Received an email from eBay this morning telling me all about the new buyer protection scheme coming into force in February. Buyers will now be charged a fee when buying from private sellers and private sellers wont receive their payment until after the item they sold reaches the buyer. This is going to go down well...I don't think

https://pages.ebay.co.uk/buyerprotection

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Kevin F,

Will list some choice items this weekend for sale and will pull any unsold items on the 31st January. Won't be buying from private sellers after that date either.

Talk about shooting yourself in the foot.

I wondered how they were going to make money by not charging private sellers a final value fee. This is their bright idea of getting their fees back.
I mostly hate the not getting paid until the item reaches the buyer. Like there's not a hundred ways that can't go wrong/be scammed with the private seller losing out.

Yeah, I have a couple of things I'll soon be selling, me thinks, before this truly Mickey Mouse show comes into effect.

Wonder if all this applies to international sales or just within UK ? As usual you have to trawl through loads of waffle and I couldn't see any reference to international .

quote:

Originally posted by Triple-Frog:
Wonder if all this applies to international sales or just within UK ? As usual you have to trawl through loads of waffle and I couldn't see any reference to international .

Not too sure about overseas buyers being charged a fee but I'm pretty sure the 'no payment until it reaches the buyer' part is going to apply.

My guess is that eBay want to get rid of all the private sellers but I could be wrong.

Yeah, I think it's a blatant middle finger to private sellers and wanting business sellers only. It might also be their way of tidying up the grey area for HMRC VAT issues over which is a business and which is a private seller... which, as usual, shafts the genuine private seller who most definitely isn't a business.
But it also kills the kind of collectable sales of things that only other collectors have, turfed out from their garage or bottom drawer from time to time. Shoving 4% fee on for the buyer is a joke. Why didn't they just keep the old seller fees and done with it?

As to international sales, it's another nudge to use just GSP, as your delivery and payment would log at the UK depot, rather than having to wait for it to arrive in the destination country. I use GSP because it's so hassle-free and has much more options for heavier parcels...BUT it's forcing people to use it.
Soon there will also be a nudge to "Simple Delivery" where ebay assigns the carrier when you sort out postage. But as that's usually Evri, Yodel or parcel link, then good luck biting your finger nails hoping the parcel actually gets logged and delivered for your payment to actually process. At the moment you can opt out of Simple Delivery on the listings...apparently.

A joke - there'll be more sellers now only offering expensive options for postage to ensure they get paid, on top of the new fee.

I know I'm not alone in looking at postage and fees before the price of an item. Unless it's a card priced over $50.00, I'm usually paying more in postage, fees, VAT and in some cases import duty than the cost of the item. The state of worldwide postal services says a lot about eBay because they are likely to make a tidy sum by withholding funds because of non-delivery. I had an eBay GSP parcel delivered to me just before Christmas. Not my name or address, but still on my doorstep. The recipient picked it up from me. He lived 20 miles away. Meanwhile, the seller, who has done nothing wrong, was waiting for payment.
The system is broken for the little guy.

For the past year or so, I have made more sales/deals with dealers than on ebay. I have contacts for cards, medals, coins and teddy bears. Sure, it's not going to be quite as much as you'd get if selling yourself...after all the dealer has to make a living themselves from taking on all your tat , but it takes the hassle out of selling, and once you find a good trustworthy dealer or two it makes selling on ebay look even less attractive. You don't have to worry about listings, annoying/weird buyers, getting paid or posting the things.

It's just annoying for those items that you can't sell to a dealer and ebay was/is the only answer. I'd love to see the emergence of a new player on the auction/selling platform scene that uses the ways ebay used to. Maybe a flat rate of 5% on every sale. I think they would get a lot of interest.
Ebay started off with private sellers as their backbone, but now we're just not wanted.

What constitutes a private seller ? Is this an individual as opposed to a company ? Isn't that 95 percent of sellers ?

quote:

Originally posted by Tommy C:
What constitutes a private seller ? Is this an individual as opposed to a company ? Isn't that 95 percent of sellers ?

Now that is the question - what constitutes a private seller?
It's usually defined by people selling their own items. Not buying things to then sell on, without intending to really own them; and not making things with the only purpose to sell them. However, you'll see a lot of 'private' sellers that sometimes have multiples of the same item and in brand new condition...which means they should really be a business seller and have obviously bought a job lot of stuff to flog...which constitutes business activity.
It's the grey areas that cause a lot of problems. But, the new UK rules are basically making it harder and less attractive to be a private seller, or buy from a private seller.

quote:

Originally posted by Tommy C:
What constitutes a private seller ? Is this an individual as opposed to a company ? Isn't that 95 percent of sellers ?

From the link provided above, it looks like a seller can register as one or the other, with different obligations and fees, depending on which you pick. Apparently if you are a business seller, certain UK consumer protection laws apply to you?

quote:

Originally posted by Bill Mullins:

quote:

Originally posted by Tommy C:
What constitutes a private seller ? Is this an individual as opposed to a company ? Isn't that 95 percent of sellers ?

From the link provided above, it looks like a seller can register as one or the other, with different obligations and fees, depending on which you pick. Apparently if you are a business seller, certain UK consumer protection laws apply to you?

The main difference is that a business seller usually has to register for a VAT tax number and pay business taxes as a proper business has to do. The various consumer laws are not much different than have been in place with ebay for a long time. Except now they're making out that the fee they'll charge buyers when buying from a private seller, will give them this same buyer protection...which they were already getting for free in the first place before the changes.
It's all just a money-getting game for ebay to reclaim the fees they waived when they gave private sellers zero selling fees last year. They claim they are aligning with other sales sites like Vinted, but it's all BS. Hope ebay lose out big time with this.

One small short term silver lining before the arriving thunderstorm on Feb 4th is that buyers have also figured out they will be paying more for the item .

I have sold more cards in the last two weeks than in the previous three months !

I have been buying items on ebay for over 25 years, winning probably 2,000 auctions over that time period.

I would say that 99.5 % of the collectibles shipped to me came from individuals. Maybe 20 or less came from stores or businesses.

quote:

Originally posted by Hedgehog Witch:

quote:

Originally posted by Bill Mullins:

quote:

Originally posted by Tommy C:
What constitutes a private seller ? Is this an individual as opposed to a company ? Isn't that 95 percent of sellers ?

From the link provided above, it looks like a seller can register as one or the other, with different obligations and fees, depending on which you pick. Apparently if you are a business seller, certain UK consumer protection laws apply to you?

The main difference is that a business seller usually has to register for a VAT tax number and pay business taxes as a proper business has to do. The various consumer laws are not much different than have been in place with ebay for a long time. Except now they're making out that the fee they'll charge buyers when buying from a private seller, will give them this same buyer protection...which they were already getting for free in the first place before the changes.
It's all just a money-getting game for ebay to reclaim the fees they waived when they gave private sellers zero selling fees last year. They claim they are aligning with other sales sites like Vinted, but it's all BS. Hope ebay lose out big time with this.

Also it looks like ebay are prioritising sellers with fast shipping

It dose not matter what E Bay do or say it is all for their own interests ( making money )
They have to do something to recover income lost through their exorbitant International shipping fees and slow delivery times.