I'm just wondering whether anyone can shed light on what certain eBay sellers are doing. There are a number of new listings for $1 stamps. They sell for below face value but have a very inflated postage costs which take the total price well above face value. Despite seemingly providing no value to a buyer, they are selling. At first I thought it was some sort of eBay Plus scam but none of these sellers are eBay Plus. There are multiple sellers with similar listings. Some examples are:
What are these eBay sellers up to? - inflated postage
Claire Naps on 08/08/2018 - 19:04
Comments
I think you might find that they've had eBay plus previously but eBay has found out and cancelled it for the listing, usually the sale price includes delivery, and those that have sold are all before delivery costs. eBay did a round yesterday and turned off plus for some popular listings, such as power banks and SD cards..
Thanks. Makes sense.
was about to pop up a question how these ebayers gonna do without plus deals, appreantly we wont be benifited from it anymore, would we?
What are these eBay sellers up to?
Selling things on Ebay?
Refer to other responses which were actually informed and helpful.
No.
A few weeks ago Woolworths wish gift card were selling for up to 25% discount, $15 for $20 cards. The postage was $19.95 but free with eBay plus. Someone would order say 10 cards for $150 and free postage, the seller would receive $150 plus $19.95 X 10. They would then ship the item as one gift card and pay only $11 for registered post. A win for the customer, a bigger win for the seller, all at eBay's expense by covering an inflated shipping charge. Too bad they caught on so soon!
Thanks. I knew these listing had the whiff of eBay plus-ness about them.
"say 10 cards for $150 and free postage"
a lot more that that! heaps of orders for hundreds of "$20 cards"looks like the first one i saw doing the gift cards + stamps has been banned!
"Hi! Thanks for the interest in our products. We will no longer be offering products for sale on eBay.com.au effective 07/08/2018. We are available on other platforms as has always been the case. If you have purchased an item from us over the past 3 years and need to get in touch, please send us a message. We will maintain the eBay profile for communications about existing purchases only"
I wonder if he was able to keep the money he made
sold over 10,000 items in a short period of time..
Paypal keeps the money for 180 days after if no disputes they give the money to them.
But be interested to know if they were able to keep it, I suspect they do.
What are these eBay sellers up to?
Covering costs. Ebay wants 11% in seller fees, paypal near 3%. so kiss 14% of the sale total goodbye.
Then they need to buy the item, pay for postage (no such thing as free postage) and GASP make a dollar or two on the item.
Please see other responses. This has nothing to do with eBay fees.
says the person asking the question in the first place
umm. yeah I asked the question and have discovered the answer which has nothing to do with eBay fees.
"Then they need to buy the item, pay for postage (no such thing as free postage) and GASP make a dollar or two on the item"
They made big money when people bought more than one, most were buying from 10-500 at a time..
Postage is $14.95/$19.95 per item, doesn't matter if they bought 1 or 500, the seller got $14.95/$19.95 per item sold. ( and sent in express post bag ~ $20 )someone buys 100 x $20 gift cards at $1500 ( $2000 value ) seller loses ( $500 ), loses eg 14% fees ( at most $200 )
100 x postage seller received 100 x $14.95 postage ( ebay covers ) = $1495$1495 - $795 = $700 profit per 100 items sold …
and sh!t loads of credit card points!I suspect they also got their mates to buy them and in those instances there were never any gift cards sent.
Not going to disagree with your figures at all. BUT they don't work for the OPS first example item do they? Which is what I was commenting on.
Lets look at the first link again, its for 100 x $1 stamps for $115….. including FREE SHIPPING.
So yeah, the postage scam doesn't work on this item.
I will agree the postage scam only works when they buy more than one for sure, but if someone only buys 1 item, they lose money.
Based on your postage scam, why bother even sending/supplying an item? Seller creates buyer accounts and keeps buying their own items. Pure profit on the postage then ;)
The $115 item was not the example I was pointing to. eBay is now redirecting to that item because the original item is no longer available. The original item for $100 x $1 stamps selling for $85 with $70 postage.
It was only working when it was a $22 fv stamps for $15 plus $15 postage, but free postage for eBay plus members. Ebay have put a stop to it, not before it cost them a lot of money.
If you search for $20 coles gift cards and $20 Woolworth gift card sold items this is where the real money was made. Was on there for a couple of days and sold heaps.
If they buy and sell there own accounts eBay can stop the money, but if real people buy them the seller has less to worry about. Lots of people willing to buy the gift cards at 25% off esp when the seller said they would sent the gift in larger denominations.. Lots of stamps on there aswell but more select market for that.
People usually buy them if they have a discount voucher.
Example, those promos eBay sends you that say something like “sell $700” worth of items, get a 50 dollar voucher”.Probably the seller just wants to avoid some of the ebay fees. I don't think ebay takes a percentage of postage cost. Whereas they do take a percentage of sale value.
Also, some people will click to purchase, without realising the inflated postage.eBay take a % on the total sale price including postage now days.
Since EbayPlus started. I've noticed the larger postage costs and higher prices balance the illusion of free postage.
EbayPlus is just nasty IMO.some sort of eBay Plus scam
I guess they might do it across the board for Oz sales?
Does C&C avoid postage charges?
no
To avoid final listing fees.
no thats old news. final value fee - 10.9% of the total item sale price including postage and handling - to a maximum value of $440*
been a long time since I sold on ebay.
Based on my rough calculations, one seller (ozb membere as well) they sold and made over $100-200k profit over a period of 1 week. (Not including credit card reward points, but after fees and government taxes)
Then I think their account got banned and now probably have to wait 180 days before paypal release the money.
But hey it's good profit.
Maybe they want their item to show when people filter by lowest price.