Selling your stuff online for free became even easier last month, as eBay announced they were scrapping all fees (apart from vehicles) for private sellers.

This was music to my ears, as I have been selling some bits and bobs on eBay to help my mum move house. We thought we were doing well, having made around £330, but then we realised eBay had taken £118 in fees! That’s quite a chunk! 

I decided to see what I could list on Vinted, as they have no selling fees. It seems I wasn’t alone in moving to Vinted. It has become hugely popular, and although the focus is still on clothing, the platform is gradually increasing the categories of items you can sell to include homeware, electronics, entertainment and pet care. 

As well as the threat from Vinted, eBay faces growing competition from Depop, which recently scrapped most of its selling fees (apart from a small payment processing charge).

Now eBay has responded to the competition, and private sellers have no final value fees to pay. 

Private sellers can list 300 items a month, which is way more than most of us will need if we are just having a sort-out This means that if you want to make a bit of money selling your old stuff to help fund Christmas, you can make even more than you would have in the past.

Business sellers

eBay’s decision to scrap final selling fees for private sellers caused consternation amongst business sellers reselling used items for a profit.

After all, businesses still have to pay final selling fees, alongside shop fees if they have one. Many felt that with no fees private sellers would be able to undercut their prices by some margin.

However, eBay seems to have a long-term plan, as they recently announced they were scrapping fees on used clothing for business sellers, too. It is possible that they will decide to extend this to other used items. 

This move may also be a reaction to the launch of Vinted Pro, Vinted’s new platform for business sellers, which continues with the current Vinted model of charging purchasers a ‘buyer protection fee’ instead of selling fees.

Buyers pay between 3% and 8% of the item price, which Vinted say protects their money and covers refunds, customer service, etc. My hunch is that eBay will introduce a similar fee for buyers shortly.

Which is best? Vinted vs eBay

I asked members of my Facebook group, My Secondhand and Frugal Life, which platform they preferred to use for buying and selling. Opinions were divided.

Many felt you couldn’t command very high prices on Vinted. As a result, they tend to list lower-value items there and more expensive things on eBay. Angela said, “I love Vinted for selling clothes. I tend to use eBay for more specialised items as you can usually get a bit more.” From a buyer’s perspective, there were “great bargains on Vinted”.

Marina agrees, but likes how easy Vinted is to use. “ If you have something you want more than a couple of quid for, then eBay gets you a lot more chance. But Vinted is so much easier.” Caroline says, “eBay has a bigger reach, but the Vinted interface is better.”

Customer service quibbles

There were a couple of comments about poor customer service on Vinted when things went awry. Miki feels there is little support when you are dealing with a scammer. “If a buyer says (the item is) a fake, Vinted side with the buyer and you lose your items. It’s happened to Dr Marten sellers I know who don’t sell fakes… I’d rather be protected on eBay.”

Mandy bought a T-shirt listed as new without tags, but when it arrived it had blood stains on it. The seller insisted on a return, which Mandy had to pay for, even though the item was not as described. On eBay, the cost of returning a faulty item would have been the seller’s responsibility.

Donna’s Vinted account was hacked, and she said, …”the customer service was appalling trying to get it sorted … after a week and a half, I just asked for the account to be closed. Never had any of that in all my years using eBay.”

However, Fiona has only had positive experiences with Vinted: “I find the people friendly and customer service is always great if there is a problem.”

The tax issue

One development to consider when selling items on any online platform is that HMRC now requires anyone with a turnover of more than £1000 from the sale of personal items to complete a tax return. 

This has caused worry and confusion among private sellers, but Vinted explains it like this: “In the UK, if the money you make on Vinted over a year is less than what you paid for the items, you pay no tax.

“The only time that an individual item might be taxable is when you sell it for more than £6,000 and there is a profit from the sale (ie it sells for a higher price than you paid for it.” You can read the full guidance here.

Ebay’s information on the tax obligations of private sellers is a little less clear, stating only that “sellers may be required to declare and pay taxes on income earned from eBay sales.” Their policy can be found here.

One thing that is clear is that online selling platforms like eBay and Vinted are now obliged to report sellers with a turnover of £1000 or more to HMRC. Although you may be asked to complete a tax return, this doesn’t necessarily mean there will be tax to pay.

Conclusion

Despite all the changes, selling your stuff online for free is a great way to declutter and you can use the money you make to spend on items that you will appreciate more. Do you sell online?

Photo credits: Pexels

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If you’re anything like me, you have various old gadgets around the house you no longer use. 

These may include mobile phones, tablets, laptops, cameras, games consoles, and even desktop computers. They may still work, but have been replaced by new and (hopefully) better products.

There’s a natural tendency to hang on to old products for a while, in case a backup is required if its replacement fails. Modern brands are generally very reliable, however. And once you’ve established that a new product isn’t faulty, there really isn’t much reason to hang on to the old one – certainly not for months or years on end.

You might think the only thing to do with an old gadget is take it to the tip – sorry, council recycling centre. Before doing that, though, it’s worth noting that there are various ways you can make money from old tech, even if (in some cases) it’s no longer working.

The High Street

There are various shops that will pay for old technology of all kinds. For example, CeX will pay for smartphones, satnavs, cameras, speakers, headphones, laptops, games consoles, and even TVs in some cases. The device needs to be working but doesn’t have to be in its original packaging. Buy-and-sell stores like Cash Converter and Cash Generator will buy your old tech too.

eBay

Whatever you want to sell, the online auction house eBay is worth considering. It has a huge audience, and there will always be potential buyers looking for any item you want to dispose of.

Of course, you will have to spend a little time preparing your listings for your old gadgets, taking photos, writing a description, and so on.

However, eBay make this as easy as possible for sellers by showing you similar items that have sold on the site recently. This will help you prepare your own listing and assess the likely amount you may be able to get. Bear in mind that eBay does impose charges for sellers, which will reduce the amount you receive.

Facebook and Other Community Sites

Facebook local pages can be a great way of selling larger items that may be difficult to post. You will need to include a photo and write a description stating the price you want. With a bit of luck someone living nearby will want the item and collect it from you for the price asked.

Other community websites may be worth trying too. One is NextDoor. This is mainly a forum for discussing local news, seeking and sharing tradesman recommendations, publicising local events, and so forth. However, you can also advertise items for sale there. 

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Specialist ites

There are also specialist sites that want your old gadgets and will pay for it. This can be a quick and hassle-free option, with the advantage that you know exactly what price you will be getting (the sites quote a price online and it is up to you whether to accept this).

Most will also take products that are no longer working, though of course they will pay a lower price for them.

One well-known site that buys phones and tablets is Music Magpie. They also buy consoles, tablets, smartwatches, Kindle e-book readers, and more. Other options include Mazuma and Sell My Mobile. 

My best advice is to try these and similar sites and see who offers the best price. When I wanted to dispose of my old Samsung J5 (2016) smartphone recently, I was surprised by how much the offers I received varied. I was offered between £25 and £40, and naturally opted for the £40 (which happened to come from Music Magpie).

When using these services you will need to post the item to them in a padded envelope or box. You will have to provide this yourself, but the postage is normally free.

• If you have any very old tech gathering dust in your attic, it could have ‘antique’ value. The classic Nintendo Game Boy can fetch up to $3,000 (£2,350), while an original Apple iPod in pristine condition can rake in as much as $20,000 (£15,680) [source:Yahoo Finance].

Data security for your old gadgets

Before disposing of any old gadgets that may contain sensitive information it’s important to erase any personal data, ideally by performing a factory reset. 

All the specialist companies perform a data wipe on receipt anyway, but it’s clearly advisable to do this yourself as well. If you are selling privately – perhaps via eBay or Facebook – it is essential to ensure that any personal data on the device is permanently erased and can’t be restored.

I hope this article has inspired you to gather together any old tech you no longer need and turn it into useful cash. As always, if you have any comments, please do leave them below.

Nick Daws writes for Pounds and Sense, a UK personal finance blog aimed especially (though not exclusively) at over-fifties.

Photo by Davide Boscolo on Unsplash

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Amazon is Britain’s – and the world’s – favourite online store. 

They offer a vast range of products, their website is quick and easy to use, and you can see ratings and reviews from other buyers before purchasing. I’ve always found their customer service first rate as well.

Prices on Amazon are generally competitive, but over the years I’ve discovered a variety of ways to ensure you get the best value for money from them. So here are my top ten tips for saving money on Amazon…

1. Always search for the product you are thinking of ordering on eBay as well. Often you will find the same product there, and sometimes cheaper as well. Of course, you will want to check that the eBay seller has good feedback and the delivery charges are reasonable.

2. If you’re going with Amazon, as long as your total order value is over £25 (£10 in the case of eligible books) delivery is normally free. If you’re just under this amount, it can make sense to buy a small item to bring it up to the magic £25. Before I joined Amazon Prime (see below) I often bought a pen for this purpose. I can always use more pens!

3. If you can’t find a small item for the right price, visit Filler Checker UK. At this website you can enter whatever price you require to bring your order up to the free delivery threshold. It will then list items you can add to your order to achieve this.

4. You might also want to think about signing up with Amazon Prime. This service requires a fee (£9.95 a month or £95 a year) but for that you get free next-day delivery of millions of products on Amazon. There is a range of extra benefits for Prime members as well, including instant streaming of thousands of movies and TV shows, free borrowing of Kindle e-books, and secure, unlimited photo storage with anywhere access. If you’re a regular Amazon customer it’s well worth considering Amazon Prime, especially as you can try it free for 30 days.

5. Prices on Amazon go up and down to a surprising extent. Recently I was looking at a snazzy digital radio for under £50. I went back the next day and found it had gone up to over £100. To keep track of the price of any item you are interested in, you can sign up at the oddly named Camel Camel Camel and they will notify you by email if/when the price of your chosen product falls below a certain level. You can also install their ‘Camelizer’ browser extension to view the price history of any item on Amazon.

6. Check out the Today’s Deals link at the top of most Amazon pages. Items listed here include Top Deals, LIghtning Deals and Warehouse Deals. The latter are pre-owned and refurbished items, and you can pick up some real bargains.

7. If there is something you buy regularly – e.g. vitamin pills or nappies – you may be able to save money by placing a regular order using Subscribe and Save. S&S typically offers a 10% price reduction initially that can increase to 15% with repeat orders over time. For some products the saving is lower, with a 5% initial reduction increasing to 10% over time. You can of course cancel your subscription at any time.

8. Watch out for promotional events on Amazon, including Prime Day (which has lots of special deals for Prime members) and their Black Friday/Cyber Monday sales in the run-up to Christmas. Some of the best discounts feature Amazon’s own products such as their Echo smart speakers with Alexa. These are typically on offer for as little as half the normal price during these events.

9. If you use cashback sites such as Quidco and Topcashback – and as I said in this recent Mouthy Money article you definitely should – you may be able to take your cashback in the form of Amazon vouchers. Typically you will get a few percent more this way than if you ask for money. Several market research and survey sites also offer Amazon vouchers as a payment option. Shop and Scan is one that I have done well from myself and Mobile Xpression is another.

10. Finally, leave reviews of the products you buy on Amazon. Not only is this public-spirited, it may lead to an invitation to become a Vine Voice (as I am) and get products free in exchange for reviewing them. I will talk more about this in an article for Mouthy Money soon.

I hope you find these tips helpful. If you have any comments or questions – or other tips of your own to share – please do leave them below.

Nick Daws writes for Pounds and Sense, a UK personal finance blog aimed especially (though not exclusively) at over-fifties.

Disclosure: This article includes affiliate links.

Photo Credits: Unsplash

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