Change at eBay as they ditch PayPal

[AndrewBeasley]

Got a chase from eBay today as I've not updated my account.

The squeeze is starting:

To continue receiving selling fee promotions, please update your account details. If you don’t update your account details, you may also lose your eligibility for future selling fee promotions.

I assume this is the £1 max fee and the 1000 'free' listings per month.

Oddly enough, I seem to have been given an extra month to update my account.

[armchairgeneral]

  I should have said debit & credit cards.

I managed to speak to someone and they said bank details only. Wouldn’t accept a credit card.

[Diablo Jon]

I never sell on eBay but I do buy quite a bit mostly because it's easy with PayPal and there are deals if you are patient and hunt for them. If they won't let me use PayPal to buy stuff I'll ditch them as I don't want to set up another payment method. This might explain why I have to pay for thing in my ebay basket separately rather than in one go like I used to. 

[Ranthony]

I've just sold 2 lots of figures, nothing major.
Total price including postage - £65.88
Total after ebay new fees arrangements, where they said I'd save money - £56.84

I have lost almost £1 and cannot touch money that belongs to me even after waiting 24 hours.

PayPal was immediate, with 12.5% max

An undeniable increase in fees and I'm only a small, sometime seller.

I really hope someone sets up an alternative.

[Major_Gilbear]

I've just sold 2 lots of figures, nothing major.
Total price including postage - £65.88
Total after ebay new fees arrangements, where they said I'd save money - £56.84

 

No wonder prices for even common figures are so high on eBay! Add in postage costs (which seem to be £3.85 minimum these days...), and I wonder why anyone - sellers or buyers - would bother.

[AdmiralAndy]

I really hope someone sets up an alternative.

Well there are alternatives, Facebook advertisements, here on the forum in the Bazaar, auctions, amazon.

There are also Ebay like sites, but there just not as well established and hence lower traffic, so vicious circle Ebay best option re visibility and buyers compared to others, so sellers keep using Ebay, limited growth and not as comparable. Do a google for online auction sites like ebay, and I'm sure you'll find them.

Until sellers make the break and go elsewhere and ensure customers are advised to follow if they wish, ebay can do whatever they want to squeeze a better profit.

If you do find a viable alternative let us know.

[Major_Gilbear]

Well there are alternatives, Facebook advertisements, here on the forum in the Bazaar, auctions, amazon.

The main reason eBay is popular is because people feel confident/secure in using it.

Most of the alternatives you've listed are really just digital "classified ads" (...do Amazon allow the sale of used items anyway?), and there is normally no protection whatsoever for either the buyer or the seller - people are relying on goodwill and honesty to get them through. Of course, providing that relative security is one reason eBay charges fees in the first place...

[Citizen Sade]

Agreed. I like the auction format too as it's useful for price discovery when you don't really know what to charge for something. That said, it doesn't really seem to be what eBay is for these days as the place is overrun with pro sellers with optimistic buy-it-now prices.

I've sold a bit on eBay, listing during their regular £1 max fees promotions, and have done OK out of it. They've now pushed me into taking payment from them rather than via PayPal. I'll see how my current auctions go before deciding whether to list any more with them in the future.

[vexillia]

Thanks to all who've shared their experience. 

As the original poster I thought I'd mention that so far I've had no pressure from eBay to "update" my account details and I am still getting paid directly via PayPal.  I'm sure it will come but it's interesting I haven't been "nudged" the way others have.

[Condottiere]

There was a site set up as an alternative to eBay, but never took off, pour raisins I don't know, and now is gone. Can't recall the name, but wasn't it connected with Fernando Enterprises?

[dampfpanzerwagon]

I've also had the e-mail from e-bay and read it as mandatory if you wanted to continue with e-bay.

I have changed to the new payment conditions but felt very uncomfortable - I would have preferred to have continued with Paypal - as I have had years of experience with them and very few issues.

I would have thought that my occasional selling on e-bay will now end as prices obtained for odd figures have been break-even at best.

I would think that i will continue to purchase from e-bay as they offer so much.

Tony 

[Poiter50]

It almost appears that Ebay Australia is not involved in this change or is not implementing it at this stage. I think Ebay (US &UK) have been steadily pricing themselves out of the market with their GPS and other charges. It has meant they birth of new FB pages for selling which still permit the use of Paypal. Ebay's loss, not my problem. Their continuation of hiding behind foreign tax barriers gripes but Ebay (Oz) is OK by me.

I've also had the e-mail from e-bay and read it as mandatory if you wanted to continue with e-bay.

I have changed to the new payment conditions but felt very uncomfortable - I would have preferred to have continued with Paypal - as I have had years of experience with them and very few issues.

I would have thought that my occasional selling on e-bay will now end as prices obtained for odd figures have been break-even at best.

I would think that i will continue to purchase from e-bay as they offer so much.

Tony

[armchairgeneral]

I am holding off changing my details for now. If enough people do the same they may backtrack on this. I don’t see why you can’t use a credit card.

[modelwarrior]

Ive started using facebook marketplace and doing payments through paypal which seems to work quite well. Not the large choice as on ebay but still plenty of stuff going at a low price and as of yet no fees from facebook but in time I think that will change.

[vexillia]

At the start of the new financial year I gave in and gave eBay my bank details.  Transfer process went smoothly.  Let's see how it works when I've made a sale.