eBay seller ratings / rankings

SAVORY100

Sith Lord
Joined
May 29, 2014
Messages
4,186
Location
Wiltshire
Can someone elaborate (and hopefully in plain English), on what the difference is for seller to become a business seller...

I've held an 'Above Standard' rating for over a year (I'm not a SW seller BTW, just regularly churn through old books, clothes brick-a-brack etc.) and whenever I look at my Seller rating page eBay are suggesting that I join the Business Seller ranks.

Now to be clear, I only sell my own old gubbins, I do not buy to sell and therefore I immediately think being a business sounds wrong... my sales simply are not a business.

However, if I'm reading it right, there is a 10% discount on final valuation fees each month for all Top Rated sellers. It also appears that you cannot be a Top Rated Seller without being a business seller. Do you have to pay other fees to be a business seller and does taking this status mean that you will be creating a taxable record too?

Thoughts?
Is there a real benefit?
Anyone on here registered as a business seller?
 

punk_pat

Jedi Knight
Joined
Apr 28, 2015
Messages
287
Interested to hear thoughts on this as well, I'm in same boat as you mate. I wasn't aware of the 10% discount.

I used to be a Power Seller back in the day. Whatever that meant!
 

Lindo

Sith Lord
Joined
Jul 30, 2015
Messages
1,471
Location
Durham
pretty sure if you create a business account you would need to pay taxes, I would just stay the way you are mate, I have looked at this in the past too but thought the pro's didn't out weigh the con's
 

lejackal

Grand Master
Joined
Jul 1, 2015
Messages
8,476
Would you still get the free listing and capped fees offers? If not any potential 10% final value discount wouldn't be worth much with careful listing of your items
 

sparkysx

Sith Lord
Joined
Aug 22, 2013
Messages
1,259
Location
UK
You have already paid tax on your old gubbins so I wouldn't do it, stay as a private seller.
 

ScruffyLookingNH

Sith Lord
Supporter
Joined
May 13, 2015
Messages
2,990
In short, don't do it.

There are few advantages with being a business seller. You will receive a small discount on FVFs but it's only small and the criteria to be awarded those discounts are utterly draconian. You're at the mercy of the Royal Mail and couriers as well as dishonest buyers. Only takes a couple of tossers and you miss your target and don't get your discount.

The benefits come when you have a "shop" as a business seller. This costs you a minimum of £20 a month but does give you a load of free listings and allows you to keep things listed constantly until it sells. This in itself is not as great as it sounds though, but that's a whole separate topic.

The trade off for the relatively poor benefits of an ebay shop mean you will no longer receive the £1 final value fee or a % off FVF promotions amongst others. You'll get ZERO promotional discount deals. They have saved me well over £1,000 in the last year and I'm not about to give those up.

Also, don't think that just because you've paid tax that you won't be liable again. If you look at HMRC's definition of when you are considered a trader or when you should pay tax on items you sell, although there's no specific numbers it does rather sound that selling more than a handful of bits each month makes you liable. I know some countries have strict definitions. I forget which EU country it is but I do recall that if you sell more than 2 things a month you owe tax!

Also as a trader you MUST offer returns. In fact the requirement is over and above Distance Selling Regultions. Nuff said, really.

Anyway, I could waffle on for pages about the ins and outs of ebay selling but the above should serve enough to put you off becoming a business seller. In short: DON'T.
 
Old Thread: Hello . There have been no replies in this thread for 365 days.
Content in this thread may no longer be relevant.
Perhaps it would be better to start a new thread instead.

Latest posts

Top Bottom