Has anyone sold items with the charity donation function?

I assumed it'd be taken from the payment before it hit my bank account, but that's not the case.  This is on the sales email.

Your donation will either be automatically collected 21 days after the item's sold date or you will be invoiced on the 22nd of each month. We recommend setting your Charity Payment Method on the eBay website to PayPal to ensure automatic collection.

Seems a bit of a faff...and like something I could easily forget by the 22nd of the month.  

Choices given are either an invoice, or a PayPal payment...is either better?  After Ebay's dispute with Paypal, it seems odd they're recommending them for this.

Sounds like a total scam to me, as in fact these days most charities are. I can't see eBay doing anything for nothing so I wounder just how much of a cut they are taking from donations.

The latest charity scams/scandals that comes to mind are 'BLM' and of course 'Captain Tom'

You can't even be sure these days that homeless people begging in the street are genuine, a very sad state of the society we live in today.

Well this should help clear everything up !! (or not) 🤣

https://community.ebay.com/t5/Selling/Be-careful-with-donating-to-charity/td-p/27635278

We used to watch the 'beggars' setting up outside my late Nan's sheltered accomodation 10 years ago, it's not a new problem.

This is a charity I'm involved with though, so I know that isn't a scam in itself.  However, the eBay & PayPal thing seems more & more odd the more I read about it!

(Just seen your latest link post but no time to read now, will do in a bit)

4 hours ago, unofix said:

.. You can't even be sure these days that homeless people begging in the street are genuine, a very sad state of the society we live in today.

At least 25 years ago there were stories of car loads of people being driven into Oxford for a day's "work" as beggars.

And Sherlock Holmes investigated a case of a middle-class man finding begging very lucrative in "The Man with the Twisted Lip", published in 1891.

Back in the 1980s I had to walk from Waterloo Station through "Cardboard City", a "village" of homeless people whose fires eventually damaged the concrete pillars that supported whatever was above. Every day I was asked for "any loose change".

I give to a number of a charities, prompted partly by the tax concession, but on occasion have given up when the on-line process stutters. And I do not like being asked to top up my donation to cover the costs of the fund-raising platform.

(On another note, I was a little shocked on Wednesday when I saw a woman picking up *****-ends - a not-uncommon sight fifty years ago but not one I've seen for several decades.)

EDIT: Oh dear, the mod bots didn't like the three-letter word I used for cigarettes.

Edited July 8, 20223 yr by Marlburian

2 hours ago, unofix said:

Well this should help clear everything up !! (or not) 🤣

https://community.ebay.com/t5/Selling/Be-careful-with-donating-to-charity/td-p/27635278

Hmm, an interesting read, but 5 years out of date and eBay US which may not always be the same as the UK version.

I do a bit of stuff on Ebay, and a few years back I did sell an item with a %age charity donation. From memory, it was taken out at source and I just received the appropriate partial payment. To be honest, I hate selling on Ebay now as I just find it so much more complicated than when I 1st started over 20 years ago!

1 hour ago, StephenFord said:

I do a bit of stuff on Ebay, and a few years back I did sell an item with a %age charity donation. From memory, it was taken out at source and I just received the appropriate partial payment. To be honest, I hate selling on Ebay now as I just find it so much more complicated than when I 1st started over 20 years ago!

If it worked like that back then, it doesn't work like that any more.  Have found the right FAQ page now.

https://charity.ebay.co.uk/help/seller

Thanks to operating support from PayPal, 100% of every donation processed by PayPal Giving Fund reaches the donor's chosen charity organisation. And because PayPal Giving Fund is itself a not-for-profit, 100% of your donation amount is tax deductible to the extent allowed by law.

It seems that PayPal Giving Fund can operate as a charity collector, but ebay can't.  To save on PayPal's transaction fees, they collect all donations once a month.

Sellers fees are reduced by the same percentage as the donation.  So if an item sells for £100 with a 10% donation.  £10 will be claimed back by the charity at the end of the month.  And the sellers fee will be 9% (reduced by 10% from 10%).  Simple, right?

All seems a bit over complicated but genuine.

Still unsure what the difference is between setting as PayPal or invoice though.  I'm guessing PayPal is automatic, whereas the invoice needs to be actively paid on arrival.

 

3 hours ago, Marlburian said:

(On another note, I was a little shocked on Wednesday when I saw a woman picking up *****-ends - a not-uncommon sight fifty years ago but not one I've seen for several decades.).

That's reminded me of going to a mates house after school aged about 11.  Watched him picking dog ends out of the kitchen bin to try and take a few drags from... 

Needless to say, I declined the offer of one myself! 

I just sold a watch on Ebay and after checking my PayPal account, thought it looked a bit low. Ebay has taken 13% clean off my sale price!! I really do not like them at all... 😅

1 hour ago, StephenFord said:

I just sold a watch on Ebay and after checking my PayPal account, thought it looked a bit low. Ebay has taken 13% clean off my sale price!! I really do not like them at all... 😅

I think you mean 12.8% + 30p...  Looks like the ***** have put the fees up!

Final value fees

You pay one final value fee for items you sell on eBay, and you don't have to worry about third party payment processing fees.

The final value fee is calculated as 12.8% of the total amount of the sale (which includes the item price, postage, taxes and any other applicable fees), plus a fixed charge of 30p per order. If the total amount of the sale is over £2,500 for a single item, you'll pay 3% for the portion of the sale price above £2,500.

I still don't understand how they can charge fees on postage either...that's always baffled me!

40 minutes ago, TomsFocus said:

I still don't understand how they can charge fees on postage either...that's always baffled me!

You can thank the Chinese for that !!

They used to sell lots of stuff for £1 and the charge £10 postage, even though it often only cost £2 to post.

I no longer sell on eBay anymore, due to extortionate fees etc

11 hours ago, Jimpster said:

I no longer sell on eBay anymore, due to extortionate fees etc

In addition, in the olden days when you sold something, the funds went instantly into your PayPal account. Now, you get an email from Ebay telling you to post the item immediately as the buyer has paid, and you'll get the funds in 2 to 4 days. Now, there's a scam email waiting to happen!

You also use to get the option of printing out a delivery note to enclose with the item you sold, very handy to scribble a 'thank you' note on, you no longer get that option. Ebay now sucks for selling....

11 minutes ago, StephenFord said:

You also use to get the option of printing out a delivery note to enclose with the item you sold, very handy to scribble a 'thank you' note on, you no longer get that option. Ebay now sucks for selling....

I wonder if this is a generational thing?  I find it a bit weird getting a thank you note in with a parcel!  

Had one a couple of weeks back that was literally a full side of A4!  Just made me feel guilty for being the sole bidder and getting the item well below it's current value... 😬

12 hours ago, Jimpster said:

I no longer sell on eBay anymore, due to extortionate fees etc

I must admit, I'm reconsidering what's actually worth selling since Stephens revelation about the fee's last night. 

The fixed 30p thing makes cheap items no longer worth it...  Now I understand why I can rarely pick up items for 99p any more!

I think £5 plus postage s going to be the minimum that's worth doing.  After postage, ebay fees and charity donation I'd be left with exactly £3 if my maths is correct.  I am doing this partly to make space, and partly to have something productive to do, but I think any less than £3 return isn't worth the hassle.

you can list when they do the free listing option, but then they cripple you with the final value fee. The last thing i tried to sell was a left handed semi acoustic guitar, i listed it at £60 to avoid the chancers, 17 views no takers, it can sit and rot.

I looked at Sphock where selling is free but the fees are loaded onto the buyers final price, i'll just not bother.

 

1 minute ago, Jimpster said:

you can list when they do the free listing option, but then they cripple you with the final value fee. The last thing i tried to sell was a left handed semi acoustic guitar, i listed it at £60 to avoid the chancers, 17 views no takers, it can sit and rot.

My calcs above were without listing fees.  I seem to get 999 free listings a month so I'm not going to use all of those!  Not sure if that's account specific though.

2 hours ago, TomsFocus said:

I must admit, I'm reconsidering what's actually worth selling since Stephens revelation about the fee's last night. 

The fixed 30p thing makes cheap items no longer worth it...  Now I understand why I can rarely pick up items for 99p any more!

I think £5 plus postage s going to be the minimum that's worth doing.  After postage, ebay fees and charity donation I'd be left with exactly £3 if my maths is correct.  I am doing this partly to make space, and partly to have something productive to do, but I think any less than £3 return isn't worth the hassle.

The watch I sold yesterday went for £180 - Ebay let me keep £156.60. £23.40 is quite alot for doing basically b*gger all. I now feel the same way Tom, I use to sell bits & pieces all the time on Ebay, often just to clear out space, my other half regularly clearing out her wardrobe, sometimes doing a quick turnover on a charity shop purchase. Now, it's really not worth bothering with.

2 hours ago, TomsFocus said:

I wonder if this is a generational thing?  I find it a bit weird getting a thank you note in with a parcel!

I found the 'notes' useful when laying out 4 or 5 items to be shipped, I could sort them without error!

I've been using eBay to sell off stamps and a few other low-value items. Interest in stamps, especially those of the last 40-50 years, has plummeted, but I managed to get rid of most of mine for four times what a dealer offered. Bit of a slog, though, and I was lucky in selling the better ones to purchasers in EU countries before BREXIT forced eBay to automatically add VAT.

My collecting interest now is old postcards (1900-1920), but in recent years the relevant listings have been swamped by vendors who harvest the Web for old photographs, then offer modern copies for £3 or so. There's one particular Australian who describes them as "historic old photographs", when they are in fact copies - this despite frequent negative comments pointing this out.

I do find eBay very useful for smaller items that would otherwise require traipsing unsuccessfully around stores, especially for electric cables of the desired length. The other week I needed a small tube of catalyst for plastic wood, was told by the Wickes website that it had 16 in stock - only to find out they'd all been nicked. So I bought one on eBay for a lower price that included p & p.

(I'm not sure how some companies make any profit out of these small items; the other month I bought a second-hand book where the p & p costs, even allowing for the eBay discount for postage labels, exceeded what I'd paid. Then there's the commission the vendor would pay eBay.)

 

On 7/10/2022 at 11:23 AM, StephenFord said:

I found the 'notes' useful when laying out 4 or 5 items to be shipped, I could sort them without error!

You may have a point with this.  I've just been sent an item in error.  Looking at the sellers 'sold' items, the item I was sent also sold around the same date as the one I ordered. 🤦‍♂️

I used to have a business account on eBay and we'd sell several items that had donations to charity.

I always thought it was a very odd setup - I'd get paid the full amount then the charity donation would be taken from my Paypal account weeks later. Even if I'd sold, say, ten items, they'd process ten separate charity payments. The downside of this, was that when you're shifting hundreds of items a month, it was never immediately obvious which charity payment related to which item.

I ditched both eBay and Paypal a couple of years ago now. eBay fees in particular were becoming unbearable, and eBay is NOT a seller's market. Let's just say that their "customer is always right" mantra is utter nonsense.

Yes, I've come to the conclusion that the charity donation part isn't worth the hassle unfortunately.  At the end of the month, I'll pay the charity donations in one go and then remove that feature from the remaining listings.

I buy large amounts through ebay and find it invaluable as a (currently housebound) buyer, but they seem to have made selling over complicated.  The fees don't seem fair either.  Of course I don't grudge them taking fee's, but with the volume of items that are sold through ebay, I don't believe the fees need to be that high for them to still make a decent profit.

I haven’t sold much on eBay lately , a few years ago I sold a lot of my record collection in individual lots, they occasionally had special offers like 50% off final value fees for items listed this Sunday, sometimes even £1 max final value fees.  So the items I knew were worth a fair bit were saved until then.   I don’t know if they still do that ever.  One of my records sold for over £1000 (I bought it new for 75p in the 1970s). Paid £1 to eBay in fees .