Will Private Sellers Bail Out in February and will this Benefit Business Sellers

[stratford-cds]

I sell used CDs and have noticed , apart from maybe five or six, that every account selling CDs are private sellers . My sales are pretty solid . Do you think I will get more when the Private Sellers ultimately bail out ? 

[millcottage]

Once the media pick up the 4% selling tax (plus 75p) and miss report it like they did for tax declaration, then buyers will be put off using eBay full stop.

So I would expect a decrease in footfall.

[prescott9376]

You may see an increase in the number of sales but with the drop in revenue to Ebay, once the private sellers have gone, they will have to make up their money fron somewhere else (Somebody else ) & that will probably be you.

[robbtyke132010]

I sell CDs & DVDs on a business a/c - many buyers are not even paying enough to cover postage, it is a dwindling market & even with private sellers jumping ship I cannot see an upturn in sales.

[martmarg41]

I think all sellers will notice a decline in customers come 4th Feb. Buyers are not yet aware of the additional 'Buyers premium', once they see it added to the item cost on private seller items it will put them off even looking further. eBay's poor record on communication is just making the situation worse for all sellers.

Many private sellers are also eBay buyers, if they walk away business sellers will also lose out.

[magpiecorner1]

EBay recently stated that testing -  giving German private sellers 320 new free listings and 2500 new free 1Euro starting price listings -  had markedly increase new private sellers to the site.  Additionally, private sellers who also bought on the site were buying a good deal more than private buyer who did not  also sell.

This was given as the reason for giving private sellers new listings.

So perhaps losing private sellers might result in fewer sales, not more, because you are losing buyers, fewer buyers results in fewer sales.

Anyway, private sellers aren't the biggest danger for business sellers.  Other business sellers are, most especially the big players who make up the magical 20% of sellers who sell about 80% of eBay's sales, as per Pareto's principal.  Especially when there is no information out there about their fees.  You can be sure though it's not a flat playing field for we minnows fighting for oxygen in the shallows. 

And I wouldn't bet against small business sellers being in eBay's sights for this paid for buyer protection.

[papso22]

I am pretty sure it would be illegal for ebay to charge buyers for something consumer law gives them for free.

[magpiecorner1]

I didn't realise consumer law gave them 24 hour eBay CS.

Auctioneers charge buyers fees, quite legitimately, including online auctioneers.  The one I use even has a choice of percentages, you can pay another optional £3 charge before you bid and get the lower percentage, or don't pay anything and have the higher percentage added to any winning bids.  

I do get your point though, it would be tricky in some ways - it would be a mare's nest.    But it's already a mare's nest.