Ebay - the final straw.

[Rhythm Thief]

Rarely the case IME, but then again I am an out and out honest seller .

As a matter of fact fleabay dictate the maximum postage cost in many cases nowadays, so it's not always possible to charge over the odds for P&P even if you wanted too.

Quite the opposite, in fact. I sold a pair of speaker stands a while ago and had to post them out at a loss as ebay wouldn't allow me to charge any more thna £10.50 for postage. The absolute cheapest postage quote I could find was about twelve quid.

 

[smokeysmoo]

Quite the opposite, in fact. I sold a pair of speaker stands a while ago and had to post them out at a loss as ebay wouldn't allow me to charge any more thna £10.50 for postage. The absolute cheapest postage quote I could find was about twelve quid.

That's exactly what I meant RT. Ebay dictate the postage cost in many categories, yet the true cost of postage exceeds the amount you can charge

You can circumnavigate it by listing in a different, (all be it incorrect) category that does not restrict P&P charges, and IMO people don't search by category, they just type in what they're looking for, but you shouldn't have to resort to such measures

 

[DiddlyDodds]

...and their coffee tastes like s***e.

And they charge a kings ransom for it.
And that brings me on to the other rip off shop - Subway , reminds me of the Kings New Clothes, twice the price of the same butty you can get on any street corner from a tatty butty shop from a lady called Mavis.

 

[smokeysmoo]

And that brings me on to the other rip off shop - Subway.

Subway reminds of eating Chinese, obviously not in the taste, but the fact that I always seem to be hungry again 10 minutes after, even after a foot long

 

[screenman]

And they charge a kings ransom for it.
And that brings me on to the other rip off shop - Subway , reminds me of the Kings New Clothes, twice the price of the same butty you can get on any street corner from a tatty butty shop from a lady called Mavis.

I would like you to find another place in Lincolnshire where I can get a large mixed salad and a bucket of tea for £3, I am a fan of Subway. Good healthy grub if you buy the right one.

 

[Smurfy]

The difference being?

I am amused by the plight of an acquaintance. They sold stuff on ebay but rather than set a reserve they had a friend or two bid up their stuff without the intention of winning it. Unfortunately ebay buyers were too canny to get sucked in and so the seller didn't get a real sale. Then he just declined to pay commission by default. Ebay have blocked his account. They also blocked his father's account as his son had used his address although not actually living there. Father is not happy.

I had a bid on a bike and I suspected the seller was getting his mates to put bids in (at first I was the only bidder, and the seller knew I was fairly keen as I'd bothered to go and look at it before bidding). My annoyance at what looked like a scam was far greater than my desire to 'win' the auction, so I let it go. After the auction I had a message from the seller saying the winning bidder had done a runner, and did I want to buy.

 

[Milzy]

Gum Tree is free & all you need.

Good day.

 

[swee'pea99]

I had a bid on a bike and I suspected the seller was getting his mates to put bids in (at first I was the only bidder, and the seller knew I was fairly keen as I'd bothered to go and look at it before bidding). My annoyance at what looked like a scam was far greater than my desire to 'win' the auction, so I let it go. After the auction I had a message from the seller saying the winning bidder had done a runner, and did I want to buy.

That happens quite a lot. It's called shill bidding. The only recourse - other than dropping out as you did - is to 'snipe', which is to say, never bid until the auction is all but over - ie, 5 seconds from the end..too late for a counter-bid - having previously decided what you're prepared to pay, backed up by a general preparedness to accept 'win some, lose some'.

 

[colly]

Agreed.
I don't use Starbucks any more and hadn't for a good couple of years before the whole non-tax payment debacle.

You know, I really wish I was a regular Starbucks customer, just so I could stop using them.
As it is I've never used the places.

 

[02GF74]

if that is the case, then it sucks but if you don't like it, don't used it. unfortunately it is one of the best ways to sell suff so until something asgood comes along, we are all a bit stuffed.

 

[threebikesmcginty]

You know, I really wish I was a regular Starbucks customer, just so I could stop using them.
As it is I've never used the places.

Starbucks are a bit like Pot Noodles and death, you only try them once.

 

[mustang1]

Just had a quick look into this and I am shocked ebay are allowed to profit from postage costs..........don't think I will be using ebay much from now on.

Checeddsqq

Ok, here's how it works: Company A does £100 million worth of business in the UK, on which they would make £50 million worth of profits if they bought their widgets on the open market, at a regular price of £1. Except they don't. They buy their widgets for £5, from Company B, which means they end up making only £1million profit, which is what they pay tax on.

Company B, of course, is making shedloads of profits, selling all these massively overpriced widgets, but Company B has taken the precaution of locating itself in (to all intents and purposes zero tax) Lichtenstein. Company B is, of course, a wholly owned subsidiary of Company A.

All totally legal. £100 million of UK taxpayers' money going, tax-free, into the coffers of a foreign company which effectively pays no tax here. Or anywhere else for that matter.

1. Which is the illegal bit?
2. Why have they (and others) been allowed to get away with it until now?

 

[asterix]

Quite the opposite, in fact. I sold a pair of speaker stands a while ago and had to post them out at a loss as ebay wouldn't allow me to charge any more thna £10.50 for postage. The absolute cheapest postage quote I could find was about twelve quid.

That must explain why some sellers only do collection only, altho' it's not a good strategy for getting a good price. Something I really wanted was 'collection only' but the seller agreed to box it up and let my carrier collect it. No-one else put a bid in so I was very pleased and the seller did the decent thing.

 

[RecordAceFromNew]

Checeddsqq


1. Which is the illegal bit?
2. Why have they (and others) been allowed to get away with it until now?

It is illegal because it violates transfer pricing rules because it violates the arm's length principle. It is usually not easy to police, however.

 

[RecordAceFromNew]

For anything other than letters or small parcels Hermes e.g. is ime always much cheaper than Royal Mail, which those postage rate caps seem to come from. I suspect knowing this deals with most if not all cases affected by them.

Personally I don't see a fee on postage, which has been going on for a few months now, will affect my selling on ebay, because I see no alternative market that is anywhere near as deep and extensive for the selling cost for what I usually want to sell, and most importantly competitors for what I sell are on ebay and not other marketplaces so they are nearly equally if not completely equally affected by the change in fees. There is nothing to stop you passing the new fees to the buyer either as part of p&p, or starting* price for auctions, or price for buy-it-now transactions.

If the 10% fee on postage price you out of the market, I think chance is either your cost is excessive (vis-a-vis your competitors), or your price/profit expectation is unrealistic, or it is the wrong marketplace for what you want to sell.

* if one does not want to take any risk of selling at a price below expectation, I believe one should set the starting price as the reserve price. In other words I believe one should never use reserve price - it creates uncertainty that is effective in nothing but killing interest in potential buyers.