No more sales of last minute jewelry gifts.

[iamonourside]

1. The authenticating requirement for jewelry goes into effect today, the same day it is announced.
2. There will no longer be a sales bump from last minute gift buying.
3. The authentication (and delivery delay) applies even to goods that have a GIA certificate.
4. eBay requires sellers to provide more than it will provide through the authenticity program: 

1. Sellers are required to state natural or lab created for all gemstones; GIA will do it only for diamonds, emerald, and sapphires.
2. Sellers must identify all treatments for all gemstones, but GIS will be excused from identifying treatments if treatments are common for the stone.

Size of stones cannot be accurately measured for stones in setting.  Caret is often determined by a mm/caret formula or table. The announced  size tolerances are less than the variation in results from using the published formulas and tables.

Fine jewelry sales over $500 in fine jewelry and wedding jewelry is a small small percentage or total jewelry sales. THIS PROGRAM IS NO NEEDED AND IS NOTHING MORE THAN ANOTHER MONEY GRAB FOR DECLINING QUALITY OF SERVICE.

[vintagecraze50]

So who get’s hit with the higher fee’s. Everybody in the jewelry category or are the fee’s adjusted higher for those who submit their stuff for the authenticity program? 

[vintagecraze50]

In other words is everyone taking the hit with the higher fees to pay for the authentication service?

[vintagecraze50]

Well yes, it is a good plan because people will know for sure they are buying the real deal. 

[katzrul15]

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@vintagecraze50 wrote:

So who get’s hit with the higher fee’s. Everybody in the jewelry category or are the fee’s adjusted higher for those who submit their stuff for the authenticity program? 

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It looks like everyone in Jewelry - not just those who sell at $500 and up

Final value fee update in the Jewelry category | Seller Center (ebay.com)

[wastingtime101]

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@vintagecraze50 wrote:

So who get’s hit with the higher fee’s. Everybody in the jewelry category or are the fee’s adjusted higher for those who submit their stuff for the authenticity program? 

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The answer is both.

All sellers in jewelry are getting hit with higher fees, but the higher the value, the higher the increase.

You can review the chart which shows that the old pricing structure was split:

OLD store fee: Sales over $2.5k saw one fee percentage for the first $2.5K and a lower fee percentage for any amount over $2.5K on the same item.

NEW store fee: Sales over $5k will see a single fee percentage on the entire amount - no more split fee. It's still lower than the overall category fee, but the increase is significantly higher than what sales up to $5k will see.

Most store sellers will see an 11% increase in fees (going up from 11.7% to 13%).

Bigger increases will be seen for anything over $2.5k where the fee is currently split.

A $3k sale for a store owner currently runs $304.55 FVF. Starting Sept 12 that same sale will run $390.30 which is a 28% increase.

A $10k sale for a store owner currently runs $469.05 FVF. Starting Sept 12 that same sale will run $700.30 which is a 49% increase.

Non-store seller fees are very different and you can do the math on that if you're interested.

I think it's funny that the chart shows some examples to demonstrate the difference, but didn't include an example over $2.5k - guess they didn't want to show how big of a leap there is on higher end items.

I will credit eBay for putting most of the fee burden on the higher end sales that will be using the service, but it still stinks for low end fashion jewelry to carry more weight. Handbags saw a similar change last year where it went from a split fee on higher end sales to a single fee divided at the $2k mark.

[vintagecraze50]

Well seeing how bad the economy is now people are probably foregoing high purchases on jewelry anyway so good luck folks. It’s a tough sell right now. People only with the high bucks are going to being buying this stuff till the economy improves. Adding yet another fee to be able to sell it this way is just adding insult to injury as far as prices that have to go up even more.

[vintagecraze50]

OK I see what they are doing. The folks selling really high end stuff will get hit much harder.  Glorious indeed.

[vintagecraze50]

Yep, here we go again, up the fees up the fees, down the sales, but up the fees anyway. LOL.

[b86fiero]

Just wondering, with the all important holiday selling season fast approaching will sellers have to rush to get their merchandise to the eBay authenticator and will such authenticator have the staff to expertly and accurately authenticate each piece in a timely manner? 

[donsdetour]

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@b86fiero wrote:

Just wondering, with the all important holiday selling season fast approaching will sellers have to rush to get their merchandise to the eBay authenticator and will such authenticator have the staff to expertly and accurately authenticate each piece in a timely manner? 

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who knows; I have doubts to what the authinticator can do with this mess.

I see a mess coming out of this for sure< and of course raise fees and give the normal sellers less.

I suspect we will be seeing a lot of good stuff listed in the fashion catagory real fast.

[desdemona1013 · Accepted solution]

I've been a jewelry seller on eBay for over 20 years.  I do not have a brick and mortar jewelry store (like many others selling here) but my items are evaluated by professionals before I list them.   I have 100% feedback on high ticket items as well as lesser items of precious metal and gemstones.  Clearly I am not selling non-authentic goods.  eBay is punishing good sellers with this new policy in an effort to weed out bad sellers.  My customers are primarily people who want stuff right away, which is why eBay has rewarded "top sellers" with a badge for shipping within 1-2 days.  I'm going to lose buyers and eBay is going to lose money.  People do not want to wait 2 weeks for purchased items to be mailed, authenticated and mailed again with our snail mail system.  eBay has just rewarded Amazon and other jewelry platforms because that's where people will be shopping.  This is a ridiculous, not well-thought-out policy.  eBay money back guarantee and return policy has always worked in the past if somebody buys something non-authentic.  I'd like to think most of us are honest.

[nelsoshere]

It is a VERY "..well-thought out policy." !  That's ebays "m.o.".  They blow all kinds of smoke with their, "this is at no cost to you or the buyer..".  What about the increase in fees?  That sounds like a cost.  And they have shown that the fact a seller has been 'with them' for 20+ years doesn't matter to them.  I'm glad I don't sell "fine" jewelry - in fact, I closed my store and every time I consider opening one again ebay reminds me why I shouldn't.  I'm so sorry you all are having to 'deal' with this.  I would have a hard time 'sending' items to ebay to 'authenticate'.  They're sneaky.  One of their 'finest' is the "shipping and handling fee"... they "handle" nothing - "ship" nothing, charge us the fee (regardless of whether we generate a shipping label through them) - then they take the amount of this 'fee' they have already charged us for, combine it with dollar amount the item sold and then use the total to get the "final value fee".   EVERYTHING THEY DO IS VERY WELL THOUGHT OUT.  Good luck.