Planning an eBay sale? Act now as fees are set to rise

Private eBay sellers are allowed 20 free listings a month where they can either choose to sell items in an auction to the highest bidder, or where they sell items at a 'buy it now' price for three to ten days, or for 30 days.

After the 20 free listings per month have been used, a fee of 35p per listing is charged (see our eBay Selling Tricks guide for a crash course on how to sell).

But from Thursday, both private and business sellers who pay for optional upgrades to their listings to boost the visibility of items for sale, will pay more for the majority of these.

Sellers who opt for an auction, which has a 'buy it now' price, will also pay more for this service from 14 August.

In addition, from 1 September, the cap on final value fees for private sellers is to increase from £75 to £250.

So if you're planning an eBay sale and wanted to use these services, put your items up before Thursday to avoid the higher charges.

What fees are changing?

Here's what's changing from 14 August. Optional upgrades are payable per listing.

• Gallery plus. Adding gallery plus, which allows you to include a larger picture of the item you're selling, to auctions or three to 10 day 'buy it now' listings will increase from 95p to £2.50, although adding gallery plus to 30 day 'buy it now' listings will fall from £2.85 to £2.50.

• Subtitles. Adding a subtitle to auctions or three to 10 day 'buy it now' listings will increase from 35p to £1. But the fee for adding a subtitle to 30 day 'buy it now' listings will drop from £1.05 to £1.

• Listing designer tool. Using eBay's listing designer tool to improve the look of your listings will increase from 7p to 30p for auctions and three to 10 day 'buy it now' listings. Sellers using 30 'buy it now' listings will see fees increase from 21p to 30p.

• 'Buy it now' with open auctions. The cost of adding a 'buy it now' option to auctions – regardless of the length of time it's listed for – will increase for all items priced below £25. Currently it costs 10p for items priced between 99p and £4.99, 20p for items priced between £5 and £14.99, and 30p for items costing £15 to £24.99. From 14 August it will cost 50p for all items prices under £25. The cost for items worth £25 or more will remain unchanged at 50p/listing.

• Reserve price. The cost of setting a reserve price on a listing, which ensures an item doesn't sell below a minimum price, is also being increased from 3.5% of the final sale price to 4%.

• Charging for sales which end early. Currently eBay allows sellers to end one auction a year early without a charge. But from 14 August, sellers who end auctions more than 24 hours after the item's been listed will be charged at the same level as the final value fee – currently 10% of the final sale price (including postage) up to a maximum of £75, but this will increase to £250 from 1 September. Sellers who end auctions within 24 hours of the item being listed won't be charged.

What do the fee increases mean?

The fee changes mean anyone using one of eBay's premium listing services to sell smaller value items by auction or by three to ten days buy it now could see their eBay fees increase by more than 100%. For items worth more than £25, fees could increase by up to 55%.

An auction item which is listed for free and sells for £5, for example, would see eBay fees including the final value fee increase by 131% from £2.07 to £4.80 if gallery plus, subtitle, listing designer and 'buy it now' options were all added.

A similar auction with a price of £25 would see a 55% increase in fees from £4.37 to £6.80.

In comparison, a 30 day 'buy it now' for a £5 item with no auction listing would see fees fall by 6.5% from £4.61 to £4.30.

Final value fee cap to increase to £250

Separately eBay announced on 1 August that the cap on the final value fee for private sellerswill increase from £75 to £250 from 1 September. It means those selling anything for more than £750 will pay a higher fee to eBay.

As a private seller, if an item you list on eBay sells, you currently pay a flat 10% up to a maximum of £75 on the final sale price, including postage.

Customers with a basic shop have their final value fee set at 8% instead of 10%, but their cap will increase from £750 to £2,500, also from 1 September.

In March, eBay reduced the number of free listings from 100 a month to 20 for private sellers, while in September it changed its fees structure to include postage costs in its final value fee.

What does eBay say?

An eBay spokesperson says: "We're introducing a small number of changes to our fees for sellers on eBay.co.uk from 14 August 2014.

"While private sellers will continue to enjoy up to 20 free listings per month, those who wish to upgrade their listing, for instance by adding 'gallery plus' or 'buy it now' to auctions, will now just pay a flat rate fee no matter what listings format they choose (e.g. auction or buy it now).

"These changes will come into effect for all items listed on or after 14 August. Items listed before 14 August will not be affected."