Why are buyers being forced to pay 79p to "protect" a 99p item from private selllers?
Simple question.
My answer is that it makes no sense other than it's a greedy cash grab for eBay. Also, how many items will now go to landfill rather than going to a new home? eBay talks a good talk about reducing carbon footprints and climate action. But with this new buyer's protection racket is actually making it virtually impossible to sell low value items and condemning them to landfill. A lot of people preferred their items to find a new home rather than contribute to the growing mountain of waste. Yes, you could say eBay is a business and it isn't their job, but they make a big song and dance about things like sustainability and climate action. Is it just lip service?
I have seen people say things like, "You will still get the same money as before. The buyer pays the BPF on top". But on very low value items there is a ceiling to what people are prepared to pay. Anyone who has sold low value items knows that there is a psychological threshold that buyers do not go above. If you price even a penny over that threshold, you won't sell. You can study the sales history of items to see these trends and discover the highest price possible for those items.
But the point of this post is to highlight that it is ludicrous to charge a mandatory 79p insurance on a 99p item.
Also what was pretty disgusting was to suddenly impose this with little warning, so anyone who had items listed, suddenly found their prices effectively almost doubled overnight and forcing them to give up selling. Was that the whole point?
If a huge volume seller sells a music CD for £2.99 including delivery, a private seller who wants to match that price now has to list at around £2.15 for the buyer to see £2.99 - Then out of that £2.15, the private seller has to take the postage out which is £1.90 - That leaves them with 25p!
Some people will say you should list at £2.99 and the buyer will pay the 75p + 4% on top. But that isn't the case in reality. These things are price sensitive. But let's go with that suggestion for the moment......
Business seller lists at £2.99 - The buyer sees £2.99
Private seller lists at £2.99 - The buyer sees £3.86*
(*approx. calculation)
That is pure discrimination.
Is it designed to encourage buyer's to buy from the business seller?
Prior to the changes, both items would be shown to the buyer at £2.99
I stopped all buying and selling for now. I can't support a platform which discriminates against people in this way, let alone all the other crazy shenanigans going on. eBay used to be great. I've no idea what happened, but it seems to be focused purely on those who make the most money for eBay and to hell with the rest of us..... and to hell with the impact on the planet it seems.
