Ebay is so Generous at this critical time - NOT.

[drews-books]

Wow!  Ebay gave us 50,00 Free listings it use in just over a month.  So how would a single bookseller use even a 10th of that and if I forget to end them in 30 days they will automatically re-list and I get a huge bill.  So generous.

I've been a book-seller for over 25 years on Ebay and help build it.  They also offer to defer 50% of payments for 30 days - how about cancelling all those stupid Promo Ad and Shipping Fee & other charges Ebay keeps adding.  Help us sellers by dropping Ebay charges at this time and help us old-timers rewarding us by the years as sellers not $$$$.  There will be other future sites to sell on and We Will Remember.

[mantle1951]

I'm a very small store owner and I am very grateful for the 50000 listings, I was able to relist about 800 I had in Unsold that I was going to lose. I will never use close to 50000 but my listings are now viewable  and  a few have sold. I will just have to end the ones that don't sell in about a month like I do every month, thank you Ebay.

[buyselljack2016]

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@carlsthings wrote:
Even in this social distancing I am able to source good quality good. Listing like mad has not generated sales. The free listing are only good for the BIG sellers. As has been pointed out the medium and small sellers are setting themselves up to go the opposite direction once the free listing work thru with few sales and them get hammered with relisting fees. A dangerous place to put yourself.
What eBay should do is advertise like mad Everywhere. We Are Open and Doing Business. Support us all. Then give all of us some advantage (lower fees) for putting inventory on sale. Some of my stuff I would go to 40% off just to keep inventory fresh.

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There are very few reasons for anyone to get "hammered" with relisting fees.

Last minute power/internet failure.   No reason to wait to the last minute to "end" the listings that a seller does not want to renew.

Health issue. All sellers should have a back up plan for health issues.

One year into the mandatory fixed price GTC relists I have been charged $0.70 in fees that I had not intended to incur.  That was because of my inattention.  Lost track of what day it was, and forgot to end 2 listings.

[buyselljack2016]

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@axiombody wrote:

I think everyone complaining should pass the buck and discount their items in this time of need otherwise be grateful.  At this time I actually can't sell my items as low as I did before because I can't buy any more stock to replace it.  I'm trying to make more money per item because I am making less money altogether.

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Illogical ......................   your items are not worth more just because you have less of them to sell unless you are the only person in the world selling that item.

[jimw1776]

I know eBay usually has phone support...I've talked w/ them a fair number of times, and they've always been super nice to me and helpful (well...100% nice; 99% helpful). But using just email is not effective, and I can't help but wonder if there's a better way of communicating. And I repeat..."not to worry" is an annoying, stupid comment for these c.s reps to make..

[xmenmarvels]

The owners of eBay should just not charge there customers with small or medium businesses. One month without paying for the store subscriptions would help. EBAY WOULD STILL MAKE THERE REGULAR UPGRADE FEES AND ALL OF THERE OTHER FEES...FINIAL VALUE FEES AND THE SHIPPING FEES AND ALSO PAYPAL WOULD STILL MAKE THERE FEES.   That would help during this time of worry and uncertainty. mark as helpful if you agree!!

[jscar59]

eBay can and will "Promote" your item!.....For an ADDITIONAL fee of course.

[totoro470]

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@buyselljack2016 wrote:

I checked with my credit card provider, the gas station, the electric company, the grocery store, and the vet.

No one wants to give me a discount.

What is wrong with them?  Why can they not take the loss instead of me?

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That's kind of a false equivalency. Ebay depends on us as much as we depend on them. The point is, ebay helping sellers is beneficial to ebay as well.

Things like flea markets, toy shows, auctions, and many places where small sellers get items have been canceled. This effectively means many people can't get the products they would normally be getting. It may not have even hit us yet either. The way ebay works many people  are riding on a cushion of listings we had from previous months. What happens after a few months, when we have hardly anything left to sell and nowhere to go to find new items? What happens after April when the 50k free listings are over? Better question is, how are 50k listings going to help people that have inventories that are going DOWN because of covid 19?

Large sellers that get their items shipped in won't be as affected yet most of the benefit of 50k free listings will go to them. What's going to happen to small sellers that can't get their products? Won't many of them have to get regular jobs and quit ebay? I don't blame ebay and don't expect ebay to do anything, fact is some people may just end up being screwed. My question is, does ebay want to help keep people on ebay or do they want to lower their subscriptions or let people leave and find regular jobs?

-A side note, I know other corporations that are doing much more for their employees. ebay sellers are not technically employees but the fact is we have a mutually beneficial relationship and they could probably spare some profit share in order to prevent seller loss. As an example, Home Depot right now is giving everyone 40-80 hours extra of paid sick leave + an extra $50-100 per week in addition to giving free food etc. This is all unnecessary loss from the company's profits. How much is ebay willing to give up to support those that keep their company going? Again, it is not EXPECTED, it is just a show of appreciation for the people that make their company what it is.

[axiombody]

My items are worth more than I usually sell them for is what I am saying.  I am saying that I discount them very much and sell about 35% of my inventory every month.  Price does that.  If I sell them at that low of a price, I would sell 800 items without being abnle to replenish them.  So in light of this I have not discounted my items as much as I normally do.  So I make more money per item but do not sell as many items so less money altogether, to clarify.

[membersinceaug2001]

Yea, their target is drop-shippers on this promo.  They seem to love those type of sellers.

[luckythewinner]

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Ebay gave us 50,00 Free listings it use in just over a month.  So how would a single bookseller use even a 10th of that

I don't think the idea is that you should try to use them all. I think the idea is that you should use as many as you need. 

 if I forget to end them in 30 days they will automatically re-list and I get a huge bill.

You mean you would have to deal with this exactly the same way sellers have had to deal with every free insertion special for the past year? 

[mam98031]

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@li-diamonds wrote:

It is great that eBay offers 50,000 free listings but the bigger issue is the fees that eBay charge us, they should give us a break on the fees for this global critical time that we all facing and is hard for us even pay our bills, we all should call eBay and request not to charge fees at this moment until we all stand on all feet till this pandemic virus disappear 

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Why?  Why is it Ebay's responsibility to do this?  Are you getting discounts from other vendors you have or utilities or your home loan or rent?  

Why are so many holding Ebay to different standards than other vendors you need to make payments to for their services?

@li-diamonds 

[luckythewinner]

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@totoro470 wrote:

That's kind of a false equivalency. Ebay depends on us as much as we depend on them. The point is, ebay helping sellers is beneficial to ebay as well.

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The growth in the number of listings on eBay has far outpaces the growth in total buying. 

When a seller leaves, his buyers will simply buy a similar item from a similar seller for a similar price and eBay still makes its fees and get along just fine. 

eBay does indeed depend on having sellers,  but they do not depend upon any individual seller. I suspect that 10% of sellers could disappear tomorrow and it would have minimal impact on the level of buying. 

Try it. Just take down all your listings, and see if it hurts eBay  as much as it hurts you. 

[cynthealee2]

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@luckythewinner wrote:

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@totoro470 wrote:

That's kind of a false equivalency. Ebay depends on us as much as we depend on them. The point is, ebay helping sellers is beneficial to ebay as well.

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The growth in the number of listings on eBay has far outpaces the growth in total buying. 

When a seller leaves, his buyers will simply buy a similar item from a similar seller for a similar price and eBay still makes its fees and get along just fine. 

eBay does indeed depend on having sellers,  but they do not depend upon any individual seller. I suspect that 10% of sellers could disappear tomorrow and it would have minimal impact on the level of buying. 

Try it. Just take down all your listings, and see if it hurts eBay  as much as it hurts you. 

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I seem to remember a very large purge a few years ago... sellers were not only "taking their toys elsewhere" but "being asked to leave"... doesn't seemed to have had any impact on eBay itself.

OOOO though on a side note as I went to find a smiley face for the end of my post I found this... hadn't seen it before but SOME one in the tech department has time on their hands = 😷

[inhawaii]

You forgot to tell us what YOU are doing to help YOUR customers....

[lja440]

If I weren't working I probably have enough stock to list that many books. However I don't have enough shipping supplies unless there are mass multiple sales. 

Yeah they could offer a much better promo. They could at least cut FVF's in half or something that would benefit across the board.