MSE News: eBay sellers beware - its fees now eat into postage costs

cj2011

soolin wrote: »

Tax threshold?

Paying tax is not the same as needing to declare yourself both as a business to HMRC and registering as such on eBay.

There is no exemption from tax for hobby selling, nor is there a lower limit below which you do not need to register.

Yup. I think a self-employed person may earn well over 5K a year before they need to pay tax BUT, as soolin is saying, that doesn't mean you don't have a duty to complete your tax returns just because you happen to earn under £5,000.

lovinituk

burnleymik wrote: »

I actually don't think there is any harm in the "vocal minority" trying to fight this, especially as eBay's reasons for the increase were so poor, i.e. the guys who charge all the cost to postage.

Talk about cracking a walnut with a sledge hammer.

Just because Amazon do it, doesn't make something right and charging a fee for a service they, nor you provide is taking the mickey somewhat..

It's no wonder these companies do whatever they want when so many just roll over and come forward with comments "if you don't like it sell elsewhere". What a fantastic place for the big businesses to be, a world without resistance to change.

The fact is ebay have you by the short and curlies, the buyers are so well looked after that they are happy with ebay and as sellers you have to be where the buyers are, so you are stuck with ebay pretty much as a viable auction site.

So why not try and fight something you see as unfair seeing as though there are so few real alternatives?

Why waste my time in fighting something that hasn't affected me at all?! I've increased my prices where necessary to cover any extra costs and I'm still selling at the same rate I was selling at before. To be blunt, I really couldn't care less that the customers are having to pay more as long as I keep selling. Most of my competitors are raising their prices too and the ones that aren't are too small to worry about.

Overall I'm much better off. I have the Premium Service logo for all my listings which many of my competitors don't have so sales are up and I benefit from the free listings that now come with an ebay shop. Most of my listings have included 'free' shipping long before this latest change so if its now putting the thumb screws on my competitors and pushing them out of the market then thats fantastic as far as I'm concerned.

cj2011

lovinituk wrote: »

Most of my competitors are raising their prices too and the ones that aren't are too small to worry about.

Larger businesses are better equipped to cope with the added shipping expenses and/or price hikes, than private sellers. The eBay fees hit micro businesses and private sellers the most as they have less money to invest in storefronts, advertising, premium services etc. I also believe that larger businesses were already benefiting from lower final value fees than private sellers. Note that the new eBay fees cutting into the P&P is on top of the RM's recent price hikes. Before April 2013, a 2nd class large letter with recorded delivery would cost you around £1.48 (do correct me if I remember wrong). Since the changes, not only has the price of the stamp gone up to £2.20 (with recorded delivery), but you have to add 10% on top of this due to the new eBay fees, plus the 3.4% Paypal fees. That means you'll now have to charge £2.51 for P&P to just cover RMs, eBays AND Paypal fees for the shipping. Compare that to £1.53 (£1.48 + Paypal's fees) earlier this year - and I haven't yet taken the price of packaging into account. That means that a micro business would have to choose between putting up their prices by at least £1 or with last year's pricing, they would lose £1 per item sold to all the fees. It may not sound like a lot of money to lovinituk but the change could potentially be devastating to a micro seller as they would either make fewer sales with their higher pricing or make much less money per sale with more competitive prices.

So YOU may be better off (lovinituk) but many others may be hit hard by the combo of Royal Mail's and eBay's recent fee hikes.

lovinituk

cj2011 wrote: »

That means that a micro business would have to choose between putting up their prices by at least £1 or with last year's pricing, they would lose £1 per item sold to all the fees. It may not sound like a lot of money to lovinituk but the change could potentially be devastating to a micro seller as they would either make fewer sales with their higher pricing or make much less money per sale with more competitive prices.

Sorry to be blunt but that's potentially less competition for me so I'm really not bothered. As I said previously, eBay is not a dog given right for anyone, private seller, small business or large business. If you can't afford to sell on there any more then quite frankly its tough luck.

We're not exactly a large business by the way. A limited company yes, but the business consists of me and my wife, that's it. And its not called lovinituk, that's just my username here.

Percy1983

cj2011 wrote: »

Larger businesses are better equipped to cope with the added shipping expenses and/or price hikes, than private sellers. The eBay fees hit micro businesses and private sellers the most as they have less money to invest in storefronts, advertising, premium services etc. I also believe that larger businesses were already benefiting from lower final value fees than private sellers. Note that the new eBay fees cutting into the P&P is on top of the RM's recent price hikes. Before April 2013, a 2nd class large letter with recorded delivery would cost you around £1.48 (do correct me if I remember wrong). Since the changes, not only has the price of the stamp gone up to £2.20 (with recorded delivery), but you have to add 10% on top of this due to the new eBay fees, plus the 3.4% Paypal fees. That means you'll now have to charge £2.51 for P&P to just cover RMs, eBays AND Paypal fees for the shipping. Compare that to £1.53 (£1.48 + Paypal's fees) earlier this year - and I haven't yet taken the price of packaging into account. That means that a micro business would have to choose between putting up their prices by at least £1 or with last year's pricing, they would lose £1 per item sold to all the fees. It may not sound like a lot of money to lovinituk but the change could potentially be devastating to a micro seller as they would either make fewer sales with their higher pricing or make much less money per sale with more competitive prices.

So YOU may be better off (lovinituk) but many others may be hit hard by the combo of Royal Mail's and eBay's recent fee hikes.

Just put the price up, everybody else on ebay on will have to do the same so no problem. If you can't figure a price to sell at and make a profit then just don't bother.

RFW

cj2011 wrote: »

You can be both a seller and a consumer at the same time. You're purchasing advertising space to sell your items, surely that is a kind of consumer contract between you and eBay.

It's a contract, not a consumer one. The consumers on Ebay are the buyers of products and they are the ones most protected.

RFW

lovinituk wrote: »

Sorry to be blunt but that's potentially less competition for me so I'm really not bothered. As I said previously, eBay is not a dog given right for anyone, private seller, small business or large business. If you can't afford to sell on there any more then quite frankly its tough luck.

We're not exactly a large business by the way. A limited company yes, but the business consists of me and my wife, that's it. And its not called lovinituk, that's just my username here.

It's also the case that the sellers that cost the most to 'look after' are now being charged the most. People who we read on here that don't like the idea of giving refunds under any circumstances, buyers paying return postage on faulty items, etc. There will always be an unfortunate few getting caught up but it does seem to be going in the right direction. Hopefully when the new search comes in many of the overseas sellers hogging wrong categories will start to disappear too.

Leety64

Hi as a private seller on ebay that doesnt charge excessive postage on my items I have just been stung by this new final value fee on postage charge I charged 30p extra and was stung by a 45p fvf - what I would like to know is it legal? I can understand ebay charging commission for using there website but they should not be able to touch postage costs? People generally know how much things cost to post and dont buy the items if the postage is excessive anyway and as a private seller I only add between 20-50p extra to cover costs of packaging and tape, and will now seriously consider not using this website anymore!

J45

lovinituk wrote: »

Sorry to be blunt but that's potentially less competition for me so I'm really not bothered. As I said previously, eBay is not a dog given right for anyone, private seller, small business or large business. If you can't afford to sell on there any more then quite frankly its tough luck.

We're not exactly a large business by the way. A limited company yes, but the business consists of me and my wife, that's it. And its not called lovinituk, that's just my username here.

My names Jack, are you alright? Shall I pull up the ladder now.

RFW

Leety64 wrote: »

Hi as a private seller on ebay that doesnt charge excessive postage on my items I have just been stung by this new final value fee on postage charge I charged 30p extra and was stung by a 45p fvf - what I would like to know is it legal?

You could find out Ebay's address and send the police round to check;)
You might also want to send them round to that body that makes VAT registered company have a 20% fee on their postage, Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs.