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

N1AK

I don't really see the problem with this change. Postage is handled poorly by eBay. 99% of the time I want to know what buying the item costs and eBay makes it difficult to compare items with free postage and various different postage rates. Obviously they should have fixed that years ago.

Additionally some people were blatantly abusing the fee exemption on postage which is hardly eBay's fault and this should limit that in future.


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What I do think needs highlighting in the original article is that adding the fees to the postage is not against eBay's rules.

It may be a slightly grey area but it is neither on the list of things you may include or list of things you may not. It is standard practice to factor in paypal fees when calculating postage and now adding the eBay fee will be as well.

RFW

N1AK wrote: »

I don't really see the problem with this change. Postage is handled poorly by eBay. 99% of the time I want to know what buying the item costs and eBay makes it difficult to compare items with free postage and various different postage rates. Obviously they should have fixed that years ago.

Additionally some people were blatantly abusing the fee exemption on postage which is hardly eBay's fault and this should limit that in future.


- - -
What I do think needs highlighting in the original article is that adding the fees to the postage is not against eBay's rules.

It may be a slightly grey area but it is neither on the list of things you may include or list of things you may not. It is standard practice to factor in paypal fees when calculating postage and now adding the eBay fee will be as well.

With the latter part of this anyone over inflating postage is likely to be marked down in the detailed seller ratings which can affect continued selling on Ebay.

As for the first part it has been possible to search on price including postage for some time.

Road_Hog

N1AK wrote: »

- - -
What I do think needs highlighting in the original article is that adding the fees to the postage is not against eBay's rules.

It may be a slightly grey area but it is neither on the list of things you may include or list of things you may not. It is standard practice to factor in paypal fees when calculating postage and now adding the eBay fee will be as well.

I will be adding the fees and I'll probably end up getting kicked off (I'm not bothered about this) but I wonder what the thought process is that goes through the buyer's mind. When s/he starts giving out the low scores. Does it cross their mind what they are doing, do they think, I bought from this seller because only he had the item I wanted, he was selling at a price I liked and it arrived as described and I'll not be able to buy from him again, because I and others all got brainwashed by ebay and their free P&P lie.

Wywth

There's probably no point charging P&P anymore for most items.

The only reason previously was that the p&p was exempt from ebay fees.

So yes, probably most people will just lump the p&p into the selling price and offer 'free' p+p. I know I will.
(I usually list by total cost incl p+p anyway when looking for a specific item, so no advantage have p+p separate)

The only time when additional p+p would be considered appropriate is if something was sold with the option of free collection by buyer (I don't usually partly because of the paypal scams associated with collection)
Even if I did, and ebay fees cannot be added to p+p, then they would have to be added to base price, so person who collects will be paying me the fee ebay would have charged me on p+p even if they opt to collect.

Also, free p+p means automatic 5* for p+p

Wywth

wpeteraces wrote: »

A few months ago I bought a car part on ebay for 1p, postage was £120, which was the value of the part. The seller was simply using the system to avoid paying fees and this is why ebay have now changed the system, as they were losing out on fees!
I consider the 10% Ebay fee for selling too high and now sell by other means.

It's probably people like you who encouraged such behaviour by a small number of ebay sellers that really made ebay decide to ruin it for everyone


Me? I would have reported the seller for avoiding ebay fees, and moved onto a more reputable ebayer to buy from.

campdave

Wywth wrote: »

There's probably no point charging P&P anymore for most items.

I sell items for 99p with postage at cost on top. It's not worth my postage price into the item price as I offer free postage on subsequent items and do quite well out of it - adding "free" postage makes my unit price almost double and the likelihood of additional sales lower.

I do get occasional low DSR from people who don't appreciate how much a LL stamp costs, but on the whole my model works well, and I am of the opinion customers would prefer cheaper combined postage than more expensive "free" postage on additional items.

I'm a featured shop, so now get 1200 free listings per month, which will cover about 75% of the extra cost of the postage FVF that have been implemented. A small reduction in my FVF in my category means I save 1p on my FVF item fees, which over the 2500 or so items I sell per month will cover a good chunk of the rest of it. Back of fag packet calculations suggest I'll be about 10% up on FVF compared to before, which I'd rather not pay, but so be it.

martinsnest

campdave wrote: »

I sell items for 99p with postage at cost on top. It's not worth my postage price into the item price as I offer free postage on subsequent items and do quite well out of it - adding "free" postage makes my unit price almost double and the likelihood of additional sales lower.

I do get occasional low DSR from people who don't appreciate how much a LL stamp costs, but on the whole my model works well, and I am of the opinion customers would prefer cheaper combined postage than more expensive "free" postage on additional items.

I'm a featured shop, so now get 1200 free listings per month, which will cover about 75% of the extra cost of the postage FVF that have been implemented. A small reduction in my FVF in my category means I save 1p on my FVF item fees, which over the 2500 or so items I sell per month will cover a good chunk of the rest of it. Back of fag packet calculations suggest I'll be about 10% up on FVF compared to before, which I'd rather not pay, but so be it.

The fact that buyers can mark you on postage & effect your ebay status is totally unacceptable. There is no comeback at all and you cant even find out who left the scores!! People can really just score on how they feel on the day. Most of the time I,m sure they cant remember what postage they paid! Ebay are a joke.

campdave

It doesn't help that my items are small, but not small enough to post at letter rate.

I use stamps that have the price printed on them, which has improved my scores as more people actually can see how much I've paid to post the item, but ask a random person how much the large blue stamp with a 2 on it costs, and they wouldn't have a clue - large postage rises over the last 2 years haven't helped.

That's the problem - I've spoke to ebay about it, and they said about free postage but when I explained what I sell and how I sell, they saw my point, not that's there anything that can be done about it!

martinsnest

Yes I'm the same as you. Until you come to post things I dont think the majority of people realise how expensive postage is. Especially if you want a tracking number its ridiculous. Without a tracking number ebay can just claim the money back if the buyer says they didnt receive it! Proof of posting is not good enough.

Road_Hog

martinsnest wrote: »

Yes I'm the same as you. Until you come to post things I dont think the majority of people realise how expensive postage is. Especially if you want a tracking number its ridiculous. Without a tracking number ebay can just claim the money back if the buyer says they didnt receive it! Proof of posting is not good enough.

Yep, if you want to send even the smallest lightest parcel, it's now about £4.50 cost. That's £3.70 actual stamp, 20p for a Jiffy bag (I know bulk sellers can get them for less) and the best part of 15% to cover ebay/paypal costs. I won't even send a 99p item on a non signed for service, it just isn't worth the trouble. Maybe they should have an opt out of buyer protection for low value items, to keep the postage costs down. Let's face it, a seller with a decent amount of feedback, is hardly going to rip someone off for a couple of quid.

It never used to be like this, you could send stuff without all the signed for, but ebay have encouraged a culture of scammers. They've also encouraged the compensation culture, "are you slightly pee'd off with the seller, then hit them hard". There is certainly no culture of, "have you had good service, did you find an item that you liked, that perhaps you couldn't find anywhere else? Then reward them with good scores, let's encourage these sellers to find items that you want".

When it comes to ebay, it is all negative these days, everything is bad, bad, bad. I realise that the buyer experience is important, but there is a balance to be achieved.