To think it’s harder to get an eBay bargain these days?

[MotherOfDragons90]

I’ve used eBay for years and I have always been able to get some lovely items for a couple of pounds. But this seems to have changed recently and people are starting listings at six or seven pounds! Just for basic high street items of clothing. Add on the outrageous postage and it ceases to be that much of a bargain! I hardly ever see the old 99p listings anymore.

I bought a kaftan (you know those super light small things!) for holiday and postage was £6.95!

Is it just me? AIBU To think eBay isn’t as good as it once was?

I think it’s definitely more expensive but probably because more people are using it so you tend to get a fairer price.

It’s because private sellers fees have gone up so much partly I think. You even have to pay fees on postage, which, if like me you charge the fair actual cost of postage, means you would be out of pocket selling individual items at 99p. I’ve sold hundreds of items over the last ten years and I used to sell quality items at good prices and so be happy to sell the high street stuff at 99p. I had about three buyers who would regularly hoover up loads of them and I’d do a big combined parcel. We were both winning. Can’t afford to do it anymore. Now I just sell stuff that’s likely to get a good price and the rest goes to charity because it’s literally not worth my t and e.

Postage costs have risen a lot.

I buy quite a bit from ebay and my rule is never to spend more than I could happily afford to lose. Also, if the postage cost is excessive then I just don't go there.

I notice that around about 1/3 new price (including postage) seems about right if something is in very good condition, less if it has any flaws.

For example, I just sold a John Lewis children's item for £3.99 plus £2.95 postage. So £6.94 to the buyer. I have just bought the next size up for £18.00. So the used value is 0.39 of the new version, although some of that goes to the post office rather than to me.

The reason the 99p listings aren't around so much anymore is precisely because sellers found that their nice items were selling for just a couple of pounds!

For you to buy an item for a couple of pounds, it would have cost the seller a bare minimum of 79 pence to post it to you (large letter under 100g, so only probably a scarf or similar, anything above 100g in an envelope will be at least £1.26.

Ebay fees on a £2 sale is 20 pence, plus 27 pence to accept the paypal payment, so we're already up to £1.26 or £1.73 so after ebay, paypal and the Post Office have had their cut, there's just pennies left for the poor seller, and that's assuming they're using recycled packaging and can get to the Post Office for free, so very few will decide that it's worth the time and hassle for such a small reward.

eBay is also swamped with large volume mostly Chinese sellers selling millions of items much cheaper than UK items, although these are generally things like batteries, memory cards etc, rather than second hand clothing.

Due to subsidies on postage by the Chinese Government, it is actually cheaper to buy something from China than the bare postage cost within the UK.

Same here, sold on eBay for years and fees are higher now. Add in a whole pile of scammers and the rise of Facebook selling and eBay isn't always worth it - a fee calculator will show that if you're selling for 99p, by the time you pay both eBay and PayPal, you have 34p left, so not really worth spending all the time to take pictures, list, post etc.

I now only ever sell on eBay if it's an item that I know is worth something substantial but I can't sell it locally. Ie if I'm desperate.

Everything else goes to charity, even if technically I could make £5 or so per item it's not worth the pain in the arse that it is to sell on eBay these days.

I've had so much shite from scammers trying to rip me off and people whingeing that something they bought for 99p (that is worth much more) isn't perfect. eBay also tends to side with buyers even when they're in the wrong. Plus the fees are high.

It seems to me that they only want business sellers on their platform given their treatment of casual sellers.

I hadn’t realised that about the postage I thought it was a % of the selling price of the item. Explains it I suppose.

Seriously? You had no idea about how much postage costs?

Just because ebay like to pretend that it is free, doesn't mean it actually is. If the price of the item is only a few quid, and it's bulky or heavy, postage can actually be more than the item price. Packaging and travel to the Post Office isn't always free either, although many sellers do use recycled packaging and can walk there or drop in when passing by.

OP, try typing a variety of different figures into here:

finalfeecalc.co.uk

For example if I sell something for £5 with "free" postage:

EBay fee is 50p
PayPal fee is 37p
And it actually costs £3 to post (because you are paying the "free" postage)

Total profit: £1.13. Which isn't even worth the effort of photographing and listing in the first place, not to mention the worry of being scammed. I might as well give it to a charity shop.

I sell on EBay to make a bit of money, not to do you a favour.

If you think it's not as good for buyers any more, believe me it's even worse for sellers. It used to be a good place to make a few quid for your unwanted stuff, now it's from of expensive fees and an Ebay who usually take the buyer's side in disputes.

I think buyers should stop complaining unless they have actually sold something themselves recently.

If you think it's not as good for buyers any more, believe me it's even worse for sellers

Exactly. When it started, eBay used to be a great way to sell second hand stuff and get a half decent price for it, which was still a great bargain for the buyer.

Oh and even if the charity shop sell the item for £5 (which I know some people complain about too), even the charity don't keep the full £5. They still have a load of expenses like rent, insurance, electricity, the manager's salary etc. Apparently they pay quite a lot to get stuff taken away when people have donated rubbish that can't be sold.

Barbara / tectonic - I read the OP’s latest comment to mean she hadn’t realised EBay fees also related to the postage costs and assumed they were just a % of the selling price of the item. Maybe I’m reading it wrong?

FWIW OP I have stopped DH from using EBay as he was finding too many bargains. Packages being delivered daily! He was buying fancy shirts and ties for work in nearly new condition for a small fraction of their original selling price. So I guess it depends what you are looking to buy really.

I hadn’t realised that about the postage I thought it was a % of the selling price of the item. Explains it I suppose.

EBay started taking a cut of postage fees about ten years ago. Before this, a lot of sellers used to sell stuff for 1p with about £9 postage, in order avoid paying Ebay fees. So Ebay started charging a percentage of the postage in order to close this loophole.

Nowadays I offer "free" postage because of the number of buyers who apparently won't buy anything unless there's free postage, even if the item price is higher as a result

Too many 'business' sellers who all source items from the same Chinese manufacturers in bulk, and have to up their prices to cover costs.

& eBay set the postage rates somewhat, don't they? So high postage isn't always the sellers' fault, although I do avoid where the postage is more than the item. I get that it's shit for sellers but I'm on eBay to look for a bargain.

Much harder now to sift through and find private seller bargains. I don't bother with eBay as much as I used to

Ebay are trying to become Amazon, only it's not really working. Look at the recent ads, gone are the ads for 'selling your old stuff' and it's now aimed toward 'you can buy this new!'
They are gearing up more and more to business sellers and for the likes of Sharon who just wants to shift a few old baby bits the fees and postage rates are pricing her out.

There are still bargains to be had, just look more towards apps like Shpock and Facebook Marketplace.

I used to sell on eBay with free P&P (obviously it was me paying the P&P). If I sold an item for £4.99 it would leave me less than £1 after postage costs and all the fees. Then some cheeky fuckers would try it on and say the item hadn’t arrived despite me having a signature from the delivery company. Another one said the item had been damaged in transit. Sent me a photo, it had clearly been chewed by her dog - you could see the bite marks. eBay made me refund all of these people despite the evidence of scamming. I couldn’t claim any of this back from eBay shutl (the delivery service I used) or leave negative feedback on the buyers. I ended up being seriously out of pocket so I pulled all my listings and now just give my stuff away, because there’s just no point. If I were you I’d be looking in charity shops as that’s probably where all the decent stuff is now!

eBay is a race to the bottom.

I’m a private seller and I sell via BIN as I’m simply not prepared to give stuff away for buttons. That doesn’t stop the chancer and piss takers tho.

Life isn’t much better for business sellers. Before Christmas, I hung around on some of the eBay community forums, to see if I could get the gist of how things are for business sellers, with a view to potentially setting up as a business seller.

Things were shocking. Uk based sellers who’s sales had dropped through the floor etc etc.

The general story seemed to be that Chinese sellers were flooding the market, and there is subsidised postage available from China. Also, Chinese sellers were pretending to be uk based simply by having a registered office in the uk. I’ve had this as a buyer. I prefer to buy from the uk as I want to support uk businesses, (and am happy to pay more from the uk) but a few times times things have arrived with Chinese customs labels on them.

Not only that, eBay seem to have changed their search algorithms significantly in favour of “sponsored” items. Also there is talk of eBay charging business sellers an additional 4% levy if their service matrixes aren’t at a level that eBay considers “acceptable”.

Food for thought!

Due to eBay and PayPal fees, sellers don’t actually make all that much profit. I only ever charge for postage rather than packaging as well as most sellers do so also make a loss there. Occasionally I have underestimated postage and been fucked over yet again. Then you get the odd buyer who decides something isn’t as described (despite it definitely being as described) or you make a loss when something goes missing (or a buyer decides they want something for free really...)

eBay sucks really. I only do buy it now because auctions are wank. It’s annoying listing something you know is worth at least £10 for 99p expecting it to go for a lot more and it doesn’t. I have genuinely struggled to send some items knowing I only made 80p after fees and the item is worth ten times that.

Hate EBay these days. I can hardly find a private seller on there to buy from, and if I wanted to buy new stuff I'd be looking elsewhere.

It really annoys me that people don't understand basic things like how much postage costs, and how much Ebay and PayPal fees are. Its not difficult information to find online.
Its like people who think that if a shop sells an item for £5, the shop owner gets to put £5 in their pocket.

Imo, Ebay would work better if people listed their items accurately, and put their rubbish in the bin. That would make it a lot easier to weed out items you aren't interested in.

It’s annoying listing something you know is worth at least £10 for 99p expecting it to go for a lot more and it doesn’t

Surely if it's worth £10, someone will bid £10?

I buy quite often on ebay because I like the choice.

To get a good price on things often it's about timings.

For example I was watching two identical North Face coats. One listing ended when people would be picking up their kids from school, it went for £5.50. The other ended about 8.30 pm, so kids would be in bed, people would probably be home from work, had dinner, that one went for £48. Same day, exactly the same coat.

It is because of:

The ads on TV making people think they can make a fortune selling their old stuff and charging a reasonable price for it.

Postage - Royal Mail is a minimum of just under £3.00 for a small parcel (depending on how you buy the postage) and extra for signed for.

Re: the above, in many cases signed for is needed due to thieves and scammers so that has to be paid for either by the buyer or seller.

Final Value Fees, buyers often forget that sellers have to pay when something sells, plus a fee on the postage.

PayPal fees.

Sellers actually wanting to make something on the items they sell because 99p minus all the fees is almost nothing. Many have realised that it is best to use a start price which is the minimum you will accept.

It would help if Ebay didn't selectively hide some sellers or items from search. It ensures that they don't bother any more and the bargains are lost from view/for ever.