eBay to raise fees for private 'Buy It Now' listings

[Neil McCauley]

"eBay is introducing a flat 10% fee for private sellers using its "Buy It Now" fixed price listings from next month.

The changes will affect users trying to sell all items except mobile phones sold under contract, motor vehicles and property.

The new fees will be capped at £40 and will be introduced on 21 July."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/13874290

My guess is they no longer want the private sellers, content to let them migrate to Craigs List and so on. There preference being for trade sellers.

[Reid Malenfant]

Yes, i saw this earlier ;) I guess it depends on the value of what you are selling though, if it's a few thousand pounds worth then you might be onto a winner. In all honesty though i have never looked at the fees or attempted to work it out simply because i have not actually sold anything - yet :)

[Mark Grant]

With the insertion fee, 10% final value and then 3.7% paypal fees it is going to be expensive.

[Neil McCauley]

With the insertion fee, 10% final value and then 3.7% paypal fees it is going to be expensive.

As I said earlier, the evidence seems to point towards marginalising the small fry!

[nat8808]

Ebay have talked about this, becoming one big online shop, for years - always seems to be part of their future plans when I hear snippets from AGMs etc about the web, quotes from CEOs.

Being a Business Seller (to get the lower fees) means you're forced (by Ebay) to adhere to distance selling regulations in what seems to be an attempt to make it homogenous, like one big mall..

I don't believe that registering as a "Business Seller" on Ebay has any status in law and is only an option under their terms and conditions so in a sense it is quite false and all a bit of a confidence trick on Ebay buyers i.e. if you are still a private seller but register as a "Business Seller" on Ebay, I don't think you do legally have to adhere to distance selling regulations but you would be breaking Ebay's T&Cs.

A private sale between two private individuals is still only a private sale, no matter how they present themselves on Ebay and legally speaking any terms of sale can't be dictated by Ebay.

Of course to pretend you are a private seller when you are actually a business IS a legal matter so maybe there is also some kind of legal back-covering by Ebay too.

Despite this though, get a good reputation going and great listings and for the right gear with international shipping, auction style listings can bring out surprisingly high bids. You'll never achieve new item highs with a buy-it-nows IMHO.

[Neil McCauley]

I don't believe that registering as a "Business Seller" on Ebay has any status in law and is only an option under their terms and conditions so in a sense it is quite false and all a bit of a confidence trick on Ebay buyers...........

Oh really? How come you know so much about this – apparently? Are you personally offering guarantees on the advice you are giving here for the forum members? Seems to be your statement goes far further than mere opinion.

Well I’m sure you’ll forgive me if in matters of Commercial Law I’ll take advice from a professional rather than an amateur. You don’t mind, do you?

------------------

Hi Marco, if and when you are reading this - isn't there some embargo that can be put on posters who arguably appear – in matters of Law – to be expressing conjecture as fact?

[Macca]

he didn't state it as fact heprefaced it with 'I don't believe' which is the same as IMHO -

IMHO:)

[Neil McCauley]

he didn't state it as fact heprefaced it with 'I don't believe' which is the same as IMHO -

IMHO:)

Quite so. But in my opinion it is a dangerous invitation to avoid determining the truth about the situation. Well-intentioned comment without evidence to support it is merely background noise.

A comment about a piece of equipment, music, food, and so on is one thing – but fumbling about with the Law is a less trivial matter, especially if one is persuaded to act on the perception rather than the reality!

[nat8808]

Quite so. But in my opinion it is a dangerous invitation to avoid determining the truth about the situation. Well-intentioned comment without evidence to support it is merely background noise.

A comment about a piece of equipment, music, food, and so on is one thing – but fumbling about with the Law is a less trivial matter, especially if one is persuaded to act on the perception rather than the reality!

Fair point as your opinion but it was only my opinion too. You can and should check these things out for yourself if it concerns you - I'm sure you're not the type of person to jump in on things on the strength a comment from someone on an audio forum. It's not the place either for long essays with gathered evidence.

Think about it though: purely from a logical point of view, I don't see how clicking on user options in a Luxembougian (not sure of that word) company's website then suddenly feeds down into UK law.

UK laws are a seperate and thankfully independant entity to corporate T&Cs definitions. Ebay's T&Cs are no more than a contract of use of their services.

The definition of "Ebay Business Seller" you will not find in any statute.

Just as if Ebay had decided to use a West Side Story theme for their website and decided to use the term "Sharks" for traders and private sellers "Jets" then that wouldn't have any holding in law either.. Yet UK law will still independantly apply in terms of real businesses having to adhere to distance selling regulations, for example.

Whether sellers in this case called themselves "Jets" or "Sharks" wouldn't matter - the courts would have to show that they ran themselves as a business as per any other case and if you don't because you're not, then well you're not!

Factor in too the cost savings made by registering within Ebay as a "Business Seller" even if you are only a private seller by law, then that makes it even more of a grey area! Surely any seller has the right to reduce their costs of using Ebay if there are no legal implications to it - certainly none are stated by Ebay when you do do that - their only terms require you to act as a psuedo business, adhering to psuedo distance selling regulation.