2018 eBay Policies Review
2017 and well into first quarter 2018 on eBay, so many changes have occurred both in written policies and unwritten policies that it was impossible to write everything into a single written article about the changes.
eBay's 2018 policies are a carryover of all the radical changes that were implemented in 2017, policies that begin in April 2018 and any additional policies that will roll out during the 2018 Spring, Summer and Fall policies updates. eBay loves making policy revisions on its sellers, despite its history of aggravating those it depends on for its revenue. Obviously without sellers, eBay is nothing more than a giant html website on the internet like Yahoo.com or Myspace.com, or some other dying historical internet pioneer.
2017 has been an interesting year, because a previously mostly unknown marketplace created by a Japanese ecommerece team in Japan, quietly launched in the United States called Mercari. Though Mercari officially launched two years earlier, as of 2017 it has managed to maneuver its marketplace for shoppers and sellers into the Amazon VS Ebay battle and gain a solid foothold in eBay's dwindling territory.
As mentioned in the 2018 Best Places To Sell Online Video; Mercari is predicted to outpace eBay sometime in 2018. Though Mercari has a tiny fraction of the advertising power that eBay yields, it holds the key to success that eBay abandoned in 2008. What is this key? Seller Empowerment!
Ebay dropped seller empowerment back in 2008 when it began its on going trend towards control and manipulation of sellers, effectively making current sellers on eBay mere contracted product suppliers. Despite its ability to claim eBay sellers who have made millions over their lengthy account history, similar to YouTube's top video content creators, those multi-million sellers just happened to be on eBay with the right product and initial investment at the beginning of eBay's history. Fewer and few sellers on eBay are having the same kind of success that even moderate eBay sellers had the previous five years.
While this is not a discussion about Mercari, the comparisons of what is leading to Mercari's new found success in contrast to eBay's declining success are notable.
Allow sellers to leave feed back on completed transactions:
* Banned on eBay
* Required on Mercari
Quantity of products able to sale for free:
* eBay - Limited to 50 per month on eBay (additional costs for all listings beyond 50)
* Mercari - 100% Free To List
Quantity of products allowed to be listed:
* eBay - 50 per month for eBay non-stores, 200 per month for eBay $25 monthly store and prices go up from there.
* Mercari - Unknown limits, every Mercari seller has a store.
Cost to Sell:
* eBay - 10% Fee on Product Sales, 10% Fee on Shipping Costs, 4% PayPal Processing Fee (PayPal is required)
* Mercari - 10% Fee
2017 has been an interesting year, because a previously mostly unknown marketplace created by a Japanese ecommerece team in Japan, quietly launched in the United States called Mercari. Though Mercari officially launched two years earlier, as of 2017 it has managed to maneuver its marketplace for shoppers and sellers into the Amazon VS Ebay battle and gain a solid foothold in eBay's dwindling territory.
As mentioned in the 2018 Best Places To Sell Online Video; Mercari is predicted to outpace eBay sometime in 2018. Though Mercari has a tiny fraction of the advertising power that eBay yields, it holds the key to success that eBay abandoned in 2008. What is this key? Seller Empowerment!
Ebay dropped seller empowerment back in 2008 when it began its on going trend towards control and manipulation of sellers, effectively making current sellers on eBay mere contracted product suppliers. Despite its ability to claim eBay sellers who have made millions over their lengthy account history, similar to YouTube's top video content creators, those multi-million sellers just happened to be on eBay with the right product and initial investment at the beginning of eBay's history. Fewer and few sellers on eBay are having the same kind of success that even moderate eBay sellers had the previous five years.
While this is not a discussion about Mercari, the comparisons of what is leading to Mercari's new found success in contrast to eBay's declining success are notable.
Allow sellers to leave feed back on completed transactions:
* Banned on eBay
* Required on Mercari
Quantity of products able to sale for free:
* eBay - Limited to 50 per month on eBay (additional costs for all listings beyond 50)
* Mercari - 100% Free To List
Quantity of products allowed to be listed:
* eBay - 50 per month for eBay non-stores, 200 per month for eBay $25 monthly store and prices go up from there.
* Mercari - Unknown limits, every Mercari seller has a store.
Cost to Sell:
* eBay - 10% Fee on Product Sales, 10% Fee on Shipping Costs, 4% PayPal Processing Fee (PayPal is required)
* Mercari - 10% Fee
PayPal Requirements:
* eBay - PayPal required for all sellers. PayPal required to receive payment for sales. Sellers pay 4% fee to PayPal on product cost, shipping cost, Sales Tax Collected.
* Mercari - PayPal not available. Payments are made directly to bank account. No Processing fee (except on withdrawls under $10)
Customer Interaction:
* eBay - Discourages seller / buyer interactions
* Mercari - Built as a seller / buyer social media interactive marketplace.
Completed Sales:
* eBay - Buyer pays through PayPal upfront. Has 30 Day average return policy to decide if they want to keep it. Can claim "Item not as described" for full free return of product within 30 Day's at sellers expense.
* Mercari - Buyer pays Mercari, Buyer receives 3 days once the product is delivered by the Shipper, to determine if the product is "as described" or request a return. Buyer is required to leave a "Feedback" rating for the seller. Seller is required to leave a "Feedback" rating for the Buyer to complete the sale and receive payment from Mercari.
Returns:
* eBay - 30 Day Average Return Policy, 100% Money Back Guarantee, 180 extended return policy through PayPal. (Applies to new and used products), Seller pays for return shipping on all items "Not as described", seller reimburses eBay for 100% Money Back Guarantee.
* Mercari - 3 Day Return Policy. Buyer must evaluate and rate the seller within 3 day's of delivered shipping. 100% Money Back Guarantee. All sales are completed and final after Buyer and Seller leave feedback ratings for each other. Mercari pays for return shipping on products they allow to be returned, Mercari pays for Money Back Guarantee allowed claims.
As you can see from this basic policy comparison between eBay and Mercari, it's easy to understand how eBay's policies which continue to limit, restrict, and rise sellers expenses associated with selling on eBay, are helping contribute to sellers turning towards a marketplace like Mercari to sell on. Bonanza.com has often boasted about its reputation among sellers, but compared to the Mercari Marketplace, in many regards, Bonanza also can not compare.
So what are the 2018 eBay Policies and how will they affect you as a seller using the eBay platform? The best option a seller can take if they have a lot of free time is to go directly to eBay's policy pages and reading about all of the many changes. As a seller myself who also reviews and evaluates marketplaces to sell online, I do not have a ton of free time to waste reading eBay's policies which are spread out over multiple areas of its website. You honestly need to read all of the different areas to get a complete picture. At the same time, I do review the policies and spend hours digging through the different sections of eBay policies (some of them somewhat hidden) and then break them down into modern language terms. I then make videos (at the moment) about the policies to provide you as a seller a 30 to 50 minute summary, saving you multiple hours of work.
Below is this summary of the 2018 eBay Policies and 100% accurate at the time of its creation.