Why 'Selling For Free' was never going to work on eBay...

[Anonymous]

No Business can survive without some form of income and whoever thought up this frankly ludicrous idea should never be allowed anywhere near any 'Business'. Every Auction House needs an income and takes it not only from the Sellers but also from the Buyers by charging a fee. This is an established and acceptable practice and the rules of this practice have been carved in stone over many decades if not centuries. Therefore how some 'bright spark' at eBay thought that they could change these basic and time worn principles and still provide a profitable business is, quite honestly, beyond me. How long has this 'Selling For Free on eBay' actually been in existence before the Accountants have said, 'This isn't working'...is it weeks or months ? Either way, change has come now and is it really surprising that this whole concept is a total and utter failure ? Having created this total mess of an ill conceived project the Boss at eBay has now had to back pedal quickly and try desperately to put the 'Business' back on a level footing. The 'soon to be introduced' new fees to be paid by Buyers is as transparent as glass...an admission basically that eBay got it wrong and needs to now raise income just like they used to. Fine...as a Buyer and Seller I'm happy to pay an Auction House reasonable fees because that is the accepted 'Status Quo'...nobody is ever, logically, going to do that for me for free on a Local or National level. Sadly through poor management eBay have dug themselves a hole that they now cannot get out of and instead of pushing the 'reset' button and apologising for their mistakes they just keep digging and digging...it is now destined to fail, not only for themselves but also for you and me their loyal 'customers'.  Happy New Year ! 

[scooter_boot_sale]

You are assuming the "no fees to sell" caused these new changes, when it was problably the desire to raise more money by charging buyers that had them first remove seller fees so that could be used as an excuse to add buyer fees.... 

[buffster1963]

There was talk of them bringing in a buyers fee about the same time free selling started so i think it was always planned. 

[podlingsmum2007]

Don't underestimate ebay. Like a game of chess they are several moves worked out in advance. This move encourages business owners operating a private account for their trade, to upgrade to a legitimate business account. It is already working because a thumbnail I clicked on, a top that stated private seller, was a business when I opened the listing.

[Anonymous]

question is the effect it will have after the 4th of feb ...

1, will sellers walk away from e bay and it implodes from within.

2, how quiet will e bay be after the 4th will sales plummet to the point of it no longer being viable to sell on eb.

3, i assume this will ripple not only from retail sales but to vehicles as well say for example you win a car in auction for £600 will you still pay 4% and 75p  which makes it £624.75 i cannot see people wearing that.

4, will buyers turn to e bays biggest rivals amazon or ali express to buy there as someone pointed out if they wanted a £10 blue ray dvd thats what they want to pay not £11.75 and would shop elsewhere to get it at that price and if not the above rivals but tesco, sainsburys ,morrisons or asda when they do their weekly shop.

5, the BS are dancing with joy about this and snipe it will prevent so called BS on private accounts having unfair advantage which i think is absolute hollyhocks .. we all dont all have £1,000 plus to buy stock and afford to sit on it some of us are happy minows  and should get off their self rightous soap boxes if the buyers have gone where will your sales come from.

6, i think this will be the biggest disaster experiment e bay have ever tried and will come to regret it maybe even back pedal rebrand and return to the old system of 10% for buyers and sellers to attract people back to e bay.

what are your thoughts on this..

[bojangled]

@Anonymous they did announce the buyers fee introduction and the Simple Delivery at the same time as the free to sell in October 2024. 
There were a couple of threads on it at the time, but got lost in the excitement!
As Vinted launched Vinted Pro, eBay went free to sell. 

Jo

[Anonymous]

In my opinion Buyers already have enough protection through eBay and through their choice of payment either PayPal or a Credit card so the added level of 'protection' is not needed or necessary surely ? 

[troopster2525-per]

oh this all will have been planned for atleast a year. though given what a mess it all is it looks like it was all thought up while they had too many spritzers on new years eve 

[Anonymous]

In my opinion eBay introduced the 'Free to Sell on eBay' situation due to pressure from other online selling sites, they now have proposed and will no doubt carry out these new rule changes because they've lost ground to Facebook Marketplace, Vinted, Gumtree, etc instead of developing their own credentials as an established and trusted online Auction House... 

[troopster2525-per]

not sure about that because alot of business`s on private accounts are not actually big earners. i know someone who is not doing it now and stopped mid last year but they only made 1.4k for a year. 1k of that was the trading allowance we all get by the government and they had to pay 20% tax to the government for the other 400 so i would hardly call that a business really.

thousands if not millions like that. so why would they pay the lesser charge of £26 a month to be a business on ebay as well as business fees which i am sure add up to still more than what this new policy will be when it happens

[troopster2525-per]

they had free protection all along anyway with the 30 day ebay money back guarantee. its just a concocted way of ebay to get more money while pretending it is really...free to sell on ebay when infact the seller always loses out

[Anonymous]

I can't accept that eBay don't realise what an absolute car crash they've created for themselves as outlined in your post above and I agree with all you say...sometimes if a business brings in changes and won't admit their mistakes then they are destined to fail...push the reset button please eBay and get back to your historic core values as an online Auction House for the modern era... 

[Anonymous]

eBay need to do what they do well and stop fiddling with a system that has worked for the past twenty years plus...

[Anonymous]

'Free to Sellers' is a monumental failure by management in not understanding basic principles of their own business...who would cut their own income voluntarily and still expect the same level of profit to sustain the business...it's a bonkers proposal which they've very quickly come to realise is destined to fail...

[Anonymous]

I think you give them too much kudos and like all of us mistakes can and have been made...someone needs to accept that and change their approach quickly because the result could be most unpleasant for all concerned...

[game_raid]

It isn't all about money it is about trading legally in the eyes of UK consumer law, business sellers using a private account are denying buyers their legal rights on returns etc.

The rules are pretty straight forward, if you buy or make an item to resell you are a business no matter how much you make or little you sell.

This isn't just an eBay policy is it UK law, I am not sure why people are struggling with this. Some seem to think because they only made £2000 all year by selling items they bought from a car boot sale or charity shop it is just a hobby and they are not a business because they don't employ people or have a warehouse full of stock.

It is also not the end of the world if you do have to become a business on eBay, most will not be paying not much tax if any at all, we all get a tax free allowance each year of £12570, so if eBay is your only income and you make £1000 a month no tax will be paid, don't forget as a business you can claim all your related costs back which include, fuel, selling fees, packaging, shipping the list is quite extensive some may find that they will be better off over the long term.

You would think that a seller would be happy that they have an actual business as it's quite an achievement being your own boss, working as and when you wish and having all the independence that comes with it.

[deepblue900]

Fairly sure the buyer protection fees were planned before selling for free started and it's just a phased rollout. What is an issue with Ebay is their notoriously unstable policies which are liable to change from week-to-week. This in turn erodes confidence in the platform as a seller from my point of view. I think many look forward to the day sellers are properly consulted in advance before policy changes with their feedback evaluated instead of riding roughshod over their interests at every turn.

[Anonymous]

If you have an Occupational pension and then reach retirement age and receive State pension then your combined 'income' will put you over the limit and you will pay tax in your retirement whether you like that situation or not. eBay exists for many people to simply sell items they no longer need or never really wanted or needed in the first place...should they have to declare that as well to a Government that will already take money out of your pocket for simply working all your life and reaching retirement age ? 

[troopster2525-per]

Actually it is not UK law to be registered as a business on ebay lol. it is UK law to be registered with the government as  SOLE TRADER but there is no such law in the government that states you also need to be registered with ebay as a business...none

and like i said in another post ebay are not actually interested in business1s being registered as a private trader otherwise they could very easily see what people sell and how much and force them into a business account...but they will not do this.

also you can not claim all expenses back at all you can only claim £1k worth but if you barely sell anything then instead you use that £1k as the trading allowance and not pay tax on the first 1k of sales. thats why people who are a sole trader but only sell minimum like the person i knew used too they just used that trading allowance to not pay tax for the first 1k. you can not use that 1k for both not paying tax and expenses its 1 or the other

and why would anyone who is forced to register as a sole trader because they sell over the 1k trading limit be happy because they are a business when they are not really making anything lol. yeh if you are making loads of most are not

[trash-mania]

Apologies in advance if this has already been expressed within the thread….October’s ‘free to sell’ announcement was a veiled way to reintroduce listing fees, they simultaneously reduced free listings from 1000 to 300, so it’s only free to sell if your items sells, you’re not going to get reimbursed your listing fees if your items sells doesn’t sell are you. Since introducing this, my sales declined by 64.4%. However, what little I was making…eBay makes nothing. So, this was a prelude to yesterday’s announcements. But to reflect, before I’d sell an item and eBay would take a reasonable percentage….it worked…but that’s not good enough for eBay, and make no mistake, eBay make extravagantly huge profits, they want more while giving less and these new fees (for services that are arguably already in place) is nothing more than unscrupulous corporate greed and penny pinching at its most extreme. I’m having fun today reading the sanctimonious responses from the ‘experienced mentors’ (eBay shrills or bots). The level of outrage on these forums this time is unprecedented…alas, eBay will not revert  upon decision…it’s a waste of energy to complain…for many, including myself, it’s time to move on and explore other platforms or options….