Online auctioneer eBay has outlined massive changes to its pricing structure. Insertion Fees and Final Value Fees have been altered, which will affect all eBay sellers. Users selling items under £15 are worse off under the new pricing, as eBay appears to be promoting high-value sellers.
eBay claims that the price changes continue its “commitment to moving the cost of selling an item on eBay.co.uk away from the front-end insertion fee and increasing the final value fees, so that the majority of fees are paid only when you successfully sell an item”.
The company is also providing more tailored pricing options to fit the different sizes and business models of Shop owners and Buy It Now format sellers. It claims that “this will help provide a more vibrant market place with even greater choice for buyers and greater opportunities for all sellers”.
The changes become effective on 24th September 2008.
eBay's price hikes
Insertion fees for Buy It Now listings include these changes. Items costing less than £1 used to cost 10p to insert. This has been raised to 40p – an increase of 300 per cent. All items under £15 see a similar rise from 15-25p to 40p.
However, sellers are better off when selling items over £15. Insertion costs then drop from 50p to the standard 40p. Items selling between £30 and £100 currently cost £1 to insert. This falls to 40p. Items over £100 cost £1.30. Again, this drops to 40p.
Buy It Now sellers are hit again when it comes to Final Value fees. Items sold under £30 currently incur a charge of 7.5%. This rises to 9.9%. A sliding scale means that top-value Buy It Now items sold for over £600 incur a 1.9% Final Value fee (the same as currently charged).
There are no changes to Final Value fees for Buy It Now items listed in the Technology and Media categories.
Final Value fees for Auction listings are also raised. Items costing under £30 go from 7.5% to 8.75%. Items under £600 rise from 4.5% to 5.25%. But items over £600 go from 1.9% to 1.5%.
eBay has also announced Listing upgrades. It will be retiring the Gallery Featured listing upgrade across all categories and replacing it with Featured First, a new feature that will allow users “to enhance the visibility of their items in search results”.
Gallery Plus fees go from 95p to up to £2.85 for auctions of 30 days or over. Highlight fees go up from £2.50 to £7.50 for similarly long auctions. Charges remain the same for shorter auctions.
Featured Plus! Fees rise hugely on long auctions, increasing from £9.95 to £44.95. The new Featured First option costs up to £134.95.
International visibility “will be removed for Buy It Now”.
eBay Shops subscription fees are also increased. Basic shops currently cost £6/month. This rises to £14.99/month. Featured shops go from £30/month to £49.99/month. And Anchor shops rise from £300/ month to £349.99/month.
eBay will be retiring the Shop Inventory format and replacing it with Buy It Now. It will also be extending the listing duration available with Buy It Now to the pricier 30 days or Good 'Til Cancelled.
The placement of seller’s listing in search results will be affected by their Detailed Seller Ratings score and the number of items they sell from a single Buy It Now listing. The more items they sell, the more likely that listing is to appear higher up in search results.
For a full list of UK eBay price changes click here.
Comments
Charlie said: I would advise everyone to complain and shame eBayWho knows a lot of bad publicity they may change in futureI have contacted the BBC Watchdog programme and other online forumsIf hundreds or thousands people complain it will featured on the Watchdogwwwbbccoukconsumertvand
Bye eBay said: They have pushed it to the absolute limit the only people that are going to sell on ebay from now on are bulk sellers people in third world countries where making 30p is worth it and big companies knocking a quid off what youd pay in ArgosTheres going to come a time when amazon or google bring out a good alternative and then the ebay suits are going to find the buyers vanish and theres no longer a reason for sellers to pay their rip-off feesPersonally Ive been selling on there for years and they have effectively made it pointless Oh and they slipped in a 15 charge without any noticeThey really are greedy idiots who will decimate their own business because they dont understand basic economics
Tom said: An example of how greedy eBay PayPalI recently sold a box set of DVDs as it is I had made a loss on what I had paid for it I charged the buyer 5 postage actual postage was 305 Post officeon top of that with all the fees from eBay amp PayPal cost me 234 so another lossBut they dont care about thatI have been a good seller 100 feedback and posting the same day and have never overcharged the customerToday was another 20 minute queue in the post office Who pays for thatDoes eBay not realise that they are expensive with sellers having to cover charges and fees within the postage
Greed Bay said: Been a seller for a number of years never made a lot of money My eBay amp PayPal fees I could never charge enough postage to cover my fees or else I would not get any salesBoth eBay amp PayPal needs to be investigatedSellers amp Buyers need to complain Contact the papers BBC Watchdog and any other consumer programmes EBay needs the bad publicity
vmim said: Thanks Ebay thats just killed off a ood method of fundraising for my guide unit
Paul Urban said: It seems like someone has hit the self destruct button at ebay Is the plan to go out of business
seth said: I actually contacted ebay about there new prices and shops and asked them what shopdeals would be better for my selling on ebayI was fully prepared and had worked out what i had sold on ebay over the last 6 monthsbottomline i was making about 200 per month profit in my pocketafter going through all the new options and keeping the priceselling volumes the same it would cost ME 80-140 to keep sellingalthough the girl on the other end was polite she was getting flustered and in the end said im sorry i cant help you in this matter and put the phone down if someone who actually works for ebay cant explain there own improvements what chance for the rest of usThere cant be many buisnesses out there that if you just leave them alone will bring you vast profits year on yearif i was running ebay i would just let it run as is and sit on my backside and do nothing but count the profitsCHANGE IS NO ALWAYS FOR THE GOOD
Kingfisherbeads said: I will also be closing my shop on eBay when the new fees are effective Any profit will be eaten up in fees and I dont want to increase my prices to reap back what greedy eBay will have takenI have 5 shops on eBid and have paid for a lifelong subscription which means I can list as many items as I want and list these for free and then only pay for final value fee when the items sellThere are no fees for reserve prices or automatic relisting My prices have always been lower on eBid as its free to listThere is a wide choice of payment methods Google Checkout PPPaycom Nochex PayPal and of course cheques and postal ordersI would recommend eBid as the people on the forums are very helpful and friendly eBid is brilliant Give it a tryukebidnetstoresKINGFISHER-
Bill said: Greedy
John Of Canterbury said: eBay are proffesional bandits as is paypal I suggest more of us seller amp buyers give eBid a try I am going to
Golde said: Forget Greed bay and PickpocketPAL wwwEBIDcouk or EBIDnet is the way ahead
Dragon said: Dont just move to Ebid No Im not slamming Ebid as I am a buyer not a seller on there Let your Espit customers know where you are going and why Since Ebid is free or cheaper depending on the package you choose you can afford to sell cheaper too which in turn attracts more customers Let them know your prices will be cheaper on Ebid Dont just disappear A flyer in with every parcel you send spreads the word Good Luck
Steve said: Im not a seller but a buyerIve practically stopped going to Ebay as there are very few interesting bargains to be had nowadays and the pages take so long to load I could have manufactured the items myself in the time I spend waitingI dont understand the logic behind their decisions as the most attractive thing about it in the first place was that you could get interesting and difficult to obtain items for a reasonable priceThe way things are going it will become just another retailer with items you could probably get cheaper elsewhereEbids really good Well laid out informative and not run by Thatcherite breadheads
Steve said: Im not a seller but a buyerIve practically stopped going to Ebay as there are very few interesting bargains to be had nowadays and the pages take so long to load I could have manufactured the items myself in the time I spend waitingI dont understand the logic behind their decisions as the most attractive thing about it in the first place was that you could get interesting and difficult to obtain items for a reasonable priceThe way things are going it will become just another retailer with items you could probably get cheaper elsewhereEbids really good Well laid out informative and not run by Thatcherite breadheads
JJ said: I stopped using Ebay about a year ago nowafter previous changesWent over to Ebidnetstarted slow but sales are building all the timePaid for Seller4999which means NO fees EVERunless you take extras