At the same time eBay are introducing a hike in the Final Valuation Fee for both Auctions and Buy It Now items

All Items except Technology and Media Technology and Media
Items up tp £49.99 go up to 9.9% 8.75%
Items up tp £600 go up to 5.25% 5.25%
Over £600 stay at 1.9% down to 1.5%

As all ready announced the Gallery fee has been scrapped although there are changes in the costs of other features. For more details visit http://pages.ebay.co.uk/piceschange08http://pages.ebay.co.uk/

Another area where there has been a massive price increase is in the monthly fees for eBay shops.

Current New
Basic Shop £ 6 per month £14.99 per month

Featured Shop £30 per month £49.99 per month

Anchor Shop £300 per month £349.99 per month

At the same time eBay are introducing some new criteria for signing up for a shop. To open a Basic store you will need a minimum feedback score of 10 or be Paypal verified. For Featured and Anchored Shops will need both the above qualifications and have a detailed seller rating of 4.4 Featured or 4.6 Anchored.

These changes come into effect on the 24th September.

So what effect are these changes and increases going to have on eBay businesses. I think that this combined with the ban on digitally downloadable products this will see the end of many home based “internet publishing businesses”. This will clear a lot of rubbish from the pages of eBay.

I expect it will also lead to a clear out of many low revenue stores from eBay. The increase in Final Valuation Fees will hit sellers’ profits and in the next month all serious eBay sellers should study the new rates to evaluate what effect the new charges will have on their overall profits.

I fully expect that there will be uproar from sellers when they have absorbed the implications of the new charges and rules. However, we have seen in the past, it is eBay’s ball they make the rules so the protests will have little effect. Obviously eBay are keen, despite a falling market, to keep up the profits for their shareholders. But in these financially tight times we could find that the sale of non essential items on the Internet may fall and eBay will not be immune from this.

A falling market and higher fees mean that only the well run and efficient online businesses will progress and grow. If you run an exclusive online eBay business now is the time to review your options and possibly consider expanding into other markets and outlets.

For the full details of all the changes that come into effect on 24th September visit
http://pages.ebay.co.uk/piceschange08