Private sellers operating on a commercial scale – how do you report them? How should you deal with them?
Summary: emmitrading and other participants discuss the issue of private eBay sellers operating at a commercial scale without adhering to the same regulations as official business accounts. emmitrading expresses frustration about competing with these sellers who avoid fees and legal obligations. perfect-sally and bixtron suggest legal actions like reporting to authorities, but acknowledge eBay’s lack of response. die-jericho-rose and cosmoretroshop mention the possibility of eBay treating some sellers as hobbyists, which complicates enforcement. The conversation highlights the challenges legitimate business accounts face in such an environment.
I’d be interested in how other commercial eBay sellers deal with this issue.
More and more often, I see private sellers who regularly sell large quantities of items over the years and compete on price with commercial sellers.
As a commercial seller, we pay eBay fees, taxes, comply with all legal requirements (legal notice, right of withdrawal, warranty, etc.) and bear the corresponding costs. Private accounts usually do not have these obligations.
I’m explicitly not talking about occasional estate clearances or collection sales. I’m talking about absolutely obvious cases.
I’d be interested in:
What experiences have you had with this?
Do you report such cases to eBay?
The specific trigger for this post: today I was even contacted by a supposedly private eBay account with thousands of reviews and a very professional appearance.
The accusation was that I was ruining his prices with my listings – his prices as a "collector". I thought that was pretty absurd.
I now know dozens of such accounts in my niche, and I’ve reported them and absolutely nothing happens. It seems eBay doesn’t care at all.
That’s why I’m now seriously considering opening a private account myself and selling my items through that. Then there would be no returns, no warranty, and no other obligations of a commercial seller.
On top of that, there would be a significant saving on eBay fees. In my case, they’re always over 12%.
If behavior like this ultimately has no consequences at all, I honestly ask myself why I should still run a commercial account.
Then, as a seller who complies with all legal requirements, pays fees, and fulfills every obligation, you end up being the sucker.
steininsel-hamburg-21107
·1 month agoIt is completely incomprehensible to me and others from my community why eBay doesn't care at all whether commercial sellers are registered as private individuals or not.
One wonders why eBay doesn't simply abolish the fees altogether.
Is there any eBay representative who can explain why pseudo-private trading is not only tolerated and accepted by eBay, but even encouraged, desired and approved?
cosmoretroshop
·2 months agoThe eBay engine flags such "private sellers operating at a commercial scale" as commercial pretty quickly. Also, more than 20 sales or over €2,000 are reported to the tax office. That tends to stand out when the "private" seller has sold for 30k within 6 months. I’m guessing the tax office wouldn’t find that funny either.
The problem then can be that the tax office actually classifies, or has already classified, these accounts as "hobby"/"collector", and then the deal is done.
I’m not doing anything here myself. There’s no real way, other than a formal warning, to do anything about this. If, for example, as described, someone has a commercial volume of trade but is a "hobbyist", there’s nothing you can do, and with formal warnings, whether justified or not, you yourself appear as the one issuing the warning and can very easily end up in the line of fire yourself.
emmitrading
OP2 months agoI can show you twenty private accounts in five minutes without any problem that are 100% commercial and have certainly registered a business for their sales (so the tax office doesn’t care if eBay reports it, they get their share).
They pay zero euros in eBay fees and keep selling away.
By now I’ve also gotten confirmation that eBay isn’t doing anything and also doesn’t plan to do anything about it. eBay assumes these are exceptions and that it isn’t worth chasing them down and collecting fees. You couldn’t make this up.
There’s no reason to pay eBay fees (except for cease-and-desist letters, but that hardly happens anymore since 2021).
Already three fellow merchants have been taking exactly this route since the last fee increase: the commercial account is shut down, three private accounts are opened, and just like that there’s no more hassle with fees, returns, etc.
cosmoretroshop
·2 months agoLet's see how long this holds up.
bixtron
·2 months agoI make 5 accounts, sign them all up differently, briefly throw the listings in, connect that with my A-"inventory" and boom, massive sales are generated. Of course the "private" ones naturally have much better sales stats, that's obvious...
The reports to the tax office are irrelevant either way at first and probably nobody can make sense of that anyway. It has to be actively reported so the tax office does something. If you get spooked, you just register the business. eBay doesn't care,
die-jericho-rose
·2 months agoWrong idea, if you dig really deep you’ll see that most of the ones with 100 or 10000 sales have a business and pay taxes!
The trick is they register on eBay as private sellers and thus avoid the right of withdrawal, warranty, GPRS Rich, and of course they don’t send an invoice, so they can also try to pull a fast one on the tax office. In addition, they don’t have to prove where the goods come from.
bixtron
·2 months ago · EditedA bit mixed up, but yeah, it’ll probably rarely be something like that, and that’s exactly where you can really lay into them with warnings and reports for tax evasion, so the tax office starts an audit.
bixtron
·3 months ago · EditedHello,
To put it briefly: in everyday life, eBay absolutely doesn’t care - you’re more likely to get sanctioned for complaining about it. Issue a warning / report tax evasion to the relevant tax office. They’ll take care of the rest. Based on your last message, you should forget the plan to sell the items privately. It would be too risky for me.
bixtron
·3 months ago · EditedUnfortunately, Ebay is going exactly the wrong way here - it clashes with the previous conclusion... Too bad.
perfect-sally
·3 months agoEbay couldn’t care less about that, and unfortunately the report option: "Private seller is trading commercially" or something like that no longer exists.
If someone supposedly private is offering items in a commercial manner and poaching in your territory, then you can take action against them and have them issued a warning letter.