Simple Delivery?

[Surpmil]

I have noticed that eBay often charges buyers much more for shipping than it actually costs sellers to purchase the shipping labels through the eBay system.

Sellers are encouraged to pocket the difference, unless they want to go through all the various steps of making a partial refund to the buyer.

eBay of course gets the use of the money buyers are over-charged from the time it is received until paid out to the sellers, and generally co-opts sellers into their scam.

[Flying10uk]

until paid out to the sellers

As far as I can understand it under this new system eBay will pocket any excess.

It will be very interesting to see how many UK private sellers stay with eBay when this new system becomes compulsory starting on the 7th April.

[Surpmil]

The problem with eBay is their compulsion to try to squeeze more juice out of the lemon every year, without considering that the lemon is getting smaller as a result and there is therefore less juice there to be extracted.

[Flying10uk]

[Flying10uk]

So I've now made my first 2 sales on eBay using their now compulsory, for private sellers, not very, "Simple Delivery", which it isn't and also trying to avoid making any mistakes. Apparently you have to "book the collection" before printing the label and not try to do it the other way round which I did in my first attempt or you have to book the collection directly with Royal Mail and pay for it. It would be helpful if eBay told people this and didn't expect them to know it. I've avoided the schoolboy error of following eBay's advice and have the postman bring the postage label which, according to what is said online, Royal Mail don't currently do for Simple delivery.

It will be interesting to see how smoothly the second half of this goes, the collection, the shipping and me actually getting paid by eBay after the items have been delivered.

[Surpmil]

Sounds like another example of how as in other spheres we can see in the UK a test lab for restrictions that would be introduced elsewhere if they could be "got away with".

[Flying10uk]

Sounds like another example of how as in other spheres we can see in the UK a test lab for restrictions that would be introduced elsewhere if they could be "got away with".

Yes, the rest of the world may possibly have "Simple Delivery" "to look forward to" once it has been "perfected" in the UK.

[Sapper740]

I've been buying and selling on eBay since 1998 and have racked up over 600 transactions. My last seller transaction with them was last year, there will be no more as fees have gone up and setting actual shipping costs have become problematic. Lately I've taken to using Facebook marketplace and have several sales and purchases through that platform. Yesterday morning I listed my last working PRC 25 radio for $500 and by early evening I had the cash in hand then also sold a couple of Mermite containers and a water Jerry can for an additional $180. eBay can go pound sand!

[Surpmil]

I see that about 95% of eBay stock is held by about 1400 "institutional investors". These folks generally demand higher and higher returns with the inevitable result that prices are pushed up until demand falls off.

At that point they think they have reached the "sweet spot" of business theory, when in fact what they've done is gone over the top and started down the other side: people lose interest or get PO'd and start looking for alternatives. Competitors who before had no hope of competing with the dominant player, and no desire to try, suddenly find it's quite easy to be competitive by offering better terms/service. And so the fall of empire begins....

[Aragorn243]

I buy a lot on ebay but haven't sold anything in years. I'm not noticing this simple shipping here at all as I generally get a choice for shipping with a lot of items and those that I don't come either UPS or USPS with the occassional Fed Ex.