Ebay asking me to register as buisness seller

louie76

Hi
I have been selling things on Ebay for a while and today I have listed lots of individual items that are small toys,I have now got an email saying I need to register as a buisness seller,I just wondered if anyone could advise
I have registered but was a bit worried about tax etc. I looked at HMRC website and still was not sure how much you can have before you need to declare
Obviously I do not want to do anything wrong I just need to know what I should do so that I am not breaking any laws
Thanks for any advice

Louise

porto_bello

Hi. I'm worried this could happen to many people, simply clearing out:

How many items did you have listed when this email came?

Also, were they mainly cheap items for a few quid or more expensive things?

lindseykim13

you only need to register with hmrc if you are buying to sell on. Otherwise your just registered with ebay as a business so they can get more fees of you!

louie76

I have been a collector of allsorts of things over the years and as they build up and I need space ( or my OH moans ) so thgat is why I have sold them. The email came through as I had listed 100 items as they were small toys that I had collected so took me to a lot of listings

louie76

Yes they were all listed at 99p

kazwookie

You only get 100 per month at 99p, that are FOC,the trick IMO is to list 90 at 99p and the rest at £1.01 on a free listing weekend!

101 at 99p triggers the ebay mail

porto_bello

Many thanks Louise. I wonder if this is triggered by the number of listings or the number of sales or the value of either?

Being a free listing day, I have basically relisted every previously unsold item I have and added a sprinkling of new ones. There are about 50ish items, ranging in value from £2 to £200, with a total starting price of around £1,000.

Sales wise, I probably won't sell more than £100 worth (as I say, they are they are almost all unsold, relisted items). I wonder if I am ripe for an email from eBay too? Luckily, I sold the bulk of my things last year, before all this registering as a business kicked off!

PS - From what I read, so long as I list under 100 items a month, I should continue to qualify as a private seller (which I am). Could someone confirm this?

louie76

My friend just emailed and said it was beacause I had got to 100 listings.
She gets the emails and then ignores them and does not go to 100
I wonder if I cannow unregister as buisness seller

ps
thanks to everyone for help
Louise

soolin

kazwookie wrote: »

You only get 100 per month at 99p, that are FOC,the trick IMO is to list 90 at 99p and the rest at £1.01 on a free listing weekend!

101 at 99p triggers the ebay mail

No it doesn't, this is not automatic.

I get emails several times a month from people being forced to upgrade, some have been using all their 100 free listings a month plus a lot more paid for ones and carried on for months without the upgrade email. Others received the email having listed considerably less than 100 items a month.

So far all the ones I am aware of have been 2nd hand clothes sellers, this is the first toy seller I've seen being forced to upgrade.

I believe there may be a small amount of truth in the theory that these free listing days are to weed out the people to upgrade.

porto_bello

soolin wrote: »

I believe there may be a small amount of truth in the theory that these free listing days are to weed out the people to upgrade.

The cheeky so and so's!

soolin

porto_bello wrote: »

PS - From what I read, so long as I list under 100 items a month, I should continue to qualify as a private seller (which I am). Could someone confirm this?

I've seen people with considerably less than 100 items a month being forced to upgrade. I am also aware of 'private' sellers who are so obviously a business, and list loads who have not yet had the email. There is no reason behind the ebay emails, or if there is I haven't found it yet.

louie76 wrote: »

My friend just emailed and said it was beacause I had got to 100 listings.
She gets the emails and then ignores them and does not go to 100
I wonder if I cannow unregister as buisness seller

ps
thanks to everyone for help
Louise

If you ignore the email it simply blocks you from listing anymore, so your friend is obviously misunderstanding what is happening. There is no way of ignoring the email and carrying on. I am also not aware of anyone yet who has successfully appealed and been allowed to downgrade.