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The end of max £1 selling fees?


ejstubbs
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Here's one that I have just received. 

I'm not even going to try to work it out. 

(Valid from 28 May 2021 until 31 May 2021. Applies to final value fees on up to 100 listings. Item must sell within the first listing period. No insertion fees apply. Private sellers activated on managed payments only. Offer excludes the 30p order level fee for private sellers activated to managed payments. Other fees, including any international fees, still apply.)

 

2 percent var.png

Edited by SGP
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3 hours ago, John M Upton said:

I just got "50% of f variable selling fees" whatever the hell that is!

Gobbledegook of the first water.

 

Same as i what i got. Got some stuff to list so thought i will give it a go and see what happens. Not quite sure what variable selling fees are though or what makes them variable.

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1 minute ago, G-DIMB said:

Same as i what i got. Got some stuff to list so thought i will give it a go and see what happens. Not quite sure what variable selling fees are though or what makes them variable.

The general consensus seems to be this is a flat 2% charge on whatever the item listed sells at including postage. There is an additional 30p selling fee. Hope this assists and makes sense.

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3 hours ago, SGP said:

I had a conversation with an eBay rep the other day. A seller pays eBay ALL the fees now that were previously shared with Paypal. That means that eBay pays the Adyen fees (Adyen won't be providing eBay with a service for free) but I threw a curved ball into the conversation ...... buyers are still given the option to pay with Paypal, so who pays the Paypal fees? Certainly not the buyer, so who does? Is it the seller for accepting Paypal or do eBay cover Paypal's tab (who also aren't providing the service for free)? The eBay rep said that eBay are considered to be "the shop" so eBay cover the Paypal tab. If that is the case, why add all this complication that theoretically costs them more?

Because some customers prefer PayPal. The new system is better in that regard in that Ebay's payment portal now deals with all PayPal issues so there is now no longer a risk of someone raising a claim on both ebay and PayPal's dispute process and Ebay has to handle chargebacks.
Having been a user of ebay since 1999 I can honestly say that the new system is quicker, more straightforward and transparent. For low value items the costs are minimal, there is no better way to get rid of modelling odds and sods that are of use to someone else but won't mean anything in a charity shop and which no dealer is ever going to buy in. 

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30 minutes ago, Blandford1969 said:

It is interesting as the number of items for sale in some categories is now really tailing off. You have to wonder if there are quite a few sellers dropping off. 

In terms of model railways it always does in the summer months. Generally its September to May the season so for me it wont be easy to say for any certainty until mid September how its changed.

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40 minutes ago, Blandford1969 said:

It is interesting as the number of items for sale in some categories is now really tailing off. You have to wonder if there are quite a few sellers dropping off. 

Since the end of last month, due to the need to supply a bank account to eBay, I've dropped off selling for now.  My wife and I have a joint household account which is none of eBay's business and we each have individual Paypal accounts, so I would need to open another account just for eBay.   However I have continued buying stuff on eBay this month, paying via Paypal, and if I am no longer selling, my railway room would eventually run out of storage space so I expect I'll be back sooner or later.  Meantime I am keeping an eye on RMWeb eBay threads and keeping an open mind on the praises and the criticisms which I read here.

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1 hour ago, Black 5 Bear said:

The general consensus seems to be this is a flat 2% charge on whatever the item listed sells at including postage. There is an additional 30p selling fee. Hope this assists and makes sense.

 

Is that correct? The way I read it was that there was a 30p charge for accepting the offer, whether you subsequently bothered to list anything or not.

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6 minutes ago, stovepipe said:

 

Is that correct? The way I read it was that there was a 30p charge for accepting the offer, whether you subsequently bothered to list anything or not

That's what an eBay call handler advised today and you can only go on what you are told.

30p is nether here nor there !

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3 minutes ago, Black 5 Bear said:

That's what an eBay call handler advised today and you can only go on what you are told.

30p is nether here nor there !

 

That surely depends on what you're selling. Anyway that is not the point - if it's too complicated to understand what you'll be charged, it's not an incentive to list anything. The opposite in fact.

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It applies to sales over £30 in value.

 

Here is an extract from the terms and conditions:-

The FVF Discount in this promotion applies to the Variable Portion FVF (net of any other discounts) in respect of the eligible items’ Total Sale Amounts. For example, if your Total Sale Amount is less than £30 you will be charged 12.80% on the Total Sales Amount, the 2% variable FVF promo applies to Total Sale Amounts of at least £30 reducing the variable FVF to 2%. The Fixed Portion FVF (e.g. 30p) will not be discounted. Therefore, the fixed charge of 30p per order will still apply.

 

As you can see, it mentions nothing about 30p listing fees whether you list or not, which you have incorrectly interpreted.

Edited by Black 5 Bear
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22 minutes ago, Black 5 Bear said:

It applies to sales over £30 in value.

 

Here is an extract from the terms and conditions:-

The FVF Discount in this promotion applies to the Variable Portion FVF (net of any other discounts) in respect of the eligible items’ Total Sale Amounts. For example, if your Total Sale Amount is less than £30 you will be charged 12.80% on the Total Sales Amount, the 2% variable FVF promo applies to Total Sale Amounts of at least £30 reducing the variable FVF to 2%. The Fixed Portion FVF (e.g. 30p) will not be discounted. Therefore, the fixed charge of 30p per order will still apply.

 

As you can see, it mentions nothing about 30p listing fees whether you list or not, which you have incorrectly interpreted.

 

Is that supposed to make things clearer?

 

As the initial sales pitch was unclear, I made, and will make, no further effort to understand it.

 

What even is an order in the context of listing something for sale?

[Rhetorical, I'm not looking for an answer].

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Well the original topic was about whether they've stopped doing the £1 offers.

It looks pretty much as though they have.

 

Now they're trying other things but they are making it difficult to understand. 

 

I doubt if they have yet finalised what they need to do.  I haven't listed any high value stuff since all this started, so all they're getting is small beer for things I no longer need and which after postage leave me with a quid or two.  And they are putting money into my bank account in penny numbers too, I doubt if that is profitable for them and the stuff I'm selling has been on the system for yonks and sells in dribs and drabs on the basis that it may generate some money in total, but it's hardly worth my time doing anything to push it or to add more.  Bottom line for them is making less money from me than they used to.

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4 hours ago, stovepipe said:

 

Is that supposed to make things clearer?

 

As the initial sales pitch was unclear, I made, and will make, no further effort to understand it.

 

What even is an order in the context of listing something for sale?

[Rhetorical, I'm not looking for an answer].

 

4 hours ago, stovepipe said:

 

Is that supposed to make things clearer?

 

As the initial sales pitch was unclear, I made, and will make, no further effort to understand it.

 

What even is an order in the context of listing something for sale?

[Rhetorical, I'm not looking for an answer].

One way to obtain clarification is to contact eBay as i did.

But then again, if you have no interest in listing items or to understand the t+c's there's no point is there ?

Edited by Black 5 Bear
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6 hours ago, John M Upton said:

I just got "50% of f variable selling fees" whatever the hell that is!

Gobbledegook of the first water.

 

 

Is it that complicated? I sometimes think people just enjoy being intentionally obtuse and thinking eBay are out to get them.

 

There are different offers for different people. 2% fees, plus a 30p fee. Sell an item for £100 and it's £2.30. Other people have a 50% off fees offer. The fees are presently 12.8% (aren't they?), so if you sell an item for £100 on that offer you pay £6.40, plus 30p.

 

 

 

Edited by njee20
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2 hours ago, cessna152towser said:

Since the end of last month, due to the need to supply a bank account to eBay, I've dropped off selling for now.  My wife and I have a joint household account which is none of eBay's business and we each have individual Paypal accounts, so I would need to open another account just for eBay.   However I have continued buying stuff on eBay this month, paying via Paypal, and if I am no longer selling, my railway room would eventually run out of storage space so I expect I'll be back sooner or later.  Meantime I am keeping an eye on RMWeb eBay threads and keeping an open mind on the praises and the criticisms which I read here.

Ah, I mainly look at photos / negatives which normally do not vary much. Down from an average of about 2,000 per day to about 600. 

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2 hours ago, njee20 said:

  

 

Is it that complicated? I sometimes think people just enjoy being intentionally obtuse and thinking eBay are out to get them.

 

There are different offers for different people. 2% fees, plus a 30p fee. Sell an item for £100 and it's £2.30. Other people have a 50% off fees offer. The fees are presently 12.8% (aren't they?), so if you sell an item for £100 on that offer you pay £6.40, plus 30p.

 

 

 

 

Well a worked example certainly helps....

 

However it is still gobbledegook because "variable selling fees" is not a term even Ebay  use on the relevant page of their own website.

 

Fees for private sellers activated in managed payments | eBay

 

Yet, it's the subject title of their email, and reserved for the biggest font in the body of the text. Pi$$ poor marketing.

 

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55 minutes ago, stovepipe said:

However it is still gobbledegook because "variable selling fees" is not a term even Ebay  use on the relevant page of their own website.

 

Fees for private sellers activated in managed payments | eBay

 

Yet, it's the subject title of their email, and reserved for the biggest font in the body of the text. Pi$$ poor marketing.

 

 

Fixed selling fee = 30p (which will always be charged no matter what the final value less any additional offers that may be applied)

Variable selling fee = 12.8% on the final value

 

The "variable selling fee" is clearly the subject of various differing offers that eBay appear to be trialling.

 

How complicated can that be?

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3 hours ago, stovepipe said:

SO the 'variable selling fee' is the 'final value fee', and only the 'final value fee'?

 

The Variable Selling Fee is a portion of the Final Value Fee:

 

Fixed Selling Fee + Variable Selling Fee = Final Value Fee 

 

example:

 

Item A sells for £50.00 so £0.30 + £6.40 = £6.70 final value fee

Item B sells for £100.00 so £0.30 + £12.80 = £13.10 final value fee

 

I'm guessing that eBay may be referring to it as a variable fee as I believe that some categories are subject to different percentages depending on what you might be selling, eg: vehicles, property etc.  Also, in some of those categories - where goods tend to be more expensive - once those selling prices go above a certain threshold the fees level out, or become a fixed rate.  

 

Edited by YesTor
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Whereas previously, and for those private individiuals who are still not on managed accounts, the Final Value Fee was/is defined as 10% of the total transaction value.

 

So they've redefined Final Value Fee - a well understood aspect of ebay - to something else which includes a fixed element, but not for everyone, and ditched that term in their marketing, for the much more nebulous sounding 'variable sales fee' , which sounds like it includes other things.

 

I'm suprised you can't see the problem for casual ebayers, like myself.

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13 minutes ago, stovepipe said:

Whereas previously, and for those private individiuals who are still not on managed accounts, the Final Value Fee was/is defined as 10% of the total transaction value. 

 

I'm suprised you can't see the problem for casual ebayers, like myself.

 

Well, in actual fact the Final Value Fee is still the Total Transaction Fee, ie. including shipping (I didn't mention this, as firstly it is something that hasn't changed, so seemed slightly irrelevant, and secondly I simply didn't want to introduce a further element into the example for fear of complicating things further!)  So anyway, that part is still the same.

 

I do understand that the wording used isn't quite as straightforward perhaps as previously, but it's pretty plain to realize that eBay are simply trying to adjust their rates to something that they feel works, whilst factoring in the previous PayPal fees and still making what seems like an attractive deal for the seller.

 

cheers

Al

 

Edited by YesTor
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