Monday 29 January 2007

eBay fees : DOWN!!!

If you're a UK eBay seller, you may want to sit down before you read this.

eBay fees just went down.

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.

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4 Comments:

Blogger Mountie said...

eBay.ie are to have similar price reductions to the UK

29 January 2007 at 12:05:00 GMT  
Blogger Sue Bailey said...

I'm now anxiously checking the eBay France announcements :-D

29 January 2007 at 12:07:00 GMT  
Blogger The eBayer said...

Also here in Spain
http://www2.ebay.com/aw/es/200701.
shtml#2007-01-29093407

29 January 2007 at 13:08:00 GMT  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

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.

29 January 2007 at 13:30:00 GMT  

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