Ebay's free postage costs us more!!

daniel_owen_uk

It's clearly a scam to increase the listing fees.

Otherwise they would have simply capped the postage, rather than only allowing free postage.

realshannon

Hi, it isnt just books and DVDs - I have just listed a woolly hat (unwanted xmas present) and had the same! very strange and their help window doesnt help - I read it several times, why doesnt it just say in plain english ie change your starting price but I suspect I wont sell anything this batch - of course you have to add on a little for packing and travel to the post office - I normally stick on a £1 which isnt alot with the time etc involved and at the end of the day if the seller doesnt like the charges they dont have to buy it

soolin

daniel_owen_uk wrote: »

It's clearly a scam to increase the listing fees.

Otherwise they would have simply capped the postage, rather than only allowing free postage.

Post and packing on books was capped for about a year, all that happened is that a number of sellers just put the maximum postage on every book they sold.

cyberbob

jasonwatkins wrote: »

All of my listings finished last night, 3 items sold and i'm going to come out of it about £3 quid down all told.

Not much I accept, but when you're as skint as I am, it's certainly significant

But thats your own fault for not starting at prices that you can at least cover costs. If you cant do that there is no point selling them.

Bluesbot

I used to sell on ebay a couple of years ago as my mountain of books was a little too large and I needed to make a liitle spare cash at the time, now my book mountain has regrown again but having made a couple of sales on ebay this time around its seems I would make as much cash by giving them away.
Its a shame that ebay seem to have alienated the same type of person who helped made it the success it is today. Considerably harsh considering the state of the economy as it is today
Before long I expect there will no doubt be a contender for ebays crown - well theres wishful thinking any how

Eyesparky

Ebay have stated a number of times lately that it is their intended aim to move away from traditional auction style transactions towards selling more buy it now new items from higher volume sellers. Seems a shame, as their entire business was built on auction sales of varying value ... I think their strategic management consultants have sold them a straight boomerang in an attempt to take on Amazon, and they are going to completely destroy their core business. Oh, and I for one am sick of the little pop up telling me to buy from reputable sellers ... I have my own abilities to judge such things thanks . As others have said, with the old postage system I could always see when someone was taking the proverbial with postage and duly avoid them. It wasn't difficult ... All my books listed on Amazon and all my second hand purchasing of books (significant amount) moved to Amazon. Their fees bite a tad, but they only hit when a sale is made and sale price plus postage allowance (not always enough to cover postage, but heh) are transferred to account on dispatch. Amazon are far from perfect but Ebay's policy has made me try out a competitor seriously and if they provide what I want, goodbye ebay for books (and maybe DVDs ... trying them out too).