Ebay - Its now free to sell preowned clothes!

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head

GDB2222 said:

If I list my Makita drill in a clothing category, what would ebay do?

Now, possibly remove the listing, in a while when they've moved on to their next idea, nothing.

Policy enforcement has never been their strong point in the 20 years I've been selling on the site. 

Pollycat said:

I wonder why they have excluded footwear if they are trying to compete with Vinted?

eBay have this program:

https://pages.ebay.co.uk/authenticity-guarantee-sneakers/

I'd assume they'd rather take the fees on higher value shoes with the impression of a safe shopping experience than have the site full of manky shoes for £2.99 with no fees  

soolin

GDB2222 said:

All items listed in clothing categories on ebay.co.uk by UK private sellers are eligible for free selling. 

If I list my Makita drill in a clothing category, what would ebay do?

For obviously accidental mis categorising they tend to just start with a warning, I believe these warnings stay on your account for a year. A second warning, or if ebay think you are doing it deliberately could get you restricted or suspended.

As I mentioned earlier (I think on this forum!) I suspect a lot of people will be trying to mis categorise items, and I also suspect that we will see a lot of threads popping up with people moaning that they have been suspended and it isn't fair...

This happens on Vinted all the time, as they have a limited catalogue against which you can list people put things in all sorts of wrong categories. There are now endless threads where people have lost their accounts but apparently all they did was try and list ornaments under kitchen essentials, or craft items under books. 

soolin

Grumpelstiltskin said:

Soolin What are your thoughts on this?

I have in the past sold some of my son's vintage football and cricket shirts which I have listed under Sports Memorabilia.

Now that won't come under Clothing.

I looked last night and there are a few vintage football shirts listed under clothing, do you think sellers will cotton on and list more?
I cant see what a listing as 'Vintage 1998 Liverpool football shirt size Large' in Clothing will cause any problem and anyone putting vintage Liverpool football shirt in search will find it

I would think that as long as it is clothing you may be OK - even if no one would actually wear it , I think the issue would arise where for instance a football shirt is in a frame and becomes a collectable rather than clothing. I also have a suspicion that collectable items meant for display with a COA might easily get picked up by the bots and removed with a warning given.

Pollycat

GDB2222 said:

All items listed in clothing categories on ebay.co.uk by UK private sellers are eligible for free selling. 

If I list my Makita drill in a clothing category, what would ebay do?

with these exceptions:

All items listed in clothing categories on ebay.co.uk by UK private sellers are eligible for free selling. This excludes categories such as accessories, hats,  footwear, watches, bags and jewellery. 

Grumpelstiltskin

Soolin  Thanks for that, no they are not framed, they are wearable.

soolin

Against my own better judgement I actually listed an item of clothing on my private account last night. It was new with tags, but has sat in  my wardrobe for ages, so listed as new but stored. 

When listing it appears obvious now that 'any' clothing listed on a private account will be free as there is no need of course to indicate whether it is pre owned or not as private sellers should only be selling their own items anyway. I even looked at whether the system would let me list multiples - and it would - which is odd for a private account as it would seem unlikely that a private seller ought to have more than one item the same, or within the limited variations. 

There's nothing to say that the sale would be free of FVFs , unless I missed it somewhere on the listing (I used the app which I don't particularly like) . It would therefore seem that anyone listing on  a private account, whether properly registered or not, can sell for free- unless there is some clever mechanism that knocks out the free FVF offer when it sells(which seems unlikely).

soolin

It is interesting to see how many private sellers seem to have found shed loads of  popular high street brand clothes for sale. in any colour, any size . Some even saying that if the size you want isn't already listed then to contact the seller and they will get that size listed for them.

Someone on a local bargains group has even come up with a really clever plan for people to make money, apparently you go to TK Maxx and buy clothes, list them all on ebay as it's free, and then if they don't sell, just take them back for a refund. Luckily I didn't have to put my head above the parapet and ask the obvious question about business trading, but someone did- and the original poster, plus some other people said that they aren't trading as they don't have a shop or any staff- so there.

The thread is likely to be pulled very soon as it is becoming rather acrimonious , not only on the not trading comment, but also because some people have joined in saying that they use TK Maxx to buy higher end items for themselves at high street prices, but are now faced with re sellers just picking up armfuls of things- leaving less for legitimate buyers who can't otherwise afford nice things. 

EDIT - as I thought, thread became so unpleasant with name calling, threats to report to HMRC, really uncalled for slurs about people on low income using TK Maxx when they should be happy with Primark- that admin have pulled the thread. 

RedImp_2

Well I can at least confirm no fees were paid on a couple of items I had listed before the announcement finishing this weekend 

soolin

There’s quite an interesting thread on the eBay Uk discussion boards about the free clothing sales for private sellers. 

Look for the thread titled ‘ No Fees for selling Clothing?’ as I suspected there are a lot of very unhappy business sellers who are basically seeing their businesses likely to become uncompetitive.