Ebay asking me to register as buisness seller

porto_bello

Thanks Soolin. - Gosh, it sounds like eBay is turning away its active private sellers, presumably for them to migrate to eBid. That doesn't sound like a successful long-term business plan to me!

soolin

porto_bello wrote: »

Thanks Soolin. - Gosh, it sounds like eBay is turning away its active private sellers, presumably for them to migrate to eBid. That doesn't sound like a successful long-term business plan to me!

I don't believe ebid are going to profit out of this anytime soon, they haven't so far in fact they are getting less sales in some categories than ever before.

porto_bello

soolin wrote: »

I don't believe ebid are going to profit out of this anytime soon, they haven't so far in fact they are getting less sales in some categories than ever before.

Still, if you're a former private seller on eBay, who has been banned from listing items unless you falsely claim to be a business, what else can you do?

An occasional sale on eBid sounds slightly more promising than zero sales on eBay!

payless

To me: - 100 items a month seems a lot for any "private seller"

soolin

porto_bello wrote: »

Still, if you're a former private seller on eBay, who has been banned from listing items unless you falsely claim to be a business, what else can you do?

An occasional sale on eBid sounds slightly more promising than zero sales on eBay!

I thik most sellers forced to upgrade do just that, upgrade and carry on selling. There is no difference at all in the way you are treated on ebay, except you don't get your 100 99p listings for free every month.

paying for listings on ebay has to be better than listing for free (and actually ebid has cost me a great deal more than ebay ever has) but never selling anything. We are not talking about ebid being a bit slower, we are talking zero sales, zip, nothing at all.

asset2004

porto_bello wrote: »

Still, if you're a former private seller on eBay, who has been banned from listing items unless you falsely claim to be a business, what else can you do?

An occasional sale on eBid sounds slightly more promising than zero sales on eBay!

I was told by ebay to upgrade recently :mad: as I'd been listing a number of items in all sort of categories.
I was simply using ebay as a way to declutter. I am not running a business but with several family members deaths and also grown up children it was time to start clearing some space. 100 items are not a lot a month.
I appealed but ebay were not interested and just sent an automated email. :mad:
I have since open a new ebay account, with a new email address & new paypal address etc
As a non business I did not want to upgrade, especially when most of my items are selling at the opening bid, by being charged to list I would make no money and the time and effort to list and photograph items wouldn't add up.

HTH

soolin

You could look at it another way. If they go for opening bid you are getting 99p per item, from which you are paying FVFs paypal fees etc, so making virtually nothing. If you paid to list and put the starting price up a bit you could actually make some money rather than just doing all this for pennies.

porto_bello

asset2004 wrote: »

I have since open a new ebay account, with a new email address & new paypal address etc

Pragmatically, that seems the only way around it - thank you for the tip.

I'm amazed eBay concludes that de-cluttering means a seller becomes a business? :huh:

louie76

100 items a month is only alot because I declutter a collection of toys that have over 100 in the sets and I listed individually

Oh well I will just have to take it on the chin and carry on

Thanks everyone

StaffsSW

lindseykim13 wrote: »

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!

Not quite true - the Final Value Fees are cheaper, and business sellers are also eligible for further discounts from the PS/TRS scheme.

Overall it is cheaper to be a business seller.