Private sales on eBay free of charge in the future

eBay has announced that it will abolish fees for private sales in Germany from March 1. This is intended to make the marketplace more attractive overall and counteract the recent slump in interest.

More attractive for private sales

Those who want to sell goods privately are likely to resort to eBay rather rarely so far. The main reason for this is the comparatively high sales fees. Per posted item – regardless of success – 35 cents setting fee must be paid. In addition, there is a commission of eleven percent, which is due on a sale. Other platforms such as eBay Kleinanzeigen, which ceased to be part of eBay in 2020 and will bear a new name from 2024, on the other hand, do not charge any fees at all for private sales. eBay would like to catch up here and thus move more into the public focus again as a platform overall.

Oliver Klinck, managing director of eBay Germany, justifies the move as follows: “We see that the private sellers are also much more active as buyers”. If the platform members newly won by the falling private sales fees strike at commercial offers, eBay continues to earn through commissions. For commercial sales, in fact, nothing changes in the previous regulations.

Whether a sale is classified as private or commercial depends in part on self-disclosure. In addition, eBay also uses algorithms that collect indications for commercial sales. Klinck commented, “If someone regularly sells 20 iPhones a day, then that is a very clear indication for us that this is not a private seller.”

eBay in decline

The policy change can be understood as a reaction to eBay’s relatively disappointing performance. Year-over-year revenue fell four percent in the fourth quarter. Adjusted profit fell ten percent year over year. With a profit of 581 million dollars, eBay is not in a bad position overall, but the development is nevertheless negative. This is all the more true against the background of the company’s originally very high ambitions: At the beginning of the online shopping age, eBay was competing with Amazon for the leading position in this sector.