Free P&P on eBay won't be good for sellers

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The latest trick from eBay is that from 15th June sellers will be required to offer free P&P as their first domestic postage option.  This applies to certain categories, for example video games, phones, consumer electronics and computing.  You can offer a second choice of P&P at with a charge though.

Yeah right, so who in their right mind is going to go for that recorded delivery option when they can get the item sent to them for free?  Also, you might want to consider this scenario.  If your item sells for 2 and it's going to cost you 3 to send it to the buyer, the seller will loose out (1 down in fact), so what's the point in trying to sell your stuff on eBay in the first place?  The obvious answer is that eBay appear to be trying to discourage the occasional punter and concentrate on those who have 'eBay Stores'.  In other words, they want to compete in the same league as Amazon and to hell with the ordinary punters who actually made eBay a success in the first place!

Excessive P&P cited as the reason buyers are spending less on eBay...

Back to that P&P thing though.  On their pagess eBay have said that excessive P&P costs are cited as the major reason for buyers spending less on eBay.  Hang on a minute though.  Have they not considered that the reason people bump up the postage and packing might have something to do with the excessive fees and charges.  That 10% on final value fees for example is a bit steep in my opinion, so no wonder people try to claw a bit of money back on the postage.

Unfortunately this self perpetuating greed (on eBay's part that is) has practically destroyed what was once a thriving market place.  Whoever owns eBay now has apparently abandoned all connections with the grass-roots community, and that has seriously pee'd off millions of people like myself.

By: Ian Dickson

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vivagifts

Sorry past month, not part month. Phone's auto correct !!

09/11/12 vivagifts

-19

vivagifts

Just found out from eBay that if your feedback rating has either a neutral or a negative showing in the part month's feedback, your items are removed from the top 5 search results pages!

09/11/12 vivagifts

-15

Rob

The only problem is that shopsellonline is australian, there's nothing there and the site is slow. Apart from that it's wonderful of course :-)

04/09/12 Rob

-15

romina

I started using shopsellonline.com – they are fairly new but have already sold some items which is great! Fees are VERY low but what I love is the fact that you can leave negative feedback for bad buyers! Tops for me!!

23/04/12 romina

-16

athair_siochain

If the item is listed with free P&P, you can still charge postage . list as pick up. then in the description of the item you list the cost of postage if the buyer is not going to pick up, simple, people should join the community on ebay, advise is available on any subject. I f you won an item and there was no info, in the description of item. and the item was listed as free postage, then you dont have to pay postage, sent a email to the seller telling them you will leave bad feedback If you have to pay postage, ebay will not sort it out, you have learned a lesson. if it is listed as free postage make sure it is free the seller made the mistake not you, dont pay postage.

06/04/12 athair_siochain

-21

nick

I just won an item on Ebay taking into account the free P&P listed when I made my bid. I then got an email from the seller telling me it was a mistake, it should have said £3.95 postage and can I send that by Paypal to her. After reading these posts I think it's a scam by the seller and look forward to Ebay sorting it out.

06/02/12 nick

-9

Boblet

Ebay is a bunch of computer nerds with no business sense, in a lot of instances I would have lost money but for the postage, if Ebay were to offer some sort of well thought out interim compensation to those sellers who are prepared to offer free postage it might ultimatly work If the buying public warm to the idea. But I am afraid it is just the result of some nerd employees meeting arround a table & trying to please the god boss with half baked ideas to maximise the God Bosses profits.

12/01/11 Boblet

-20

shaggy

I sell on ebay and the only reason for ebay to want sellers to prefer free postage is they only get the 10% fee on the product not the postage so by adding the postage into the price they get more in fees

11/01/11 shaggy

-2

sonny

I found this with trying to seel CDs on ebay. The maximum price for p+p for cds is 99p. I guess Th eonly way around it is to sell teh cd without the plastic casing, thus maknig it light enough to send for less. But tell me? What are other relaible cosher bidding sites?

18/08/10 sonny

-18

Davo

The free postage and packaging is a bit of a joke. Do Ebay think you magic up the packaging from nothing? Plus, your time spent wrapping goods, travel to the Post Office, fuel, parking fees where necessary.

What is the point in selling items deemed free postage? You are selling at a loss from the very start.

22/04/10 Davo

-6

bricklayer

This is an easy one, if you put up your listing amount, they get a higher listing fee and final value fee, then they get more from paypot, which is apparently not connected in any kind of way.
This is also a way of sickening people into stopping selling second hand books and cd's/dvds/blurays, if you cant buy a book second hand if you are a student then its time for a trip to a big river website to buy a brand new book for £50 instead of £10 secondhand, and the old books lie about and end up in the paper recycling skip, the big companies also get to sell another new dvd or cd if the secondhand one does not become available. add to that a % as a thankyou fee from postal companies for pushing sales of services...

18/04/10 bricklayer

-11

NDK2010

I agree with all the comments below. I'm a casual seller and having just listed 9 items on ebay, 6 of which sold, they'll be the last I bother with. Second class for a single CD is 76p. Add in the various ebay and paypal fees and that escalates so that for a £1.99 sale there is probably only about 50p retained. I'd rather give them away to my local charity shop than increase greedy ebay's profits. It's reselling on amazon marketplace for me from here on in.

15/02/10 NDK2010

-21

Goodbye from Alex

Thanks for the article. It explains it. I've been trying to sell a rather rare very heave book - after putting the initial price 0.99 I have received the message telling me that P&P must be free. Initially I thought it might be some script problem. After three attempts it became clear to me that there is really something wrong with the ebay. I am not a charity, that's for sure.
Concerning the too high P&P - I always include the cost of my bus ticket to the post office (I can't drive due to health conditions), why shouldn't I?
Well, I guess, after eight years with ebay and coping with THEIR greed,it's high time to move to Amazon. It is only fake Chenese usb sticks sellers can afford to send their "product" free - that's explains why the ebay have been ignoring the pleas to sort those fakers out for so many years. Anyway the ebay now looks very poor and not inviting comparing to the older times.
Feeling peed upon by ebay...

04/02/10 Goodbye from Alex

14

jav

sold a game on ebay recently £13 the postage was free in this category I sent the item by royal mail first class after a week passed the buyer claimed that he didnt recieve the item and escalated to claim ebay gave him full refund and charged me without contacting me I emailed them and told them that I have proof of postage they said that iI did not provide tracking information they expect sellers to send by signed for delivery and that there decision was final and could not be changed so basicly gave the game for free and paid for the postage and the ebay listing and final value fees how unfair is that will never sell on ebay

20/01/10 jav

2

world_of_greed

Sounds like greed on both eBays part, (fees) and that of some sellers. Just be honest and add in your desired minimum profit margin to the start price.I'm sick of looking at listings stated as free p&p only to find out down the line that it is a lie and a caveat in the listing asking for extra money, it's as annoying as companies that ask for surcharges when you buy with a credit card to bump up their profit.

20/12/09 world_of_greed

-24

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