Ebay Taking 50%

[Charliesunnysky10]

This can't be right, but it's happened on a sale I made today. Just selling lots of little things but 50%?!!

And this is why I only use vinted now

@wonkeydonkey4 I should switch too, but I've got 2000 sales on eBay and 100% pos feedback. I am tempted though.

Don’t they have constant free listing deals though? I seem to get umpteen emails saying I can list 99 things for a limited time. I assume there’s still a fee but yes it’s hardly worth selling anything for less than a fiver these days.

@Hummusandstuff I listed it as a Buy It Now. I think the free listings may be auctions but I don't tend to bother with auctions as the Amazon culture has everyone wanting their item tomorrow, not waiting 5 days and missing the final moments of the auction or being outbid at the death.

But you pay fees on the postage, so I always make sure my postage costs include that fee. So it's not 50 % on the item. If you look at the breakdown of fees it is fixed fee of 30p plus about 13.5 %. But yes low value items probably aren't worth selling on ebay.

Free listings are a con as far as I’m concerned. You don’t pay the basic listing fee but you pay for the extras like enlarged photos and insertion fees for enhanced search, and you still pay selling fees.

EBay has become a nightmare for sellers for various reasons and there is virtually no protection against unscrupulous buyers and unwarranted feedback. They always side with the buyer even though it’s sellers that keep the site going.

The last straw for me was a local buyer who collected an item in person. He had paid via PayPal even though I had specified cash on collection, and inspected the item thoroughly before taking it away with him. He then left terrible feedback and opened a case for the item not being as described. Ebay removed the funds from my PayPal account to refund him and he never returned the item. I’ve never used the site since.

It’s a 30p flat fee and then a percentage final value fee. The percentage final value takes a % of the postage as well because at one point expensive items were listed at 0.99p with £100 postage to avoid fees.
Every couple of weeks you should get an 80% off final value fees and then list as much as you can

And this is why no one I know uses eBay anymore

EBay is such a rip off. They deserve to go bust. Vinted all the way!

I really like eBay - I've bought and sold lots of things, and have generally had a really good experience of each. As others have said, you lay a flat fee and a percentage as a buyer, so selling low value items can be of questionable value.

Yep...need to not sell anything under a fiver from now on. Thanks for explaining it. It's changed a lot over the years.

^as a seller 🙈.

Tbf, you've had to pay fees on the postage element for as many years as I've been selling on Ebay (19 years).

Always list things when it's 70%/80% off fees.

At least you don't have to pay Paypal fees anymore.

I can't be arsed with people wanting to choose different postage options when I live next door to the post office.

On Vinted, buyers can bundle up your £1 etc listings yo save on postage. It's far better for buyers and sellers. It's not perfect, but the majority of sales are fine ( except in post but that's another story)

@DyslexicPoster so if I've got a load of Primarni tops I can sell them together?

Also when you say 'in post' do you mean it's dodgy posting stuff out?

You can do that on Ebay too, although it is at the seller's discretion.

Yes you can bundle up, or better just list them low price and then buyers will bundle them up. Have s look around, favorite lots of similar items to yours and watch them to see how they sell ( by favoriting those items).

Inpost is a courier service which you don't put any labor on. In post then get confused and mix up or loose parcels. You get around that by sharpie your house number and postcode in a corner and your buyers to if you want double security. They had a phase getting large volumes of unlabelled parcel just lost forever. Recently since adding the post code I haven't list one. Vinted sleays refund both seller and buyer over lost items but you need to be persistent and firm

On Vinted its much easier as buyers request the bundle. Sellers can weigh it and give postage price or ignore. Its in both seller and buyers interests to bundle up. I give bundle discounts too, but again that's all choice in the settings. I primarily want to declutter I also enjoy putting the things in bundles imagining it all getting a second life ( my kids outfits)

@DyslexicPoster Thanks so much! That's really helpful. I've set it up now and it's so easy!

Ah, when I said seller's discretion, I meant buyers can request that postage is combined if they're buying more than one thing from the same seller and then sellers can recalculate the postage if they want, or ignore if they don't. Sellers usually say "Happy to combine postage" on their listings if they selling that sort of stuff. If you're buying from a small business on Ebay, they've usually set it up to combine the postage automatically.

It sounds much the same, but perhaps it's easier to do on Vinted?

I paid £9 for a fast sale on a £30 item the other month! Rip off. I won't do that again.

I've never had issues with in post but I print and attach the address label. Would definitely recommend this if you have access to a printer.