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smitty190373
·so does this count for BIN auctions? i cancelled an auction yesterday after it ran for 25 of the 30 days. i decided to keep it.
Ebay Can Now Take Their Cut Even If You Don't Sell
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WatchVaultNYC
·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.
My beef is with the principle of this whole thing - if Ebay can prove that a sale would have been made, and that the seller is just avoiding commission, then well and good extract the 10%. But otherwise it would be wrong to do so, including in the case of ending auctions early. So what if sellers have sellers remorse, even in the case of seller not getting what he thought we would get for an item? Buyers who win auctions a lot of the time never pay, and seller gets stuck with the listing fees and time lost that is never recovered. Ebay isn't taking money off the accounts of those deadbeat buyers for wasting the seller's time.
If Ebay wants for you to pay more to get your listing seen even if it does not get sold, then raise the listing prices instead of unilaterally taking commission from items that may not even have been sold (like my Ed White). Oh wait, that won't fly because it will discourage sellers from listing. Better to show sellers their shenanigans at the back end.
In the past, bad behavior for buyers and sellers were handled by feedback - but wait, sellers can't leave negative feedback anymore. So the mechanism that kept buyers and sellers behaving properly is effectively rendered useless.
My hope is that someone puts up a legit Ebay competitor soon. Monopolies can get away with $#!+ like this, because there are no reasonable alternatives.
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yinzerniner
·My beef is with the principle of this whole thing - if Ebay can prove that a sale would have been made, and that the seller is just avoiding commission, then well and good extract the 10%. But otherwise it would be wrong to do so, including in the case of ending auctions early. So what if sellers have sellers remorse, even in the case of seller not getting what he thought we would get for an item? Buyers who win auctions a lot of the time never pay, and seller gets stuck with the listing fees and time lost that is never recovered. Ebay isn't taking money off the accounts of those deadbeat buyers for wasting the seller's time.
If Ebay wants for you to pay more to get your listing seen even if it does not get sold, then raise the listing prices instead of unilaterally taking commission from items that may not even have been sold (like my Ed White). Oh wait, that won't fly because it will discourage sellers from listing. Better to show sellers their shenanigans at the back end.
In the past, bad behavior for buyers and sellers were handled by feedback - but wait, sellers can't leave negative feedback anymore. So the mechanism that kept buyers and sellers behaving properly is effectively rendered useless.
My hope is that someone puts up a legit Ebay competitor soon. Monopolies can get away with $#!+ like this, because there are no reasonable alternatives.
Pretty much all the policies you cited before have been in effect for a long time now, so there's no "very unfortunate turn" here.
You don't get stuck with listing fees if buyer doesn't pay.
And if the seller cancels the order after payment without the buyer asking for a cancellation then yes, they get charged a fee. Buy if the BUYER initiates the cancellation no fee is charged. The only loss is the $.30 per transaction fee on paypal.
The "skimming of final value fee" is from the amount that an auction has gotten to at the time you cancelled it. Also, as ebay has the power to read all messages exchanged on their system they can usually tell if an auction is ended early because of a side deal. I've had a few items (non-watches) on auction that I had to end because either I legitimately lost the item or that I found a fault that wasn't disclosed that would greatly effect the value, so I first contacted a customer service rep and explained the situation before ending the auction, and I NEVER got charged the final value fee.
I don't see what the big hubbub here is, since all of the above points of contention have been in place for a long time. Yes, a lot of them suck, but that's a price one pays for getting the Glengary leads.
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Vercingetorix
··Spam RiskI'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
Ending an auction-style listing early once it has received a bid can lead to disappointed and frustrated buyers who may be less likely to bid on listings the next time around. For this reason, we may charge a fee if you end a listing early. This fee is equal to the final value fee you would have paid if the listing had ended on its own and sold for the highest bid received at the time you ended the listing.
Cut and pasted from eBays user agreement.
- We charge this fee if you cancel bids and end an auction-style listing early without a buyer.
- We don't charge this fee if you end an auction-style listing early and sell to the high bidder. (In this case, normal final value fees apply.)
- This fee doesn't apply to listings in the Real Estate and eBay Motors vehicle categories, and the Classified Ads selling format.
This website may earn commission from Ebay sales.
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trackpad
·Oh. So...it's sort of like the capital gains tax in Denmark. Where "gains" are calculated according to the increase in market value of a stock that is simply held, ...even if it is never sold.
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panaitchrono
·I think that if you contact eBay and explain the situation they'll not charge you anymore for those transactions
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BenjaminT
·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
It's the character of an auction that neither seller nor bidder can change their mind, and that offer as well as bids are binding.
There are reserves if you need to achieve a minimum price.
There is no point in auctioning a piece which is available through other channels but besting the bidders.
I have been hating this practice, pursued by some sellers here as well, for a long time and it was not legal by ebays terms and conditions before. So I appreciate that ebay is pushing back on it - even if their motivation is pure greed.
Edited:
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jimmyd13
·My eBay account is "restricted" this week. Apparently, I have been a bad person. What have I done to deserve this? I attempted to give an address to a potential buyer who wanted to inspect an item prior to buying it.
There's no need to give details but this item weighs 45kg and is approximately 2 cubic metres - basically it's big and heavy as far as most couriers are concerned.
According to the eBay representative that I was in contact with for over an hour on Sunday, following changes to eBay's terms and conditions in September, the correct course of action is that I should:
1) accept an offer from the buyer;
2) ship the item to the buyer;
3) allow inspection;
then, should the buyer not want the item I should
1) accept the return, and,
2) swallow the cost of shipping and return.
So, I risk being out of pocket some £180 in order to protect eBay's take of £11.
I am currently in the process of setting up an Etsy store and looking into Instagram.
Just for the sake of completeness, according to "Lemuel" at eBay, I have no right of appeal; there is no-one but him to speak to; and, if I want to make a complaint I must do so in writing to an address in the Republic of Ireland. I have no intention of complaining, I'm just removing my business from them.
There's no need to give details but this item weighs 45kg and is approximately 2 cubic metres - basically it's big and heavy as far as most couriers are concerned.
According to the eBay representative that I was in contact with for over an hour on Sunday, following changes to eBay's terms and conditions in September, the correct course of action is that I should:
1) accept an offer from the buyer;
2) ship the item to the buyer;
3) allow inspection;
then, should the buyer not want the item I should
1) accept the return, and,
2) swallow the cost of shipping and return.
So, I risk being out of pocket some £180 in order to protect eBay's take of £11.
I am currently in the process of setting up an Etsy store and looking into Instagram.
Just for the sake of completeness, according to "Lemuel" at eBay, I have no right of appeal; there is no-one but him to speak to; and, if I want to make a complaint I must do so in writing to an address in the Republic of Ireland. I have no intention of complaining, I'm just removing my business from them.
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mikechi22
·My beef is with the principle of this whole thing - if Ebay can prove that a sale would have been made, and that the seller is just avoiding commission, then well and good extract the 10%. But otherwise it would be wrong to do so, including in the case of ending auctions early. So what if sellers have sellers remorse, even in the case of seller not getting what he thought we would get for an item? Buyers who win auctions a lot of the time never pay, and seller gets stuck with the listing fees and time lost that is never recovered. Ebay isn't taking money off the accounts of those deadbeat buyers for wasting the seller's time.
If Ebay wants for you to pay more to get your listing seen even if it does not get sold, then raise the listing prices instead of unilaterally taking commission from items that may not even have been sold (like my Ed White). Oh wait, that won't fly because it will discourage sellers from listing. Better to show sellers their shenanigans at the back end.
In the past, bad behavior for buyers and sellers were handled by feedback - but wait, sellers can't leave negative feedback anymore. So the mechanism that kept buyers and sellers behaving properly is effectively rendered useless.
My hope is that someone puts up a legit Ebay competitor soon. Monopolies can get away with $#!+ like this, because there are no reasonable alternatives.
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Nobel Prize
··Spell Master!Well, I think it’s also unreasonable to thing it’s ok to advertise a sale through them only to take it off line and not pay fees. And I have done it, full disclosure, but if they catch me and charge me I wouldn’t blame it on them.
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dsio
··Ash @ ΩFI actually missed out on an 18K Constellation Piepan deluxe in rose gold after making the winning bid because the seller wanted to cancel it and send me a paypal invoice instead to defraud eBay out of the fees and when I declined cancelled the sale and pretended it had already been sold separately. As much as I wanted it I wasn't willing to sacrifice a good chunk of my buyer protection just to help him save money he owed. When I've sold on eBay I've paid the fees and not been a crybaby over it or I've sold through the FS section here.
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sgrossma
·In a perfect world there would exist a "watchbay" that charged no fees and offered all of the services of ebay. Unfortunately that does not and likely will not ever exist. Large polished platforms (with some form of protection) cost money to run and getting a massive amount of buyers and sellers in the same place at the same time is a nearly impossible task (especially when it comes to efficient no-reserve auctions).
I tried to build a platform once upon a time and spent a lot of money doing so. It was awesome and it was free.... and still nobody would use it. I'd get some listings, but not buyers. I'd get some buyers with no listings... The amount of scam listings outnumbered the amount of legitimate ones... eventually I took a loss and gave up.
eBay has more pros than cons. If you follow the rules in the long run you will have more successes than failures. The fees suck, but I've achieved higher than expected selling prices on many occasions, which has sometimes made up for this. I love to hate the big guy in the room and have had my fair share of frustrations and learning experiences, but I will not stop using them any time soon.
I tried to build a platform once upon a time and spent a lot of money doing so. It was awesome and it was free.... and still nobody would use it. I'd get some listings, but not buyers. I'd get some buyers with no listings... The amount of scam listings outnumbered the amount of legitimate ones... eventually I took a loss and gave up.
eBay has more pros than cons. If you follow the rules in the long run you will have more successes than failures. The fees suck, but I've achieved higher than expected selling prices on many occasions, which has sometimes made up for this. I love to hate the big guy in the room and have had my fair share of frustrations and learning experiences, but I will not stop using them any time soon.
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sevenhelmet
·For me, it's not even about the 10% fee, although that seems a bit greedy. It's the fact that Ebay doesn't tell you things up front and then arbitrarily "enforces their policy". Seems they want to be able to change the rules any time they want. I couldn't find anything about the fee when I was making a listing on Ebay earlier this year. Then, six weeks after the sale, I got shaken down. Not to mention all the trashy/counterfeit/fraudulent listings.
Maybe auctions just aren't my thing.
Maybe auctions just aren't my thing.
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Tony C.
··Ωf Jury memberFor me, it's not even about the 10% fee, although that seems a bit greedy. It's the fact that Ebay doesn't tell you things up front and then arbitrarily "enforces their policy". Seems they want to be able to change the rules any time they want. I couldn't find anything about the fee when I was making a listing on Ebay earlier this year. Then, six weeks after the sale, I got shaken down. Not to mention all the trashy/counterfeit/fraudulent listings.
Maybe auctions just aren't my thing.
For buyers, eBay is generally excellent. There are consistently good opportunities to find nice vintage watches, and, at times, they are significantly undervalued. I have bought hundreds of watches on eBay, and it remains my primary source for vintage watches.
To be clear, I am an eclectic collector, and am happy to consider interesting and/or high-quality vintage from smaller manufacturers. Obviously the experience would be different if one were only seeking well-known and desirable models.
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jimmyd13
·For buyers, eBay is generally excellent.
EBay doesn't care what's being sold, so long as there can be no legal redress against the company. To that end, it prohibits certain items that are illegal in any jurisdiction (the one that surprised me was demonitised Cuban coins) and it polices any complaints made against fraudulent listings or items that might be stolen. All well and good.
EBay operates as auction houses used to, many moons ago. They push all the fees onto the seller, freeing the buyer from any commission and making the platform much more attractive to the buyer than any bricks and mortar auction house could hope to be.
EBay also wants its buyers to be confident that they are protected. To that end, they institute a range of conditions. However, eBay has no financial risk in this. It moves all the risk to the seller. The effect is to open the door to a number of risks for that seller who has to exercise due diligence in both their listings and vetting of buyers. While this is onerous and potentially costly, it's a risk that sellers enter into with eyes wide open. Fair enough.
However, eBay seem to have lost sight of the fact that they were supposed to operate in the role of Agent for both the buyer and the seller. Their changes to their Terms and Conditions have steadily become more onerous to the seller while they have failed to add, or indeed removed, any reciprocating Duty of Care to the seller. EBay seems to have forgotten that the seller is their customer and not the buyer. With the current set up, the buyer is the customer of the seller and eBay is merely the point of sale. It is not logical to alienate your customer to benefit some third party and expect your customer to keep returning.
I know a number of people who sell on eBay. I know individuals who are "PowerSellers" and other dealers who conduct many thousands of pounds worth of business through eBay each month. There are quiet grumblings from all of them about the regular changes to Terms, particularly over the last few months. All of them are removing listings from the site or not listing certain items. Some are actively changing their business plan. While none have the faintest intention of leaving eBay all are certainly taking steps to limit their liability.
Be in no doubt that this will noticeably affect the bottom line of both the platform and its sellers. It's little surprise that Instagram is growing so quickly with regard to items available for sale.
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kkt
·I've been a buyer but never a seller on eBay. I don't think it's been excellent and I try to avoid them. Too many sellers advertise things and then don't follow through. I buy, send money, seller doesn't answer emails for 30 days, eventually I get a refund. But they wasted my time for 30 days, kept me from buying it from an honest seller. Can't leave feedback as they did eventually refund my money. This has happened more than once. And if you put an item up for auction, set a reserve that you can live with. Don't waste buyer's time by canceling because you don't like the fair market price of your widget.
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