Ebay gone to far with new policy change from 4th Feb 2025!

soolin

2dareis2do said:

danny69 said:

But you didn’t have a problem when business accounts couldn’t compete with you for the last few months, as business sellers subsidised the private sellers having no fees to pay. 

What do you think about this being applied to UK private sellers only? Do you think that is fair?

If you would rather pay a higher seller fee and end up with less money then why not upgrade to a business account, that would mean no buyers fee on your items and no more worries for you.

savergrant

2dareis2do said:

Just made one sale today. Was listed for £10.

Someone made me  offer for 8.92.

Looking at the final invoice I can see "buyer protection" came in at 1.08. So they must have put a bid in at 10 and then I receive an offer of 8.92.

To call this buyer protection is as best misleading. As a seller I don't object to paying a final value fee to list a item, just like business sellers do. However, what I don't want to do is set up a business for selling an array of one of personal items.

for ebay to  try and mug you off and tell you there are no seller fees is simply misleading, very confusing and ultimately a lie.

They call it a buyer protection fee. The fee doesn't protect the buyer (all buyers get protection whether the fee is applied or not) but it pays for the ebay services which provide buyer protection.
Your £10 item went up in price (probably to £11.20 ish) and someone offered you £10 (possibly having seen it listed for £10 recently). Ebay asked you if you were prepared to accept £8.92 and you agreed. So everyone's happy?

2dareis2do

soolin said:

2dareis2do said:

danny69 said:

But you didn’t have a problem when business accounts couldn’t compete with you for the last few months, as business sellers subsidised the private sellers having no fees to pay. 

What do you think about this being applied to UK private sellers only? Do you think that is fair?

If you would rather pay a higher seller fee and end up with less money then why not upgrade to a business account, that would mean no buyers fee on your items and no more worries for you.

Because I am only selling personal items. I don't really want to set up a business for that. Would need to start doing accounts etc.

RFW

2dareis2do said:

If you would rather pay a higher seller fee and end up with less money then why not upgrade to a business account, that would mean no buyers fee on your items and no more worries for you.

Because I am only selling personal items. I don't really want to set up a business for that. Would need to start doing accounts etc.

Having an Ebay business account doesn't make you a business. You're only a business if you buy or make items to resell. If you're selling personal items you can still use a business account.

2dareis2do

savergrant said:

They call it a buyer protection fee. The fee doesn't protect the buyer (all buyers get protection whether the fee is applied or not) but it pays for the ebay services which provide buyer protection.

Your £10 item went up in price (probably to £11.20 ish) and someone offered you £10 (possibly having seen it listed for £10 recently). Ebay asked you if you were prepared to accept £8.92 and you agreed. So everyone's happy?

As you say everyone is protected by ebay buyer protection but it is uk sellers that are ultimately paying for this. On the face of it this feels unfair.

With regards the item yes I was happy to make the sale but £10 is better than 8.92, but over a period of time this adds up.

Just looking at business sellers it does seem slightly better for smaller items i.e. only a 30 pence listing as opposed to 75 pence but then the final value fees depending on the category seem considerably higher for more expensive items (around 10% as opposed to 4%-2%).

e.g.

Sellers whose performance level is Below Standard on the 20th of a month incur an additional 6 percentage points fee on top of the final value fee on sales in the following calendar month. For example, a 9.9% +30p final value fee would increase to 15.9% + 30p. The additional fee applies to the total amount of the sale. Above Standard and eBay Top-rated Sellers are not impacted by this additional fee.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/help/selling/fees-credits-invoices/fees-business-sellers?id=4809

I am well within my 300 listings a month and have no plans to go to a business plan.

This move disincentivizes uk private sellers listing lower value items and also makes less expensive items from private sellers more expensive. Not the end of the world, but a bit of a kick in the teeth. That said on balance it is still better than pre free listings when you would lose 10-16% of your final value to ebay.

soolin

2dareis2do said:

soolin said:

2dareis2do said:

danny69 said:

But you didn’t have a problem when business accounts couldn’t compete with you for the last few months, as business sellers subsidised the private sellers having no fees to pay. 

What do you think about this being applied to UK private sellers only? Do you think that is fair?

If you would rather pay a higher seller fee and end up with less money then why not upgrade to a business account, that would mean no buyers fee on your items and no more worries for you.

Because I am only selling personal items. I don't really want to set up a business for that. Would need to start doing accounts etc.

It was you that said you wanted it to be fairer, which means paying more fees, listing fees etc the same as the business sellers .

vanpilot

Aren't ordinary people far better off just using Facebook marketplace instead?

Seems to be the default place people look for stuff, and you get paid straight away any way you want. 

soolin

vanpilot said:

Aren't ordinary people far better off just using Facebook marketplace instead?

Seems to be the default place people look for stuff, and you get paid straight away any way you want. 

I also use FB marketplace but the footfall there is tiny compared to ebay and everyone literally wants stuff for nothing. For me it certainly isn't the default place to look. I spent just shy of £100 on ebay yesterday on some hobby items, I checked ebay and Amazon - Amazon had one of the items I wanted but second hand from private sellers using the Amazon stock photo only  - but I found a private seller on ebay that had everything I wanted and when looking at the photos seemed to be selling in very good condition-and very cheap, so I bought the lot. It didn't even occur to me to try FB. Interestingly I did not pay a buyer premium so that's another category that it hasn't been rolled out on yet. 

Out of interest I just looked on marketplace, I could buy just 2 of the things I wanted on there, I would have needed both posted as neither seller was remotely near me. One seller's photos were stock photos from a website (I didn't think that was possible?)  but says bank transfer only so that's a no from me, the other only has one very poor photo and virtually no info - just xxx widget as seen - so that's a no from me. 

As for selling 99.9% of my items are posted out, so if I did sell something on FB I would have to factor in paypal fees anyway. I have sold a few things on Facebook groups this week but have obviously taken paypal G and s as the sites I use require that, and I would always offer that anyway.

Pollycat

I don't do Facebook - at all.
And I have no intention of starting.

All my items are posted out.

I'm a private seller just getting rid of my own unwanted items.
eBay works for me.

vanpilot

soolin said:

vanpilot said:

Aren't ordinary people far better off just using Facebook marketplace instead?

Seems to be the default place people look for stuff, and you get paid straight away any way you want. 

I also use FB marketplace but the footfall there is tiny compared to ebay and everyone literally wants stuff for nothing. For me it certainly isn't the default place to look. I spent just shy of £100 on ebay yesterday on some hobby items, I checked ebay and Amazon - Amazon had one of the items I wanted but second hand from private sellers using the Amazon stock photo only  - but I found a private seller on ebay that had everything I wanted and when looking at the photos seemed to be selling in very good condition-and very cheap, so I bought the lot. It didn't even occur to me to try FB. Interestingly I did not pay a buyer premium so that's another category that it hasn't been rolled out on yet. 

Out of interest I just looked on marketplace, I could buy just 2 of the things I wanted on there, I would have needed both posted as neither seller was remotely near me. One seller's photos were stock photos from a website (I didn't think that was possible?)  but says bank transfer only so that's a no from me, the other only has one very poor photo and virtually no info - just xxx widget as seen - so that's a no from me. 

As for selling 99.9% of my items are posted out, so if I did sell something on FB I would have to factor in paypal fees anyway. I have sold a few things on Facebook groups this week but have obviously taken paypal G and s as the sites I use require that, and I would always offer that anyway.

Why use PayPal on marketplace???

Bank transfer is free and safe for sellers