“We recently changed our fee structure, so it’s now free for private sellers to sell, and there are no barriers for you to list the items buyers will love. As part of this change, we’re launching Buyer Protection to give buyers more confidence and security when shopping.
We wanted to share what this means for you and your buyers. From 4 Feb, a fee will be included in the item price when purchasing from private sellers, but buyers will only ever pay what they see, so there are no surprises at checkout.
What’s great about Buyer Protection
We’ve added benefits to give buyers more peace of mind when shopping:
• 24/7 customer support: Buyers can connect with a real person by phone at any time of day, or start a chat to get quick answers.
• Seller paid after delivery: When buying from private sellers, funds will only be sent once their item has been delivered.
We’ve also still got buyers covered with other great free services like eBay Money Back Guarantee and Authenticity Guarantee.*
How the Buyer Protection fee works
• The fee will be included in the item price from private sellers, so there are no surprises at checkout.
• Buyers will pay up to 4% of the item price, plus £0.75.** For example, when they see an item for £20, the fee of £1.49 will already be part of the price.
• The fee is lower on higher-priced items over £300, and there’s a cap on the total amountthey’ll pay.
• For items from business sellers, they’ll get the Buyer Protection benefits at no extra cost.
As part of our ongoing mission to be the best marketplace for buyers and sellers, we recently announced:
• It’s free to sell (excl. Vehicles) so you can bring buyers more of the things they love.
• It’s simpler to list so you can get your items out faster.
• It’s easier to get your items to buyers with the launch of Simple Delivery.
Now, to give your buyers even more confidence when shopping, UK-based private sellers will be paid after item delivery, from 4 Feb. Your funds will be available in your eBay balance two days after delivery confirmation.*** We know it’s important to get your money fast, so we recommend using a tracked delivery service either through Simple Delivery, or arranging for local collection.
Yeah, so they’re just reintroducing seller’s fees, but making them visible to the buyer! Buyer pays X but the seller will only get X-Y as Ebay take a cut. Same as before.
It seems that way, but the explanation is ambiguous as it mentions nothing about what the buyer set the initial price at in the example, though the wording implies that the seller will get £18.51, which is an odd amount to start with.
Anyway, eBay seems to be doing everything in their power to wreck trust in the platform for sellers.
Yeh i just pulled a bunch of stuff off there after reading this. Also as someone who’s been on the receiving end of a dishonest buyer i find it irksome that ebay makes no mention of increased protection for sellers, given how easy it already is for buyers to pull a fast one and get away with shitty behaviour. Sod them.
One of my prospects for 2025 is to boycot eBay and PayPal, they have gotten increasingly rotten from the inside. They don’t deserve to do lucrative shady business with my money behind my back anymore.
Amazed that there’s actually ‘some’ let alone ‘so much’ rebellion against ebay now they’re giving you more from your sales, just because they might hold onto the sale fee a bit longer. The mind boggles, but has anybody experienced an actual real problem down to the new practice?
Good luck selling elsewhere and losing all your protections and probably exposing yourselves to more risks. Have you even found an alternative (in the UK), or are you just going to hold onto your unloved gear?
I agree with them holding onto your fee until delivery too. Too many sellers don’t bother shipping for a few days and use they worst, slowest couriers that take forever when there are so many quick couriers charging a similar price for next day delivery. Hopefully gets a few sellers snapping out of their laziness.
Fair points, but at this time it’s still uncertain exactly what the changes are, at least to me from a quick reading of today’s e-mail. As I noted above, the wording is ambiguous and makes no mention of how the seller is approaching the pricing in the example, nor how one is supposed to go about it. If I want to sell something for a round figure to make it more attractive to buyers, does that mean I have to lower my initial price so that the extra fees will bring it up to my target sale value?
Being a responsible seller myself this makes it less appealing for the moment as it says nothing about protecting us from unscrupulous buyers looking to game the system, and in fact seems to bias it more towards their ability to do so.
I guess they are not going to pay market value, probably 50-60% for their mark up, but their ad has appeared in numerous places in the last few weeks, probably like a music magpie for audio gear.
It’s just a breaking point from all the shitty behavior over the years, they’ve been prioritizing scale companies and wholesale new shit over individuals selling used goods for what, ten years now?
I mean it’s not as if we’re happy that Reverb has been steadily screwing sellers since before whatever capital group owned Etsy crapped them up.
Just deleted my Reverb account that had 5 years of positive sales, ‘Preferred Seller’/‘Fast Shipper’ tags.
They wanted my SIN because, starting January of 2025, they will now report your sales to the Government of Canada so they can ding your for income tax. I did $5000 in sales last year which exceeds the $2800 you’re ‘allowed’ to do unreported. That was the last straw for me. You get enough of my fucking taxes. Go after the millionaire/billionaire set. They owe/dodge more in taxes than the combined income of every living person I’ve ever met. Literally.
Ah, I haven’t received any information about selling within the last few days. I just know i’ve been getting more money just from doing what I was doing before.
I always list stuff at a set price that i’m happy with and just wait until stuff sells. It’s straightforward and works for me.
Unless they’re going to take a 10% cut or something, then i’m sure it will be fine, but if as you say nobody is really sure what’s coming, then why not wait until it arrives before getting eaten up about it. All I had read so far was that ebay is holding onto the sale money for longer, but unless they’re living on the edge financially then that shouldn’t really affect too many people I would have thought.
