eBay UK shafts its sellers (again)

Unsure if this pertains exclusively to eBay UK or eBay Europe-wide. TL;DR: 1000 down to 300 free listings per month (private sellers only), 3% flat rate fee on all international sales, no cash on collection sales.

Hi Joshua,
We want to let you know about some upcoming changes to seller fees and to payment options when selling locally. These will be effective from 1 October 2024.

Free listing allowance change
Currently, private sellers can list up to 1,000 items a month for free on eBay. From 1 October, this will decrease to 300 listings per month. After you’ve used your monthly allocation of 300 free listings, you’ll be charged 35p for each new listing created.

International fee change
If your registered address is in the UK, we charge an international fee when the delivery address for the item is outside the UK. Until now this fee has varied by region. Starting from 1 October there will be a flat rate of 3% across all shipping regions. This will be calculated on the total amount of the sale which includes the item price, any handling charges, postage, and any applicable taxes.

Removing cash on pickup for local listings
Many sellers offer free collection in person, especially for large items which may be difficult to post. As we continue to make sure eBay is a safe and secure place to sell your items, we will be removing the option for buyers to pay with cash for items from 1 October. Instead, all payments for local items will go through the site - with a simple digital confirmation on collection - to ensure that you get paid securely and promptly by buyers.

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As a ebay Business seller and partner I don’t see how this is wrong for ebay to do. If you are listing over 300 items a month you should be classed as more than a private seller.

For too long ‘Businesses’ within the UK have took advantage over the Private seller limits while us actual Business accounts run things correctly and by the book, understanding the importance of ebay and the reach they provide for us to sell out items.

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No clue if eBay stores work the same way in the UK as they do on the US website, but if they do, why not just open a store? It has a cost, but if you sell at least 2k a month anything after that is profit due to the reduced fee.

As far as I can tell, the additional 3% fee on international orders applies to all sellers (if it’s restricted to private then fair enough). The main point is that all its updates are geared towards eBay becoming a more and more hostile environment for sellers.

I am reading these changes to be less hostile.

  • no more getting mugged from doing a meetup sale
  • 300 listings instead of 1,000 so the casual seller can focus on more important things in life if not an actual store. This actually hurts buyers more because casual sellers will be listing fewer items.
  • the fee increase/decrease depending on what it was is just part of it. Our fees on USA eBay trickle up over time and now the effective fee is almost 15% since we pay fees on sales tax too
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It’s sadly been more than just a trickle so far.

I don’t think sellers appreciate the reach ebay give you as a seller. Most platforms are 20% sales fee’s and they dont reach half the amount of people ebay does. What can you expect when 70% of Private sellers benefit from reduced fees every other week and they run a Business through that account, constantly costing ebay. If we all played fairly and correctly I really doubt fee’s would increase constantly

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eBay’s reach is the only thing holding its collectables sales base together. It doesn’t make it a good platform in a well rounded sense. Coupled with the aggressively anti-seller, pro-buyer customer foundations, for TCG sellers it’s almost like a digital Stockholm Syndrome. The pertinent question is obviously, “well where’s the better option?” But to be honest as the market grows I wouldn’t be surprised if a company with enough reach and money, who more importantly could identify with its sellers and therefore get the most out of them, threw their hat in the ring to serve as a direct eBay competitor in the coming years.

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One of the largest sports card companies is moving off eBay to fanatics. @chibicollectables Made a great point about eBay’s reach, but you are absolutely right, it’s the main thing keeping eBay relevant. There are much better processes out there to sell. The burbank sports move is unprecedented. Fanatics is perhaps the first actual competitor to eBay.

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I know there’s more nuance to it, but the way I see things at the moment is that there are 2 main options for most sellers - 1. Use eBay and just pray that you don’t have a bad time, and have your risk be rewarded with lower fees (at this point only “slightly” lower it feels) or 2. Use specialist platforms like PWCC and consignment services (like with yourself), have 0 headache but pay for this by stomaching the fees. Both have their place (believe me, if I had anything actually worth consigning it would be coming your way Scott) but it would be ideal if there was a platform that filled the gap in the middle, where sellers could enjoy a bit more protection/peace of mind while not sacrificing large %s of their sales income. At the moment these emails from eBay just continue to leave a more and more bitter taste in the mouth. I’m really interested to see where Fanatics go with this though!

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40 million! I didn’t think there was anybody in COMC’s range but apparently there was. Wow