The wonderful brains at ebay are screwing sellers again. There new idea is Maximum P&P charges.
Originally Posted by :
From 27th January 2009, we'll be making the following changes to our postage and packaging (P&P) policy on eBay.co.uk:
* All sellers listing on eBay.co.uk will have to specify at least one domestic postage service and P&P cost (some categories are excluded).
* We'll set maximum costs that can be charged for domestic P&P in the following categories: Books, Comics & Magazines, DVD, TV & Film, Music, Video Games, Mobile and Home Phones.
* All DVD listings will have to offer at least one domestic postage service with free P&P.
We're making these changes to encourage competitive postage & packaging offers on eBay More detail on how these changes will affect your listings can be found at: http://pages.ebay.co.uk/help/sell/maximumPP_FAQ.html
Free P&P and Best Match
From 27th January 2009 adopting Free P&P could boost your exposure in Best Match.
Edit Postage & packaging details on live listings
We have now added functionality for sellers to edit postage and packaging details for live listings which have a purchase history. It is currently available in the Sell Your Item form, Turbo Lister and the APIs. We will release this feature in Selling Manager and Selling Manager Pro in the first quarter of 2009.
What do I need to do?
Ensure all your listings have specified at least one domestic postage service and if you're listings include the categories above ensure the postage cost is within the set cap.
When is it happening?
27th January 2009
We'd also like to remind you that listings offering free P&P in Media categories* will get a reduction of 25% of their final value fee. This promotion is running now, ending on 31st December.
*Terms and conditions apply. The list of categories for which this promotion applies and full conditions can be found at: http://pages.ebay.co.uk/sell/Nov08_FreePP/
From the 27th January 2009 we will be offering 25% off the final value fee for all DVD sales, This promotion will be running until the end of March 2009. Please see full terms and conditions, which will be available closer to the time.
The problem is for me is that whilst my P&P charges for individual comics are fine I also try to sell in bulk as it's the only way to get rid of some comics and if I try to sell more than 3 at a time I'll be exceeding the maximum P&P charges so I'll be screwed. So I'll have to up the starting price which will make it more difficult to sell things. Time for someone to come up with an alternative to ebay.
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That is both good news and bad news.
It is obvious why they have done this. There have been so many sellers that advertise items at really low prices, but then charge stupid p+p to bring the sale price back up. Hong Kong sellers have been the worst for this, selling things for 99p, but with a p+p of say £30. This new policy will stop that in future.
However as you already mentioned it is going to hurt genuine home sellers who are just trying to sell some of their personal stuff. Why should we offer free P+P and end up taking a loss against something we are trying to sell? If I sold a DVD for 99p and had to offer free p+p this could end up costing me money!
And equally the same is true for maximum p+p charges. If they stick with real world postage costs then it should be OK. At the moment you can retrieve postage costs directly from Royal Mail for listings so the postage costs are accurate. If they keep that it should work out OK. But I don't like the sound of these maximum p+p caps. Surely if an item weighs more you have to charge the real postage costs? That can't be legal.
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That won't hurt me, I never sold something on eBay. I also find that some sellers exaggerate with their p&p prices, mainly, as you mentioned, sellers from Asia. I often bought things for 2$ that had a p&p of 20$. But I also often buy asian horror movies, that cost 5$ and the p&p is 10$, but they're even cheaper than another online stores.
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It's great for buyers. For example the "gentleman" that I had the disagreement with a few months back will be forced to give better P&P charges however the fact that there appears to be no option for bulk items does tend to screw things up for example I could buy 1,000's of comics from one person but only be charged £2.50 for P&P. Whilst that would be fine for me the seller would either have to take a massive hit or post every single comic individually and then post them so that they could have enough money for P&P.
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