Ebay to make free postage on DVDs Compulsory!

wheresmydoshat

interesing figures. i expect them to change quite a lot.

one that stands out for me is £7.00 for collections/lots, how big is the collection/lot ??!

soolin

Just another thought, I do hope that the maximun postage costs for mobiles at least cover special delivery otherwise I can see a lot of sellers really losing out.

goodfella66

It does say there is an option for heavy items so you can name the price. This would be good for large-sized memorabilia, job-lots etc. I do sell DVDs so I hope there is going to be a fast & easy way to edit all the listings.

wheresmydoshat

where this will cause me problems is that as a trading assistant having the buyer pay p&p seperately is very convenient, without this it will make the process a little tricky (if everything ends up free p&p that is).

the sum i give a client would then be final sale price, minus P&P, minus commission. potentially offputting.

GregtheHammer

Are they going to get rid of the P&P DSR? If you are charging the recommended eBay price why should you be marked down for it?

Free postage on DVDs, definately the end of the little seller.

Not sure I get this, paypal recommend you post by a trackable method which costs money but you have to in turn post it out FOC. Prices are going to go up!!

soolin

GregtheHammer wrote: »

Are they going to get rid of the P&P DSR? If you are charging the recommended eBay price why should you be marked down for it?

Free postage on DVDs, definately the end of the little seller.

Not sure I get this, paypal recommend you post by a trackable method which costs money but you have to in turn post it out FOC. Prices are going to go up!!

The recorded bit is being discussed on the community boards already and the consensus appears to be that once again ebay and paypal are not talking to each other. Paypal say sending something tracked is recommended yet under these new rules sellers will be paying that extra directly from their own pocket if they sell DVds.

My DVds (not that I sell any) will directly undercut the prices of anyone adding an additional 72p for recorded, which means those using tracked will almost certainly go out of business. catch 22.

As for books th eonly way to do large items will be to select courier for large heavy items as that will still be allowed and your own postage costs entered. Although ebay warn this will be monitored closely. Si possibly very large heavy books will be OK, as will smaller ones this will catch out the mid weight books or those that sell for over £36 where special is required as no more than £2.75 can be charged for p and p even if special is used.

goodfella66

Where do eBay get the figure of £2.75 as the maximum for Special Delivery? The very minimum the Post Office charge for Special Delivery is £4.60 & not many books would weigh less than 100g to qualify for this rate!

StaffsSW

soolin wrote: »

Paypal say sending something tracked is recommended yet under these new rules sellers will be paying that extra directly from their own pocket if they sell DVds.

It's no secret that I have been a volume seller of DVD's in the past, and knew the top 15-20 of the current top DVD sellers on eBay quite well.

After speaking to a few of them over the last few days, every one of them has said it's not a problem, they will simply increase the price of their DVD's to cover the postage, and the increased fees incurred. A few of them already offer "free" postage, and some have flat rate postage with no multiple purchase discounts. Pretty much the same as Play and HMV.

They are actually looking forward to the changes, because it will mean more margin for them, and they also know that the little guys (by that they are thinking around the 2500 units per year level) will try to start a price war, but will not be able to sustain it long term.

This is going to hit the buyer harder than anyone else, but there are still many that do not see this. "Free" is not free, it simply means "inclusive"

The issue that the sellers are more concerned about is how the P&P star rating will be handled. As eBay have enforced a "free" postage charge, then by rights, ebay should also levy a full 5 star rating by default. If they do, I may just go back into DVD's again - at the rates that they will be selling through at, and the reduced rate media category fees, I could quite happily maintain a decent margin on 250-300 sales per month.

wheresmydoshat

u have to offer £2.75 as a minimum, i don't think that means u can't then offer special delivery as well at a higher rate.

it will then be down to the buyer, and you will have to add a note to t&c regarding insurance etc.

soolin

wheresmydoshat wrote: »

u have to offer £2.75 as a minimum, i don't think that means u can't then offer special delivery as well at a higher rate.

it will then be down to the buyer, and you will have to add a note to t&c regarding insurance etc.

This is the one thing that definitely won't work, think about it logically.

I sell a book at £50 and my postage is capped at £2.75 but I also offer special delivery at £6.40..it would have to be a very naive buyer who considered they need to pay the extra for special, so obviously I would just have to pay it myself to be covered.

The £2.75 upper rate is of course exactly the same as the Amazon postage costs..hmm, who is copying who here?

All my paperbacks and small hardbacks will be fine to carry on selling as I don't charge as much as £2.75 anyway, so they will be OK, the mid weight ones which currently cost between £3.08 and £6.40 and the ones I will have to rethink.

DVDs probably won't bother me too much as they only cost around 66p second class so instead of a start price of say £2.50 I just list now at £3.20 (although I don't have nay more to sell). I agree with Steve that once again this will benefit large sellers exactly as is the case on Amazon. They get cheap insert fees, a discount on their FVfs and very large sellers will almost certainly have a postal account which means they don't pay full RM prices to post.