eBay scraps private seller fees

[GingerBeverage]

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2024/oct/01/online-retailer-ebay-scraps-fees-for-private-sellers-in-uk

I prefer ebay generally as I think I have more control over the process, but vinted has definitely taken over the market. Will this encourage people to return to ebay?

It's all listings - even the ones listed before October 1st.

Thanks @ruby1234 I was wondering if I needed to end the listings and relist, that’s saved me the hassle 👍🏻

So does this mean a buyer fee, which the buyer will have to pay on top of the item price similar to protection fee on Vinted?

It will be interesting to see how it all goes once everything is in place.

Regarding businesses selling on eBay, I have to say I found some really good small businesses I would have not known about otherwise. I usually end up going straight to the small business website and bypass eBay because it costs me more or less the same but they don't pay eBay fees if I buy directly from them. So a useful, if expensive, advertising platform for small businesses if the buyers can be bothered to google the company.

All other volume sell business bombarding us with Chinese products and fake copycats should bugger off and use AliExpress. They are really irritating.

Thank you TheDeepLemonHelper It is madness. This strategy might in the next few months encourage more private sellers back to selling on ebay (& I can understand the theory that once people are on the site they are more likely to buy) but it sure is going to reduce buyers if they are going to be charged a fee on top of the sales price. As a business seller I simply do not have the margin to reduce my prices to take into account an 8-10% fee that a buyer might have to pay or at least not and make any worthwhile profit.

I don’t really understand the problem here. If you sold that dress for £375 and paid £50 fees if the buyer was paying that fee wouldn’t you have made the same money if you had just sold it for £325?

why would that put buyers off?

Think I'll just open a private account and pretend I'm house clearing like loads of private sellers do 🙄. Then I won't pay fees.
What's it like selling on Vinted? Is it a waste of time because you have to sell so cheaply?

@aodirjjd
The buyer paid £375 back then and the seller was happy with that less the £50 fees. Buyer pays £375, seller makes £325.

Now the buyers will have to pay £375 plus fees higher than £50, let's estimate £75 maybe.
Now Buyer pays 450, seller makes 375. Good for seller but buyer doesn't want this.
So sellers have to reduce the price enough for the buyer to be happy to part with their 375.
A lot of working out what to sell at and a little bit does make a difference for both parties.

That's what I make of it anyway.
Buyers will become more and more reluctant to pay and prices will drop and nobody will be bothered to sell as an individual. It's a faff to do it anyway. If it's not worth it, why bother.
Vinted is like that.
As an example, you buy a scarf for £1 plus buyer fees and postage you actually pay £4.50 in the end. The seller keeps the £1.
It's a right faff whichever way you look.

@Branster I’m still not really getting you. You wouldn’t sell the item for £375 if you weren’t paying £50 fees as a seller because you have factored in £50 fees into your acceptable price. If you were happy to make £325 from sale you’d still put it on for £325. If the fees were more than £50 then yeah maybe buyer would be put off but I doubt it. I use vinted as both buyer and seller for low value items and it’s transparent enough to factor it in. It’s no different to swapping who pays postage fees really.

As a private seller doing major decluttering just now I'm going to try and sell like crazy before the new buyer fees come into play and just take advantage of this phase. I don't like the sound of buyer fees for eBay as I hate the Vinted strategy. I don't know why eBay can't just reduce their seller fees a little and also specifically not charge fees on postage which is really unfair and a big bugbear of mine. Oh well, make hay while the sun shines I suppose!

As a private seller doing major decluttering just now I'm going to try and sell like crazy before the new buyer fees come into play and just take advantage of this phase. I don't like the sound of buyer fees for eBay as I hate the Vinted strategy. I don't know why eBay can't just reduce their seller fees a little and also specifically not charge fees on postage which is really unfair and a big bugbear of mine. Oh well, make hay while the sun shines I suppose!

I'm going to try and do the same, my house is bursting with stuff I could make some pocket money from.
I'm not a fan of the buyers fee, I am more of a buyer than a seller - I use ebay for most of my non-food shopping and as a buyer it's annoying enough to price compare when postage rates can be so random.

eBay have had free private selling fees for years including auto renewal etc.
Wonder why they are wasting money advertising it and very often on TV. eBay are probably loosing income, probably due to their cheap tat and suspending customers. I already know about 10 people with over 40 accounts that where suspended at no fault. Its strange that they all had under 5000 feedback yet when they request to cancel the account eBay don't do anything. They are bloated with inactive accounts.

Not really. There's been free listing ie no insertion fees, but they previously took a percentage of final selling amount plus a percentage of cost of postage.

I sent a return request a few days ago for a Micro SD card that was fake. At the time i thought it was a bit too good to be true (2TB) but the seller assured me it was genuine including capacity so i took a risk and even mentioned that i test every memory card i buy. After i discovered the fake Micro SD Card and went to give feedback to help others my account was suspended. I had also ordered a seperate 2TB Usb Stick and low and behold it was also fake. ebay refused the return due to the suspension they placed on my account they refuste to change the result of suspension and gave no reasons. But when i tried to claim to return the USB Stick i could not, nor could i communicate with the seller. I ended up placing a chargeback on ebay. I also reported the issue to my bank and was successfully refunded. The guy told me that the complaints after suspentions have increased recently. I can see that ebay are losing income as they are advertising too much un needed advertising on TV. Homebase did the same type of campaign and soon after they collapsed.over advertising is a clear sign a company is in trouble.

I've just noticed an eBay message.
From February, seller funds will be available 2 days after delivery of sold item. As opposed to the day after selling an item (it used to be same day if I remember correctly).
They are trying to copy Vinted by the looks of it.

They will also be bringing in an eBay ‘delivery service’ and providing a label to the seller (based on predicted size & weight)

…. and on topic for this thread fees will be returning to private sales, in the same style as Vinted that the seller quotes a price and eBay will add fees to the amount that buyers will
see

(Business sellers of eBay have still been subject to fees while private sellers have effectively had a promotional period)

And will the private seller be able to see what the ebay fee will be?
In other words, how will the seller know they have the best price? When I list something I look at current existing listings for the same item and go for a lower price and free postage. So I know what the buyer will have to pay.
I think small businesses must be fleeced left, right and centre on these selling platforms. It really is not fair. The biggest issue, in my opinion, are Chinese sellers with fake items undercutting at high volume.

I'll have to figure out this new delivery platform.
For the little that I sell as an individual, it's a lot if hard work and uncertainty.
If I had a small eBay business, I'd be quite fed-up. Business already sell slightly cheaper on eBay compared to own websites then they pay eBay fees on top. I always look for a real seller website if it exists.

@Branster
Ideally they should give an indication of the price that buyers will see.
e.g. In wardrobe view Vinted shows the sellers price up front, with the fee inclusive price below and the ‘starting from’ postage amount further down

However, I use eBay global for anything overseas and I don’t see the total that international buyers are shown. *

I’ve had it a few times that I’ll get a message asking for a cheaper postage quote, so I have to inform them that it’s eBay global (I often have free postage showing as I’ve taken it into account on the total, particularly for cheap items)
I’ve only changed to a direct overseas postage price once or twice, as the benefit of eBay global is that once the eBay depot have the item then that counts as delivered and I don’t have to worry about slow progression or if it subsequently gets lost

*However if I’m quick the eBay payment notification flashes up the full amount paid on my phone, but then when viewing the item I only see my sale price plus my UK postage

Thank you for explaining @tommika
Hopefully by the time I have my next clear out in spring it will all fall into place and I'll have enough time to re-adjust my expectations!
It's the reverse of going to the supermarket and having no idea what everything will cost anymore and I just have to go along with it.

Are we supposed to be grateful? They've only done it due to pressure. We've sold on e-bay for 20+ years. They took lots of fees off us then!

I don't know what we're supposed to be.
The point is they are making these changes and confusing matters for people like me (private seller, not the best at working out these online platforms, but who wants to know where they stand and sell in a way that keeps a buyer happy without completely wasting my time).
The model on Vinted feels like being at a car boot sale where people only want to pay very low. Understandably, because they have to pay Vinted fees and postage on top of the item price. But this makes selling on Vinted not really worth the bother. Although it's good if you want to buy something and don't deal with a flaky seller or a scammer.
For business sellers it would only get worse I suppose because they make up the golden goose for eBay.
As for buyers, no idea yet until next time I'm looking to buy something.

I think people are moving more to Shopify because of the control over the look and easy to scale but am sure ebay will have start working on that before it affects their returns

I might take a look at eBay - haven’t sold on there in years, the fees ended up taking too much from a sale. I’m sick of Vinted, they always have something going on behind the scenes,
their latest update is causing zero views on items, and people want cheap prices which doesn’t make it worth it. The whole process of selling and receiving payment can be a slow one.