Warning to ebay sellers

Jackinbox99

marleyboy wrote: »

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.

Depends upon what you are selling as to how much room it takes up in your house. In my case I have loads of old magazines, books, comics in my loft which I want to get rid off, plus old clothes, shoes, car parts, toys, all sorts really. Its amazing where you hide it all. For me, if I look at this last 12 months, ive sold nothing on ebay at all until this last month when ive sold about 160 items in 1 month. Once ive got rid of all this rubbish I probably wont sell much again on ebay for ages. So, for me, it would be fairer for ebay to say "if you sell over 100 items a month for 3 months then you are a business and have to pay for it". As clearly my ebay history shows that im just having a spring cleaning session, rather than making a living out of it.

marleyboy

You have two choices, either sell these magazines in bulk, or split them up to a max of 100 a month, I think ebay are being more than fair, at least you get to sell 100 of them for free, you could try Loot or the local newspapers if your not happy with ebay.

I cannot imagine selling a magazine, posting it off and making any profit from it, but if I could do that times 100 for free, I would be more than satisfied, I cannot imagine having another 100 next Month, and the Month after that, but were that the case, individual sales of a magazine I have over 300 of, would pretty much take me well over a Month just to sell some of them, anything above 100 per Month, I would expect to have to pay for (how many do you think Loot would allow?).

Whether a case of spring cleaning or not, I cannot accept each Month your spring cleaning is going to amass another 100 items, maybe after a Year (if your lucky), you could amass so much stuff you need to sell it, but Monthly?

If indeed the answer is yes, you might as well open a second hand shop, Ebay has to draw the line somewhere with private and business selling, I think 100 per month is being somewhat over-generous when it comes to private sales, the majority of trusted private ebay sellers, would be stretched to sell anything more than 1 or 2 items in a week and even that's not "per" week.

100 a Month, every Month is well above what any private sellers needs, anymore than that is only fair you have to pay for the privilege.

Amanda1TJ

I am also a personal seller that has been requested to upgrade otherwise I will no longer be able to list.

My thoughts on this matter is that eBay are not providing sufficient information in relation to the requirements that they use to judge whether you are a business. When I have requested what they would like to prove that I am an individual who is selling off my collection of teddy bears, there has been no response. They only keep replying with the stock statement that for the good of the community those business who are listing as private sellers must upgrade to represent themselves correctly. The last email I got said that they would no longer reply to me - so helpful! If only we all could reply with that when things get difficult and you can't answer the question!

I have a couple of issues with this both from a legal standpoint and from eBay's own terms and conditions:

Legally, I am not a business and am therefore not subject to the Distance Selling Regulations or the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading regulations, but eBay are forcing me to adhere to them.

From a terms and conditions perspective eBay state [FONT=&quot]"If you are registering with eBay as a business entity, you represent that you have the authority to legally bind that entity" which as I am not a business entity I do not have any authority to legally bind that entity and I will therefore be in breach of the terms and conditions by registering a business that eBay are requesting that I do.

I, like many of the other posters am literally having a clear out of my house and have listed quite a few items at 99p that have been selling really well.

Its just such a shame that they are tarring everyone with the same brush :mad: and not allowing you to defend yourself if you are a private seller.

Do you think there's anything that we can do to take it further?
[/FONT]

soolin

Amanda1TJ wrote: »

I[FONT=&quot]

Do you think there's anything that we can do to take it further?
[/FONT]

I would think not.

Vote with your feet, go elsewhere or if there isn't anywhere else to go stay and try and work within these new regulations.

cyberbob

Amanda1TJ wrote: »

Its just such a shame that they are tarring everyone with the same brush :mad: .

Blame it on all those business's who have been taking the !!!!

marleyboy

Amanda1TJ wrote: »

[FONT=&quot]I, like many of the other posters am literally having a clear out of my house and have listed quite a few items at 99p that have been selling really well.

Its just such a shame that they are tarring everyone with the same brush :mad: and not allowing you to defend yourself if you are a private seller.

Do you think there's anything that we can do to take it further?
[/FONT]

Not everyone, I cannot say I have been tarred with that brush, nor any of my ebayer friends, most likely because us private sellers don't even nearly exceed 100 items in a Month.

However there is a pretty simple solution, limit your selling habits to 99 per Month, or upgrade your account allowing you to exceed this "quite generous" limit that private sellers now have to stick to.

If you want to take it any further, there is always Loot or your local newsagent window, you could even try doing a carboot sale (where there are NO limits), you couldn't get much further than that

StaffsSW

sarymclary wrote: »

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.

Not sure how you heard about the 500 feedback, but I have two accounts with around 1000 feedback each, and not a single item has been sold on either!
With regards the Inland Revenue, eBay do not routinely pass on information, but will actively co-operate with any requests received from HMRC or the DWP.

HMRC however do actively patrol for VAT evaders - this is a much more "lucrative market" for them than actively hunting down the private sellers, however they do seem to follow up very quickly on any tip-offs received.

The trigger for the email requesting upgrade is not disclosed for obvious reasons, but I have heard (on what I would consider good authority), that it is is based on a 3 or 6 month rolling figure of successful sales, rather than number of items listed, as well as reports from other members, and excessive number of new items/multiple item BIN listings.

Amanda1TJ

Once eBay have considered you to be a business, there is no way back - you have to register as one otherwise you can no longer list any more items - that's 1 or 100 items more after their deadline to upgrade passes on the account. So unfortunately, limiting my listings wont help me or anyone else targeted going forward.

By my comment relating to being tarred by the same brush, I was indicating those sellers who are business operating under a private account. I am not a business but am being treated or accussed as being one without any opportunity to defend myself like a number of other people. This is what I was considering for taking things further as I am not being treated fairly as a consumer, which is ironic when you think that eBay is citing this as the driver for my "voluntary" forced upgrade!

eBay haven't published that the limit is 100 items in a month - they wouldn't confirm what the limit was to me to be considered as a business. The 100 amount is the threshold before you are charged for your listings on a monthly basis which indicates that eBay are hoping for listings over this amount to make some more in fee's and / or limit the listings for individuals.

I'm curious what eBay are going to do once there is an issue with transactions when a private seller has been requested to upgrade their account as under the legislation even if you have been forced into declaring yourself as a business seller but are actually an individual, surely you cannot be held to the distance selling regulations / SOGA as the law does not consider you as a business?

I think I may talk with my feet, although it doesn't seem fair that eBay are forcing inappropriate regulations onto its members without any recourse.

vinylmusic

Once upon a time, around 1995 onwards ebay was a very friendly online community of private sellers almost like an online garage sale.

Now ebay has grown too big for its boots, It's sold out to big business.

Big business has bought out ebay and ebay has bought out all the competition

Private sellers are no longer as important to them and are they slowly being squeezed out.

I am sure if looked at more closely the competition commission could see their practices as an unfair monopoly

StaffsSW

Did someone mention the "M" word...

:doh: