Avoiding ebay fees

kaiowas · 1 Feb 2015 at 19:52

Hi, I just had a nice meal in a restaurant but I'm special and don't feel I should have to pay for it. Anyone know how I can avoid it without the hassle of doing a runner?

russell664 · 1 Feb 2015 at 19:54

I only use eBay if I really have to, otherwise it is the MM or gumtree.

Teknobry · 1 Feb 2015 at 19:58

you can do a 'buyer and seller mutually agreed to cancel thr transaction'
all fees waived, no strikes for anyone and the only downside is you can't leave feedback for each other.

Sudden · 1 Feb 2015 at 20:02

Guest2 said:
Why have they increased so much over the past few years? Its not like Ebay are doing badly!

Well, they just announced 2,400 job cuts, so maybe reconsider that statement

chaparral · 1 Feb 2015 at 20:02

DJMK4 said:
Greed

You could also say the same about sellers that expect to be able to use ebay services for free

Caged · 1 Feb 2015 at 20:03

areksnumbr1sxylady said:
I hope you are going to pay taxes on that sell too.

Why would there be any taxes due? 10% points to a private sale, not a business.

Guest2 · 1 Feb 2015 at 20:03

Adam said:
No, you agreed to ebay's terms when you listed the item. They have found you a buyer so they deserve their cut.

With that said I normally specify local collection only and 99.9% of the time someone will offer you cash.

You still pay fees if you get cash

Hyburnate · 1 Feb 2015 at 20:11

Guest2 said:
You still pay fees if you get cash

Not if you keep hush the sale went ahead

At least I think that's how they do it, never sold anything on eBay

Guest2 · 1 Feb 2015 at 20:14

Hyburnate said:
Not if you keep hush the sale went ahead At least I think that's how they do it, never sold anything on eBay

Doesn't work like that unless you cancel the auction before it ends (24 hours before it ends)

Once someone has won you will get final item fees

spoffle · 1 Feb 2015 at 20:14

joeyjojo said:
They'd invoice it you so it comes out of your paypal, which I think happens regularly (monthly?) whether you like it or not.

No they won't, their protection only works as long as you've paid with PayPal as they can control the payments through PayPal.

Since it isn't PayPal, there isn't any payment that they can interfere with, and they will tell the buyer this if the buyer tried to claim a refund, unless they were feeling especially generous, then they'd refund them out of their own pocket.

Hyburnate · 1 Feb 2015 at 20:14

Guest2 said:
Doesn't work like that unless you cancel the auction before it ends (24 hours before it ends)

Once someone has won you will get final item fees

My bad

spoffle · 1 Feb 2015 at 20:16

areksnumbr1sxylady said:
I hope you are going to pay taxes on that sell too.

Why? This assumes that it's a business transaction rather than a private sale.

DJMK4 · 1 Feb 2015 at 20:16

amigafan2003 said:
It's a business, not a public service.

And I pay my fee's

I think of eBay as your paying a premium for a wider audience, sometimes selling locally is not easy! Ebay is the quick and easy option, downside is high fees when you sell higher value items

Adam · 1 Feb 2015 at 20:36

Guest2 said:
Doesn't work like that unless you cancel the auction before it ends (24 hours before it ends)

Once someone has won you will get final item fees

Correct - you end the auction early once they have collected the item. You pass the fees on to them and everyone is happy. Feedback is so 2002.

Haggisman · 1 Feb 2015 at 21:16

Guest2 said:
Doesn't work like that unless you cancel the auction before it ends (24 hours before it ends)

Once someone has won you will get final item fees

Not strictly true, you can agree to cancel the sale with the buyer = no fees

Guest2 · 1 Feb 2015 at 21:42

Haggisman said:
Not strictly true, you can agree to cancel the sale with the buyer = no fees

Which is what I am doing when he is happy

Te feedback system is a pile of poo too now. You cannot leave someone a negative if you are a seller!?

There is no point in a feedback system if positive feedback can only be left! - e.g. someone won an item I was selling a couple of weeks ago. Didn't bother paying or contacting me, olden days I would have left them a fat negative now all you can do it mark it as a non-paying bidder. whoop-de-doo

jasonsony735 · 1 Feb 2015 at 23:45

I have avoided paying ebay a few times but I only sell 1 or 2 items a year ! What I do is this ,

I always do a collection only and when the person turns up i mention to them that I would like to cancel the auction and ill send them a message and can they agree to it , everyone I have sold items to have agreed , You sale your item for free / get cash and cancel the auction

Boom.

I've done this a few times now but I have been advised if you do this a lot ebay with notice and ban you.

muon · 2 Feb 2015 at 00:30

All it would take is the buyer to report you and you could lose an account with high feedback.

Before ebay think about how hard it was to buy and sell second hand stuff. 10% fee is worth it even if the fees were lower before. It's just just not as good value as before.

If you are selling a dozen or more items a year, then trying to avoid fees on that one occasion could cost you more if you have to start a new account with low feedback.

Combat squirrel · 2 Feb 2015 at 01:14

I dont understand why there has yet to be a good quality cheaper version of ebay? not free, just lower fee's, they need some competition to force the price down.

Sure there is gumtree etc etc but they are just like MM (worse actually, the MM on ocuk is really really good tbf never had an issue, I appreciate it exists!)

httk · 2 Feb 2015 at 02:14

Combat squirrel said:
I dont understand why there has yet to be a good quality cheaper version of ebay? not free, just lower fee's, they need some competition to force the price down.

They're very very very famous, and they intentionally attract buyers over sellers because if you have a ridiculous number of buyers then they'll always be some sellers because there's money to be made, even if it's not as much as people would like. It's kinda like a club that lets women in for free, they'll always be men who will pay.