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Ebay Can Now Take Their Cut Even If You Don't Sell

WatchVaultNYC
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Not sure if you've noticed, but Ebay will take their "Final Value Fee" even if you dont conclude a sale:

- if you end an auction early, Ebay may skim their final value fee as if it had sold

- if you cancel a paid order, Ebay may still skim their final value fee

I understand that there are bad actors on Ebay that try to conclude business elsewhere in order to avoid fees, but there are legit ways that the above scenarios happen - like if you change your mind during an auction (you don't think your item will sell at a good price, so you end an auction early, or where your item was sold to another person outside of Ebay and you were not able to close the listing in time before another guy bought the same item on Ebay. Happens more often than you think.

I think this is a very unfortunate turn, and will likely turn off a lot of sellers rather than raise revenue by stopping fee avoiders.
 
gdupree
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I don't think it sounds entirely unreasonable, personally. I sell a pretty decent bit on eBay, though not as a profession.

WatchVaultNYC WatchVaultNYC
like if you change your mind during an auction (you don't think your item will sell at a good price, so you end an auction early,
This is something that should not be done. If you list on eBay for a price, you should be willing to sell that item for that price. Pretty simple really.

WatchVaultNYC WatchVaultNYC
or where your item was sold to another person outside of Ebay
This is an understandable pain for people who want to sell privately and also list on eBay, but also completely understandable for eBay to want to eliminate this. I don't want to score a great deal on eBay, only to be told that I just missed it and someone already bought it (or allow a seller to lie and say it was already sold, for the same reasons you mentioned before).

You're probably right that it will drive some of those dual-sellers away from eBay, but likely for the better good. I doubt that eBay's motive was increasing revenue by stopping fee-avoiders, but rather to increase revenue by making it a better experience for buyers by eliminating frustrating situations like I mentioned above.
 
WatchVaultNYC
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Oh, and this just in. If Ebay suspects that you've been exchanging contact info over messenger and you end your listing, they can take their cut too.

This pattern of policies, its to make sure they get their cut. The last one has nothing to do with customer experience, unless seller coerces buyer to close out of eBay
 
gdupree
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WatchVaultNYC WatchVaultNYC
Oh, and this just in. If Ebay suspects that you've been exchanging contact info over messenger and you end your listing, they can take their cut too.

This pattern of policies, its to make sure they get their cut. The last one has nothing to do with customer experience, unless seller coerces buyer to close out of eBay
yeah, I feel you there. That's just to try to take the money, but could still be there more as a deterrent to having it happen, which could still fall under the customer experience theory by extension. Again, it still sounds like they only take their cut if you end the listing early - if they're going to do this regardless, then why the addition of "if eBay suspects"?
 
jakeh417
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WatchVaultNYC WatchVaultNYC
Oh, and this just in. If Ebay suspects that you've been exchanging contact info over messenger and you end your listing, they can take their cut too.

This pattern of policies, its to make sure they get their cut. The last one has nothing to do with customer experience, unless seller coerces buyer to close out of eBay

Going back to your original post, the word "may" does that mean it's up to ebay? If they use "may" seems like it's implying there is a review process? Have they said how they will determine to take a cut or not?
 
Noddyman
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WatchVaultNYC WatchVaultNYC
I think this is a very unfortunate turn, and will likely turn off a lot of sellers rather than raise revenue by stopping fee avoiders.
I agree and I am one of them.
After recently listing a watch on eBay my son decides he’s always liked it and would prefer if I kept it. Torn between suffering the fees or upsetting my son I decided to end early. I will never list another high value item on eBay ever again. Sometimes there are genuine reasons and forcing people to pay fees is not the answer.
 
WatchVaultNYC
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Only feasible IMO when you're selling things that have multiples, not one-offs. My Roadster Luggage biz is one of these. If I need to cancel, its because I am out of them (of which I started with a shipping container full). And this will not happen 99.99 % of the time even when I am selling my widgets in multiple venues. When you sell a used watch, of course you're going to list it in multiple venues. What in effect is penalizing sellers for listing anywhere outside of Ebay if you have already listed on their platform.

Some people have been complaining that Ebay is turning away from individual sellers to focus more on the large volume businesses that sell commodities. Starting to feel the same.
 
WatchVaultNYC
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Vercingetorix Vercingetorix
Solution is to cancel all bids then cancel sale.
Now they still take their cut, even if you cancel all bids and cancel sale. That was sort of the point of the post.
 
Vercingetorix
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WatchVaultNYC WatchVaultNYC
Now they still take their cut, even if you cancel all bids and cancel sale. That was sort of the point of the post.
So you do this a lot?
 
jakeh417
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I have used ebay most to buy, and never venture into selling. Always plan to but havent yet.

Question regarding these cuts that ebay takes.

Say I post an item for $100 free shipping. There's posting fee. If I end the listing for whatever reason, ebay takes listing fee and a cut of the $100 as if I sold it?
 
gdupree
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jakeh417 jakeh417
I have used ebay most to buy, and never venture into selling. Always plan to but havent yet.

Question regarding these cuts that ebay takes.

Say I post an item for $100 free shipping. There's posting fee. If I end the listing for whatever reason, ebay takes listing fee and a cut of the $100 as if I sold it?
I believe that is correct
 
sgrossma
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Fees for ending an auction early has been the case for a long time now.
If you are going to put an item up for auction, you should let it run its course.
 
Vercingetorix
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sgrossma sgrossma
Fees for ending an auction early has been the case for a long time now.
If you are going to put an item up for auction, you should let it run its course.
Some dishonest sellers can't read the fine print.
 
adi4
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I don't see a huge issue here, maybe a bit of a hassle for the rare circumstances where there is a legitimate need to cancel an auction. But 99% of the time, it's sellers ending early to sell outside eBay and avoid the fees or feeling like they didn't fetch a high enough price.
 
WatchVaultNYC
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Vercingetorix Vercingetorix
So you do this a lot?
I've only ever canceled an auction once, it was for an Ed White - 10 day auction. I regretted it the moment I listed it. I pulled the listing within a few hours, but by then the price was already several thousand dollars at that point. Watch is still with me now but Ebay got several hundred $$$ off my remorse
Edited:
 
WatchVaultNYC
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jakeh417 jakeh417
Going back to your original post, the word "may" does that mean it's up to ebay? If they use "may" seems like it's implying there is a review process? Have they said how they will determine to take a cut or not?
I don't know. This hasn't happened often enough to me to find out. I see it mostly through "notices" on Ebay Messenger - "exchanging information over Ebay messenger may trigger final value fees if your listing is ended" or something like that- usually triggered when buyers ask me for contact info (which I never give out)
 
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