Warning to ebay sellers

Jackinbox99

vinylmusic wrote: »

I think that it's ok if they want to make their changes but how they go about it is wrong
To just block someone because they think they are running a business is a bit unfair. Not everyone keeps up with the community announcements.
It would be fairer to contact the seller beforehand by email or flashing up a notice which goes away after being read. We should have a chance to respond
Private sellers can easily sell 100 items in a month
I think ebay see it as an extra earner and take advantage of laws they throw at us.
I know for sure that selling private goods is not taxable
I asked inland revenue myself and they said I don't even have to mention personal goods sold on my tax return because they are not taxable so I think ebay is wrong in that respect

I agree. The notification I had was that business sellers posing to be private sellers and selling hundreds of items to the public were giving the users a bad experience.

Now, surely ebay should look at sellers feedback and use this to impliment the new rules? For example, ive sold 160 items on ebay this month - all items from either my house or garage which I dont need. Im not a business, just trying to clear my house out a bit. Ive had 100% positive feedback and the buyers are happy. So why should I be targeted and made to convert to a business seller account and pay more.

If someone was selling 100`s of the same cheap item month in and month out and had unhappy buyers, then in my opinion, yes, they are a business, the buyers are having bad experiences and therefore ebay should try and encourage the seller to be better.

amie

I'm a private seller on ebay, selling stuff we no longer use or stuff I've bought but never used, I'm concerned about this 100 listing per month cos when my stuff doesn't sell I just click relist - is this gonna count as my 100, so if I have 25 items, none of them sell so each week I relist - will that be my 100 used or is 100 new listings per month?

sarymclary

I've got a slightly different spin on this. I've cleared out a cupboard that was a dumping ground for outgrown clothes & stuff, etc. I've spent 3 days listing items, and now have about 40 items of clothing on there, along with some kids bedding sets. I was contacted by someone today asking if I would accept collection in person for items, as they live in the same town. They've now put a minimum bid on all my items listed at 99p! Now I'm a bit suspicious as to what kind of scam they may have going on? Has anyone else come across this? I'm assuming they're getting the items at 99p a lot of the time from local people, and then selling them on elsewhere, as I've noticed they ordered a job lot of garment bags on their own ebay, but haven't got feedback on there as a seller, so assume they have another account.

marleyboy

Surely if you had over 100 items a month to sell, each month, every month, your house must be overwhelmed, I think its a fair system, If you happen to have over 100 items, spread it over a couple of Months instead. As selling 100+ items every month, is more of a business venture than a private sale.

I imagine 100 items valued at 99p, would cost a fortune in postage alone. If I have 300 Dvd's I am not likely to spend the time listing each Dvd and selling them separately. It would be more of a burden than an asset for me to sell them unless sold in bulk.

Ebay is a business at the end of it all, genuine private sellers, sell whatever they have, buy whatever they want....and that's pretty much it, they are not likely to buy items for the purpose of selling it on, nor are they likely to re-stock the attic once cleared, in preparation for the next Month. If they do, maybe its worthwhile having a business account, leaving the private sales much fairer for those wishing to sell items here or there, in smaller doses than an excessive 100 items each an every Month (1200 in just one Year).

Businesses will get round this by simply limiting their items to 99 a Month, (maybe do likewise), I would much rather ebay cleans up the clutter of sellers with 100 - 99p items, than those with a few bits n bobs that I might be interested in purchasing.

motorguy

sarymclary wrote: »

I've got a slightly different spin on this. I've cleared out a cupboard that was a dumping ground for outgrown clothes & stuff, etc. I've spent 3 days listing items, and now have about 40 items of clothing on there, along with some kids bedding sets. I was contacted by someone today asking if I would accept collection in person for items, as they live in the same town. They've now put a minimum bid on all my items listed at 99p! Now I'm a bit suspicious as to what kind of scam they may have going on? Has anyone else come across this? I'm assuming they're getting the items at 99p a lot of the time from local people, and then selling them on elsewhere, as I've noticed they ordered a job lot of garment bags on their own ebay, but haven't got feedback on there as a seller, so assume they have another account.

Doesnt sound like a scam to me - sounds like they are buying up local underpriced items and selling them on.

BigSister2008

i am moving abroad in september and am currently trying to sell everything in our house rather than ship it all.

Ebays new rule is really gonna disrupt this

kazwookie

BigSister2008 wrote: »

i am moving abroad in september and am currently trying to sell everything in our house rather than ship it all.

Ebays new rule is really gonna disrupt this

Open a 2nd account

sarymclary

pgilc1 wrote: »

Doesnt sound like a scam to me - sounds like they are buying up local underpriced items and selling them on.

So apart from ebay, where would they sell on 2nd hand clothes?
Is this someone taking advantage of ebays 99p free listing, and then listing them at a higher price afterwards would you think? It took me long enough to list them all, so I don't get it really. How would that make a viable business?

Victoriajayne

You have to remember, the original issue of this thread is not one of free listings, but regarding high volume listing.
Private sellers aren't going to be limited to 100 listings (unless their feedback is below 25...) - you're just going to be limited to 100 FREE listings a month, any over that quantity will be charged for.

Regarding the issue of high volume listing for private sellers, I wonder what the cut-off point is ?
OP, can you recall how many listings you'd uploaded before it flagged up a problem ?

I would guess that it's going to trigger a Private/Business seller review when you have multiple listings of similar items (say a large number of listings within the same category, e,g, CD's) ... 100 entirely different items from a house clearance spread over several different categories may not trigger a review at all.

It would just be nice to know the criteria !!!

sarymclary

I seem to recall being told that once your feedback reached 500 it was immediately tagged by ebay, who would then offer the information to the Inland Revenue. Presumably ebay have taken their own initiative here, and decided that high volume accounts immediately fit into the business category.
The only way round this, that I can see, would be to have multiple accounts, and spread the sales across them. Use one each month would probably suffice. I know someone who was in receipt of disability benefit after a work injury, and their ex partner decided to report them to the DWP for benefit fraud due to using their ebay account to sell items. They were interviewed under caution, but nother ever came of it, despite them doing a 'sweep' of the banking system after the interview determined to find the hidden money. There wasn't any of course, it was all personal stuff sold.