fees

[woodwork-4-me]

Since fees have been added for the buyer selling is has dropped by 90% just wondering if staying with ebay makes any sense

[1956glyn]

Well every seller has to make that decision on their own depending on their personal circumstances.

To be honest its this silly Simple Delivery (which is far from simple and expensive) turning members away from the site.

[jaam357]

I’ve been watching an item. Got an offer on it. Accepted the offer and went to pay. Saw this new fee added to the price. Didn’t bother proceeding. 

eBay’s selling changes a few years ago stopped me selling. This new fee is stopping me buying. 

[1956glyn]

it must have been a private seller then because the new BFP (at the minute) does not apply to business sellers.

Shame you didnt proceed as the seller has no control over this new fee......Ebay adds it and pockets the extra money

[eastern-lights]

Things happening in the wider world may affect sales, but generally my sales are not vastly different since BPF fees came in. Possibly because I have taken the hit and lowered my starting prices so that the buyer sees regular starting prices.  For some reason buyers like to see starting prices (or BIN prices) of £4.99, £9.99, £49.99 etc. There is something a little off putting (can't explain why) in starting prices like £57.92, £37.12, £5.92, (taken from OP's listings).

I say I have "taken the hit". In practice, with no seller's fees now it is not that much of a hit. More a flamin' nuisance. 

NOT that I like the way it is at the moment nor do I defend it. But I'm trying to work with the system in the best way possible that I can find, in the hope that it will change again to something better. The problem mentioned above about offer pricing is ridiculous. 

[lucy_farmer]

'For some reason buyers like to see starting prices (or BIN prices) of £4.99, £9.99, £49.99 etc. There is something a little off putting (can't explain why) in starting prices like £57.92, £37.12, £5.92, (taken from OP's listings).'

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Yeah....I think the .99 thing is just because we're used to it, so it looks 'comfortable'.

And the odd price thing 7.12. (or whatever) makes a fair amount of buyers automatically associate it with currency conversion.

So, almost unconciously, they think the item is in another country and will take ages to get here etc. so they just skip past it wthout even considering it......

This effect, though, may lessen as the odd price stuff becomes more and more usual..perhaps.

And yes, that 'offer pricing' method is ridiculous. I thought that a buyer would receive the offer amount plus the buyer's fee at the moment of offer, not at the moment of paying? 

[abrahamtoast]

As with @eastern-lights  above, I have noticed no drop in my sales since the introduction of the Buyer Prevention Fee.

I am also re-jigging my prices so they look sensible to buyers. I am resisting lowering my prices further to compensate, as I already lowered them last year when FVFs were removed, so some go up by a few pence and some go down by a few pence. You do need to put a bit more work into eBay these days to make it work for you. Having a load of items sitting there, at what look like silly prices to casual potential buyers, isn't going to be enough now.

Also, bear in mind that we are still in a generally accepted "cost of living crisis", and people just don't have the spare cash for discretionary spending. That's not eBay's fault, and many posters are reporting that as a cross-platform thing.

One bright spot for the OP is that SD will make his items a couple of pounds cheaper. I don't like the whole SD concept, but it may help this particular user.

[vinylscot]

I am in no way in favour of SD being mandatory for private sellers, although I'm coming round to the view that it has its merits in many cases.

However, and I know most of you don't want to read this, for buyers, it may actually prove to be a good thing. Obviously anything which keeps buyers happy will in turn benefit sellers.

For example, as @abrahamtoast  points out, the OP might benefit a little, as his "price plus p&p" will go down by a couple of quid. (As a side note, they still call it p&p, although you can no longer charge for packing)

Buyers will see much more consistency in postage prices, and will save in many cases, so that can only help.

There are obviously issues which need ironed out, combined postage, and the "large letter" debacle, for starters.

This is a sellers' board, and most on here are obviously posting from a seller's perspective, but don't ignore what buyers think. I would imagine that most of them (among those who actually know about it) will be broadly in favour of SD.