eBay UK Removes All Selling Fees

stickyfingers on 02/10/2024 - 09:56

It’s now free to sell - eBay UK
Online retailer eBay scraps fees for private sellers in UK

In latest response to rivals such as Depop and Vinted, users now only pay transaction fees on sales of vehicles

After hearing about Vinted from my friend in France a few months ago I’ve wondered how eBay plans to hold up. They mentioned that nobody uses eBay over there, and after a quick look it’s definitely pretty empty there.

As someone who’s having a big clear out at the moment this would have been a huge help. It’s so much easier to sell on eBay rather than marketplace for easily postable items, but the fees just keep growing.

Seeing as we don’t have Vinted here I don’t think we’ll be seeing this anytime soon though. We do have Depop however, which is thriving and is opening up more categories.

If the fees were removed here, would you start selling/sell more on eBay?

Poll Options

  • 97
    Yes, this would encourage me to sell on eBay
  • 15
    No, I still wouldn’t sell on eBay
Financial

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Comments

  • HamBoi69 on 02/10/2024 - 10:01
    -6

    Great. How does this affect OzBargainers??

    • Ocker on 02/10/2024 - 10:09

      Open an account with eBay UK

      • snoopydoop on 02/10/2024 - 12:24

        Can you sell to Australia with a UK account and posting locally? I wonder if there's a workaround of some sort

        • Cluster on 02/10/2024 - 12:30

          When I first signed up with eBay many years ago I signed up in the USA with my Australian address, and eBay had no issues with this. However now that UK and Germany are offering zero fees I would expect them to police this more closely.

        • Ocker on 02/10/2024 - 18:31

          The Chinese are registered in China and open an Australian eBay account.

        • surfingedge on 24/10/2024 - 14:24

          Since 2022 you are unable to change your country on UK ebay and only UK addresses are accepted for registration.

          To be able to sell on UK ebay, you need to pass a UK soft credit check, which means being registered to vote in the UK as well as having bank accounts/credit cards/bills which report to the UK credit agencies.

          If you previously lived in the UK and opened a selling account, you can continue to use it even if you move to Australia, as ebay won't find out.

          However Aussie buyers would see your items priced in GBP and located in the UK, which may put them off. You would also have to manually exclude UK buyers.

          The China sellers either have grandfathered accounts or are registered on a different country's ebay.

          UK ebay also reports sales to HMRC when you sell more than 30 items or have revenue exceeding 2000 euros in a calendar year, this may result in a tax demand to the UK address at which you have registered.

  • Protractor on 02/10/2024 - 10:02
    +2

    Nope.
    For the few times ebay has backed (or looked away from) fraudulent and false advertising claims, when I shop as a buyer, I don't think I'd like to align any deeper with them. The swamp would need to be drained to catch my eye. Including NOT encouraging/enabling/permitting sellers to drop ship while claiming to have items here , or be based here as a seller, in words only.

    • ihfree on 02/10/2024 - 10:47
      +4

      For the few times ebay has backed (or looked away from) fraudulent and false advertising claims, when I shop as a buyer,

      Sadly, every marketplace is like this. I've reported issues with Amazon and they're more interested in just shipping out a replacement rather than correcting listings even for products they sell. Amazon also have their fair share of items not meeting standards, fakes, etc.

      I actually don't find eBay to be too bad for second hand but for new items, eBay is absolutely shit:

      • multi-item listings with one cheap item
      • default search scope is worldwide
      • Inflated prices: many sellers are the same price of cheaper through their website
      • Alleged price jacking around sales
      • I find majority of listings are toward the top end of prices
      • Cluster on 02/10/2024 - 12:20
        +6

        "multi-item listings with one cheap item"

        This one is rather frustrating. Some listings have a price range of $10 to $100, with the $10 item being an empty box while all the desirable items are near $100. But the listing makes its was to the top of search anyway.

        • clover on 23/10/2024 - 00:07

          I hate the worldwide search scope. Cant change it either. Stupid design

          • movieman on 30/10/2024 - 08:14

            @clover: Just click on filters, and select location (Australia Only).

    • PeterSnoot on 03/10/2024 - 07:40

      I agree.They are some of the most frustrating aspects of ebay

  • ihfree on 02/10/2024 - 10:34
    +2

    I still use eBay every few years for the broader audience. Free would move the needle towards listing more often.

    In general, Facebook marketplace and occasionally Gumtree cover most sales.

  • plmko on 02/10/2024 - 10:47

    It's not about fees, it's about audience. They can charge anything if they want.

    No point of saving fees if you have nobody to sell to. And for that Ebay is still best for most popular or valuable items.

    Facebook is good too but it is extremely time consuming and not for business.

  • pharkurnell on 02/10/2024 - 10:59
    +1

    Ebay is not what it used to be… even when they bought out sold.com.au they were still ok..
    but these days its a shithole full of scum sellers and shit quality products…
    ebay doesnt appear to give a shit anymore as long as they make their huge cut on sales.

    • Protractor on 02/10/2024 - 12:15
      -1

      Money laundering

  • Cluster on 02/10/2024 - 12:17
    +8

    I started selling on eBay as a side hustle three years ago and during that time sold around 2500 items.

    It works for me, and 99.9% of my transactions are mutually successful. Every now and then someone claims they didn't receive an item, but as it was sent via untracked letters and was cheap I just give a refund. I have yet to have the 'you sent me a brick!' fraud happen.

    The standard 13.4% fee plus 30c is rather steep. I don't know if I would sell more if it was reduced, but I certainly could lower my prices and keep current profits.

    Physical auction houses near me charge 20% fees to the seller and 16.5% or more to the buyer. That's over a third of the item's hammer price being eaten in fees. But… these auction houses handle the entire sale, catalogue the items and deal with any hassles. Is eBay's 13.4% fees reasonable in comparison? Yes. But on eBay I also do literally all the work and face consequences if someone complains.

    eBay is still popular in Australia, but my fear is the C-suite is constantly thinking of how they can jack up the fees. I also hate the way eBay is littered with dropshippers. I don't know if something I buy will be delivered within 3 days, or two weeks. All my items are in stock and shipped within 24 hours.

  • TEER3X on 02/10/2024 - 12:25
    +1

    I have an eBay UK account for some reason and received the notification email. Fairly certain I set it up to take advantage of a deal posted here possibly.

    • whyisave on 07/10/2024 - 18:09
      +1

      It was around 6 years ago, I think, when eBay UK were selling eBay gift cards at big discounts (eg. 20%)

  • wetsandwich on 02/10/2024 - 13:21
    +1

    If only. But no competition has ever survived here. We had 'Oztion' for a while but nobody ever used it and eventually it went bankrupt. Grays or someone could have pivoted to compete, they never did. So we're stuck with insane 15%+ fees and with all the dodgy mass chinese junk sellers given a free pass to break all rules and regulations with their free postage.

    • whyisave on 10/10/2024 - 18:52

      We had 'Oztion' for a while but nobody ever used it and eventually it went bankrupt.

      Don't forget Sydney Morning Herald's "sold.com.au", which I think was the first auction or online trading platform.

  • MBix on 16/10/2024 - 22:06

    Anyone tried to utilize this by selling in AU with their UK account?

    • King Tightarse on 21/10/2024 - 23:47
      +1

      I think your listings would be at the end of search results for people in 'International'

    • surfingedge on 24/10/2024 - 14:30

      Yes but nobody was interested as AU buyers probably want to avoid waiting for items to go through customs etc and they don't want to pay in GBP unless no domestic sellers ever have those items (not the case for the things I'm selling).

      If I have an item I think will do better on UK ebay than AU, I wait until a few weeks before I travel, list it and then bring it myself to post locally

    • Lucius7372 on 28/10/2024 - 09:56

      Yes and I was charged final value fee. I guess one has to have an UK based address in order to have the fees waived.

  • surfingedge on 14/12/2024 - 20:22

    I knew this would not last very long.

    Ebay UK will introduce fees for buyers sometime in 2025.

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