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Ebay's new bright idea. Charge buyers to buy off Ebay!
 

I've just received an email off ebay that from Feb 4 they will charge buyers 75p plus 4.5% of the sales price for mandatory buyer protection that they had always received with a couple of extras.

I thought ebay wanted more buyers? any thoughts on why they have decided to do this?

Re: Ebay's new bright idea. Charge buyers to buy off Ebay!
 

it is supposed to make selling more attractive

ebay have been running a policy of seller destruction. it is likely the effect of mass suspensions of recent accounts

this policy does not only hit bad actors but many legitimate people who wanted to sell , got suspended and left. it is us who know that it is possible and necessary to try over and over again but joe sixpack gets suspended once and will never come back

Re: Ebay's new bright idea. Charge buyers to buy off Ebay!
 

are there many cases of buyer protection?
We in US have not received such/

Re: Ebay's new bright idea. Charge buyers to buy off Ebay!
 

lol i can remember when i mentioned something about the FREE selling being part of a greater scheme of something they planning to launch in the near future.BOOM! There you go

Re: Ebay's new bright idea. Charge buyers to buy off Ebay!
 

they want to reduce / remove fees for some or all sellers trying to make selling more attractive , especially now with mass suspensions of new sellers and tax reporting they likely fear that sellers will be leaving on their own if they have not been suspended yet by ebay bots

ebay have been actively destroying sellers , they created a mine field on the marketplace where one wrong move is enough to get kicked out

for example the stories about sellers who wanted to update their address on ebay and got suspended because the address is new , it is not in the credit agency databases yet so they allow 2-3 doc uploads and kick people out. a few weeks later the address will be in the databases but ebay will not care anymore , their asian reps will just be repeating the same: you are a risk to community , go sell elsewhere

being honest on ebay essentially means being stupid

Re: Ebay's new bright idea. Charge buyers to buy off Ebay!
 

I still feel they have an overall objective to get paypal off their list of payment options and single it down to just "ebay balance only"...maybe with the option of buyers who make use of ebay balance only, not having to pay "this new fee" they introduced.

Re: Ebay's new bright idea. Charge buyers to buy off Ebay!
 

Either you've not read the message properly or are trying to scaremonger.

They are not charging all buyers. 99.9% of purchases made on ebay are from businesses, for them the buyer protection is free.

It is only being applied to private sellers and then, it isn't being added to the purchases amount, it's being added to the listing price. Buyers won't see it as an additional charge and private sellers have the option to amend their prices if they feel it is necessary.

As @hotadvice said, many of us kinda new the free to sell wheeze wouldn't last long.

Here's the bottom line. It wont make an iota of difference to sales on ebay and if it discourages business sellers from using private sellers accounts then I'm all for it.

Genuine private sellers will just have to suck it up. Shouldn't be a problem, they had no issue paying fees this time last year although I will concede it's going to sting a little given they have become used to enjoying free listings for a short while.

Re: Ebay's new bright idea. Charge buyers to buy off Ebay!
 

99.9% of purchases are from business sellers.? Have you any proof for that or did you cook it up?

You're right in that it would make ebay increasingly corporate. Corporations tend to snuff out the smaller competitors then raise their prices accordingly.

Re: Ebay's new bright idea. Charge buyers to buy off Ebay!
 

I doubt the figure is that high...proof required

Re: Ebay's new bright idea. Charge buyers to buy off Ebay!
 

I 'cooked it up', it was a figure of speech but you get the idea. Indeed, I bet it's not that far from the true figure. In any event, my comments are pretty much true.

Ebay are not trying to snuff out smaller sellers, a lot of the recent and ongoing changes are a response to regulatory requirements and many private sellers will voluntarily quit the site as a result.

Could you blame eBay if they did indeed want to wash their hands of private sellers? I'm not comparing like-for-like but it hasn't hurt Amazon has it?

If I was running eBay I'd take one half decent business seller for a dozen private sellers any day. Business sellers will surely be their target going forward.

Re: Ebay's new bright idea. Charge buyers to buy off Ebay!
 

If the ebay adverts are to be believed. The demographic they are trying to attract to ebay are people selling unwanted gifts and attic clearance. These will be mainly private sellers.

Re: Ebay's new bright idea. Charge buyers to buy off Ebay!
 

I bet it isn't going into 2025/6, it was a last hurrah before folk get spooked and walk away.

The profit from private sellers must be tiny and set to get even smaller. You don't strengthen a business by targeting this kind of seller.

Re: Ebay's new bright idea. Charge buyers to buy off Ebay!
 

You say one thing, but ebay's billions in advertising says another.

I'll take that over what " you bet will happen'

I've never seen any solitary advert to attract " business sellers"

Re: Ebay's new bright idea. Charge buyers to buy off Ebay!
 

It matters not, the fact is your initial post was misleading and I was merely trying to clarify. I'm also not convinced eBay has spent billions advertising for new private sellers on ebay UK. Did you just cook that up? :)

Going forward private sellers are set to be of even less importance to them, borne out by the facilities being taken away - fees reintroduced, multi-buy gone, 300 maximum listings etc etc.

What do you think will happen to their private seller base when they demand NI numbers or suspend them? We've seen many threads on here from folk who are frantically trying to find a way to address this, many will simply walk away or go legit.

Lets not forget that if you're a genuine private seller disposing of your unwanted tat you are welcome to use the site. The only folk getting wound up by all this IMO is business seller using private seller accounts and as I said above good riddance to them.

If you make your living on ebay then their changes and the impending regulatory demands wouldn't bother you at all. If you're truly a private seller then it is what it is, like it or lump it or find another platform to sell on.

Re: Ebay's new bright idea. Charge buyers to buy off Ebay!
 

https://www.valueaddedresource.net/e...bruary-4-2025/

Such news was published.

Re: Ebay's new bright idea. Charge buyers to buy off Ebay!
 

No it's not hyperbole. I don't have ebay's 2024 figures, but ebay spent over 1.3 billion dollars in advertising.

You said my post is completely and utterly irrelevant, as 99.9% of sales are business on ebay, then accuse me of being misleading !. You have just taken affront to the post as it does not apply to you, and also that private sellers are not paying the same fees. I have both types of account, and I don't wish private sellers, many are very small time, to lose money on fees or buyers to have to pay higher prices buying off then. Especially as ebay is one massive tax dodger itself, ditto the many corporates selling on ebay. You seem to wish to protect. If I were you I'd care a bit more about the massive tax avoidance performed by corporations, rather than some single parent woman boosting her income with a part time job(for example) paying less fees.

Re: Ebay's new bright idea. Charge buyers to buy off Ebay!
 

In the early days,most buyers are individual collectors,then comes small retail shops ,they need to have something new ,else customers would find it boring looking at the same old stuff.
Then dealers found out they can have antiques for less than going to dealer auctions.
Then the individuals who bought from you end up with drawers full of junks,so they become resellers.
These days you have all of the above.
Worst are the wholesalers/distributors and manufacturers,there is no way to compete with your suppliers.

Re: Ebay's new bright idea. Charge buyers to buy off Ebay!
 

Lets keep it relevant, how much do you think they spent in the UK to attract new private sellers or to encourage private seller to use their platform. Answer...it wasn't billions.


I didn't say it was irrelevant, I said it was misleading as you didn't read, or understand, the content of ebays announcement. Your thread is entitled "Ebay's new bright idea. Charge buyers to buy off Ebay!" and your opening post makes no reference to how this new policy is to be applied, you simply suggest that you thought ebay wanted more buyers and in some way this will reduce them.

I simply highlighted that it only applies to private sellers and they make up a tiny proportion of sales, set to get much smaller a fact you seem to have missed.

Given neither of us know the exact answer, how many sales per 1000 on ebay do you think are made by bona fide private sellers?

Trust me, I'm not trying to 'protect' ebay, not sure why you would think that I too have a private seller account that I ditch my tat on and I'm not planning on closing it - I am still able to recognise that my fees will still be less than they were 12 months ago and still offer great value. I will give them my NI number when asked and not worry about the possibility of answering to HMRC if they ever come a knocking.


The fact still stands as I asserted earlier, this will only impact a small number of sellers, set to get smaller and the fees they pay will still be less than 12 months ago, is not a charge to all buyers and is very unlikely to impact on site sales. Not sure why you've taken umbrage with me over this clarification.

Re: Ebay's new bright idea. Charge buyers to buy off Ebay!
 

All great points.

In my opinion this move in the UK means registered, tax paying businesses should see an increase in sales.

Professional sellers using private accounts will now leave the platform or go legit and change their accounts to business on the platform.

Re: Ebay's new bright idea. Charge buyers to buy off Ebay!
 

I haven't been able to find the proportion of ebay sales on ebay that are business or private online, but a simple search on many items revealed to me, many sales are private. I did a search on clothing, and I was expecting business accounts to be on the top of searches as they obviously sell more on average, but it was swamped by the sheer number of private accounts. Your assertion that 99.9% of sales are associated with business accounts is laughable.

Regarding HMRC, ripping ebay off and HMRC are 2 different things! HMRC can put you in prison or send the bailiffs to break your legs! I hope you don't believe it's the same thing as HMRC do spend taxes on valuable things like schools as well as wasting it! Ebay's profits go to shareholders and CEOs!

People who are knowing their elbows off because some very small part time businesses avoided a few fees, needs to a) get a life b) have a sense of proportion. Ebay and Amazon station their business in Luxembourg and Ireland to evade wrapping amounts of tax. So do many of the corporates that sell on ebay. I do actually have to pay tax. So maybe you could write an equally impassioned article why you believe a private seller who avoided a few hundred in fees is worse than ebay and other corps who avoided billions in tax? They are the real freeloaders. If they paid their tax, it would be lower for us all, allied with better public services.

Re: Ebay's new bright idea. Charge buyers to buy off Ebay!
 

If I was going to hazard a guess which sector you'd choose to discredit my 'throw away figure for illustrative purposes' argument I'd have bet my life savings on 'clothing'. :pound:. Now that is laughable.

But I'll play along, give me your search terms to check this private seller 'swamping'.

Then we'll play the same game with sectors of my choice. ;)

Calm down, you're in danger of losing sight as to why you started the thread where you claimed ebay wanted to 'charge buyers' when in reality it is a very small sellers fee for a relatively low number of genuine private sellers.

Re: Ebay's new bright idea. Charge buyers to buy off Ebay!
 

it is not the proportion that matters but the fact that small private sellers are needed to attract buyers so that mass exodus of small sellers would have a negative impact on traffic

Re: Ebay's new bright idea. Charge buyers to buy off Ebay!
 

What makes you think that small private sellers selling off their second hand tat are needed to attract buyers?

I'm sure we're all agreed the impending potential mass exodus isn't of ebays making and is the same for all similar selling platforms.

You know a lot about ebay, what percentage of sellers would you say are genuine private sellers? Just hazard a guess to try and put my off-the-cuff 99.9% comment earlier into perspective.

Re: Ebay's new bright idea. Charge buyers to buy off Ebay!
 

I'm not sure. I think you'd challenge any estimation I could come out with. It would certainly take a long time to get a true representation. I believe ebay's advertising demographic choices speak volume however and a significant proportion of ebay sales are from private sellers.. Though again, you challenge this. You seem to be a higher authority than ebay's advertising executives!

I sort of understand your opinion that it makes no sense to appeal to private sellers as ebay are not charging fees to this sector. What I'm saying, is, ebays 1.3 billion of advertising revenue says different. Obviously, ebay know something we don't. Perhaps private sellers selling tat also increases the chance of them buying off ebay and continue as a selling/buying platform.

Re: Ebay's new bright idea. Charge buyers to buy off Ebay!
 

it is not about genuine private sellers in legal terms but in practical terms

private means small seller / hobby seller , whether they pay taxes and have an official business is meaningless in terms of traffic and there are lot of these sellers

Re: Ebay's new bright idea. Charge buyers to buy off Ebay!
 

You are entitled to your opinion, no harm will come of a throwaway guess. Just say what you think, it can't be any worse than my wild guess which you said was laughable can it? :)

Any chance of the search terms you used for the 'swamping' of private sellers in the clothing category?

Re: Ebay's new bright idea. Charge buyers to buy off Ebay!
 

Sure it is, this policy change and the reason for this thread only applies to private sellers. :thumb:

Private seller means someone who is not registered as a business for the purpose of disposing of unwanted personal wares who do not enjoy the freedom to list large volumes and other benefits that businesses enjoy. Or, by the same token, are they expected to meet the same platform demands, fees and regulatory requirements imposed on business sellers. If they're illegally running a business on this basis then, as I said earlier, good riddance to them.

Here's a thought...what if eBay said private sellers, by their nature, were no longer allowed to list new goods? Shouldn't be an issue should it?

So what percentage of sales do you think are made by private sellers then? It would be interesting to know how far away from the mark folk think I am.

Re: Ebay's new bright idea. Charge buyers to buy off Ebay!
 

I did some rudimentary research! There are 18.1 million active ebay sellers on ebay. There is empirical research there are more private sellers than business accounts actively selling. I would say private sellers far outweigh businesses 10-1, but more transactions are business related about 60%..

Those private sellers would far more likely to be active buyers than business sellers I'd imagine. I can't see some corporation buying 2nd hand tat on Ebay for example

Re: Ebay's new bright idea. Charge buyers to buy off Ebay!
 

Okay, I can't dispute your estimation as I have no evidence to the contrary.

But I truly find it hard to believe that out of each 1000 sales on ebay 400 are to private sellers. Just my opinion. I don't think I've bought from a private seller in over a decade now but I'm not after collectibles or second had stuff etc. Not sure many folk are these days, particularly younger folk.

I wonder what the true figure will be in, say, 18 months time when the NI number bombshell drop has started kicking in? I reckon we'll see a lot of the scratchy businesses using private accounts disappear and I also reckon a lot of your 400/1000 guess is made up of these chancers. Whatever folk think of their perceived benefit to the site I stand by my 'good riddance' opinion.

Just to remind ourselves, genuine private sellers have (in theory, but lets not get into that) nothing to worry about and this latest fee still offers them great value for money.

Re: Ebay's new bright idea. Charge buyers to buy off Ebay!
 

You should work for ebay's advertisement executive board! Or maybe you already do. Who knows?

My opinion is anything that squeezes "the little guy" is morally reprehensible. Particularly a ruthless, tax avoidance corporate machine such as eBay.

As I say, anyone who tries to cheat HMRC is a pillock because HMRC can soon flag bank accounts that have large sums of regular cash being deposited ,and have much more wide ranging powers than ebay. People surely know or even have been stung by this. So I don't think it'll affect regular private sellers bringing in NI. Anyway, those who do cheat will probably put in a ⊗⊗⊗⊗ NINO!

I don't want to keep repeating myself, but it might be good for your sense of justice and soul to fret a bit less if some single parent is flogging some tat to supplement her impoverished wages, or some dear old granny doing a regular car boot is avoiding some fees, and fret a bit more by the billions upon billions of taxes evaded by ebay and the corporate businesses using this site and others. You might end up paying a bit less tax yourself:)

Re: Ebay's new bright idea. Charge buyers to buy off Ebay!
 

The dodgy NI number is an interesting one, I reckon it will pass muster with ebay if it meets the algorithm. Not their problem, over to you HMRC.

Don't worry about my morals, I sleep at night just fine. Maybe we've just got a different set of principles. I can only comment on matters which affect me directly and I don't consider it selfish to do so any less that the next person does. I too would like to see big corporations held to account more meaningfully but it's out of my control and successive governments have all failed, or are scared, to address it.

Just to clarify...again....as I said above, single parents and grannies unloading their personal wares have nothing to worry about and are of no concern to me. Business operators making good money hiding behind private seller accounts, one would assume for the purpose of tax evasion, are fair game as, in my eyes, they are taking sales away from me and I'd like to see the back of them. Nothing personal :)

Re: Ebay's new bright idea. Charge buyers to buy off Ebay!
 

Come on! You surely know that ebay takes notice when private sellers sell over a certain limit. Ebay have forced many a private seller to a business one if these threads are to believed. So this policy purely effects dear old grannies and single parents trying to supplement their impoverished incomes.

You may not believe that corporations evading tax affects you personally, bu they do and much more so than that dear old gran avoiding ebay selling fees. It raises your taxes just as much as mine and restricts funding to public services. Unless you're involved in your own tax avoidance schemes that ebay do and use private health and education services

Re: Ebay's new bright idea. Charge buyers to buy off Ebay!
 

private seller on ebay could be anyone as long as they have limited volume , they do not need to have a registered business , no need to write anywhere they are or are not a business , no need to pass business verification

basically anyone making a turnover of 1-2K per month could easily stay on private account and there are loads of these people. I am sure in terms of turnover business sellers make more while private sellers outweigh in their quantity

Re: Ebay's new bright idea. Charge buyers to buy off Ebay!
 

Sure, it will affect granny selling her unwanted tat. But is still a small fee for great exposure and lets not forget granny was paying more in fees this time last year. Didn't see anyone complaining then or banging down ebays door demanding private sellers should have their fees reduced.

Here's a hypothetical question for you which I appreciate is impossible to answer meaningfully. If the Treasury could enforce a noticeable taxation of big corporations how much would you like to see raised? Do you think we, as the little guys, would see any reduction in our personal taxation and/or an improvement in public services?

I don't think so. Do you know what I think would happen. My fees would go up and I'd be net worse off, ironically I might end up paying less in tax on my reduced profits. And still not be able to get an appointment with my GP and watch even more billions frittered away on the NHS, diversity, free hotels, foreign aid and the net zero madness.

I'll stick my neck out and say if the money pits I mention above were managed better we'd save many times more than we could ever hope to raise via corporate taxation.

Re: Ebay's new bright idea. Charge buyers to buy off Ebay!
 

I'm not sure what point you're trying to make. Of course its possible for a true private seller to sell 2K per month legitimately but they are the rare exception not the rule, the vast majority are pseudo businesses hiding behind private seller accounts. Are you defending these?

None of your replies have even discussed the purpose of this thread, just a series of rants about ebay and comments about traffic.

So I'll try asking again, what percentage of sellers do you think this policy change will affect and how many 'don't deserve it'.

Re: Ebay's new bright idea. Charge buyers to buy off Ebay!
 

So mercari did this last year but as of next week they are going back to charging seller fees.

Considering eBay is a bigger platform, I wonder if this would actually work for them

Re: Ebay's new bright idea. Charge buyers to buy off Ebay!
 

I'm not a seller nor buyer on Mercari so happy to be corrected.

As I understand it Mercari actually added the buyer fee to the sale price, making it clear to the buyer they were paying it whereas ebay intend to hide it in the listing price by adding it 'at source'. The buyer wont be aware they're paying it and is effectively a seller fee.

Additionally, ebay are only applying it to private sellers. Happy to stand corrected again but I don't think it's going to make a great deal of difference to sales given I believe the bulk are made via businesses.

TBH, I can see why the Mercari approach is being revised, even if the buyer was getting their goods cheaper than, say, ebay they'll always see that 'buyer fee' and human nature is to balk at it.

Re: Ebay's new bright idea. Charge buyers to buy off Ebay!
 

No, Mercari buyers will get their goods more expensive.

They are adding the seller fees back but I think buyers will still be paying their buyer fee.

It's like tipping in USA. Over used and abused

Re: Ebay's new bright idea. Charge buyers to buy off Ebay!
 

I wrote further above about the purpose , that is that private sellers have great significance on ebay

Re: Ebay's new bright idea. Charge buyers to buy off Ebay!
 

in my opinion it is a scheme on ebay how to avoid exodus of private sellers so that expenses are redistributed by allowing small sellers to list for free or cheaper than before while collecting the fees or parts thereof from the buyers