Recently Ebay has dramatically reduced it selling fees to the point where it is cheaper than LDDB.com for selling.

To give some examples :
As a UK seller if I sell to a UK buyer now I am not charged any fees. It is completely free to sell.
As a UK seller if I sell internationally (e.g to a US buyer) the fee seems to be around 3.25% from a recent transaction I conducted.

Now I realise LDDB.com fees were cheaper originally but the total cost is rather expensive now since sellers typically still end up using Paypal which is at least another 3%.
So there are usually 2 fees when you sell via LDDB.com - the LDDB.com fee (3%) and Paypal fee (3%).
Even if the seller opts to receive payment via a Bank Transfer or some other service like Wise there are still fees associated with these options.

The same is not true of Ebay which has ditched Paypal completely for sellers and reduced it own fees to 0% for local transactions or a lower rate (3.25%) for international transactions with no other hidden fees.

Would it be possible for LDDB.com to reduce its fees to stay competitive in this new landscape?

As you probably know though, "buyer fees" are on their way from eBay, commencing in February I think.

So you'll have to price your items for less in order to sell them to buyers for the same amount... nothing in life is free...

I'm quite sure the fees are somewhere else.

Discogs charges 9% on item + shipping.
eBay+Payoneer to rest of the world charges me from 20 to 25% on item + shipping.

I can't imagine eBay giving away anything.

Julien

Bingo: https://www.valueaddedresource.net/ebay-uk-buyer-fees-february-4-2025/

So your GBP 100 "no selling fee" now costs GBP104.75 to the buyer.

You'll have to discount all your inventory by (roughly) 4.53% to get the buyer to spend GBP 100 flat again.



Julien

Besides the international selling fees you will always be at ebays mercy if they actually transfer the money to you. I had issues with that several times even though I had ZERO open cases / issues throughout the account history. That's why I stopped selling there. I tried again recently and still the same.

Besides that, ebay is actually BLACKMAILING you into revealing more and more personal data. Otherwise they completely refuse to give you your money. The blackmailing starts right after you sold and shipped something. Of course all for the sake of "security" and "verification".

My LDDB shop is closed currently, however I would much rather do biz through this site then ebay any day of the week.
The membership is much more appreciative and receptive to the normal function of internet commerce here.
At least that has been my experience.

The hoops consistently put in place have no end with ebay. They missed the memo "if it is not broke,......"
The fees at LDDB are reasonable and prudent in my opinion.

Also, the database has attracted a wonderful worldwide assortment of collectors / dealers.
I have had only one negative experience since my store began in 2008.

Hang tough people.
Keep 'em spinning kids.

Cheers to the membership !

Wait, is this why I get totally different prices when I switch from ebay.com to ebay.co.uk?

Yes and if you try eBay.fr or eBay.de, they will pre-add the 20% VAT on the prices as well.

Julien

I will say this went very very poorly for Mercari in the US when they tried loading the fees onto the buyer. Buyers don't want to see one price and then have to pay another much higher price. They ended up back tracking on some things but it was too late, they are all but dead in the US now. The % numbers were higher though.

You can find threads like this all over the Mercari sub reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/Mercari/comments/1cpi39j/mercari_is_dying_nobody_is_buying_anymore_what/

Here in the US eBay is as high as ever fee wise, with the movie category being even higher than most others.

Example: I sold a blu-ray set for $70 (including shipping) recently. The buyer of course pays tax so they paid $74.73. The fee is based on this amount at 15.3%, then an additional fee of 40 cents. So on this $70 sale I see $58.17, and then I have to ship it as well.

That's the reason I avoid eBay whenever I can, it's just nearly impossible to sell blu-rays anywhere else (that doesn't also have high fees) and get much for them.

Selling on eBay is pretty bad at least in the US. Easily 20%. I know because I begrudgingly sell vintage motorcycle parts on there and I have no other place to sell them because people go right to eBay for used parts.

Firehose mentioned it, but lddb.com is a way better experience. If you're not in a hurry in this Amazon Prime, USPS Priority, Buy-It-Now world then the prices are reasonable and are fellow collectors who take this seriously. People buying from here know that selling on lddb.com is not their livelihood and yeah it may take a week to go out or may take a week or so to iron out a deal with back and forth emails but you DO get your discs and there's no hassles. I only buy LD on eBay for discs that just haven't shown up on lddb.com for sale in a long time. Even if it costs a couple of dollars more on here I get it from here.