Just a decline or the end of a platform?

Delcampe recently announced changes to its fee structure that impact both buyers and sellers on the platform. Here are the key details:

1. For Buyers
- Items are displayed with commission included.
- The fee is calculated as a fixed amount of €0.30 plus 10% of the seller's asking price.
- Example: An item listed for €10 will be displayed at €11.30 to the buyer.

2. For Sellers
- Sellers receive the full amount they wish to obtain for their items. The commission fee is now included in the price paid by the buyer.
- Sellers will not be charged additional commission fees directly.
- New membership tiers like Store Plus (€9.95/month) are introduced, offering benefits like bulk modifications, discounts, shop customization, and listing in the Top categories.

Loss of US Members
Delcampe has seen a decline in its US member base due to tax-related issues. The implementation of the INFORM Consumers Act has led to increased regulatory requirements, including the need for sellers to provide their tax identification numbers. This has caused some US members to leave the platform due to the perceived complexity and privacy concerns associated with these requirements​.

Community Feedback
The response from Delcampe's user base has been mixed:

Positive Feedback: Some users appreciate the platform's secure transaction system and the vast selection of items available for sale. The feedback system that allows buyers and sellers to evaluate each other is also highly valued.

Negative Feedback: Many users have expressed frustration over the increased fees (not only in DC's own forum, but in plenty of collector forums), seeing them as a burden that could potentially drive buyers and sellers to alternative platforms. Concerns have also been raised about the transparency and communication regarding these changes.

For many users, it remains unclear why the platform changed to let the buyer pay the 10% commission fee. This is unseen with other similar platforms. Now, it's rather like a classic auction platform where the buyer always pays the commission.

Overall Impact

The changes aim to streamline the fee structure and make it more transparent, though the reception is mixed. Buyers are generally dissatisfied with increased costs, while sellers have a mixed reaction depending on their sales volume and item values. It would also be a "trust-building" action if DC communicated how the changes are truly impact the current business and if further corrections are necessary.

DC didn't report current user numbers for quite some time. In 2009, the DC statement was 1 Million users per month in 180 countries. Never saw actual numbers since then. The current Delcampe introduction only states the 180 countries - no monthly user numbers.

For more details, you can visit the [Delcampe Blog]( Link (https) and their [Help Centre]( Link (https)

What do you think about the platform's future?

If Delcampe can weather the current storm it will survive as all viable platforms are seeing to increase or just maintain their income streams in a period of instability both financially and politically.

initially these changes did not hit me too much as they happened at a time that I made excellent sales from stocks I obtained in my African travels. Now these have faded it is clear my turnover is well down from previous levels. Recently though there have been signs of a revival as new streams of income have increased due to revamping old stocks and listing new items.

Having previously sold on several internet platforms I, personally, still find Delcampe excellent value for money and think that once the dust settles things will improve and both buyers and sellers will return when they realise the grass is not greener on the other side of the hill. Time will only prove if I am right or not - but I am optimistic.

De informatie is niet meer beschikbaar omdat de rekening van deze gebruiker is verwijderd (AVG)

My clients have received today the notification of starting the API cost at 19.90 per month.

That's RIDICOLUS. API have tons of failures and no answer or react on API forum by D* Staff

I think some clients don't acknowlege on this and stop selling on D*

I stopped buying on Delcampe.

The new limit for group offers that was imposed has made impossible to find any good deal - together with the additional costs. The group offer was a starting point from a possible negotiation especially for larger lots - to minimize the shipping cost per item.

For me, as a buyer, it makes sense to acquire items on Delcampe if they are cheaper than the local market or if they are special. When considering the fees and the shipping costs it does not worth the effort.

Most probably, seller are not posting new items on D because they are restricted to a certain number, therefore there is not too much activity from any of the sides.

I also don't understand the limitation on the sellers shops. All platforms are racing to have as much content as possible. Delcampe does the opposite. There are a lot of platforms ( some for free) with no or very little content for sale that struggle to exist.

Now I only visit the platform to read the forum.

Hello Servitel,

Thank you for bringing this to our attention. We understand your frustration regarding the recent notification about the API cost and the lack of reply you've experienced on the forum. We acknowledge that the reactivity on the API forum has not met your expectations, and we are actively working on improving this to provide better support and timely responses.

Your feedback is invaluable to us, and we are committed to addressing these concerns to ensure a smoother experience for you and your clients. We appreciate your patience and understanding as we make these improvements.

I think this is a good case of be careful for what you wish for.

Fee changes such as this makes any seller or buyer using the platform re-evaluate their listing/purchasing practices. In a vacuum this could lead to the desired outcome for Delcampe (higher value lots, and less dross) for this forced change. With other sites available buyers and sellers are re-evaluting their practices and are instead using these.

The biggest problem I see is that Delcampe is losing one of its previous key strengths for buyers, that is the ability to fill most cheap holes in any collection at a good price point. As sellers are not listing as many small lots this becomes harder. Once buyers find they cannot do this they are more likley to look elsewhere (and continue shopping there rather than here). The significant impact of high fees on these lots is the final straw for many I think.

Delcampe are wanting to move into the same space as the largest auction site in lot valuations. The major issue from a sellers perspective is that the sell through rate here is significantly lower than there. Do you sell here or on a site that will sell 5-10 times as quickly for only slightly more fees under the new system?

Moving fees to the buyer has just made them aware of how much they are being nickel and dimed. It would have been preferable to keep it hidden as sellers fees and let the sellers increase their prices to accommodate if they needed.

The other issue is that fees have been moved from the transaction (in delcampe pay fees) to the individual item. Paypal purchases are paying the transaction costs twice effectively. This hugely disinsentivises multiple purchases. A lower item fee with a mangopay transaction fee would be preferable, put your fees where the actual costs are!

The new shop system has made some very hard artificial boundries which will impact on sellers practices going forward. If you have 1000 items listed, listing the 1001st item will cost you EUR5 a month. There are very few lots that will warrant that expense by themselves. Obviously as a seller you will only go into the next band if you are going to significantly exceed that number of listings. If you are not going to be able to do this you are better off not listing the additional items or playing inventory tetris to keep your 1000 best value lots on sale.

Compare this with the soft shop levels on the largest site. You only pay an insertion fee once you have exceeded your shop 'free' listings that raises (and lowers) your insertion fees in proportion to your existing shop level. A single item costs you around GBP0.12/ Month (for a tier 1 shop) so could be accommodated on most lots listed there. The fee structure makes it worthwhile to list more. Once you get to the number of items needed to make the next tier worthwhile you actually want to upgrade as it will save you money.

"I think this is a good case of be careful for what you wish for."
My headline was a question and the text is as neutral as possible. I am responsible for what I wrote, not for what you understand. That's your interpretation. Thank you.

That was not aimed at you, but at Delcampe.

Delcampe wished for more income to cover costs. Delcampe wished for less items to be listed.

The rest of my post was on the issues as I see them from a sellers perspective.

noted

R.I.P. KoalaStamps, Sep 11th 2024
◦ Forced to use MangledPay.
◦ Forced to keep listings under 10,000
◦ MangledPay has not honoured withdrawals made to my international bank account. All money scammed!
◦ API €19.00 per month.
◦ Sales near zero since changes introduced.

Thankyou to all my Delcampe customers.

PS: KoalaStamps is very much alive and doing well on all other sites.

De informatie is niet meer beschikbaar omdat de rekening van deze gebruiker is verwijderd (AVG)

As I understand it, the previous 'Delcampe Pay' was, in reality, always run by MangoPay, albeit that was not explicit in the name, so this was not really a new venture by either party.

Perhaps, particularly as Delcampe came up with the scheme that payments via MangoPay would attract zero sellers fees, presumably to try to make up for the fact that they had, as you say, arbitrarily done away with bank transfers.
MangoPay, I would suspect, took the view that if they were doing that, then they as a company should get the actual credit for that, rather than 'hiding' behind a 'Delcampe Pay' name, so I can understand, if that scenario is correct, that MangoPay would want what would be seen as positive publicity.
MangoPay may be well known in some countries, but is virtually unknown in many. No doubt they are trying to rectify that, but possibly explains why payments via MangoPay are very few.

Makes me wonder how long this 'free' offer will go on for??

De informatie is niet meer beschikbaar omdat de rekening van deze gebruiker is verwijderd (AVG)

For my understanding, there are 4 main reasons why a platform is implementing its own payment system. Revenue (interest), control, data collection, cost reduction (external transaction costs).

However, MangoPay is only one reason for many to dislike DC nowadays.

Just for info
New client start selling on half of june.
Prices on D* are 15% low than on e*

Sales Result for 15 june/30 june:
On e*: 219 items sold
on D*.7 item sold

Sales on D* don't cover monthly costs for store and API at the moment

I am almost in the same situation.

I have been ok to sell for slightly lower prices here compare to the other large auction site, but the lower fees here have compensated for that quite OK.

Now with the 19 € API fee being implemented plus the store fee this starts to get really expensive, but I really like Delcampe so it is mixed feelings. I will end up paying for listing my stock here, in my opinion the whole idea with API:s is that you open them up so other can integrate to you for free. At least if I could choose to not pay for the other listing tools at Delcampe I am not using then it would be more fair.

It feels really sad to even consider leaving Delcampe, but if the company does not want us small professional sellers to be here then I have no choice.

Thank you all for sharing your experiences. It's Only then members can understand the impact of the changes

Delcampe have effectively made sellers sit up and notice, with their announcement of the commemcement of store & API fees, so it's basically slightly less than 2 months until sellers, particularly the large professional sellers using API, will decide whether to stay or not. Since the imposition of the buyer fees at the start of April, not much has changed from a seller's perspective as far as listing is concerned, there are almost as many items now listed for sale as there were 3+ months ago, but sales are generally down, variably it would appear.

The impact of the changes will not really unfold until then, but it seems, if the comments on the forums are anything to go by, that quite a few will either reduce their store size or leave altogether. If that happens in large numbers, Delcampe could be in difficulty as there wouldn't be the stock available on the site to attract the buyers, but, who knows??

Since the new changes to fess have come into effect, have sold 2 items in the past month.

Why has Delcampe scared all of the buyers away? The upcoming fees based on how many items are listed is a bad idea.

Why has Delcampe not used some of the profit off the backs of sellers to not hire more staff to reduce the useless listings?

Thoughts....

I have really being trying to hold off to comment, but I cannot any longer.

Prior to the change in commissions fees, we had an average of 10 orders during the weekend. This last weekend, we have had 1 order of 1 set, which came through last Friday.

I will give my 5 cents on all of this...

Firstly, the old system was absolutely fine. Buyers knew exactly the final price they were paying, and at the same time, we sellers also did know what the site was going to charge us for the sales. There was absolutely no problem with the old system. After the new commissions system was launched by Delcampe, we personally decided to lower the prices of all of our catalogue by a 10%, to compensate for the system change. It was a gesture to our clients, but it really has not helped us that much, as sales are just falling week after week.

While introducing our accountancy this last weekend for our upcoming tax quarter, I noticed the following case, which is a clear example of how terrible this new system is...

A buyer buys 46 items from our store for a value of 89,59 euros + shipment gives a total of 98,74 euros. With this operation we receive a net amount of 85,72 euros +9,15 for registered post, which gives us no profit.

I was shocked with what Delcampe commissioned... (46 items x 0,30 euros) 13,80 € + 8,959 (10% of 89,59 euros) = 22,76 Euros. Our client ended up paying 121,55 euros for an order of 98,74 euros (including the registered post), which is aprox. a 23% over the purchasing price!!!! In the past we would have paid for all the extra items (46 items) which was OK for us and we even had a little discount for being professional sellers and that was fine by us!!!

Lastly, I really do not know who had this absurd idea behind this new commission system. It would be great if these Marketplaces contacted and spoke to professionals that have been selling online for over a decade or 2, and get some feedback before they botch their own site.

I hope at some point Sébastien will rethink all of this out.

Sorry for the long post, but I really needed to speak up.

In April 2023, without any warning or means of recourse, my American account on delcampe was closed. Over ten years of buying stuff, and this is how I am treated, like trash. I lost 400 items in my watching list, my buying records, everything. Thanks for nothing.

But you still have a Czech account since 2013. So, you had 2 accounts. What's the issue? No warning time before closure of the US account?

I have not had one sale in 3 months, so I am letting the remainder of my sales run down and will not renew them. I have been selling on another site and have done well. I only intend to list 50 odd postcards on here in the hope that something changes.
Bottom line is, Delcampe have lost my business and I am pleased to be selling elsewhere.
I find it a little sad if I’m honest.

Yes, it's sad indeed. Maybe members report the same as you, and I am pretty sure DC feels the impact of the changes significantly, but they are not brave enough to admit and communicate any new numbers on active members, listings etc, as they did in the past. The question is: WHY NOT?