Hi,

Some of these are truly exclusive and some are not. Some are dubious, as other camera/lens makers have made similar items at some point in time. If you trawl through all the other SLR makers ranges over the years you will find they all have several items unique to themselves...Pentax are by no means the one with the copyright on uniqueness!

One example: "Helecoid Extension tube"..the Olympus OM system has an extending extension tube.

If you want a truly extensive system, take a read of the books that cover the Nikon F mount system items since it's inception.

I would say the only truly unique Pentax items that are also relevant to most users are the weird focal length lenses that Pentax like to produce.

I have used Nikon F, Pentax K, Canon FD, Olympus OM and Contax/Zeiss and they all have some unique and 'odd' items they made. The Minolta MC/MD system also had some weird lenses such as the MD 24mm VFC lens and others.

cheers Steve.

"It is not sensible to often use the "extras" (bold, subtitle, etc) as these provide little real benefit"

I am a private seller, so is Batty. I do get a real benefit from these extra features and as Batty uses them all the time, he must also.

The fees example I gave was for a typical lens sale for a private seller.

cheers all...

With the recent Sigma price hike of 40%, the used prices have gone up accordingly. The 10-20 (EOS) I sold three weeks back sold for £330, or £280 after fees/costs were deducted.

"slight increase in the fees"

Pete, I actually like ebay, I do, but really, how is the recent FVF hike from 5.25% to 10% slight? and how is forcing free p+p onto sellers slight?

cheers Steve.

Hi Pete,

If you include the listing fee, as indeed you should, then even you are paying approx 14%+. I can only assume you only ever use a few photos, with no extras at all and never a BIN item.

If a seller uses 'buy it now' (BIN) or extra photos, or bold, or a sub-title etc, then the total fees will be approx 15% to as much as 20%. This is not scaremongering, it is fact. Many sellers of lenses, cameras, & many higher value items from any value above approx £50 often use these additional selling features...take a look at Batty's listings for example:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/SMC-PENTAX-A-35-70mm-f-4-MACRO-ZOOM-LENS-HOYA-FILTER_W0QQi...

This listing has five large photos and sub title. Perhaps Batty can suggest what his total fees cost is typically?

The free & capped p+p scheme may have something to do with sellers overcharging for p+p, but has far more to do with ebay increasing their total take in fees. It will move some sellers to BINS, which have higher listing fees and will also increase their take in fees as the p+p charge is added to the selling price and will therefore now attract FVF fees, where before, the p+p was not touched..only with paypal fees.

For a little time now, ebay have been losing sellers, especially private ones and the 'actual' listing numbers have been decreasing, so they are looking to increase their turnover by taking more money from fees with the listings they do have. The only reason the listings sometimes look as if there are plenty, is the huge increase in mostly pointless BIN listings from Hong Kong and china.

People thought I was scaremongereing when I suggested ebay would bring in seller caps for p+p charges by ebay...now it has happened and will increase. They also though I was scaremongering when I said, 12 months before it happened, that ebay would force paypal on sellers.

Further scaremongering:

Ebay will go paypal only in the not too distant future, due to the non payer issue and due to ebay getting more fees via all sales using paypal. It will remove most non payers issues, because with paypal, ebay can see if the buyer has indeed paid, whereas with cheques and other methods, there is no proof via the WWW.


Ebay will also further roll out the max p+p and free p+p scheme. I am also very confident that paypal will have a large fees hike. I also see that ebay will increase pressure on sellers to declare as 'business' sellers, as this is to their advantage...they have been doing this for about 12 months now, by various means, some obvious and some less so.

For some time, ebay have been losing out to Amazon and are now often copying the Amazon business model. This is one of the reasons there have been so many ebay changes of the last 18 months which mitigate against auctions and against private sellers.

I just call it as I see it Pete, not intending any scare tactics, just to see what will probably happen and my info is not by any means all from the ebay community boards.

Personally I often sell via private sales, via forums, direct contact with buyers and some contacts. This aften invloves far more time than with ebay, which is why many choose the increasingly expensive convenience of ebay.

cheers Steve.M.

"so its almost worth registering as a business"

...Mike, thats what ebay want you to do... one reason: business sellers HAVE to conform to the UK DSR's (DISTANCE SELLING REGULATIONS). Under that legislation, buyers can return goods to the seller within a set time scale for ANY reason they so choose...and the scamming buyers are taking real advantage of this.

cheers Steve.

Hi,

Pete..not sure where you get those alleged percentage fees from.

Example: List a Lens. The p+p is £8. Use auction with 99p start price, use extra photos, listing cost lets say £1.00 approx. (mine vary from 50p-ish to £3-ish) Item sells for £100, buyer uses paypal.

Ebay listing fee: £1
Ebay FVF (final value fee): £10 (private sellers charged 10%)
paypal Fee: £3.67 + 20p = £3.87 (paypal charge 3.4% plus 20p on item cost PLUS p+p SO 3.4% of £108 plus 20p --this is UK only though)..if you sold overseas this can be higher!

Item sold for £100, costs in fees are £1 + £10 + 3.87 = £14.87.

So combined ebay + paypal fees in this case are almost 15%.

If you list a buy it now, listing fees are typically £1-4

If you sell overseas, depending where to and buyers payment method, paypal can charge more.

If you have a listing with 6 photos, sub titles, or bold, listings are much more.

The good private seller on ebay (like batty) will be having combined ebay + paypal fees of anywhere from 15-20%.

cheers Steve.

Mike.....just wait, this will clearly spread to other categories, like some creeping X-Files fungus...and so probably will paypal ONLY for sellers..no cheques or anything else.

Hi,

The 'free p+p' extended to many other categories, including some photography ones..

http://pages.ebay.co.uk/sell/april2009/pandp.html

This mitigates against auctions, against low start prices and therefore largely against private sellers.

Unless you are prepared to risk absobing the p+p cost youself, you need to add the p+p costs onto the item price...the only way to do this is either have an auction with a very high start price, or use 'buy it now' that has the p+p costs included.

But it's not quite that simple...if you have £10 p+p costs and you just add £10 to the item price....remember ebay charge you a FVF (Final Value Fee) on that end price..so they will charge a percentage fee on the £10 you just added...so you really need to add more than £10 to cover the extra ebay fee.

End result....buyers pay more...AND ebay get more fees.

There is also a strong rumour that paypal (owned by ebay) are going to increase their seller fees from approx £4-£4.50% to TEN PERCENT!!!

....and you thought the Sigma price rises were high?

cheers (or not) Steve.M. ...just off to find out how to sell on Amazon..

Gwyn....yep, but you have such nice waterways....