Please tell me more about this. I have not seen it.
eBay scrapping selling fees for private sellers
- Thread starter bp122
- Start date
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Personally I use Aliexpress or Alibaba first (if I'm going to buy Chinese stuff, I'd rather buy it direct rather than through an Ebay seller thats selling factory seconds for twice the price you can get from the manufacturer for good ones)- the biggest issue is the time it takes to get here- usually a week to three weeks is normal to Australia from China... I wil use Ebay in 'an emergency' if its time critical, but like I said- the Ebay sellers tend to be reselling factory seconds (often lower quality or with defects) and usually at quite a high markup!!!
I do use FB marketplace- (but only for 'local to me' stuff- thats one advantage, is that you can set a 'distance ring' around you so it ignores anything coming from outside that distance)
The last Ebay buy was ages ago (I needed some replacement clearance lights for a trailer I rent out, so needed them quickly) and although they were from the same manufacturer that I normally buy from direct- these were obviously factory seconds- about half of them (box of 10) were wired 'back to front' ie the positive and negative leads were reversed (something I had never seen from the actual manufacturers ones ever- before or after) so I had to test each one on a battery before hooking it up permanently...
They wanted evidence of it, so I actually made a short video of the issue...
Someone stuffed up...
(only 55 seconds long)
To add insult to injury, I paid more for those lights by over double, than buying a box of ten direct...
I do use FB marketplace- (but only for 'local to me' stuff- thats one advantage, is that you can set a 'distance ring' around you so it ignores anything coming from outside that distance)
The last Ebay buy was ages ago (I needed some replacement clearance lights for a trailer I rent out, so needed them quickly) and although they were from the same manufacturer that I normally buy from direct- these were obviously factory seconds- about half of them (box of 10) were wired 'back to front' ie the positive and negative leads were reversed (something I had never seen from the actual manufacturers ones ever- before or after) so I had to test each one on a battery before hooking it up permanently...
They wanted evidence of it, so I actually made a short video of the issue...
Someone stuffed up...
(only 55 seconds long)
To add insult to injury, I paid more for those lights by over double, than buying a box of ten direct...
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Etaf
Established Member
well, i had an item on sale at ebay , and because of the zero fees , i lowered its price and sold it
as a result, i had to link my bank - which i thought had already been linked and agree a direct debit
then having linked it - i then get an email telling me its a different account and will take a few days to verify
had the account since 1979 and not changed - so no idea what that was about
i suspect they will deposit a few pence and i have to tell them what pence was deposited when
but at least i sold and got what i was after money wise after all the fees , i have a spreadsheet that calculates that for me
so i enter the money i want at the end of the day , and it gives me the price to list (with postage few and paypal fee )
as a result, i had to link my bank - which i thought had already been linked and agree a direct debit
then having linked it - i then get an email telling me its a different account and will take a few days to verify
had the account since 1979 and not changed - so no idea what that was about
i suspect they will deposit a few pence and i have to tell them what pence was deposited when
but at least i sold and got what i was after money wise after all the fees , i have a spreadsheet that calculates that for me
so i enter the money i want at the end of the day , and it gives me the price to list (with postage few and paypal fee )
Robbo3
Established Member
So if i want to buy something from you or any other seller, what should my first contact be?
"Is it available" may not be to your liking but it starts the conversation & is not really a reason to ignore a potential buyer. Cutting off your nose to spite your face, comes to mind.
Saying that, I'm pretty sure Gumtree use a bot to occasionally ask if an item is still available.
bp122
Expert at Jibber-Jabber
First contact is, "Hi there, I'm interested in your <insert item name>
<Ask a specific question if you have one> (ex. Does it come with a memory card as I see it in your photo but you haven't listed it)
I am free most evenings to collect or can do weekends.
Please let me know what works for you and would you prefer cash or bank transfer.
Best regards
<Insert name>"
This is the format I follow if I want to buy something . It shows I have taken the time to read the blurb and see the photos, shows I'm serious and all the info a seller could possibly need without the seller having to type out the same info AGAIN.
If you as a buyer cannot be bothered to do the basics, you are not my kind of buyer and saves me the hassle of dealing with a person who hasn't done the bare minimum. As a result, I have sold the items to people who are genuine, didn't have a problematic buyer, generally like minded people (who agree my approach and share the same passion for the hobby and the quality of social interaction) and sometimes even make a good acquaintance or a friend (multiple examples of that)
I have had people follow this format. I have also had people who have the audacity to just write a price (generally around 30% of what the asking price is and put a question mark <£30? On a £100 item with no other character used>, who just get blocked)
So it's not cutting my nose off or anything, it's just being selective for the right reasons.
bp122
Expert at Jibber-Jabber
It's irrelevant now as the fees are no longer applicable.
But until now, according to the eBay forums, some "selective" ebayers get this offer sent to them by eBay into their eBay inbox saying "80% off selling fees" - (I think motors were excluded)
It's almost religiously sent on a Thursday evening or a Friday, but the deal is you have to list by end of play Monday o(within 3 /4 days of the email / message coming in)
The deal is:
1. Activate the offer using the button /link
2. You have to start a brand new listing (relisting existing items under the same listing won't qualify) - basically copy paste the details into a new listing
3. It's valid for 30 days, over 100 listings (I think)
4. Generally, the fees works out at around 13-14% (used to be eBay & PayPal, but then eBay started processing the payment themselves)
But after the offer activation it works out anywhere between 2.9-3.5% overall or something. So quite a bit of savings especially on big ticket items. (Sold a lens for £600 earlier this year, got £580 for it after fees rather than £520!)
I sold a manual camera lens 2 months ago and ebay would not give me my money for 30 days, claiming that the seller has 30 days to decide if he wants the item.
I told ebay that this is more generous than a shop and I’m a pvt seller. I told them to undo the sale and return my item they refused.
That is the last time I’ve used them.
Ebay has tossed sellers to the wolves and given buyers way too much protection (and themselves). It is unreasonable to expect a pvt seller to have to give a 30 money back guarantee to a buyer.
What happens now in Photography is a photographer will buy a lense, use it to shoot a wedding and then return it. This could also happen with tools, turning ebay sellers into unwitting free loan shops.
The only way to avoid this is ‘pick up only’ and get them to scan the code. That way evay will pay you out almost instantly. I suspect though that will change and they will give the buyer more rights, the more expensive the item.
I feel unsure of ebays new changes. They have teams of very smart people working out how to extract more money from their model, so this is not all it seems.
Ebay holding the money effectively turns them into a bank so it could be they’re diversifying away from their core business model into money market/finance.
Expect ebay ’finance’ to be a thing (if not already) or a payment plan to purchase with interest.
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bp122
Expert at Jibber-Jabber
That's very strange, as I have sold quite a lot of items in the last 90 days, most recent being 3 weeks ago.
The money was in my account the following morning at 7 am.
It depends the price.
The camera lens was £1,500 so considered a high value item.
Ebay also said that because I hadn’t sold something in longer than a month the money had to be out in hold.
My suspicion is they were actually suspicious of the buyer and wanted to hold off paying me, in case he tried something dodgy and it effected them.
Ebay is my first port of call for most purchases. I'll even go to online seller's ebay stores often over their own stores because ebay is another avenue of appeal in case you get an argumentative seller who mis-describes and doesn't want to refund.
But after they cut paypal out so they can make more money by sitting on our money, I simply won't ship anything I'm selling myself until the money is cleared into my bank.
I wholly agree that they have been prioritising themselves and the buyers over sellers for years, and getting worse. The latest lark about requiring a payment method before bidding is a low point. They've lost sales to me because of that and will continue that way.
They must've been hiring ex Amazon types ! Amazon famously exploit their sellers.
I expect only that a seller is honest and accurate in their listings. Don't try to sneak some defect across or claim something untrue. They should take care over post and packing and if they make a mistake, it's on them. I stand by those principles as a seller. I expect them as a buyer. Easy.
But after they cut paypal out so they can make more money by sitting on our money, I simply won't ship anything I'm selling myself until the money is cleared into my bank.
I wholly agree that they have been prioritising themselves and the buyers over sellers for years, and getting worse. The latest lark about requiring a payment method before bidding is a low point. They've lost sales to me because of that and will continue that way.
They must've been hiring ex Amazon types ! Amazon famously exploit their sellers.
I expect only that a seller is honest and accurate in their listings. Don't try to sneak some defect across or claim something untrue. They should take care over post and packing and if they make a mistake, it's on them. I stand by those principles as a seller. I expect them as a buyer. Easy.
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Etaf
Established Member
Dont they hold the money now , until the item has been delivered or collected with a QR Code /code
I haven't found that.
When first introduced, they seemed to take a couple of days to pass the money along. Speaking only for myself, this doesn't seem to be an issue any more and the money clears through usually within hours.
If they held it, I would simply not ship and call the concierge service.
When first introduced, they seemed to take a couple of days to pass the money along. Speaking only for myself, this doesn't seem to be an issue any more and the money clears through usually within hours.
If they held it, I would simply not ship and call the concierge service.
What i’ve always detested with eBay is they take a % of the postage fee.
That has always informed me of what they think of their customers. It sounds petty but I I’ve always made the buyer organise their own postage to get round that.
Why should I pay ebay to go through the effort of posting something?
That has always informed me of what they think of their customers. It sounds petty but I I’ve always made the buyer organise their own postage to get round that.
Why should I pay ebay to go through the effort of posting something?
Has anyone taken the plunge...
and constructed their own website in order to sell items????
I am currently investigating the feasibility on Wix.com.
and constructed their own website in order to sell items????
I am currently investigating the feasibility on Wix.com.
bp122
Expert at Jibber-Jabber
The way I have seen is, the challenge is not creating the website or the sales workflow.
Biggest challenge is his you get people to trust your site.
You have to market it just right, which will cost a fortune. Then you have to make sure all your processes are in place (sales, basket, payment processing, returns, refunds, deliveries, Ts and C's, support, and customer service, data protection)
Then you have the job of making sure people can actually believe this is a legit website (1000s of these websites pop up every week which are expertly designed but they are scams, especially selling "discounted" high value items in fashion, kids toys, electronics etc)
So people are going to be quite doubtful until you have about 1000 plus feedback on various review sites not to mention your competitors who will do everything to make sure you don't come up or give you bad reviews by being "customers".
It's far easier to sell on someone else's platform if you have a few items to get rid of where you don't have any of these headaches and are protected in some way shape or form.
But if your goal is to get into the business and are aware that it is going to take you 8-10 years to actually begin to make it, then you ought to start now and keep at it.
Thank you for this insight. I have a lot to sell, but not a lot of time (or skill) to develop a website. Additionally, I have found that all of the IT people I know (friends) are unwilling to help set-up a new website. They are probably aware of the various pitfalls that you have mentioned, and just don't want to get involved. Perhaps this is an attractive idea, but not practical or lucrative in the overall scheme of things.
P.S. Can the false negative feedback be deleted on your own website (I wonder)?
bp122
Expert at Jibber-Jabber
I'm not discouraging you in any way, just saying one needs to know the end goal before committing one's time and resources into a big undertaking.
bp122
Expert at Jibber-Jabber
It's all about getting the right returns for your effort. If you are doing this to sell a 1000 items, setting up all of this is not worth it as someone like Amazon or eBay sell more than that every second. If you plan on being a distributor to various products over the next two decades, then it's worth it (and you probably want to get proper professionals involved rather than DIY or your friends)
Regarding the feedback, people will not give you a lot of credit if you have a ton of positive reviews on your own site, as they will think it's easy to fake that if you have faked everything else.
It's the reviews people leave for your website or business on sites like trust pilot that are crucial. If you have negative reviews there, it's not easy to get rid of them.
There is always google business (which I am currently in the process of setting up for the trailer hires)- it allows google maps to show your business and allows it to come up on google searches more readily- and allows you to link to your website (currently I am also in the process of setting that up on freewebstore, which allows paypal, or other payment options)
https://business.google.com
I looked at several (in fact I have a WIX account too) but the freewebstore has a ton of payment options...The only annoying thing is they send you a two stage factor every time you log into your dashboard (which is good for security I suppose) but can be annoying if it takes too long to arrive...
That's my actual portals to the business google and freewebstore admins above (I've blanked out/cut off anything that shows anything important lol)
That's the car trailer hire page (still a work in progress lol)- want different icons for each of the time hire links at the bottom, rather than the same default 'page' icon- but thats close to 2 dozen different icons (basically I still want the trailer being rented shown, but with the time on it as well)
They have 'paid options' which might suit some others, but thats just the basic 'free' version- which has far more than I actually need...
Just a suggestion, I really wasn't that impressed with Wix, it seemed far more limited- at least for me
ETA- as this is a small rural local business (you aren't going to hire a trailer from the other side of Australia to take a load of rubbish to your local tip lol), it isn't so important to have a 'big' web presence here (although I also sell replacement lights online as well- as I do shipping to any post office in Australia (including hold at the PO, and post office boxes- which most ebay/gumtree'ers won't do- and if you are a 'grey nomad' doing the 'big lap'- you aren't at home when you need it delivered....)- most of my existing custom is from word of mouth, the local facebook community page, the 'community noticeboard' tearoff tags on the poster on that at the local supermarket and the pub, and business cards at the local servo's...
We still do things 'old school' here in the bush- not surprising as our internet sux bigtime.... my EFTPOS link was down for three days straight (and drops out multiple times per day on a good day!!!
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That's because in the fairly early days when they didn't loads of sellers started greatly over-charging for P&P in order to reduce the actual purchase price (and so avoid fees).
