Ebay's Dramatic Push To Remove Collectibles

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Over the past few years, ebay has taken steps to turn away sellers of collectibles, and focus solely on big brand retailers. With each new seller update, it's come to be expected that sellers of collectibles will see increased fees and new hurdles to overcome. Whether it be fee increases, being forced to accept PayPal, being charged final value fees on shipping costs, or new rules which make absolutely no sense when applied to collectibles, ebay continues to make it clear they don't want collectible on their site anymore.

However, with their latest announcement, once the sugar coating was cut through, even we were shocked by how far they've gone this time! If you're currently a seller on ebay of stamps, postcards and other collectibles, it's likely that you're a Top Rated Seller, as long as you maintain a relatively high feedback rating. Two of the main benefits that Top Rate Sellers on ebay enjoy is a boost in search results, and on average a 20% discount on final value fees. However, for collectible sellers that's all about to change!

By May, almost every Top Rated Seller on ebay in the collectible categories will lose their Top Rated Seller Status, and many will instantly see a fee increase of 20%! This is mainly due to the fact that all sellers on ebay will be required to upload tracking information for at least 90% of their shipments to remain a Top Rate Seller! This means that if you sell a stamp or postcard, and send it in a plain envelope without tracking information you'll lose your Top Rated Status! Obviously this new requirement doesn't make any sense for collectibles, but that's the point - to force out collectibles, and collectible buyers and sellers like you. Even if you do spend enormous amounts of time and money to add tracking information to your shipments, you'll likely still lose your discount, because you'll also need to ensure that all orders are shipped out within one business day! Even if you're only a buyer of collectibles, these large cost increases will need to be passed along to you by the seller, so it's truly a grim situation for collectibles on ebay.

While these new changes are truly shocking, but the good news is that you have until May to abandon ebay, and move to bidStart if you've not already done so. Easily import (or sync) your entire inventory from ebay to bidStart using our Import/Sync from ebay feature. It takes only a minute of your time to set up, and if you have any questions, please feel free to contact us. Additionally, if you still have friends selling collectibles on ebay, make sure they know about these upcoming changes, and send them over to bidStart - the Collectibles Marketplace!

For more information on ebay's latest changes, see their 2012 Spring Seller Update page