From this week, sellers on eBay Germany are required to specify at least one domestic shipping service. eBay say that 95% of sellers already do so, but that the remaining 5% will no longer be able to list without specifying at least one shipping method and its cost. ‘Collection only’ is a permitted delivery method.
According to the eBay Developer blog, the policy is also being enforced in Spain now too: I think we can expect this to become a universally-enforced policy on all eBay sites reasonably soon, so if you’re not already specifying postage in the postage field in your listings, now will be the time to reconsider that.
The problem for UK sellers is likely to be that those who use courier services cannot offer one single flat rate to the whole country, as the Highlands, islands and Northern Ireland are all surcharged by carriers. If eBay are going to require sellers to use the little postage box to specify rates, rather than just putting them within the body of the listing, they really need to allow for the reality of shipping too.
