eBay says: if you sell a videogame you must post it for FREE

[Alex W.]

Well, for one, that's no use at all on auction or make-an-offer listings. Even on Buy It Now it'd mean you have to add on the postage to (say) the middle of the Peruvian jungle in the off chance the buyer lives thousands of miles away.

[Sprite Machine]

You're making the incorrect assumption that starting price has a direct effect on the end price. Previously you would get highest bid plus postage, now you just the highest bid and there's nothing to say that these won't be exactly the same leaving you out of pocket by the price of postage.

Except for people bidding more on account of there being no postage fee. Do people not take into account the postage cost? I do, though I can't speak for everyone.

Anyway, how recent is this change of policy? Because I stuck some games on there a week ago and could charge for postage just fine.

[Chaz]

My girlfriend and I went to India for two months and after a month (we forgot about eBay fees) they hired a debt collection company. Cue arriving in England to a huge stack of mail from the debt collection company threatening court and stuff, over £40. You're right, it's extortion, it's not really worth selling with any more for things like games, DVDs and CDs. Fuckers!

Jesus! Guess I better pay up then. That is utterly ridiculous though, why they think it would be worth their while to take you to court over £40 I don't know. Surely they'd be paying more in legal fees?

[Soulstar]

I think with this new change, it will be irritating for a while but then in a good 6 months or so from the change, most sellers will start to include the price of the postage in the price of the game from the off. If it was me, id start the bid off at the price of the postage and i'd mention this in the write up so that people know instantly.

[therealjohnpeat]

Jesus! Guess I better pay up then. That is utterly ridiculous though, why they think it would be worth their while to take you to court over £40 I don't know. Surely they'd be paying more in legal fees?

As you'd be paying the legal fees, collection fees, bailiffs fees, court fees etc. - it's well worth their while chasing £40.

As you'll end up paying more like £250...

For the record tho - I had a stand-off with them over fees relating to auctions they cancelled "in error" and they continued their threatening emails througout.

After 3 months they'd not escalated it to Debt Collection tho, they'd just locked my account - so the 2 months to debt-collection story is perhaps a little exaggerated??

Another account I've worked with failed to pay fees for various reasons for over 2 months and again it was just locked - no additional action was taken at that point.

[Straps]

My girlfriend and I went to India for two months and after a month (we forgot about eBay fees) they hired a debt collection company. Cue arriving in England to a huge stack of mail from the debt collection company threatening court and stuff, over £40. You're right, it's extortion, it's not really worth selling with any more for things like games, DVDs and CDs. Fuckers!

Yeah, I had them. NCO I think. They pestered me for two months over £8. They gave up eventually, just ignore them.

I've just been having a bit of a clear out and want to sell a couple of DVDs and games. I can't be arsed to search the thread but what're the (good) alternatives to ebay?

[toythatkills]

I think with this new change, it will be irritating for a while but then in a good 6 months or so from the change, most sellers will start to include the price of the postage in the price of the game from the off. If it was me, id start the bid off at the price of the postage and i'd mention this in the write up so that people know instantly.

If you start the item at £2 to include postage, you'll get a final price of £30. If you start the auction at £0.01 you'll get a final item price of £30. Where exactly are you making the postage up?

Can you at least specify international postage? That'd be insane if you can't.

[Sprite Machine]

If you start the item at £2 to include postage, you'll get a final price of £30. If you start the auction at £0.01 you'll get a final item price of £30.

Why would people pay £2 more in the first instance? Are they thick?

[Floshenbarnical]

Jesus! Guess I better pay up then. That is utterly ridiculous though, why they think it would be worth their while to take you to court over £40 I don't know. Surely they'd be paying more in legal fees?

Like someone said, you'll be paying them. Just cough up. They tried to ring us in India as well which would have cost us £1+ a minute, a good thing we ignored it. Fuckers!

[NonShinyGoose]

On the flipside, I went to put my Guitar Hero III pack (guitar and game) on Amazon and they'd only allow £1.94 for postage. I reckon it'll cost the best part of a tenner.

[Sketch]

So I decided to put my Gamecube up for auction, since I could still charge £10 postage, and the fuckers removed it for copyright violation! I was selling the following:

Gamecube (with mem card)

Scart cable

Chibi-Robo

Killer 7

Freeloader

Gameboy Player

They never explained why, so I thought it was because of the freeloader disc. But there's at least 5 on there right now! Did the numpties maybe think the GB Player was a device for playing pirate GB games?

I replied to the message to contest it, though I'm fairly certain I'll never get a reply. Their customer service department doesn't seem to exist!

Btw, £40 delivered for the above is anyone wants it.

[therealjohnpeat]

On the flipside, I went to put my Guitar Hero III pack (guitar and game) on Amazon and they'd only allow £1.94 for postage. I reckon it'll cost the best part of a tenner.

Amazon's fixed-price postage system (which they skim ofc.) is a joke for some items - £2.odd is a fortune for a paperback but won't get a decent hardback off the PO counter for example.

You just 'rig' the sale price ofc. but that's as bad as people 'rigging' the P&P on eBay...

eBay claim their single largest complaint from buyers is P&P-related - because buyers see P&P meaning 'stamps on the parcel' and nothing else - as if packaging materials grow on trees and it costs nothing in time or effort to wrap and post a parcel.

Thing is - look at places like eBuyer and see their prices as the scandal they are (I'm sure eBuyer wanted £4 to post me a cable once) - and realise it's just noise and means nothing - but eBay will "bend for the buyer" everytime.

[Alex W.]

Amazon's fixed-price postage system (which they skim ofc.) is a joke for some items - £2.odd is a fortune for a paperback but won't get a decent hardback off the PO counter for example.

Similarly the last time I looked, they fixed a £5 minimum (or is it £10?) for electronics purchases from Marketplace sellers. This meant that almost none of the sellers could compete with them on cheap items, and buying things like mouse pads was utterly pointless.

[therealjohnpeat]

Marketplace books are fairly uncompetitive when you consider it's almost £3 per book (even if you get multiple books from the same seller) against 'free' postage from Amazon.

If you want 2-3 books it's usually cheaper to get them new over 2nd-hand - which is bonkers...

[Lorfarius]

I use ebay quite frequently and all that seems to have happened is sellers charging for a courier service on games. Then charging the usual RM prices so will be interesting to see how ebay deal with this.

[Tom_B]

I use ebay quite frequently and all that seems to have happened is sellers charging for a courier service on games. Then charging the usual RM prices so will be interesting to see how ebay deal with this.

Sellers are still allowed to have more expensive delivery options, as long as they have a free option as well.

[masterhand]

eBay claim their single largest complaint from buyers is P&P-related - because buyers see P&P meaning 'stamps on the parcel' and nothing else - as if packaging materials grow on trees and it costs nothing in time or effort to wrap and post a parcel.

I think it's more likley directed at the people chraging a fiver postage and then sending is second class in a used jiffy bag that are getting the complaints. Not the ones of us charging an extra realistic 20p on top of the stamp value for postage.

[northy]

in a used jiffy bag

I know you're not having a go a this directly but I don't see any problem in reusing jiffy bags for sending stuff. It's not like they're any less protective or likely to be retained by the recipient. Save the whales and all that.

Edit: now actually reflects my point of view. Clarkson FTL.

[therealjohnpeat]

Amazon insist on you using new packaging materials - I'm sure it's all down to their image but it's breathtakingly wasteful (and I routinely ignore it)

If eBay wanted to tackle a proper issue they could take up the ever-increasing number of people who state they will not deal with/be responsible for items lost in the post.

It shows the seller clearly has no idea of their legal responsibilities/the fact the PO will no accept a claim from anyone other than them - it bolsters this 'favour the buyer' mentality so prevalent in PayPal disputes etc. too...

[Leynos]

Well, for one, that's no use at all on auction or make-an-offer listings. Even on Buy It Now it'd mean you have to add on the postage to (say) the middle of the Peruvian jungle in the off chance the buyer lives thousands of miles away.

The free postage requirement only applies to domestic postage. You can add extra for international postage.

[spaceyjase]

Urgh, this free P&P thing applies to hardware too. I was about to dump some Twin-sticks on eBay but I can't unless I offer free P&P.

(I suppose I could just enter EU only but then the P&P is either to high for domestic or not enough for someone abroad)

[spaceyjase]

Hmm, not quite...

As part of the recent improvement on eBay, all members are now required

to offer free domestic postage as one of your delivery options if you

list in certain categories such as Video Games, Mobile & Home Phones,

Consumer Electronics, Computing, Photography, and Clothes, Shoes &

Accessories .

Since you will be posting some heavy software s, you can be exempted

from the postage and packaging limit as the item will already be

considered as extremely heavy or bulky , which will require a specific

courier for delivery. To be exempted from this policy, you should select

the option Courier : Heavy and bulky items instead of Flat: same cost

to all buyers in the drop-down menu below the Domestic postage label on

the sell form. Please note that we ll be monitoring this to ensure

proper usage of the option.

Additionally, I would primarily like to highlight that the change of

offering Free P&P applies only to the first Domestic Shipping option you

offer on the listings in said category. Thus, you can still offer an

additional postage service and charge the actual postage charge to the

buyers. For instance you can offer an expedited postage service, which

the potential buyer would consider to choose to get the item shipped

quickly.

Please understand that we made this change because high postage costs

are known to be a reason for buyers to spend less online, and free

delivery is increasingly common on online shopping sites. Offering free

postage and packaging in categories where there's a lot of competition

with other sites helps ensure that buyers continue to shop on eBay.

This, in turn, means that sellers enjoy stronger sales. It should also

help to reduce the number of issues that arise as a result of unclear

delivery charges.

[Sketch]

I put GTA:SA on with free postage, and made £1.50 on it... So, after deducting 60p for postage, and 50p for the envelope, and eBay's 10% fees, and PayPal's fees, that leaves me with a result of something like -10p.

Jesus fucking Christ. I just ended up in negative equity by selling something. It would have been cheaper to wipe my arse with it.

Bastard ebay cunts.

[Sprite Machine]

Um, start it at a higher price?

[MojoChin]

Um, start it at a higher price?

But if people were only willing to spend £1.50 on it why would setting a higher price be beneficial?! I would always start auctions at 1p, not any more. eBay != value for money.

[waddie]

How much they paid doesn't tell you anything about how much they were willing to pay; they just paid as little as possible. If you start auctions at 1p, you'll have to get used to not even covering your costs. If somebody was willing to pay £1.50, somebody was probably willing to pay £2.00.

[Hitcher]

I put GTA:SA on with free postage, and made £1.50 on it... So, after deducting 60p for postage, and 50p for the envelope, and eBay's 10% fees, and PayPal's fees, that leaves me with a result of something like -10p.

Jesus fucking Christ. I just ended up in negative equity by selling something. It would have been cheaper to wipe my arse with it.

Bastard ebay cunts.

Why didn't you simply add "60p for postage, and 50p for the envelope, and eBay's 10% fees, and PayPal's fees" in the first place?

I really don't see how starting at a higher price with free postage makes any difference.

[Sprite Machine]

But if people were only willing to spend £1.50 on it why would setting a higher price be beneficial?! I would always start auctions at 1p, not any more. eBay != value for money.

Well if no-one buys it at a higher price, at least you've still got it and haven't just paid someone to take it off you. Bottom line is, if you can't afford to let it go for £1.50, don't let it go for £1.50!

[xist]

Listing at a higher price initially nets ebay a higher starting fee though....it's just a cunning way to drive up profit even if no-one buys anything!

[Lorfarius]

Listing at a higher price initially nets ebay a higher starting fee though....it's just a cunning way to drive up profit even if no-one buys anything!

The fees dont increase until you list over £4.99 do they?