I’m with Northwind. I usually go to ebay to look for used items. But as a result i see loads of new stuff from businesses. If they can get all the used bikes back on there I’ll me there more often
let’s not forget it’s costing them almost to list something
I’ve paid easily over a grand, probably over 2 in ebay fees over the year
Bloody hell, how much stuff do you sell?
Shitloads 🙂 But also I've been on ebay since before there was an ebay.co.uk so it adds up.
Just had a sale for something listed a while ago. Sold yesterday afternoon, money in my account this morning. No fees. Nice
eBay used to be my default for buying items, but a gradual shift to not seeing true sellers and more cheap trash posts from traders so stopped using really. Coupled with the rise of FB Marketplace and Vinted, I'd say 90% of the stuff Iused to buy I now buy elsewhere.
Selling was more of a pain, x% to ebay, x% stolen by paypal when FB Marketplace is free.
As others have said, theyve got to do something to turn the tide, must have been losing users in droves.
This is really good news, I've been using almost exclusively facebook marketplace to sell items but there's a gap there for items you're prepared to post because people have their master list sorted by location.
I’ve used the QR code on a pickup before while still exchanging cash.
And I’ve forgotten about the QR code before and ended up with endless reminders afterwards. Pesky.
Well, that works then! Sold an item for £175 yesterday and £175 has just been deposited into my bank a/c without deductions and without me having ask for it. Excellent.
and without me having ask for it.
that’ll change from the 16th iirc.
Ah well, a button to click after the sale to get the funds, hardly the end of the world.
Looks like they are already back tracking. A new buyers protection fee. Added to the sale price so pretty much exactly the same as the old sellers fee in reality. By my maths the fees are still cheaper than the old sellers fees so not terrible but pretty cheeky after last year's big announcement.
Still a month of feeling free selling. If you are planning a clearout might be worth getting on with it.
https://channelx.world/2025/01/new-ebay-buyer-protection-and-new-fee/
From the 4th of February, eBay Buyer Protection will be included on every purchase on eBay
Like it wasn't before? How very weird
private sellers will only be paid once the item is delivered.
bloody hell, sounds like scammers are going to have a fun with that. 'Never received it mate!' And you can't even refund, cos you just won't see the money. Yeah, back to not bothering to sell on there after Feb.
Also, just discovered (like, just now!) that you can't leave your selling balance on Ebay indefinitely. Like I was, to pay for future purchases. Emails says it will automatically get sent to my bank in a few days.
Yup, clear out over the next month is definitely called for, just when most people have no spare money ?
As part of this change, eBay are now launching Buyer Protection to give buyers more confidence and security when shopping.
What a load of nonsense - its almost always sellers who are scammed these days. Also you'll have to use ebay postage really or there will be no foolproof way for the delivery to be logged and you won't get paid.
Oh well it was nice to have fee free selling for a few months but I'm oot.
The way I read it, the buyer protection will be added as a non-itemised cost to the current bid or buy it now price, so a seller and buyer will presumably see different values on the listing. e.g. I'll be told someone bought a thing for £5.00 and get it all because no seller fees, but the buyer will pay £5.50 which includes the protection, it's effectively become a buyer fee instead.
Also you’ll have to use ebay postage really or there will be no foolproof way for the delivery to be logged and you won’t get paid.
This is right though I reckon. I like to take stuff to the post office because it's close to home and generally think post offices disappear if they don't get sufficient use. That makes any tracking difficult through ebay, so I guess it's out of the question now.
That makes any tracking difficult through ebay, so I guess it’s out of the question now
I just enter the Royal Mail tracking number into the relevant bit on My Ebay, and it pulls in tracking info directly and sends dispatched / out for delivery / delivered updates automatically.
I just enter the Royal Mail tracking number into the relevant bit on My Ebay, and it pulls in tracking info directly and sends dispatched / out for delivery / delivered updates automatically.
Same, I always use Royal Mail and I do this. I also send it 'signed for', if it's of any value and include the cost of this in the postage I charge the buyer. This reduces (though doesn't eliminate) the chance of spurious "never received it mate" claims. TBH I've been selling stuff for years on eBay and have never had an issue.
Describe stuff very honestly, include lots of photos, package it well, post it promptly and most people are happy. I have just funded a new bike by having a massive clear out of kit from hobbies I no longer pursue. Apart from the pain of packing and queuing at the PO, it's been hassle free and the recent spell of no sellers fees has been great. I still far prefer eBay to FB marketplace or any of the other options. It's not perfect, but it's a pretty good platform if used sensibly imo.
This is right though I reckon. I like to take stuff to the post office because it’s close to home and generally think post offices disappear if they don’t get sufficient use. That makes any tracking difficult through ebay, so I guess it’s out of the question now.
Using eBay "Simple Delivery" the item postage is priced up and when sold you get a label to print and/or QR code. You can still use Royal Mail but it will automatically be tracked via eBay so once delivered the money will be sent to your account.
If the buyer does not receive the item it is the sellers problem anyway but if the buyer has already paid it becomes their problem as they have feel they have lost their money so this is actually a good move really to put responsibility of successful delivery onto seller.
That makes any tracking difficult through ebay, so I guess it’s out of the question now.
I quite often use royal mail drop off so, i assume the post office gets something for that?.
When purchasing from private sellers, buyers will pay up to 4% of the item price, plus £0.75 (excluding excludes Vehicles, Classified Ads and Property). The fee is lower on higher-priced items over £300, and there’s a cap on the total amount they’ll pay.
As an example, when buyers see an item for £20, the Buyer Protection Fee of £1.49 will already be part of the price. This is something we wanted to see at ChannelX – no adding on of a fee after you’ve bid or clicked to Buy It Now – the price the buyer sees is the price that they’ll pay:
For business sellers there will be no buyer fee – eBay won’t double dip as you already pay seller fees
When buying from a private seller the new Buyer Protection Fee will be included in the displayed price
Private sellers will receive the sale price less the Buyer Protection Fee
I'm slightly mystified by this. If I list an item buy it now for £20 the actual BIN price as it will appear to people searching will be £21.49? So if I want to be competitive with a business seller I'd need to list it at £18.50?
But if it's an auction and I bid £20 the seller will only see a bid of £18.51 or something weird. Just bizarre -feels like this is less transparent and clear than the sellers fees there were previously.
What a load of nonsense – its almost always sellers who are scammed these days.
Not totally sure about that, but maybe we are just too smart to buy scam listings like cheap knock-off designer goods?
I quite often use royal mail drop off so, i assume the post office gets something for that?.
Yes, I understand that's the case as they are separate businesses. And I took a closer look at the new ebay postal process and see that Royal Mail is one of the courier options, so sounds like I still get to support my local PO.
b33k34, thats how I interpret it too. Well, as a seller, but I reckon you're right about bidding on something also.
I wonder if eBay keep those nice "buyer protection fees" in the case of a refund....
I quite often use royal mail drop off so, i assume the post office gets something for that?.
My understanding - and I may be wrong - is that they don't. The Post Office and Royal Mail are separate entities, which is why some branches will refuse.
Or maybe I'm mixing them up with Parcel Force, I'm not sure.
If you've paid for Royal Mail online, then take it to a local PO to drop off, they get nothing. If you go to the PO to pay, then they do get paid (not much).
@dafydd17 that seems to have changed. If you pay for postage online you can drop it at the sorting office, or have it collected by the postman for free. But pay an extra 20p (IIRC) to drop it at the post office. Last time I missed the sorting office closing time and walked on to the post office round the corner they charged me the 20p at the counter.
Not sure what happens with eBay Royal Mail postage purchases. Assume they always got something at the post office when you dropped it off but now it's an explicit additional charge to the consumer.
So this seems to be pretty badly presented but as far as I can tell, if you're a private seller they're going to add an extra amount on top of your listing prices? So if you had, frinstance, a £20 item listed the buyer will actually see and pay £21.55 and you'll get £20. Pretty bloody weird tbf, definitely going to mess up a bunch of my listings if that's how it goes, because I'll be more expensive now than a full business seller. Might possibly be enough of a difference to make it worth me finally going proper business, not sure.
As kinda expected they're also removing some features that everyone had before and restricting them to business sellers but it's all stuff I've never used, coupons and such.
Oh off topic but who else absolutely ****ing hates the new Saved Feed? "Hi, here's some but not all of the new items that are in your saved list, and also for some reason a load of stuff that's in your Watch List already. Oh just for lolz the Watch List stuff will appear 1-3 times on the page. No you can't delete anything on this even once you've seen it, we know you used to do that but we've taken it away for no apparent reason"
I love how I keep getting prompted to look at something. Oh yeah, it's collection only 50384849 miles away. Never mind.
Week later, this item is almost yours!
Huh, cool, no wait, that's the one that's collection only 50384849 miles away. Never mind.
Day or two later, this item has been relisted. Etc.
See also same "new" items in your saved searches.
Not surprising really. This is how it works on Vinted, and TBH it seems a clever move psychologically from the marketplace PoV. If the fee is charged to the seller (as before this summer on eBay), it's discouraging sellers to list. But if there's no fee for sellers, they can happily list something for £X knowing they'll get £X if it sells.
But someone has to pay the fees... The buyer can see the price inc. fees up front and they want the item (compare and contrast with if the seller had been put off by the fees and just hadn't bothered listing). And we all know how powerful wanting something is. Most of the time, they're not going to be put off by a small % fee.
Of course, as alluded to above, it will just drive prices down and sellers will lose out too, though I think in reality the hit will be shared by buyers and sellers (regardless of who is actually making the fee payment).
It's working for Vinted and eBay are rightly scared of this.
Still a month of feeling free selling. If you are planning a clearout might be worth getting on with it.
Definitely this though. It could never last, it was too good. I've sold over a grand's worth of bits and pieces on eBay this year.
Buyers protection is a joke, as far as I'm concerned however they like to dress it up. Utterly useless:
- Tracking shows your item was delivered
- Yes, but that's not my address.
- Seller says item delivered by RM.
- Track down delivery address and screenshot of delivery address.
- Contact seller - not interested.
- Contact eBay and send screenshot of wrong address.
- eBay want a 'denial of receipt' from RM.
- RM Say it takes 10 days.
- 10 Day pass. Nothing.
- Back to RM. Where's my denial of receipt letter?
- RM says they'll look into it.
- Another 10 days pass.
- Back to RM. Sorry we don't do that as it is too late.
- Back to eBay. We need a denial of receipt from RM.
- Explain to eBay, RM can't seem provide one.
- I've shown you where it was delivered and you know that's not my address. What more can I do?
- We need a 'denial of receipt' from RM.
- Arrrgh!
They probably made a killing on the auto-renew listing thing if an item didn't sell. An option I must have missed a few times when selling something... Crafty.
Always sh1tted me paying eBay and Paypal fees.
I've sold a few things on eBay since they moved to "no fees" and just had my first issue with it.
Sold a vintage cap. Accepted an offer significantly lower than the listing price, but enough for me. Listed as "no returns" - I'm just clearing out my cupboards, I'm not a trader.
Over a week after receiving the cap - the day after I go on holiday mode, marked as "away" - the buyer requests a return becuase "it's defective".
WTF? It's clearly listed as "no returns", but eBay say becuase it's defective I've got three days to accept. No option to say "nope" - just various ways to either accept a return (for which I would have to pay postage), or discuss a partial refund.
And why is it "defective"? "Oh the peak isn't quite flat so I look silly"
Really. The peak, on a vintage cap is not perfect. I despair.
To be fair, I requested a call back from eBay and within half an hour, they'd agreed that they would refund the buyer but would not require anything of me, and it won't affect my seller account. I'm not sure that I'll be selling much more on eBay now though.
I'm slightly confused about the free - I have just sold some text books for £5.00 (less than I wanted, but I thought I was doing an auction as I haven't sold anything on ebay for donkeys) they have taken a 16p transaction fee - that is not free.
What have I missed?
could be any of these
1) registered as a business seller
2) selling to someone outside the UK
3) listed in more than one category
4) opted to promote the listing.
I've sold about a grands worth of stuff since ebay became free and haven't been charged a penny in fees.
the buyer requests a return becuase “it’s defective”.
WTF? It’s clearly listed as “no returns”
That's shocking. Not since someone tried to send me a coat back because it was "too big", have I seen such nonsense from Ebay. I always use a computer to place listings, as some options, such as the "no returns" are hidden when you use the app. I always put "No return - I'm not a business or shop" in the listing too.
Glad you didn't have to shell out. Buyer got themselves a free cap due to ebay's crapness!
@nbt, "no returns" isn't so simple, it doesn't overrule some of the basic protections. It more or less removes the no fault/buyer's remorse/doesn't fit returns options, but it leaves all the "not described, is damaged or is faulty outwith the description" stuff. It also doesn't override the "condition" tab which surprises people a lot I think, the actual conditions are extremely restrictive so it's easy asa seller to slip outside of them when an item seems good to you. SO yeah if it actually had a defect that you didn't mention, or a difference in the listing, "no returns" has no effect, basically to stop dishonest sellers from abusing it. "Yeah I said it's mint and it isn't but I also said no returns"
So in your case they've looked at it, realised they can't do a return for the reason they want to, and so they've chosen "defective" to try and get round that. Ebay's looked at it and seen this and have intervened. It's more or less the system working how it should, except for them refunding the buyer- even when it's out of their pocket not yours that's still encouraging their shitty behaviour so they'll probably do it again, but at least they've protected you.
Yeah fair play, but they only intervend becuase I chased it up. By default there's no option to say "this buyer is being a dick", just "accept return" or "negotiate a discount" (or words to that effect). As you say, it's worked, and this is probably the best outcome for me, but does mean someone got away with being a dick
I sold a rear shock on eBay and had no returns in the listing, buyer said it doesn't fit his bike. Sorry that's your fault, it was clearly listed in the description. Next they file a claim as not as described i ended up loseing the money and the shock!!!!!
The only condition I'm concerned with is - no returns - unless not as described. Any other reason they can swivel
My theory is that if the buyer funded the purchase with a credit card, Ebay don't want to get a section 75 chargeback & get a bad rep with the CC companies so force you to accept a return or lose money.
If someone asks to return an item I've sold, I follow the returns procedure to the letter - at least that way you get the item back & only lose the postage.
Then add that buyer to your block list.
Fees added to asking prices makes for silly looking listings, just pulled my last 3 sales & will either keep or sell them elsewhere.
Yeah, I revised mine to make the final price a round number. Messy though. The new slow payment thing is annoying. All in all a poor experience compared to how it was only last week.
I’ve had two sales recently that eBay shows as not having been delivered, so they won’t release the funds, but when you actually click on the tracking link. The goods HAVE been delivered. It’s been almost a week since they were delivered.
Think you have to wait 2 weeks for payment if not showing as delivered but actually is.
I sent a rare motorbike part via their global shipping program (first time I've used it) delivered to their depot no problem but now have to wait for it to be shipped to Italy before money shows in my account.
