ebay. Free to sell.

soolin

MR1988 said:

eBay forums are on fire!

I bet!
I daren't go on and look (I look but NEVER post) as I have too much to do and shouldn't spend hours trawling through the posts, but I'm tempted.

ThisIsWeird

I'd assumed 'no fees' just meant no listing charge. But it's literally no selling fees at all?

How will eBay make their money?

shapala

ThisIsWeird said:

I'd assumed 'no fees' just meant no listing charge. But it's literally no selling fees at all?

How will eBay make their money?

Biz sellers (like myself tho have a private a/c too) paying nearly 14% fvf, It's obvious eBay are realising they need to take Vinted seriously, having started with 0 fees for clothes not too long ago and now general fees (other than motors). As has been mentioned tho, what stipulations before they see you as a potential biz seller in disguise is still uncertain....ie, 1000 items sold p/a, or £1700 of sold items etc.

MR1988

I read an interesting response over on eBay forums that offering private sellers the ability to keep their money in like an eBay wallet so they can continue to shop and buy from eBay, means a lot of the private sellers will keep their money and not withdraw it and money sitting with eBay means they will gain interest on it. So I guess that is another way eBay will hope to be making money.

noitsnotme

MR1988 said:

I read an interesting response over on eBay forums that offering private sellers the ability to keep their money in like an eBay wallet so they can continue to shop and buy from eBay, means a lot of the private sellers will keep their money and not withdraw it and money sitting with eBay means they will gain interest on it. So I guess that is another way eBay will hope to be making money.

I don’t think it works like that.  For eBay to earn interest, the funds would need be saved/invested elsewhere, not sat in customers accounts.

ThisIsWeird

It does seem an astonishing move, but they'll obviously have worked it out as a good one for them. 

I don't begrudge eBay from making their cut, but have to say I often hold back from listing larger value sale items until their 80%-off offers come around. I wonder why they didn't just make that permanent instead - that would also likely boost sales, whilst still making them an 'amount'. 

I can't see the figures adding up for them by making it completely free, but I guess they've done the sums!

noitsnotme said:

I don’t think it works like that.  For eBay to earn interest, the funds would need be saved/invested elsewhere, not sat in customers accounts.

It will be 'saved and invested' somewhere - they'll have a good idea of how much money will be sitting in their large holding account at any time, and I bet it'll be a lot. It's like any bank - 'your' money is shown as being there for 'you' at any time, but the bank will actually be investing the larger amalgamated amount all the time - it's how they make their money.

I can absolutely see that many/most eBay users won't bother withdrawing sale sums unless it's a reasonable amount - I know that'll apply to me.

soolin

The withdrawing of funds issue seems to be more of an issue for sellers who perhaps joined ebay in the last 10 years or so. Those oldies like me that have been selling since the late 1990s are used to it as that's how it was when we started. Even when I used Amazon my funds were held for a certain period. 

When paypal was brought it, and it was later than ebay UK being launched, your funds went into Paypal and you were charged if you withdraw anything less than £50, so smaller sellers had to leave their money there or use it to spend on other things. Then that was changed to free withdrawals a few years later - and then of course more recently managed payments were bought in with immediate withdrawals for any amount.

Basically it all just goes round and round. 

se2020

This free selling has been trialed on the German ebay site.

Don't remember the actual figures but something like:
It increased private sales by 70% 
That's via a combination of new sellers and new listings from existing private sellers.

Of those sales 80%+ of the funds got re-spent on the site with business sellers. 

Ebay made more money. 


It should be good for both private and business sellers. 
But, the German trial was only 3mths long.
I have a lot of stuff to sell on my private account and I'll certainly list more now I'm not waiting for a promotion.  I'll probably spend most of the proceeds on ebay as well.
But I don't think I have enough stuff to last more than 6 months so I don't know how it will work when all the sellers like me run out of tatt?

Maybe they hope I will have got into the habit of buying from ebay and will start funding purchases from my bank account (I won't)

Or maybe they hope I will enjoy selling so much I decided to source some stock and become a business seller?

GadgetGuru

soolin said:

The withdrawing of funds issue seems to be more of an issue for sellers who perhaps joined ebay in the last 10 years or so. Those oldies like me that have been selling since the late 1990s are used to it as that's how it was when we started. Even when I used Amazon my funds were held for a certain period. 

When paypal was brought it, and it was later than ebay UK being launched, your funds went into Paypal and you were charged if you withdraw anything less than £50, so smaller sellers had to leave their money there or use it to spend on other things. Then that was changed to free withdrawals a few years later - and then of course more recently managed payments were bought in with immediate withdrawals for any amount.

Basically it all just goes round and round. 

Yes I remember eBay being like this, and I actually prefer it. I can use my selling cost to purchase my label, or any other items I was looking to buy from eBay without having to use my bank/card at all. 
Or keep saving the amount up and withdraw in one lump sum. 
It easy enough to withdraw the money to your account whenever you wish to do so. 
I see this as a positive move. 

soolin

GadgetGuru said:

Usoolin said:

The withdrawing of funds issue seems to be more of an issue for sellers who perhaps joined ebay in the last 10 years or so. Those oldies like me that have been selling since the late 1990s are used to it as that's how it was when we started. Even when I used Amazon my funds were held for a certain period. 

When paypal was brought it, and it was later than ebay UK being launched, your funds went into Paypal and you were charged if you withdraw anything less than £50, so smaller sellers had to leave their money there or use it to spend on other things. Then that was changed to free withdrawals a few years later - and then of course more recently managed payments were bought in with immediate withdrawals for any amount.

Basically it all just goes round and round. 

Yes I remember eBay being like this, and I actually prefer it. I can use my selling cost to purchase my label, or any other items I was looking to buy from eBay without having to use my bank/card at all. 
Or keep saving the amount up and withdraw in one lump sum. 
It easy enough to withdraw the money to your account whenever you wish to do so. 
I see this as a positive move. 

I mentioned somewhere that for my private sales I prefer the rolling balance as it means I can use funds to pay for labels but know that everything showing in my balance is entirely mine to withdraw or spend. At the moment I use PayPal or a bank account for my labels so have to remember to account for them in my bank balance - this way only payments will be going into my bank now without all the PayPal label costs showing separately. 

My business account remains unaffected as I run that slightly differently.