If you’re a UK eBay seller, you may want to sit down before you read this.
Yes, that’s right. Down.
After fee increases on .com earlier this month, UK sellers were expecting similar rises here, but it seems that eBay have largely spared us, opting instead for some interesting changes that will surely boost the UK marketplace. Here are the details, effective from March 1st:
- Most UK sellers will see no changes in their eBay fees at all. This in itself is wonderful news for most of us who were expecting to see eBay take another nibble at our hard-pressed profit margin.
- Technology sellers see FVFs reduced on items over £30.
- Media (books, music, DVDs, film & TV, video games) sellers see a whole new fee structure, with insertion fees reduced to 10p regardless of start price (5p if you start at 99p or lower), in return for FVFs rising to 9%. This vastly reduces the risk involved in listing these highly competitive products, and might even see eBay Express start to become a force against Amazon, Play and the like.
No doubt this change will bring out the whingers, just like any other major change, but eBay’s own figures show that the majority of sellers will save money under this new pricing plan.
- Sadly for Motors’ sellers, they are the losers this time round, with insertion fees, FVFs *and* listing enhancements all increased in price. Still, we think that absorbing an extra fiver’s fees into the cost of selling your car isn’t really so bad.
- Finally, eBay take yet another swipe at the reserve price format, as reserve listing fees will no longer be refunded if the item sells. It’s well-known that buyers don’t like reserve prices, and eBay have done their best over the last few years to discourage their use: I’d bet that we’ll see the removal of reserve prices altogether in the next year or two.
Altogether, these are at worst a “no change” relief for UK sellers, and at best, a permanent cheap listing day.
7 Responses
eBay.ie are to have similar price reductions to the UK
I’m now anxiously checking the eBay France announcements 😀
Also here in Spain
https://www2.ebay.com/aw/es/200701.
shtml#2007-01-29093407
Unless you are VAT registered, of course, in which case there is an ‘across the board’ fee hike due to the way eBay are decreasing the VAT they pay.
How often roughly do ebay offer reduced listing fees on standard items?
Have noticed in the past that the UK usually follows Ireland by a week or two on this promotion.
Can anybody else confirm this?
Ebay wont say jack on this subject unfortunatley!
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DanCav, it’s nothing as simple as the UK following Ireland by a couple of weeks. Keep an eye on our Cheap Listing Day Calendar in the sidebar of the front page, and you’ll get as much notice as we can possibly give you!
However, I would also add that if you’re intending to make the availability of CLDs a cornerstone of your business plan, that’s building on pretty shaky ground.
No doubt this change will bring out the whingers, just like any other major change, but eBay’s own figures show that the majority of sellers will save money under this new pricing plan.
sorry to “whinge” but the increase in commission hits people like us who average slaes in the £6 -£9 bracket PLUS as our listings are no longer visible in the USA default searches we have also lost millions of potential bidders. Main “whinge” is that eBay never told us about this change nor did they warn US buyers they would no longer see UK items. We pay more commission for less customers in other words which is not fair to sellers (but very fair to shareholders I guess)