What's going on with ebay?

[SevenOfDiamonds]

Under "G Scale" with no search term (look at that postage charge!) . . .



. . . but when you click through, the postage is more reasonable, but the starting price is (slightly) different . . .



It's listed by the seller at 99p . . .



. . . but adding 4% and 75p (Buyer Protection Fee) doesn't (quite) come to either of those starting prices.

It's not the only oddity either. Sometimes its hard to tell if it's an auction or a Buy It Now.

 

[playmofire]

Maybe a typo, but I can only find the second item with the more reasonable postage rate.

 

[SevenOfDiamonds]

I can only find the second item

They are the same item. It just depends on how you search for it.

 

[JimmyB]

EBay now charge buyers a protection fee, this is only on the sale price not the total price including p&p.

 

[SevenOfDiamonds]

EBay now charge buyers a protection fee, this is only on the sale price not the total price including p&p

I agree, as I said above. The issue here is when an item is listed in a category (with no search term) the price, and particularly the postage, are different (and more correct) when you click through to the item.

Try https://www.ebay.co.uk/b/bn_7118177319?_sop=10&mag=1&rt=nc

 

[DickyC]

having sold a few items recently since they went "free to sell" for private customer I soon realised that the way ebay was going to try and make money was in "auction" sales and not "buy now" As the purchaser and seller was compromised with these extra "confusing" fees. The fees still aplly for international sales and by the way.

I now "try" not to buy from auction listings unless i really want the item at a good price and either make an offer or buy at the fixed price.

Still beats all the mystery fees you used to get from a seller point of view, but they are struggling to keep up with other new platforms and theres a "lot" of private non business traders now.

 

[pugwash]

On the listings I have done over the last couple of weeks I have noticed that there is a kind of small print, if you don't tick or untick certain boxes eBay can take you (and the buyer) for a ride. The main offender was the postage price, eBay set it but it didn't show up when preparing the listing. The bad news is they quoted € 22 to send to Germany, the price at the post office was € 12 so I refunded the difference but it made me wonder how many potential buyers I had lost. I eventually tracked down in the menus where to alter the postage price shown in the listing and reduced it to the correct figure. Still a pain though.

 

[playmofire]

Another change they have made is that if you use the Best Offer option to buy an item, then you cannot opt for Click and Collect anymore, the item has to come to your registered address unless you specify another address.