Ebay insisting upon Free P&P?

puddleduck

puddleduck

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Andy Drake
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Hi folks

I was going to put some old Nintendo bits and bobs on Ebay, and also a flash, and in both cases Ebay said I couldn't list unless I offered free P&P..!

When did this happen - so they want you to pay up to 10% fees, 4.5% Paypal tax and offer free postage too?

I only expect to get a couple of quid for the Nintendo stuff..., so its with paying postage I'd be losing money!

Just wondering if I missed something - but it seems impossible to sell in the Flash category now unless you're willing to cop postage...?
 
The categories we've selected are extremely competitive in the UK with online retailers increasingly offering free delivery. We believe this is the market price for P&P for those categories in the UK.
In which categories do I have to offer free P&P?
Your first domestic postage option must be free for these categories:

Clothes, Shoes & Accessories:
Women’s accessories
Men’s accessories
Boys’ accessories
Girls’ accessories
Clothing & Shoe care

Video Games:
Accessories
Games
Internet Game Accessories
Merchandise / Books

Mobile & Home Phones:
Bluetooth Accessories
Mobile Phone Accessories
Mobile Phone Batteries
Mobile Phone Cases & Pouches
Mobile Phone Chargers
Mobile Phone Data Cables
Mobile Phone Fascias
Multimedia Cards / Memory
Pagers
Sim Cards

Consumer Electronics:
Accessories
Batteries & Battery chargers
Gadgets
MP3 Player Accessories
TV Accessories

Computing:
Books & Manuals
Cables/connectors
Laptop Accessories
PDA Accessories
Printer Ink & Cartridges
Printer Paper & Accessories

Photography:
Books, Manuals, & Magazines
Camcorder Accessories
Digital Camera Accessories
Digital Camera Batteries
Digital Camera Chargers
Digital Camera Memory Cards
Digital Memory Card Readers
Film
Film Camera Accessories
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Thanks Chris - looks like I did miss something!

Seems mad to me!

Books & Manuals - That's mental, a hardback can be a couple of quid to send?!?!!
 
Hmm, so peoples reserve prices will now be altered to include the cost of postage, and ebay gets to take 10% of that as well.
Well it's one way of increasing their profits I guess...
What a PITA!
 
Makes sense to me. Just add the domestic postage cost to to your starting price.

The buyer is going to pay the postage either way. It might put an end to some of the ridiculously high postage costs I have seen on some listings.



Steve.
 
Makes sense to me. Just add the domestic postage cost to to your starting price.

If you want a "free" listing, you need to start under 99p though.
 
Jim.R said:
I refer the honorable gent to my comment about their profits ;)
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Yeah, seems like it, they pitch is that buyers don't like paying P&P and this is doing sellers a favour as you'll get more buyers that way.....:bonk:

Which is silly, as I only have three Nintendo'y things to list :)

-Andy
 
personally i dont think ebay will be in its current form for much longer, it isnt people selling there unwanted stuff anymore its big business and mainly traders using the site. shame really it was a fantatic idea to start with.
 
puddleduck said:
What for a Nintendo gamecube controller? Are you insane? Or just being argumentative? ;)
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Do you see that little exclamation mark at the end?!!!

I would have put a smiley face but I don't like them.

I suppose what I meant was, no one is forcing you to use e-bay, it's your choice. They have their own reasons for creating the rules and if you want to use their service, those are the rules.


Steve.
 
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I "bumped" into this issue on what must have been the first day, as when I phoned eBay's helpline they didn't know about it, and promised to resolve it.

Anyway I just added the postage cost onto my Buy-It Now price for the 6 Kodak films I was selling, and they'd been snapped up (!!) within 24 hours. I also stated that I'd discount the price by the postage amount if anybody wanted to collect in person. But nobody collects these days.

eBay still works for me, but it's becoming increasingly more expensive and I don't think this free P&P will help.
 
Toothie said:
personally i dont think ebay will be in its current form for much longer, it isnt people selling there unwanted stuff anymore its big business and mainly traders using the site. shame really it was a fantatic idea to start with.
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Hmm, anyone else spot a gap in the market? :thinking:
Having never looked any further than eBay for the odd item I sell, how do Amazon Marketplace etc... compare WRT fees?
 
Steve Smith said:
I suppose what I meant was, no one is forcing you to use e-bay, it's your choice. They have their own reasons for creating the rules and if you want to use their service, those are the rules.


Steve.
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Well its not much of a debate if someone just says "loads are the rules, deal with it". Its very trite.

Turn this around and consider if someone makes up random and spurious "no photography" rules... ;)

Point is is, for what is basically a mail order way of selling, not being able to charge for the method of getting an item from the seller to the buyer is silly. I dis-agree with these rules :)
 
Jim.R said:
Hmm, anyone else spot a gap in the market? :thinking:
Having never looked any further than eBay for the odd item I sell, how do Amazon Marketplace etc... compare WRT fees?
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Amazon Marketplace is very expensive fees wise, seeem to be about 17.5%.

Although for books, DVD and music its worth doing I guess as the Amazon postage credit usually covers P&P.
 
When I buy from eBay, I always include the cost of postage into my maximum budget, so free P&P won't change that. I suppose the risk you run is the fact that item won't sell for more than the postage cost, but then you run the risk of an item not selling at all with other forms of advertising and still having to pay the placement fee.

I think the real risk of this new rule is that sellers may skimp on packaging and send things out 2nd class to keep costs down.
 
eBay is all geared up for buyers now, some knob bid on a body I'm selling and ignored every condition in the listing. Gave me a long list of reasons he didn't follow any of the conditions, when I complained he got shirty with me said i was unprofessional and rude (true) and I should swallow any fees like any other corporation. I assured him I wouldn't but when I rang eBay they said he is doing nothing wrong as he has attempted to pay. I'm waiting for his cheque to clear so I can take my fees and refund him the difference. I may get banned for this though.:nuts:
 
puddleduck said:
Thanks Chris - looks like I did miss something!

Seems mad to me!

Books & Manuals - That's mental, a hardback can be a couple of quid to send?!?!!
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I agree, I find the reasoning stated in their explanation a daft one. All they will be achieveing is the opposite from what they are trying to do - they'll drive sales away.
 
Steve Smith said:
Ebay is a business. If you want to use them you have to abide by their rules.

You can always rent a shop and put your items in the window!
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Yes but it also works the opposite way - I can also go and sell my stuff online elsewhere without any stupid enforcement rules of how I should charge for a postage. Amazon, play.com etc - there are plenty of others.

It is also not in the interest of eBay to be so disrespecting to their sellers - they are the ones to bring them money after all as eBay do not receive a penny from the buyers. So your point about them being a business is mute - they are hurting themselves more than any buyers or sellers.
 
puddleduck said:
Turn this around and consider if someone makes up random and spurious "no photography" rules...
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If they have the authority to make those rules then that's what they are however random and spurious. Not much we can do about it (apart from moan about it on internet forums!).


Steve.
 
ebay has gone from being a shining light of everything that was good about the internet to a horrible business full of tat from the far east and pikeys trying to rip you off at every turn with the full backing of ebay. It really is a shame as for a while it was the first place I looked if I wanted a genuine second hand bargain.
 
it all started for me when they bought paypal iirc, and the selling fees went up
just sold a flash on here, I have a non commercial account, the funds went straight out onto e-bay again...and I've lost some sort of percentage...hardly receive any money on paypal and have a normal bog standard account...they change the goal posts to suite their business model. it's almost into monopolies commission time tbh
 
I suspect the reason for this is nothing to do with eBay trying to make the buying experience simialr to that of online shops, but more down to the fact that many sellers hike up the postage costs and drop the buy now prices to avoid eBay's horendous charges.
 
puddleduck said:
a hardback can be a couple of quid to send?!?!!
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Yes and the rest, i recently sold a copy of Photoshop Elements 5 by Scott Kelby, i let the person have it for about £9 with a bit of haggling, when i went to post it just standard was £4, i was gobsmacked, and had i have known beforehand i would have just kept it, my own fault i guess for not checking first, it does seem a bit extreme by ebay, but they don't give a toss anymore :shrug:
 
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TG. said:
Yes and the rest, i recently sold a copy of Photoshop Elements 5 by Scott Kelby, i let the person have it for about £9 with a bit of haggling, when i went to post it just standard was £4, i was gobsmacked, and had i have known beforehand i would have just kept it, my own fault i guess for not checking first, it does seem a bit extreme by ebay, but they don't give a toss anymore :shrug:
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I just can't fathom why they want a private seller, maybe clearing a few books from their shelves to have to pack it up. stand in a post office queue, and pay postage, and not be even able to their costs.

The stupidly is mindbending!
 
dapprman said:
I suspect the reason for this is nothing to do with eBay trying to make the buying experience simialr to that of online shops, but more down to the fact that many sellers hike up the postage costs and drop the buy now prices to avoid eBay's horendous charges.
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Yes this seems to be the case - but then again they addressing it from the wrong way... They should really look at their fees instead of forcing P&P.
 
puddleduck said:
I just can't fathom why they want a private seller, maybe clearing a few books from their shelves to have to pack it up. stand in a post office queue, and pay postage, and not be even able to their costs.

The stupidly is mindbending!
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Yes. But then eBay never did anything smart in their recent history - starting from buying PayPal...

If I needed to trade on eBay right now and was subject to this, I would have chosen to select free P&P but then state a condition in the selling advert or my delivery policy that I will charge an extra handling fee of NNN (here goes the postage) on top of the final price. They can hardly prohibit you doing that and it won't be subject to their fees.

This is similar to how some eBay seller are requesting PayPal fees back - stating that say 3% should be added for the final value when paying.
 
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I have been using eBay for over 9 years - in reality that use gets less and less each year. I don't understand why if the free P&P 'to attract more customers' should not be my choice to make.

I would imagine that losing customers - both sellers and buyers - is not the smartest move by eBay, but for some time it appears that they wish to move away from the lower priced items and concentrate on low turnover, high profit items.

Chris
 
I'm thinking of selling some computer parts very shortly and after reading this thread I'm even more loath to list them on ebay (although they shouldn't be affected by the free P&P). Can anyone suggest another place I can list them for cheaper and still get a similar price for them?

(They are old bits an pieces mostly so no point really sticking them in the classifieds for example).
 
In theory if you sell a computer game or DVD for 99p or just over and have to do the free P&P, plus the 10% ebay charge and the paypal charge you probably end up losing money.
 
Shadow said:
In theory if you sell a computer game or DVD for 99p or just over and have to do the free P&P, plus the 10% ebay charge and the paypal charge you probably end up losing money.
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For sure, 15p in Ebay / Paypal fees, according to Royal Mail a typical DVD weights 190grames, which is 90p to post 1st Class.

And then there is packaging (jiffy bags / parcel tape isn't free) + time (which is priceless)


:nuts:

So... you are probably 50p in the red... and have spent at least half an hour packing / posting...
 
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