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

sham63

martindow said:

I think there is some misunderstanding on this thread.  The fee is not added on to the sale price, but is included.  This is from Ebay's message

How the Buyer Protection fee works

• •	The fee will be included in the item price from private sellers, so there are no surprises at checkout.

• •	Buyers will pay up to 4% of the item price, plus £0.75.** For example, when they see an item for £20, the fee of £1.49 will already be part of the price.

The buyer in their example sees a price of £20 and that is what they pay.  It is a bit disingenuous to say that the buyer pays the protection fee as in effect the seller has it removed from their sale price, so they receive £18.51 in this example.

In this example the seller would have listed for £18.51 and Ebay bump the advertised price to £20. So the seller still gets what they expect. 

soolin

Netherspark said:

This is very confusing. Ebay are talking about this fee but at the same time they're still saying saying it's "free to sell".

It will be free to sell for private sellers, this new announcement concerns buyers, not sellers. 

savergrant

soolin said:

Netherspark said:

This is very confusing. Ebay are talking about this fee but at the same time they're still saying saying it's "free to sell".

It will be free to sell for private sellers, this new announcement concerns buyers, not sellers. 

That is rather like saying shops don't pay VAT on things they sell. VAT comes out of the money the buyer pays, so if I were a shop selling an item for £20 + VAT the buyer would have to pay £24 but I'd only receive £20. It still makes the item more expensive to buy. Not impressed that the old 30p transaction fee has now become 75p per item, most things I sell are under £5 so this is a hefty charge.

noitsnotme

soolin said:

Netherspark said:

This is very confusing. Ebay are talking about this fee but at the same time they're still saying saying it's "free to sell".

It will be free to sell for private sellers, this new announcement concerns buyers, not sellers. 

Except as mentioned by @vacheron, it will end up costing the private sellers in the end when they have to reduce their prices so that once the "buyer" fees are added on, they are still competitive with the business sellers overall prices.

I'm both a private and business seller so will probably gain on the business side but it's left a sour taste with my private seller hat on.

jak22

It is moving the fee from seller to buyer - for something costing £20 - previously the seller would have received less than £20, then for a time all £20, but now it's back to less with the new fee. Maybe companies think people aren't clever enough to figure these things out - like the broadband/phone "improvement" from CPI + 3.9% to £3 a month which could be 50% more.

soolin

noitsnotme said:

soolin said:

Netherspark said:

This is very confusing. Ebay are talking about this fee but at the same time they're still saying saying it's "free to sell".

It will be free to sell for private sellers, this new announcement concerns buyers, not sellers. 

Except as mentioned by @vacheron, it will end up costing the private sellers in the end when they have to reduce their prices so that once the "buyer" fees are added on, they are still competitive with the business sellers overall prices.

I'm both a private and business seller so will probably gain on the business side but it's left a sour taste with my private seller hat on.

I was replying to someone querying the 'free to sell' comment. Technically it is free to sell, seller isn't paying a fee. Yes private sellers will see their prices bumped when shown to a potential buyer, but the wording 'free to sell' still technically applies.

I accept that ultimately private sellers will see less money in their pocket, but that doesn't mean the headline free to sell statement is wrong. 

Vinted is also free to sell on and advertised as such , yet buyers pay the item cost they see, plus a buyers premium plus postage. 

I have never before seen ebay implement policies that seem to mirror those from smaller competition sites.

soolin

jak22 said:

It is moving the fee from seller to buyer - for something costing £20 - previously the seller would have received less than £20, then for a time all £20, but now it's back to less with the new fee. Maybe companies think people aren't clever enough to figure these things out - like the broadband/phone "improvement" from CPI + 3.9% to £3 a month which could be 50% more.

Ebay are not following the Vinted model and showing the fee separately, if you scoot back through the thread you will see that instead they are increasing the item cost shown to buyer. Ultimately of course it has exactly the same effect, but if a private seller does nothing and their items still sell, they will receive exactly what they received previously. The difference being that suddenly buyers will see items potentially cheaper from a business seller than from a private seller. 

It pays to understand exactly how a change affects selling and buyer, once we get our head round how it works then private sellers may well need to reduce their prices so the headline figure is reduced when shown to a buyer. Once sellers understand the process we can decide what to do with our prices and accounts .

penny22

martindow said:

I think there is some misunderstanding on this thread.  The fee is not added on to the sale price, but is included.  This is from Ebay's message

How the Buyer Protection fee works

• •	The fee will be included in the item price from private sellers, so there are no surprises at checkout.

• •	Buyers will pay up to 4% of the item price, plus £0.75.** For example, when they see an item for £20, the fee of £1.49 will already be part of the price.

The buyer in their example sees a price of £20 and that is what they pay.  It is a bit disingenuous to say that the buyer pays the protection fee as in effect the seller has it removed from their sale price, so they receive £18.51 in this example.

So basically private sellers are paying the buyers Protection fee, and having to wait for the funds for the item and postage, 

soolin

penny22 said:

martindow said:

I think there is some misunderstanding on this thread.  The fee is not added on to the sale price, but is included.  This is from Ebay's message

How the Buyer Protection fee works

• •	The fee will be included in the item price from private sellers, so there are no surprises at checkout.

• •	Buyers will pay up to 4% of the item price, plus £0.75.** For example, when they see an item for £20, the fee of £1.49 will already be part of the price.

The buyer in their example sees a price of £20 and that is what they pay.  It is a bit disingenuous to say that the buyer pays the protection fee as in effect the seller has it removed from their sale price, so they receive £18.51 in this example.

So basically private sellers are paying the buyers Protection fee, and having to wait for the funds for the item and postage, 

Yes, but if a private seller goes onto the simple postage scheme when it is launched they won't be paying for postage, ebay will handle all that.

MonkeyHammer

Selling fees are back after two months off and they're not going to pay you for 2 weeks on untracked items, I don't think I'll be selling on eBay anymore