eBay "Simple Delivery"

[Moonraker]

I've just had an email from eBay announcing that its "Simple Delivery" will be introduced for all private sellers on February 4. When I glanced through all the electronic bumf, my eyes quickly glazed over and my brain froze. Googling led to this article, and my suspicions that this would Not Be a Good Thing for me were confirmed by the first comment: "It will certainly destroy the collectables category at Ebay, stamps, postcards etc if introduced and push up prices greater than buyers will accept. Just have a look at what has happened on Delcampe since it was introduced, devastated their business."

Questions that come to mind include how much will the fee be (more than the cost of a second-class stamp, I bet, and perhaps even of a first-class one), and will it be disproportionate to the price of, say, a £10 postcard. (Currently I'm "watching" one with a starting bid of £2.99). And where will be the nearest "Simple Delivery" drop-off point - not as close as the nearest letter-box, for sure, nor my sub post-office, which is the first shop I go past when slipping to the shops?

But ... after I calmed down, I saw that a seller can "opt out", though will have to do so every time they list an item. And if they continue to use Royal Mail, how will eBay know an item has been delivered so that it can pay the seller, which suggests using a tracking service.

[eastlondonpostcard]

It is clear that eBay are no longer interested in the private seller and are recouping their costs after their enticing offer of 300 free listings per month.
In essence it will kill off those sellers and drive them to other platforms in my opinion.

[Moonraker]

Since my original post, I've been visiting various forums where "Simple Delivery" is being discussed. Dismay is almost universal among private sellers, including those of stamps and postcards, and in the eBay forums there's some sarkiness from business sellers aimed at prolific private sellers, some of whom say they're selling off personal collections and inherited items (as I used to do).

Every day there are some 100+ postcards listed that fall within my collecting interest and of my last year's 35 purchases perhaps one-quarter are from vendors I recognise as dealers and who are presumably registered as businesses, the rest seem to be "dabblers", listing from 20 to 150 cards.

I was reassured that many of those posting in the forums were as bewildered as I was about Simple Delivery. And it seems that Evri is eBay's carrier of choice for larger items ...

[kevinramsdale]

Simple delivery is only one of the imminent changes for private sellers on eBay from Feb 4th - and at least is not (yet) compulsory

For untracked sendings (which must include a great many postcard sales) eBay will not release the funds to sellers for 14 days

Quite how this benefits buyers is unclear, but it certainly boosts eBay's revenue stream

Then there is the "Buyer Protection Fee" of 75p plus 4% to be added to all private sales - which basically offers buyers the square root of nothing over and above the existing Money Back Guarantee

The entire announcement is very poorly done and transparent spin, attempting to mask a significant fee increase by citing so called "benefits"

Happy New Year

[Moonraker]

Judging from the other forums that I'm visiting, I'm not the only one NOT finding it "Simple"!