What changes should I expect going from personal to business?

marking_bad

I know about having to have a return policy. Do I really pay less in fees though (kinda pointless now they charge for postage but I'll take whatever I can get).

Do I really have to have my personal address on every listing? Talk about an invasion of privacy, fine if you own a warehouse or something.

Can I really never list anything at auction for free anymore? Pretty much kills any low value stuff that may or may not have sold, will take those to a charity shop if they'll take them then. Otherwise the bin?

What about royal mail compensation, am I eligible for that still?

celestius

Are you opening a shop as well?

As a business you can still claim from RM, you can only claim for the purchase price, not the sale price.

marking_bad

What does having a shop entail, apart from what seems to be a discount for paying up front for listing fees?

I only plan to be selling for a month or two, if that helps, this isn't a long term thing.

sequence

Pretty much everything stays the same, except buyer expectations, who will now expect dispatch the day before they ordered. You can get TRS discount of 15% on your FVF, if you sell a lot.

mrcol1000

I have recently started an Ebay business. You pay more in fees as you don't get free listings for items under 99p or free weekend promotions. You do have to put your address on everything. Well Ebay do it for you. They limit your account to 10 items a month till you confirm your address.

However I have noticed that people will bid a lot more for items and its easier to sell buy it now items.

I made the mistake of starting a new ebay ID for my business. Ebay have limited me to 100 items a month. I have contacted Ebay and they will not increase the limit as they are worried I may struggle to keep up with orders despite being on Ebay for years. I have to wait another 3 months before its lifted!

So I thought screw them and using my personal account to sell. I still do returns though and recording sales under the business but saving on fees till I can use my business account properly.

Strapped

marking_bad wrote: »

I know about having to have a return policy. Do I really pay less in fees though (kinda pointless now they charge for postage but I'll take whatever I can get).

Do I really have to have my personal address on every listing? Talk about an invasion of privacy, fine if you own a warehouse or something.

Can I really never list anything at auction for free anymore? Pretty much kills any low value stuff that may or may not have sold, will take those to a charity shop if they'll take them then. Otherwise the bin?

What about royal mail compensation, am I eligible for that still?

Open a second (personal) ebay account and buy on that, and sell your second hand personal items on it on the free listing weekends. Keep the business account for selling business items. If you become TRS then you save fees. If you can't/don't want to get TRS then you will probably still find you make more sales than from a personal account.

iammumtoone

If you are a business (ie buying/making to sell) do you HAVE to have a ebay business account? or is it accectable to run on a personal account as long as you declare to the tax man? I ask because I see loads of items advertised on personal accounts which are clearly business items (handmade, 20 of the same item etc).

theonlywayisup

Ebay have their own rules on business accounts.

You should be HMRC compliant and SHOULD have a business account on ebay to satisfy EU legislation.

ballisticbrian

If you are a business (ie buying/making to sell) do you HAVE to have a ebay business account?

Yes, for a coupler of reasons. First eBay will move the account to business anyway if you list more than x items in any given category and it's not many though I can't remember the exact figure.


Secondly, you have to declare you're a business by law if indeed you are.

Thirdly, the rules are different on eBay not just for returns but all manner of things, and you will see posts on here of peeved sellers pointing at people not declaring themselves properly.

marking_bad

What are the "all manner of things" please?

ballisticbrian

That's something someone puts when they don't want to go into a diatribe - sorry. But you know, the listing fees change, the law on distance selling regs, etc.