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.

[lionrock_technik]

May as well just accept the longer wait time and buy from Ali Express, quality no worse than much of the stuff on here

[kath3735_wxmjn]

they quite correctly do not like private sellers because we are competition and i can understand that.  However i will agree that one or two do seem to take it very personally.  Not sure how they will feel when e bay comes after them though!  If this measure is a good revenue maker for e bay they will not just leave it at private sellers.

[incredible_how]

when buying nontracked postage online from Royal Mail, you can get a delivery notification number, which you can add astracking, it usually then shows as delivered, I say usually because it is not always.

when the price online and at PO counter was the same, you could get it for parcels only, not sure now as I buy postage online for large letter and parcels because it's cheaper

[galloway_cycles]

This is just more en****ification by ebay.

The no selling fees & ebay balance for private sellers was a good move as it brought people back onto the platform to sell, who would then have a ready cash balance, and increase Business Seller sales. I suspect most Business Sellers rely on Non business buyers for their revenue. 98% of my sales go to private users.

Deferred payment and Simple Delivery will just put people off again and drive users away so everyone loses.  "Buyer Protection Fee" is just another selling commission by another name which will again drive users away. I have been seeing a steady decline in interest in my items for years.  Again everyone loses.

I don't understand why there is a separate category for "Business" and "Private" sellers. Just have "Sellers" with the same (lower) fee structure with Trading Standards legal obligations (eg name & address published over 500 items sold pa) and certain ebay products available based on volume of sales items . HMRC really don't care if an eBay account is a business or private as long as the user is completing a self assessment (despite Ebay saying they do). Ebay will be reporting both Private and Business sellers over the £1760 thresh hold in any case.

I can see this driving more private users off the platform, which benefits no one, which will mean Ebay will be forced to try another "experiment" in a couple of years and drive customers away again. Ebay have become the largest dinosaur waiting for the big meteorite to arrive.

[tpogodin]

It may be advertised as a buyer fee but it's the seller who pays it by keeping prices competative.

Feb 4th is going to be a bloodbath as private sellers undercut each other all day after the price bump.

Actually, do we know if this will be a sudden site-wide change or will only apply to new listings made after the 4th?

[akemp1]

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@dantwocats wrote:

buyers are already well protected ,,very well protected,,

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Yup and as a private seller I would have no objection to ebay adding the normal consumer protection requirements into their terms for private sellers. Buyers are going to return things they don't want anyway it's better that they say the real reason than raising an INAD case for a 'change of mind' / 'doesn't fit' kind of return.

[dantwocats]

• it says 

  The fee will be included in the item price from private sellers, so there are no surprises at checkout.

• •	Buyers will pay up to 4% of the item price, plus £0.75.** For example, when they see an item for £20, the fee of £1.49 will already be part of the price.

  The fees is not added on its part of your price , i think 

[sweetcharity.2013]

So I've bid on something & won after 4th February....

ebay states that the buyer will see the cost on the listing but how do they know what the final price is on an auction? I can forsee a few cancelled sales when a buyer suddenly realises the bargain item they've bid on suddenly increases by 4% or so.

"Where can I see how much the Buyer Protection fee is?

When applicable, the Buyer Protection fee will always be included in the item price. At checkout, you'll see it underneath the item name.

At checkout, click on Buyer Protection to see what protection is included and a detailed breakdown of the price."

[555njp]

Sad fact is this has only come about because eBay refuse to remove those illegally operating businesses trading under a private account and so rather than fix that problem they are ruining it for everyone.

[lionrock_technik]

I never go in post offices, if I  have to use Royal Mail I'll print the label at home.

Anything that doesn't fit in post box I used other couriers and drop off at InPost lockers near me

[incredible_how]

I'm a private seller and if I sell things it enables me to buy things from both private and business sellers - unless I can't find it anywhere else I do avoid private sellers who are running like business sellers.
And with eBay holding payments now until the seller manually transfers them, I might have been more likely to buy on eBay than anywhere else.
Perhaps I'll just send big bundles of stuff!

[microvolk]

Precisely. There are many categories to "report" a listing but not one of them is report a private seller clearly operating a business. For years Ebay have operated a "we don't want to know the answer so won't ask the question" policy. If they had invited whistleblowing the fake private sellers may have been adequately policed years ago. This seems only to penalise genuine private sellers clearing used unwanted items many of which will simply become untenable.

[incredible_how]

I would hope hat auction items listed before Feb 4th but ending after would not suddenly have the fee added

[incredible_how]

Royal Mail is usually cheapest for me for parcels unless large and very light then it's Evri, but has to be collection not drop off because the nearest Evri drop off is about 7 miles away.

[dantwocats]

as i see it the 75p + 4% is in the price ,,not added to it ?

[lionrock_technik]

Because of my working hours I simply can't get to a post office when they are open

[sweetcharity.2013]

Wishful thinking - this is ebay!!! Auctions seem to be ok but BIN?

Taken from the link above, as of 4th Feb:

"For UK-based private sellers, the Buyer Protection fee will immediately be added to all existing Buy-It-Now listings (excluding Cars, Motorcycle & Vehicles, Classified Ads, and Property). The fee will be added to Auction and Buy-It-Now listings created on or after 4 February, 2025, including relisted listings.

Listings that are relisted or renewed on or after 4 February will be subject to the fee."

[hobbit66]

I can see this killing off auctions. There'll be a lot of angry buyers who will probably cancel their orders !

[myriad*seller]

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@plpmr wrote:

No idea if it's 'legal'.

what I do know is that a charge is now being made for a service that was free BUT we are not being given the choice of opting out.

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Buyers *CAN* opt out though, by buying from properly registered business sellers

Then we don't pay any additional fee. 

I will certainly be making sure my purchases are all from business sellers from now on (unless it is a secondhand item) 

[hobbit66]

And pay a lot more for it !