eBay "Buyer Protection Fees" (New charges for buyers from private sellers) - Details just recieved

RFW

001uk said:

“BUYERS’ PROTECTION” is a complete and utter RUSE! It’s a “BUYER’S PREMIUM”! (Coincidentally the same initials)!!

It’s a form of gaining extra revenue.

This SURCHARGE was introduced by auction houses in 1975. Seller’s fees were reduced to encourage more material onto the market. It was soon realised it didn’t make much difference so seller commissions & buyer premiums crept up and copied by other greedy auction houses. The average now anything from 10%-30% on each charge - not to mention (possible) Insurance fee, Lotting fee, Photographing fee and Unsold charge.

eBay’s BP is a wakeup call for “Private Sellers”!

For many and “one off” items it won’t make much of a difference. Buyers at auction just grin & bear it: there’s little or no choice.

Alas eBay pretty much have a monopoly. For auction material other sites don’t get the footfall = lower realizations. eBay’s mistake was offering free listings to Private Sellers: instead perhaps 300 free per month?

There’s still a lot of absolute rubbish listed clogging up the system ultimately incurring costs. Some listings could even be described as “aiding and abetting” and a lot of private sellers evading tax.

eBay would be better addressing issues of concern rather than tinkering with the system (which appears to justify certain staff salaries).

eBay know they’ve got us all over a barrel

I've not seen Ebay called a monopoly for a long time. There are so many decent other marketplaces. Around 15 years ago about 95% of my sales were on Ebay, now it's barely 2% of my online sales. I suppose as an auction space for private sellers it has some kind of monopoly but even then there are many other options.

On buyers premium, it dates back way before 1975. One of the original uses of a "guinea" was in auctions. They sold (usually) livestock in guineas (£1/1s) and the shilling went to the auctioneer as a buyers' premium. They still auction horses in guineas today, presumably still using it as a 5% buyers' premium.

I've been trying quite a few different marketplaces over the last year and this is a growing practice. On Wayfair I have to tell them the price I want back for an item and they set the retail price. I also have to use their shipping. TikTok shop is similar.

This does make me wonder if Ebay will be doing something with TikTok in the near future, or trying to copy them. Online trading is probably at the start of another round of big changes. Ebay seem to be trying to stay ahead of the curve this time around.

Tommo2448

If you have a few hours to spare, go over to the main Ebay seller forum (https://community.ebay.co.uk/t5/Seller-Central/bd-p/27). There are several threads there on various aspects of this, that are each hitting well into hundreds of comments and over 10K views...many unanswered questions and much concern (some valid, some not so much).   We are in for an interesting few months.

Moving fees from sellers to buyers were tried early in 2024 on Delcampe, a European postcard/stamp marketplace where I sell, and buyer demand is down very significantly.   They also introduced fees per item, not per transaction, which is also bad for collectables.   It will be interesting to see how Ebay buyers react.

soolin

Tommo2448 said:

If you have a few hours to spare, go over to the main Ebay seller forum (https://community.ebay.co.uk/t5/Seller-Central/bd-p/27). There are several threads there on various aspects of this, that are each hitting well into hundreds of comments and over 10K views...many unanswered questions and much concern (some valid, some not so much).   We are in for an interesting few months.

Moving fees from sellers to buyers were tried early in 2024 on Delcampe, a European postcard/stamp marketplace where I sell, and buyer demand is down very significantly.   They also introduced fees per item, not per transaction, which is also bad for collectables.   It will be interesting to see how Ebay buyers react.

The difference on eBay though is that there is no change at all for business sellers who form the majority of sales on eBay. I’m surprised at how many people there are who either still think this is applied across the board, or that selling on eBay for private sellers has always been completely free. Private sellers have of course only had free selling for 3 months after all. 

I suspect after the initial panic and doom mongering, a few private sellers will disappear as their items won’t sell, and a few ‘private’ sellers who are actually businesses will either upgrade to a business account or have to drop their prices to be competitive against properly registered businesses. 

It isn’t a popular move among private sellers, but it’s good news for businesses. 

It might be different if in the future they roll out buyers fees across ‘all’ sellers, then I think eBay may face real issues. 

daddyelf

soolin said:

It might be different if in the future they roll out buyers fees across ‘all’ sellers, then I think eBay may face real issues. 

As a thought if it was imposed with an iron rod, yes you are correct, however if it were to ever be contemplated a reduction in business seller fees to offset it would be required, and also if they were smart they could make it perhaps an optional thing eg Some sellers may say no I will absorb the buyers premium, therefore their fees remain the same, where as others could say I am only going to pass 2% on and get a 2% reduction in fees, or others no I will have the 4% reduction in fees and pass the full buyers premium on to the purchaser.

A_Martian_Spider

I'm a private seller, in anticipation of downsizing, I'm selling a collection of used, vintage items not listed by anyone else. Is this fee applicable to overseas buyers? Also, I use the GSP for overseas sales, will the delivery date be when an item is received at the UK depot or when it is received by the buyer?
Any help would be appreciated.

soolin

A_Martian_Spider said:

I'm a private seller, in anticipation of downsizing, I'm selling a collection of used, vintage items not listed by anyone else. Is this fee applicable to overseas buyers? Also, I use the GSP for overseas sales, will the delivery date be when an item is received at the UK depot or when it is received by the buyer?
Any help would be appreciated.

Yes all your buyers will see the higher figure including the fees. As per the announcement if using GSP you  receive  your money 2 days after arrival at the EBay hub. 

prowla

So, it's really an eBay buyer's tax.

caprikid1

"So, it's really an eBay buyer's tax." 

Ultimately whether its a private seller or business seller all the buyer see's is the price they need to pay. If they are happy with it then great , if not they go to Amazon or look elsewhere.

A Private Seller has 4% + 75p added, a Business seller has shop fee's VAT and c15% fees plus the costs of running a business. 

Private sellers are still very much better off than they were six months ago for ebay sales. If an item is priced to sell at £20 they still get more profit that an item previously priced to sell at £20 6 months ago.

RFW

prowla said:

So, it's really an eBay buyer's tax.

Ebay's a business. They can get their profit however best it suits them. I'd guess they've been working on this for a while and it's a result of a lot of market research. As said above it's a shift from previous fees which would generally have been higher. They've done away with listing fees but essentially the final value fee is back but there's more clarity on what the seller receives and the buyer pays.
I may well be wrong but I can't see it making much difference, there'll probably be a bit of adjustment as buyers and sellers work out the difference.

Spoonie_Turtle

prowla said:

So, it's really an eBay buyer's tax.

Not really, we still pay the price we see, and we still get to choose the maximum we're prepared to pay for an item.