eBay

[Nigel]

I had been thinking about throwing a few DVD's on ebay in the near future, but I shan't bother now - I shall punt them to the Shelter shop instead.

The changes don't come in until the end of January, so you've got time.

[Bogatan]

They make a degree of sense, but ebay pretending this isn't about them getting a much bigger insertion fee is a joke.

I need to add the postage cost to the starting price, then to get the same money for the product you have to add enough to cover the extra insertion fee, but I like that all those people in Hong Kong who lis things for 99p then charge £20.00 have to find a new to screw the system.

Andy

[legios]

Oct 13, 2008 19:38:12 GMT Bogatan said:

T but I like that all those people in Hong Kong who lis things for 99p then charge £20.00 have to find a new to screw the system.

Andy

Aren't the postage caps only for domestic postage? In which case the old "jack up the international shipping" trick would still work for HK sellers.

Karl

[Andy Turnbull]

Yes it's for domestic shipping so they are doing fuck all to stop that. It's just about getting more money.

Andy

[Bogatan]

Oh, yeah, well thats sucks utterly.

Andy

[The Doctor]

Oct 13, 2008 16:09:05 GMT Nigel said:

eBay throwing their latest cat among the pigeons: www2.ebay.com/aw/uk/200810.shtml#2008-10-13101419

I can't see no.3 being very popular with private individuals who sell off their old DVDs on eBay. Also, will the price capping allow for collections of DVDs and especially books/comics, which are surprisingly heavy en masse?

l

Well, looks like from January I will no longer be able to sell excess DVD's, comics and books on Ebay. Which is what I almost always shift there (toys only every now and then).
Thank fuck this did not come into place now. It's only because I had the option of selling such items on ebay that I raised enough money to pay November's rent.

-Ralph

[legios]

Oct 13, 2008 16:09:05 GMT Nigel said:

eBay throwing their latest cat among the pigeons: www2.ebay.com/aw/uk/200810.shtml#2008-10-13101419

I can't see no.3 being very popular with private individuals who sell off their old DVDs on eBay. Also, will the price capping allow for collections of DVDs and especially books/comics, which are surprisingly heavy en masse?

To be honest none of these things entirely surprise me - this is the sort of thing that a lot of the "professional" sellers will be able to absorb as overhead - "the cost of doing business" - so it will be fine with them, and as Ebay sees its future as a medium for the "professional" seller they aren't likely to be terribly concerned about the impact on the occassional dabbler. (Into which category I would place myself)

Karl

[The Doctor]

Oct 13, 2008 17:33:35 GMT legios said:

The caps for books do seem rather low, but then the cap for DVD's is even lower - being zero.

So if you sell a DVD for £3 and it cost a pound fifty to send, then after Ebay's fees it wouldn't be worth the expenditure of shoe leather to walk it to the post office......

I had been thinking about throwing a few DVD's on ebay in the near future, but I shan't bother now - I shall punt them to the Shelter shop instead.

Karl

Exactly. I've sold a lot of DVD's recently. Single disc releases tend to go for around £4-5 I've found (which was great as far as I was concerned). Postage is around £1.75-£2.50 dependant on size of disc packaging and bubble envelope. Some large heavy boxsets cost £3-4 postage and packing.

So with these new rules, effectively you can lose half or more of what you make (before you even get into fees). Ebay seem to have forgotten that it's mostly folk flogging their spare stuff for a few quid here (which is what built ebay) and they're not big business (and have to buy packaging...). I can't afford to sell anymore under these new rules. I've found it to a life-line over the years selling things on ebay to get an extra few quid to meet monthly costs. I imagine many other nolk not in high earning jobs have done similar.

Like Karl, from January, excess DVD's etc will go to charity shops.

Ah well. It was fun while it lasted.

-Ralph

[Bogatan]

I suppose everyone will be in the same situation so there will be a rise of £2 on the average price of CD's to cover postage. The buyers are still going to be paying the same total. Sellers are going to lose out on a few pence fee's or more I. And ebay gets even more money. I remember when ebay was fun.

Andy

[The Doctor]

It's still fun to browse and buy but the fun of selling odds and ends lying around for a few quid here and there is almost gone. At this rate it'll just be another online store where folk go to buy things like Amazon and other similar web shops.

-Ralph

[legios]

Oct 13, 2008 22:39:22 GMT The Doctor said:

At this rate it'll just be another online store where folk go to buy things like Amazon and other similar web shops.

-Ralph

Which is pretty much what Ebay has been aiming towards for the last couple of years - what with their courting of existing outlets and the like.

I reckon in a few months, a year tops, we will see them ban payment methods other than Paypal on EBay-UK(it has already been announced for the US, so I figure we will see it here sooner rather than later).

Karl

[Nigel]

Yesterday at 8:38pm, bogatan wrote:
T but I like that all those people in Hong Kong who lis things for 99p then charge £20.00 have to find a new to screw the system.

Andy


Aren't the postage caps only for domestic postage? In which case the old "jack up the international shipping" trick would still work for HK sellers.

It does say on there somewhere (in the FAQs, I should think) that the cap will apply to international sellers listing directly on eBay.co.uk.

this is the sort of thing that a lot of the "professional" sellers will be able to absorb as overhead - "the cost of doing business" - so it will be fine with them

Trust me, that ain't necessarily the case. Fortunately, I don't sell much in the (currently) affected categories, except for the memorabilia categories within DVD, Film and TV, which are capped at £4. This is fine for most of my items, but not all. Which just means that I'd have to shift some items to, say, Collectables - Science Fiction - Other Science Fiction.

If you read beyond the main announcement, you will see that there will be a p+p option for "Courier - Heavy Items", so that you can charge above the cap. Apparently eBay will be monitoring this to ensure it's used properly. Seeing as a large format hardback costs around £5 to post, I think the monitors will be rather busy.

[The Doctor]

Exactly. I've shifted big heavy books (or colections of books) in the past that have cost up to a tenner to post.

But I can't be arsed with running the gauntlet of sniffy nonsense from ebay every time I list a book or books that will cost above the cap to post!

Idiots. It's like they want to lose business.

-Ralph

[Nigel]

They seem to be encouraging business sellers and discouraging private sellers. I can see some logic in that, but it is outweighed by the fact that most private sellers are also buyers and alienating them as sellers is going to affect their buying behaviour.

[The Doctor]

You have a point there.

It's perhaps just part of a shift away from how they built their business (random folk in their houses getting rid of unwanted stuff) towards more of an online store with merchants which are mostly if not all business' in themselves.

-Ralph

[jameso]

I don't agree with it, but DVDs costing zero kind of makes sense if it's a basic DVD as that should only cost about 75p to send - but that's dependent on the size of the envelope you use and the post office clerk weighing it properly. But, glancing at my DVDs in front of me now, many of them would cost over £2 to send easily, and some perhaps more. My Dungeons and Dragons DVD set is huge! Is there any concession made for boxsets?

However, while it does kind of make sense, I don't think it's any of e-bay's business how much people charge postage. It does seem like they're putting themselves in competition with something like Play.com - free shipping on all items!

And, like the thing about negative feedback, it's another thing where bad sellers are ruining it for the rest of us. I put a lot of blame for this for people massively over charging on items. This would only have come about because a lot of people complained to e-bay with something like 'I paid £5 postage for something and then it turned up with a 75p sticker on it in a used envelope'.

[Nigel]

Have they suddenly realised what they're doing to their individual members?

www2.ebay.com/aw/uk/200810081444482.html

Call me cynical, but it seems like a token gesture to me.

[Andy Turnbull]

Definite tokenism. I don't think they realise how much traffic and business this hair-brained scheme will cause them.

Andy

[Deleted]

Negative feedback gone mad.

"A disappointed eBay buyer has been threatened with legal action after he left negative feedback comments on the popular auction website."

uk.news.yahoo.com/5/20081024/tuk-unhappy-ebay-buyer-faces-court-45dbed5.html

Lets hope it doesn't set a precedent

David

[Andy Turnbull]

Let's hope it encourages ebay to restore full feedback to those selling.

Andy

[The Doctor]

And ebay continues its' descent into the sewers. Look ma, crocodiles!

-Ralph

[Philip Ayres]

Why quote 2 prices for shipping in an email when you only except one of them for the bidder that's emailing you Agggh ! And then send the buyer an email when he's not paid enough

[Philip Ayres]

Just been outbid on an BW Scorponok on eBay. £41 !

[Andy Turnbull]

Items not showing when listed pisses me off. Do your damn job ebay!!!!

Andy

[Bogatan]

Please tell me it MISB.

Andy

[Philip Ayres]

The Scorp? No. cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=160292989998

[Hero]

Oh dude... Wish you said something a few months back, I sold a good condition one with its box for £10.

===HERO

[Philip Ayres]

Got some money back for an item that never showed !

[Philip Ayres]

Oct 25, 2008 15:29:39 GMT Philip Ayres said:

Just been outbid on an BW Scorponok on eBay. £41 !

Just won one for half that. And there was a B'Boom in the lot too.

[Philip Ayres]

Got another package gone awol. Sekller has provided tracking info, waiting on USPS to tell us where it went.