High postage

[pauldogs_0]

Hi all, I see some sellers are still hyking up p+p charges to avoid ebay fees.

[emma_maginnis_1985]

eBay Fees are paid on postage so your post makes no sense.  I think sellers are criticised  enough already without any help from people on the community boards!

[goldenwonders]

Correct Emma, on both counts, but if you listed on ebid then you wouldn't pay any fees on postage.

As a business you should sell on both sites - more potential customers.

[dazzletechltd]

I have been on eBid for donkeys years (15 ish maybe?) I think if I have sold 20 low value items in that time I would be lucky! Onbuy is a similar scenario. But I guess it doesn't hurt to have them! 

[pauldogs_0]

Unless ebay  have changed the rules and I just haven't seen anything about that yet, (highly unlikely), you don't pay fees on postage and packing. Though I'll be checking the rules again when I have enough time.

[kad1178]

Ebay have charged fees on P&P costs since 2014 so not exactly a recent change.

[goldenwonders]

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@pauldogs_0 wrote:

Unless ebay  have changed the rules and I just haven't seen anything about that yet, (highly unlikely), you don't pay fees on postage and packing. Though I'll be checking the rules again when I have enough time.

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REALLY? - well Paul, you have not been keeping your finger on the pulse, as Gav says they have been charging fees on postage for years. Take a look at your invoices and you'll see for yourself

[pauldogs_0]

I've been away from ebay for a while using cheaper auction sites, but I know plenty of people who use ebay so I've not been completely out of the picture. Even non auction sites like Amazon are cheaper, in most cases at least. There's plenty of auction and non auction sites out there. I think, (and I could be wrong because I don't know for sure but), there might be sites out there who cap p+p or where p+p might be free. I'll have to google that. As for the cheaper auction sites, if anyone doesn't believe me, just google it, I'm actually on two cheaper sites.

[shanitech]

The simple rule which you cant go wrong with is, look at the total cost to you.

I will make it simple.

Item A £1 + £3 postage

Item B £5 + free postage

Which one would you buy?

[pauldogs_0]

I collect old radios. I've been looking at some recently where the price was around £10 or £20 or so but the p+p was around £50. The same or similar items on other sites carry a p+p of around £20 to £30 cheaper.

[cee-dee]

Was it like-for-like shipping though? Old radio's are often heavy and fragile so did the shipping include insurance of some sort or not? Are you talking mains, valve radios or later portables?

[goldenwonders]

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@pauldogs_0 wrote:

There's plenty of auction and non auction sites out there. I think, (and I could be wrong because I don't know for sure but), there might be sites out there who cap p+p or where p+p might be free. I'll have to google that. As for the cheaper auction sites, if anyone doesn't believe me, just google it, I'm actually on two cheaper sites.

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Paul, there are plenty of auction sites, unfortunately none as large and varied as OBEY (yet). I could list many auction sites that don't charge fees on postage - and as others have intimated postage is 'NEVER free'. Ebid is one site that does not charge fees on postage. But you probably need specialist sites for radios - and it does depend on what type of postage you pay for. Many delivery services offer insurance, including Royal Mail, but when you come to claim on it - that's a different story!

[pauldogs_0]

I think some have missed the point of my original post.

[pixiesen2012]

your original post made an assumption that wasn't valid, as ebay charge fees on the P&P as well as the item price,

so sellers aren't bumping up the P&P to avoid fees, they are increasing the P&P to cover the fees!

[pauldogs_0]

I'm sorry but I think it is very much valid. Whatever the reason it boils down to the fact that there are too many fees to pay using ebay.

[cee-dee]

I think your OP ought to have said "Sellers are hiking up p + p charges to cover ebay fees". That would have been more to the point?

[pauldogs_0]

Before ebay started charging fees on p+p sellers hyked up p+p to avoid fees. Now ebay  charge fees on these things sellers are still hyking up the p+p, so that now buyers pay the fees. Thus; sellers avoid the fees. I try to make my point based on the fact that I no longer sell on ebay, by choice that is.

[pauldogs_0]

Hi, could somebody please tell me what difference does it make when eBay made this change? Sellers are avoiding these fees by passing them on to buyers in the form of increased p+p charges. I know we all know that, what I'm saying is why should buyers have to pay these fees? We have enough to pay for without these additional fees. It's little wonder to me that so many people no longer use eBay for buying.

If anyone wants to see proof of that have a look at Facebook, there's plenty of groups there for people to sell things and all you pay is the price of the item, p+p is only charged if you can't collect in person.

[do_do26]

It's not that sellers are avoiding the costs  their just trying to cover their postage costs (and in fairness most still lose money from the postage after taking into account the packaging, time and 12.9% fee's) and it's not reasonable to expect sellers to just make a loss on postage with every item they sell

Another site I use only charge fees on postage if it's over a certain amount which seems to me to make more sense but unfortunately  that's not the route eBay chose.

Ultimately someone has to pay the fee's, the p&p costs are clearly displayed and if you feel there unreasonable shop around

[pauldogs_0]

True, they're passing on the fees to buyers, fees forced on them by ebay. I do shop around, regularly and there are selling platforms that are cheaper.