@lane-ends wrote:Having no fvf on postage was making freepost less appealing to sellers. so they levelled the playing field. One less barrier for their preffered free post.
I have to disagree, with the exception of the seller who only ever sells single items to individual buyers.... Charging postage separately and combining (reducing) costs = less money paid by buyers, which = less money paid to eBay. FVF on postage is still a barrier to free post.
CQ there are other FVF differences in the US - if the seller is registered in China, they get charged FVF on the total the buyer pays, same as here, so if a buyer chooses a more expensive postage service, FVF is charged on that (for many sellers in China, it's kind of a moot point, though).
The biggest rort eBay are seemingly getting away with scot free is the problem they created with the cart for overseas buyers purchasing from Australian sellers. There is no "add to cart" option, and "Buy it now" goes straight to the checkout for immediate payment, despite the seller not selecting that option. That basically means that many buyers purchasing more than one item have to checkout individually for each one, which in turn maximises the FVF eBay collects, as there's no credit if a seller refunds overages due to this brilliant plan eBay hatched (it began in just a category or two a couple of months before the FVF on postage was introduced, now as far as I can tell it affects most - if not all - Australian seller's listings 😞 
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