Protection Fee"

[vinylscot]

https://www.ebay.co.uk/help/buying/paying-items/buyer-protection?id=5594

75p plus 4% buyers fee, so something which was priced at £5 will be £5.95 in February.

[hobbit66]

They are more interested in getting rid of honest private sellers !

[sicro-80]

So at anytime a seller can lose everything +more.

It's not worth me selling my 2nd hand variety of collectors 'tins' from years gone by.

It costs me apx £3.50 at the moment  (due to rise) for second class, plus buying the bubble envelopes, making my own personal handmade address stickers (i refuse to be charged by Ebay for a address sticker. and i have no printer. 

So if I have a item for sale (example only)...for one of my tins to be on the private seller market for £2.50

sounds good so far, but then you realise that now you are only making ebay richer from your already taxed items, your already taxed post, stamps, envelopes, and dreams.

Buyers will now exploit this regime and sellers have zero insurance of if the parcel was sent, stolen, lost, damaged in transit, or just low-lifes simply say 'we didn't receive anything' as they now have that same item back on ebay for a higher price. Why does a private seller even want to trade with this capitalist money hungry, outdated platform? Sellers lose.......i'm out and closing my shop of 240 items

[maujohwai]

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@technthread wrote:

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A lot of private sellers are just going to leave their prices as they are and wait for buyers to come to terms with it.

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Not sure what you mean by 'come to terms with it' — if I have priced my item at £20 because the cheapest competitor's is £21, and mine suddenly becomes about £21.55 with the buyer protection fee, buyers are not going to come to terms with my new price, but simply buy from my competitor.

[akemp1]

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@maujohwai wrote:

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@technthread wrote:

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A lot of private sellers are just going to leave their prices as they are and wait for buyers to come to terms with it.

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Not sure what you mean by 'come to terms with it' — if I have priced my item at £20 because the cheapest competitor's is £21, and mine suddenly becomes about £21.55 with the buyer protection fee, buyers are not going to come to terms with my new price, but simply buy from my competitor.

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Eventually inflation will make the total price competitive again.

[zillabudgie]

Sorry to ask but is the 75p to be payed directly by the buyer, or by the seller (as it taken out of the final profit/total).

[kawas67]

the 75P + 4% of sellers price is added to the price of the item

EG

a £1.00 item will be listed as £1.79 thats £1.00 seller price + 75P + 4p (4%) of seller price

[kawas67]

sorry meant to add you the buyer will pay 1.79 for a £1.00 item

[sicro-80]

Not forgetting that by accumulating the money that has been paid to ebay from the buyer to be in their 'holding account' for up to a fortnight.........thats a lot of revenue being made just by the taxes and 'interest'  from the banks. Ebay has just lost control, and I notice that a lot of Chinese items are being sold, are we now competing with 'Wish' ?

[zillabudgie]

Oh I see, thanks for your replies.

[copysent]

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@belascos wrote:

Completely fair and in line with 'V Site'. If you are purchasing from an individual, there is an inherent increased risk of transaction difficulties vs a professional business seller, so the buyer has to pay for the protection. Private sellers balances held until delivery - Incentivises seller to provide good service and to send on time, providing customers a good experience. AND, Private seller still pays no fees.

Meanwhile, it pushes high-volume 'private' sellers onto business accounts, ensuring they provide customers with their legal consumer rights, which are denied when these sellers use a 'private account' as a facade.

All in, a good change.

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Sorry, I don't agree and the majority of problems with sellers of any kind on the platform is courier delivery failures. The same couriers are being used by both types of sellers, so produce the same level of failure rate where ebay need to step in. I personally won't pay an extra insurance fee to ebay simply to purchase anything and will completely stop purchases with private sellers in Feb or before, as prices are already over inflated on the platform for second hand goods. Announcing that you want to charge me an insurance fee for an already horrible experience has to be one of the worst business decisions I have ever witnessed. Many couriers already offer an insurance option to sellers. So the new "protection" offered isn't required by buyers or sellers. Only ebay are in need of it 🙄

[copysent]

Correct. Ebay currently claim to be unaware of their legal obligations (evidenced by cs messaging I have received) regarding this legislation, how it has changed and how it applies to sales on the market place. IANAL but I would guess this new change on ebay may fall foul of current legislation or at the very least, not be within the "spirit" of the legislation and may need to be tested in court here in the UK.

[sweetcharity.2013]

@technthread wrote:

A lot of private sellers are just going to leave their prices as they are and wait for buyers to come to terms with it.

Not sure what you mean by 'come to terms with it' — if I have priced my item at £20 because the cheapest competitor's is £21, and mine suddenly becomes about £21.55 with the buyer protection fee, buyers are not going to come to terms with my new price, but simply buy from my competitor.

Your competing Private seller will be still be charging £21 but it will be + 75p + 4% same as your £20 base price + these new buyer charges.

Although as a Private seller selling off your own personal items where does a competing seller come into it?  

[technthread]

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@maujohwai wrote:

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@technthread wrote:

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A lot of private sellers are just going to leave their prices as they are and wait for buyers to come to terms with it.

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Not sure what you mean by 'come to terms with it' — if I have priced my item at £20 because the cheapest competitor's is £21, and mine suddenly becomes about £21.55 with the buyer protection fee, buyers are not going to come to terms with my new price, but simply buy from my competitor.

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Point taken but I still don’t think most private sellers list and monitor their prices with this attention to detail. And if they aren’t selling barcoded items like books they may find it harder to establish what the lowest price on eBay actually is. 

Just a general point to put out there, if eBay said last year (before zero fees for private sellers) - we will drop your fees to zero but your buyer will pay 4% plus 75p, it would have been very popular with private sellers. eBay have just timed this horribly they should not have done zero fees first, they should have known better. 

[technthread]

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@sweetcharity.2013 wrote:

@technthread wrote:

A lot of private sellers are just going to leave their prices as they are and wait for buyers to come to terms with it.

Not sure what you mean by 'come to terms with it' — if I have priced my item at £20 because the cheapest competitor's is £21, and mine suddenly becomes about £21.55 with the buyer protection fee, buyers are not going to come to terms with my new price, but simply buy from my competitor.

Your competing Private seller will be still be charging £21 but it will be + 75p + 4% same as your £20 base price + these new buyer charges.

Although as a Private seller selling off your own personal items where does a competing seller come into it?  

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They are competing against some business sellers. Who are probably promoting on top of all the other fees they have to pay. 

[maujohwai]

I am selling my books, and compete largely with Business sellers.

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[copysent]

The solution to preventing business abuse of personal accounts is to limit the amount of completed sales by personal accounts to 10 or 20 a month or by a maximum total value for monthly sales before a seller fee is applied. Once the limit is hit three months in a row, a message to register as a business seller or suffer account suspension until registered with a valid VAT number should be sent. Not the buyer protection insurance nonsense being announced today. Sorry. Pretty easy to solve within the scope of UK law

[sweetcharity.2013]

@technthread 

Ahh, And there's me thinking as an ex-private seller - I want rid of my stuff, I don't have 'competitors' I just wanted a reasonable price & be done with it!

[copysent]

No point on having an edge if all your  customers are on another site browsing elsewhere because they object to obnoxious and arbitrary fees and the prices are also lower 🤔

[technthread]

Zero fees last year was the time to go right drop from £20 to £18 and get things sold. I guess it’s human nature to want to still get the maximum sale price, which is why part of me thinks many private sellers won’t adjust prices again when the buyer fee comes in. 

[jefftopman]

I myself have had few issues. However from my experience regarding outcomes when i have had an issue  i get a better response and outcome from private sellers rather than business sellers. Sorry but it is just my experience.

Regarding payments only issued once there is proof of delivery. I use tracked 48 so i have reasonable visibility with regards to where my item is, what if Postie doesn't scan the item on delivery and the buyer doesn't ever leave feedback for sellers. How do eBay confirm delivery so that they are in a position to pay the seller? Or am i reading it incorrectly?