I’ve just finished reading a new blog post by ebay strategies and had to read it a second time to make sure what I read was correct. Unfortunately it was.
The original post was by a German blogger and I don’k think it has really hit the headlines because it has only just been translated.

Here’s the crux of the story:

eBay Germany is starting a new policy. From June 15 a seller cannot list any items again with shipping costs higher than what eBay has determined to be a reasonable rate in certain categories.

eBay is starting this for 2 main reasons:

1. eBay asked buyers about shipping and for the categories to where this new policy applies, buyers said that shipping costs were unreasonable high.
2. eBay sellers get low rating for S&H DSR in those specific categories.

Now, from what I can tell, this is only being tested in Germany and if successful, like most ebay trials they’ll roll it out quicker than you can say “ebay traffic police”.

Have ebay gone too far? To be honest, as a commercial enterprise, ebay can basically do what they want within the guidelines of the law.

As I’ve always said, we can either jump and down and stamp our feet, or get on with it. It’s definately one to watch though.

I must admit, my strategy has changed in the past few weeks and I’m tending to charge my clients a lower delivery cost than I was doing before, only since ebay changed their feedback ratings. The products I tend to ship are of low value and quite small, though I can see a lot of large volume high end sellers being drastically affected if this is rolled out. Hold on to your hats!!

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