Ebay to make free postage on DVDs Compulsory!

soolin

ebay.ie is a different entity. Every 'ebay' has its own rules, ebay.com for instance had complusory free postage on certain items before ebay.uk.

The announcement only referred to ebay.uk

From 27th January 2009, we'll be making changes to our postage and packaging (P&P) policy on eBay.co.uk.

http://www2.ebay.com/aw/uk/200812191104222.html

caela_2

Ebay is starting to annoy me even more than it did. I just listed some dvd's and was forced into free p&p. This is not fair as it can cost up to £1.50 (postage, packaging, petrol to post office, time). It means your instertion fee as a seller must be higher to cover p&p, starting the bid off at a minimum of £1.50 and then adding the value of the item for minimum sale, say for a DVD at 99p. Now you are way over the 99p free listing charge, so you must pay an insertion fee, whereas without the p&p included in the price you wouldn't. You must then pay a final valuation fee on the price of the final sale of this product at auction, so that comes off your p&p as well! By the time you have paid postage and all your ebay fees, you haven't made any profit, you've just given away a dvd for free and had to endure the hassle as well. You're even just losing time if not money.
Having had my rant at how initially annoyed I was at ebay, I did manage to sell the dvds on average for £2 which is ok, but I'll let you know how much I actually get once it's all gone through. I don't know if you can charge for dvd's since as a seller, once my item sold there was an option to send an invoice and it had a box to put the price for postage... however if it was advertised as free, I doubt I am now allowed to fairly add on this price.
Whatever ebay. Their customer service is also great (NOT).
Good luck contacting them on the moon if you have a problem!

caela_2

Ooh, as well, if anyone is selling dvd's and doesn't want to be potentially scammed on ebay, you can just gather up all your old movies (in their cases of course) and trot down to your local Computer Exchange (CEX) and trade them in there. You can either get store credit or cash in hand (check prices at www.cex.co.uk). It's really great for people who watch a lot of dvds (I have hundreds) cos once you've watched them, trade them in for store credit and buy another dvd, then take that back once you've watched it... and so on. They also sell loads of other things, so for a big clear out trade in a stack of movies and you could buy a phone or playstation or whatever cos they have quite a range of things. I wouldn't recommend this shop for buying straight out though, it's best for trading. Their sale prices for second hand items can be quite expensive, but they buy back quite high as well.
There are other shops that do this too, X electrical do and if you have a local shop selling second hand electricals and dvds, they most likely buy them second hand, so pop in to get rid of all your old stuff. Even if you get a bit less than you might selling them individually, you get a quick sale, job lot, you're out of there and you've had a clear out. I love these stores lol.

soolin

No you can't add extra charges at the end of the auction so you need to compete with all the other DVD sellers in the same position.

If you note the first sticky on this board the free post is being extended in october.

cyberbob

caela wrote: »

Now you are way over the 99p free listing charge, so you must pay an insertion fee, w.

The free insertion fee for 99p only came in in march! What did you do then?

TonyW590

I've been making full use of the "free listings when less than 99p" facility ever since it was introduced. I've been selling off my record collection at 10p each, simply because I have no desire to take them to the tip and the local charity shops don't seem interested in my eclectic taste in music!

They have been trickling away, with a lot going abroad. I re-list the unsold ones every week. To cover the cost of the special mailing envelopes AND 1st Class postage I have been charging £2.00 for a 7-inch single and £3.00 for an LP or 12-inch single.

The "free P&P" rule hit the Music category last week and I found that I could not re-list my items without removing the postage charge. If I included the P&P charge on the item (making a 10p LP now cost £3.10) I would have to pay a listing fee of 15p - so the fee is more than I want for the item!

I have some concerns about the fees payable after this change too, and I have just sent the following email to ebay:
******
I have a question:

The "what fees" page states:
Final Value Fee - If the item sells, you are charged a Final Value Fee. The
Final Value Fee is based on the final amount the item sells for. The Final
Value Fee does not include postage costs.

After the recent rule change, my listing MUST include a postage charge in
the item value. I have to pay a postage charge to ship the item, so how is the Final Value Fee now calculated?

For example, my items are listed at £3.10 each with Free P&P (previously
£0.10 each with £3.00 P&P). A buyer purchases three from me, total cost
£9.30. I give him a Seller Discount of £6.00 when I produce the invoice to
reflect the real postage cost. In this situation, what Final Value Fee do I
pay? Is it based on £9.30, or £3.30?

If it is based on £9.30 (about £0.93) then I will have made a LOSS on the
transaction. I could include an amount in my listing fee to cover the Final
Value Fee charge, but I was under the impression that this was against
ebay's rules.

I would be grateful for clarification on how the Final Value Fee is
calculated AND whether I can increase my listing price purely to cover the
Final Value Fee charge.
******

I await their response with mild tedium and suspecting I know exactly what they are going to say.

In the meantime, I've been looking at ebid.co.uk and that seems to have a favourable pricing structure, but probably a smaller audience. Any comments?

cyberbob

You can increase your prices to cover whatever fees you like. Its just whether you will sell at that price and whether you will be competitive.

Anything that you sell you should be calculating all costs, listing fees, FVF an paypal fees to make sure that you will be making enough money to at least cover costs and hopefully a profit. If you are unable to cover costs its Charity shop, Freecycle or the Bin

As for ebid you can try but there are far fewer customers.

soolin

I seriously wish you luck on ebid. For the past few months since ebay announced the free postage on media I have been directing all my customers to ebid by way of a link in my signature when I send them an email to confirm despatch of goods on ebay.
So far I have had one sale, and have been listing for 5 1/2 years.

For other views on ebid try this thread:

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=483786&highlight=ebid

StaffsSW

TonyW590 wrote: »

A buyer purchases three from me, total cost £9.30. I give him a Seller Discount of £6.00 when I produce the invoice to reflect the real postage cost. In this situation, what Final Value Fee do I pay? Is it based on £9.30, or £3.30?

If you offer "free"/inclusive P&P, it is not possible to discount the invoice - the only way around it is to either have Best Offer on the listings, or to accept a full payment, and then partial refund. The latter means you pay the full FVF, but you do get an element of the paypal charges refunded.

The only way for private sellers to do as you are doing now is to offer them in multiple lots, ie, all lots of the same artist or genre etc. You can add a P&p charge if they are sold in the wholesale category, however there are some poeple listing individual items with P&P in there, but those listings getting pulled very quick.

TonyW590

stevew8975 wrote: »

If you offer "free"/inclusive P&P, it is not possible to discount the invoice.

Ebay would disagree with you! This is an email I had from them this morning after I asked them the question the first time:

************
Thank you for writing to eBay about discounting your buyer.

If you would like to give discounts to your buyer for multiple
purchases, you will be able to do this by using the "Seller Discounts or
Charges" field. Here's how:

1. Go to your My eBay, in the "Sold" section, choose the item you need
to add postage cost.
2. At the far end, in line with the item title, click the "Send Payment
details" link.
3. In the invoice page, you can enter the amount you want to deduct on
the "Seller Discounts or Charges" field.
4. Review the invoice, then click "Send Invoice".

The "Seller Discounts or Charges" field is an optional field that
sellers may choose to use on the "Send Invoice" page if they would like
to include an additional charge or discount for the buyer. The seller
could enter the discount amount in this field so the buyer will have a
clear understanding of all original costs on the listing, as well as any
adjustments made by the seller after the item closed.

The amount entered in the "Seller Discounts or Charges" field will
appear on the invoice email the buyer receives as well as on the "Review
Your Purchase" page of the Checkout flow. When the buyer proceeds
through Checkout, the amount entered by the seller will be shown and
reflected in the total amount due.
*********