Ebay's free postage costs us more!!

nic_28

I have just returned to ebay after a 6 week absence. I sell books. I buy them, mostly from charity shops, and when I have read them, sell them on.

I have just tried to list a set of 3 books in the fiction/book catergory. When I have come to the postage part, I selected 2nd class and put in a price of £2.75(for 3 books) when I went to confirm my listing it stated that the maximum amount for postage I was allowed to charge was £0.00! They no longer allow you to charge the buyer the posatge and packaging fees!

I didn't really understand so I phoned the customer service team. The advisor told me that due to over inflated poostage prices, ebay had decided that if you were listing a book you had to offer free postage. She then told my to add in my postage price to the 'starting' price.

Originally, to list one book at 99p, and postage at £1.75 would have cost me 0p. The final value fee would have been 10% (10p) so to sell my book would have cost me 10p all together. Now, to list my 99p book and my £1.75 postage fee in the starting price would be £2.74, the insertion fee jumps to 25p, the final value fee is therefore 27p, taking the cost of selling my book to 52p a 400% increase!!!:eek::eek::eek::eek:


Just wondering if anyone was in the same boat??


Nic

borders

Wasn't aware of this change. Like yourself I quite often sell on books but haven't done it for a while.

I would list at 10p and charge more for my postage (£2.25) to balance it out. Guess it's the likes of me that ebay are trying to get the money from.

BargainGalore

I had this with a game I sold couldnt charge £2 delivery, even though it turned out 1st class recorded was £2.35 to send. I had to add it to cost of sell. What I couldn't work out some people were allowed to charge delivery and some were not for the same game.

Dont think I use ebay again for selling. I think the costs and final fees plus paypal put me off selling a again

soolin

The announcement about changes to media and P and P was made in June this year and we have been discussing it for some months now over on the ebay board. There is currently a sticky thread about some other upcoming changes as well that mightbe worth a browse.

Just remember though that the free listings for private sellers listing at 99p or less has only been in place a year, before then private sellers were paying for all listings regardless.

You could always try Amazon or Greenmetropolis for books, again there are threads on the ebay board for them with useful tips.

nikki2804

I have seen people selling items with free P&P and then in the item description stating that they will add a certain amount to the final invoice for posting if this helps?

jasonwatkins

You can select "big/bulky item" in the postage and name the postage costs in the item description.

I had to do this for a collection of cassettes that i'm trying to sell for my sister - the postage cost would have been £4.50 otherwise.

soolin

nikki2804 wrote: »

I have seen people selling items with free P&P and then in the item description stating that they will add a certain amount to the final invoice for posting if this helps?

Not allowed i'm afraid, please see discussions on the ebay board. This will get you shut down and there are also vigilante buyers out there fed up of sellers trying to get round the rules.

Also, since buyer doesn't have to pay what is a seller going to do when buyer wins pays book costs and refuses to pay more

jasonwatkins wrote: »

You can select "big/bulky item" in the postage and name the postage costs in the item description.

I had to do this for a collection of cassettes that i'm trying to sell for my sister - the postage cost would have been £4.50 otherwise.

It is perfectly acceptable to use a courier for heavy items and that is what that means if you tick 'courier' for heavy items rather than state free postage, but I would be interested in knowing the name of your courier please if he can beat a RM cost of £4.50. There is a parcel thread on the ebay board but there is nothing under £6 at the moment and I have a few books that I wouldn't mind using a courier for.

Also of course should a seller state that item is going to be sent by courier but actually uses RM then they are likely to get a negative as that breaches ebay rules as well. You canot say you are using a courier if you don't.

trrk

If you don't like the new rules your best option is to wait until a free listing day and just everything then. I used to sell books and DVDs (all stuff I've read or watched and don't need to keep) but now I only list them on free listing days. Some are also listed on Amazon and Greenmetroplis but these hardly ever sell (if your books are the sort that are available in most charity shops they
probably won't sell well on these sites either). Swapping books on Readitswapit is fun too.

Ebay has lost a lot of private sellers with these new rules but I don't think they actually care.

I brought a small item recently from another free postage category with 'courier' as the delivery method and it was sent using a single 2nd class stamp - taking the !!!! really!

negg

The Managing Director of eBay was on Working Lunch today and stated that products in the free postage sections are 'light' and buyers expect free delivery!

What a load of rubbish! I was going to sell series 1, 2 and 3 of Prison Break on there and they are not light!

lyndsey80

I think some people use EBid now. I have loads of stuff to sell, was on a roll for a while then got too busy to list things. Keep meaning to sign up to EBid and see how things go on there

deanos

negg wrote: »

The Managing Director of eBay was on Working Lunch today and stated that products in the free postage sections are 'light' and buyers expect free delivery!

No its because they can scam more fees from there customer base, simple.