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[Clifford Pope]

Paypal's good for buying small things, but too risky (and expensive) for selling.
I now only sell for cash on collection.

[AlexB]

My take on it is that ebay now have my bank details to take a direct debit from whereas on paypal, they could only take what was in there

I could be wrong on the above, but regardless, it doesn't make selling on ebay any more pleasant

[Larry S.]

SWMBO has been pushing me to sell things on eBay for years; she use to, but stopped when it got overwhelming.

I've been thinking about doing this, more seriously, in order to help fund Rover repairs and a few other things.

Based on this thread I started doing more research into becoming an eBay seller.  What I have learned is rather surprising.

#1 - they split ways with PayPal in 2015, yet some sellers are still being told to create PayPal accounts.  A person who opened their seller account was told they needed to do this the last week of April this year.

#2 - they require access to your bank account so there will be no delays in recovering money for their fees.

#3 - good luck getting your money anytime soon: https://is.gd/ghSDxe

#3a - dozens of sellers are reporting that eBay is holding funds for 21 days regardless of the amount, even if ALL the criteria under 'How to get your money fast' section (link above) has been met.  In several cases the amount was less than $250.  Main excuse given for this: "in case the buyer complains and wants a refund".

#4 - shipping.  If you notice, the high shipping rates are usually associated with eBay shops and individuals with a long seller history, or are a Top Rated Seller, Above Standard, or Standard status and use eBay labels for shipping.  There's a price to pay for all of this and it's passed on through 'shipping and handling' fees which are rolled into the 'shipping costs'.  I have seen this myself recently - I paid an incredibly high shipping cost to a seller who had an eBay store, was a Top Seller AND used eBay labels; I then bought an item (bigger and heavier) from a seller who didn't have a store, wasn't a top seller and didn't use eBay labels - the cost was less than half.  The shipping distance to me from each one wasn't enough to make any difference - less than 100 miles.

The above is information found via eBay itself and the several complaints registered with them.  The following info comes from websites that monitor e-commerce trends and such.  Each of them have pointed out that eBay is no longer transparent and it is incredibly hard to get any concrete information out of them.  They said that you can ask the same questions to several customer service reps and get a straight answer.

First thing they said was that all of the main changes in re "paying funds to sellers" occurred in 2019 and most sellers got no notifications about it, or the notifications were buried in the fine print's fine print (they know most people do not read the fine print or understand it).  They then went  into lengthy detail how murky the information was and that even they - e-commerce professionals - were having a hard time understanding the new rules and regulations.

The speculations are the most interesting, and if you follow the money it makes more sense.

PayPal held buyers/sellers money in trust/escrow type accounts.  Typically these are non-interest bearing accounts, but in some States, Countries, Territories and such they can be interest bearing.  Regardless, eBay had to pay PayPal service fees and such and they were passed on to the consumer.

Now that eBay no longer uses PayPal they hold all the money.  I have been trying to figure out what types of accounts eBay uses to place all of this money that is 'on hold' in but haven't figured it out; even the e-commerce community has tried.  They are probably trust/escrow accounts, yet where they are located makes a huge difference.  Roughly $86,000,000/£61,000,000 passes through eBay's hands every day; they get about 15-20% of this through fees and such.  However, if that amount of money is placed in an interest bearing account...  there is a trading/finance term I can't remember at the moment - it deals with large amounts of money being deposited just long enough to bear interest.  Several are speculating that with PayPal out of the way eBay is being able to do this a lot easier now.  Basically - they are holding on to buyers'/sellers' money long enough to accrue interest.

Of interest....  most of the big changes occurred in 2019 and were implemented before the first quarter of 2020 - almost as if someone knew the World was about to go into lockdown and e-commerce would skyrocket. 

[Exile]

Interesting stuff Correus.

[Larry S.]

Interesting stuff Correus.

Thanks.  I use to be in the business back in the day.  It stymies my mind just how much has changed and just how many more loop holes their are.  The laws, rules, regulations and such have become so convoluted you just about need a law degree to enter any agreement.  I left the legal/finance world because of this, I didn't like how everyone was trying to "get one over" on everyone else - it was bothering me too much. 

[A-Ro]

there is a trading/finance term I can't remember at the moment - it deals with large amounts of money being deposited just long enough to bear interest. 

We knew it as tom/next or simply overnight.

[geoff]

eBay makes a point of saying they accrue no interest from monies held over during transfer to clients bank account ... hmmm. 

[Wittsend]

I wonder how much tax they pay ?

[oilstain]

I wonder how much tax they pay ?

About the same as me I would have thought

[GlenAnderson]

I had something similar recently where I had to pay £150+ for shipping to Japan three days before the money was in my account. It's all very well saying that we agreed to the terms and conditions, and I do accept that up to a point, but what if I had not been able to actually finance the postage costs for that period?

However, I still haven't found anywhere with the exposure that ebay can generate. The item I sent to Japan sold for significantly more than I thought it would, and I can't think of any other selling platform that would have put it in front of my customer - and he was genuinely likely to have been the only person in the world that wanted it. I was lucky to benefit from a free listing offer and 99p max selling fees, which I always keep an eye out for. As an unexpected bonus I clicked the "guaranteed delivery" option with Parcel2Go too, which meant when FedEx sent it by a circuitous route and it took a fortnight longer to get there than it should have, I got my £150 carriage cost refunded too.

So, there's ways and means around the issue if you look.

[Rog-from-Bix]

I had something similar recently where I had to pay £150+ for shipping to Japan three days before the money was in my account. It's all very well saying that we agreed to the terms and conditions, and I do accept that up to a point, but what if I had not been able to actually finance the postage costs for that period?

However, I still haven't found anywhere with the exposure that ebay can generate. The item I sent to Japan sold for significantly more than I thought it would, and I can't think of any other selling platform that would have put it in front of my customer - and he was genuinely likely to have been the only person in the world that wanted it. I was lucky to benefit from a free listing offer and 99p max selling fees, which I always keep an eye out for. As an unexpected bonus I clicked the "guaranteed delivery" option with Parcel2Go too, which meant when FedEx sent it by a circuitous route and it took a fortnight longer to get there than it should have, I got my £150 carriage cost refunded too.

So, there's ways and means around the issue if you look.

Well done getting the shipping fee back not come across the delivery guarantee I will keep an eye out for that.

 As a general point Ebay is just another tool  and like all complex tools you have to learn the best way to use it to get the best results . re ebay payment system they are now charging 12% plus 30p fees ( if you dont use a limited fee offer) this is actually slightly cheaper than paying the previous  ebay fees then the paypal fees on top.

[landycyd]

Interesting article, I have stopped using eBay since they dropped PayPal, I have no intention of giving my Bank details to them (eBay).
However the discussion on fees gave me cause to do a quick Excel chart to see how the commission figures quoted compared to the old system. 
It came out like this:- Sell for £1 commission 42.9% (43p). Sell for £500 commission 12.96%, (£64.80) so we were being ripped off all the time.

[GlenAnderson]

I don’t think we’re being ripped off per-se. I agree that fees can be unexpectedly high if you’re unable to take advantage of the offers. However, if the resultant sale price is higher than achievable elsewhere, then that offsets the fees.

I sell a few bits through Facebook marketplace. It’s free, but stuff needs to be cheap to sell well on there, and it’s best for heavy/bulky/lower value stuff that’s going to be a nightmare to post. eBay is, IMHO, still the best platform to sell small, high value, hard to find items. Better £300 less fees on there than £50 and no fees elsewhere.

We forget how far we’ve come. I used to scour the free-ads papers and the Exchange & Mart for Land-Rover parts, and used to go all over the place to buy lots/vehicles/parts/clearances and it was a complete lottery that took an inordinate amount of time. These days a quick internet search and you’ll find the bits you need, maybe in a shed in Hungary (or New Zealand), and it can be with you a few days later without you leaving home.

[gvo416j R.I.P.]

I don’t think we’re being ripped off per-se. I agree that fees can be unexpectedly high if you’re unable to take advantage of the offers. However, if the resultant sale price is higher than achievable elsewhere, then that offsets the fees.

Although I have had a few issues with them in the past  --

[when payment was through paypal, particularly charging fees on postage costs - that was definitely OK for paypal to do as they handled the whole payment but nowt to do with them, probably illegal for quite a while until they amended the terms and conditions and possibly even after that although no-one was prepared to take them on in the courts]

-- I mostly agree. They are favourable in line with most other commercial means of selling and arguably you get more exposure to buyers.

Most other auctioneers fees range from the 15% to 20% plus tax, with reductions for very expensive items, but even with the internet, they are still relatively parochial in their coverage/exposure to the internet search engines and it can be difficult for anyone wanting a particular item to locate their listings on their auction sites.

As an example I give this https://www.easyliveauction.com/auctioneers/johngoodwin/ - posted on here a few days ago.

Out of my area and never heard of them. I could pay to get a specific search engine for auctions/auctioneers, but as an experiment I tried to find their listings through a couple of general search engines. Not featured at all as far as I could find whereas any item on bidspotter, ibid, ibidder, ebay, and amazon listings is easy to search on any mainstream search engine.

As an aside, I listened to it online and the landrover vehicles appeared quite expensive, but the landrover spares were mostly dirt cheap. I would have attended but have a lot of things on this week and collection had to be by Friday noon. Judging by the buyer number commentary, most went to a single buyer present in the room  - was it anyone on here I wonder ??

[stuart]

its all bad , im being scamed by soem one via paypal  and thear card who says after 90 days something is not as described , looks liek im gonna be screwed , i will however go to small clames coutr