Isn't eBay offering anymore FREE listing promotions?

[ikolekt2]

I haven't received a free listing promoton from eBay all month.  Usually they offer 1000 to 2000 free listings. Does anyone know what's going on?

[sokonimart]

Maybe someone with connections with the top brass will suggest to them to do away with limited selling allotments and do free listings without expiring limits (as many as you want like some other venues).  Maybe then we all will list tons of items that will sell (eventually) and bring ebay more money.   After my 200 limit is over, I do continue listing and paying but am watching my spending since sales are so down for us all.   My limit is maybe 30 - 50 paid  listings and if those dont sell, that money is down the drain.

Pinch me please - I am dreaming

[jd-estateliquidator]

I am so disappointed with Ebay.  Our sales started to go down around last Sept. if I remember right.  Now we are at about 65% less.

No promotions have been offered since mid Janurary.  We used to add items on a regular basis.  We have lifetime collections sitting here and no incentive to list anything because sales are so few and far between.   It's so depressing. 

[adlib10]

Not only is our inventory just sitting and power seller status going to disappear, I, for one, have stopped buying. The main reason is that I know most of the listings I'm looking for deals with are going to be higher priced. They will almost exclusively be stores that have to price higher to cover their costs. The competition is also limited. So, knowing there will be less choice and higher prices, I don't even search. That and the fact that I have less to spend since my own sales have faded away without the promotions. I can't see how all that doesn't affect Ebay's bottom line, but hey...they pay the big bucks for the greater minds so.....

[*applecore*]

Agreed- I signed up for a store but I am way over inventory on 200, but refuse to pay $40 more just for another 300 items. I re-sell mainly womens clothes and am constantly lured to Poshmark and other sites that let you list free. 

[roadypig]

Yes, but going from no store to a basic store (our situation) only drops the BIN to .20 cents each and auctions to .25 cents each. We have listed a handfull of items over our monthly 100 auction/200 BIN this month, but only things that we are almost 100% sure that they will sell (thus, getting the .25 back for listing the auction, and not caring too much about the .20 for BIN with making a sale at a profit). We are done listing ANYTHING for the rest of the month- we are not giving up another $35.00 a month for another 200 BIN in a larger store (out of pocket cost for each list still 17.5 cents per item) while I have over 1000 unrelisted . If this is there way to reward sellers who sell a lot of OOAK items (not Chinese conglomerates selling 10,000 wigets at $1.13 with free shipping), its not a smart business model. Some of my unsold items will be going to another website as they start dropping off of the 90 day saved list. That's really our only option if they don't offer more 1,000 (or whatever number) free offers soon!

[roadypig]

And if its sitting unlisted eBay making $0.00 . How does this business model work for them ???

[mr_lincoln]

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@ikolekt2 wrote:

I haven't received a free listing promoton from eBay all month.  Usually they offer 1000 to 2000 free listings. Does anyone know what's going on?

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It's been a few months but I got a 1000 Free Listing Promo for March 10 - 14 (last week) ...

[uvmmmdu]

That would be nice of them to offer since I have stacks of stuff here to list but hesitate since none are big ticket items that warrant a listing fee.....free listings I could come up with thousands of books & movies. otherwise have to sit on them 😞 and hope for free listings again someday. Loved that one that went each month thru Feb....I got lost listed but now I am at a halt again.

[uvmmmdu]

same here, looking at 100's to pay for listings, or just list the 500, for 59. a month fee. Have to sell large volume to make ends meet due to those listing fees......hmmmm just have to wait and hope for them I guess. Can't afford going in the negative to sell on ebay. Yes fees on shipping, increases in shipping (recently what was maybe 2-2.25 now automatic 2.60)....add in listing fees? No thanks.

[mr_lincoln]

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@scotforti wrote:

I imagine the lack of promotions is another example of something I've noticed in alot of areas which really makes me wonder

basically people like us are feeding ebay alot less money due to not having items sell and pay FVFees...but there's no way ebay is that stupid as to not notice receiving less money, so that tells me that there are a compensating (or even more) amount of people who actually pay for a **bleep**load of those 30 cent listing fees...so ebay's total revenue might actually be up and not down based on limiting the free listing promotions 😞

For me, I'm just too careful with my money output to spend on listing fees AND final value fees AND final shipping value fees...

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I think you are right about many Sellers being smarter about how much they pay in Fees and as a result, it reduces the number of things eBay can make money on (i.e. reduced number of monthly lsitings) ... a simple example is this ... my average sale is more that this but lets just use an average sale amount of $ 20.00 ... eBay would make $ 2.00 on that sale (without any additonal options added to the listing of course).   But if a Seller holds back listing things because of a 30 cent fee then eBay misses $ 2.00 opportunities ...

I don't think "unlimited" Free listings is the answer but I do believe an increase in the number of Free listings per month would yield more sales and thus more $$ all around.

[roadypig]

Mr_Lincoln : Hum... I guess that supports the idea that most of these free listing giveaways are "targeted". It would be interesting to compair how you listed your items with your usual monthly allotment compared to how we listed, what percentage of sales to total listings we each have, etc., to see if you are doing/did something different than us to get the free offer. It might be because of the amount of time you have been selling?

I will say that we are selling at a rate of about 35% for what we have listed this month (our store allotment of 100/300), with a week to go for the month. So we aren't pricing our stuff too high, and we aren't listing unlikely to sell stuff too. I am sure we have about 300 more not relisted that we could price to sell in a 30 day BIN auction, but we will not pay the .20 cents each to give them a shot at selling. We will just continue to scale nback our presence here until they decide to offer us some more free listings. Like many have said- if your average sale is anything over $3.00 they are making more money by giving you the space to sell it for free than if it just sits offline.

We did manage to download all of our unsold but nor relisted lots using Turbo Loader. That program leaves A LOT to be desired, but at least now the labor we produced making those listings won't be lost when they pass the 90 day mark. It's really up to eBay when or of they ever get listed again...

[roadypig]

Same reasoning here. We have around 50 books from 1920 or older that have to find the right buyer. Paying .20 cents per listing would end up costing us $1 in fees if the book took 5 months to sell. Most of our books sell between $3-$10, so it's obviously a waste of money paying to list them until that right person comes along. We are thinking of listing them on Etsy. Yes, they charge a fee too (I think its .30 for 90 days), but the listing runs for 3 months, and I have heard from people who have said their books sell better on Etsy, too. The ball is in eBay's court as far as which direction we take next...

[whimseys*]

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@roadypig wrote:

Mr_Lincoln : Hum... I guess that supports the idea that most of these free listing giveaways are "targeted". It would be interesting to compair how you listed your items with your usual monthly allotment compared to how we listed, what percentage of sales to total listings we each have, etc., to see if you are doing/did something different than us to get the free offer. It might be because of the amount of time you have been selling?

I will say that we are selling at a rate of about 35% for what we have listed this month (our store allotment of 100/300), with a week to go for the month. So we aren't pricing our stuff too high, and we aren't listing unlikely to sell stuff too. I am sure we have about 300 more not relisted that we could price to sell in a 30 day BIN auction, but we will not pay the .20 cents each to give them a shot at selling. We will just continue to scale nback our presence here until they decide to offer us some more free listings. Like many have said- if your average sale is anything over $3.00 they are making more money by giving you the space to sell it for free than if it just sits offline.

"We did manage to download all of our unsold but nor relisted lots using Turbo Loader. That program leaves A LOT to be desired, but at least now the labor we produced making those listings won't be lost when they pass the 90 day mark. It's really up to eBay when or of they ever get listed again..."

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I have all of my listings on InkFrog so they are ready to list when the opportunity comes along.

Ebay's store allotments are crazy and that is why I will never have a store here. When I had a space in an antique mall I paid a monthly rent plus a percentage of sold price. Same as here, but I was never limited to how many items I could put into that space.

I also have my items listed on The Ranch and just pay a small FVF--no listing fee. But it is slow there.

Just saying...

[mr_lincoln]

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@roadypig wrote:

Mr_Lincoln : Hum... I guess that supports the idea that most of these free listing giveaways are "targeted". It would be interesting to compair how you listed your items with your usual monthly allotment compared to how we listed, what percentage of sales to total listings we each have, etc., to see if you are doing/did something different than us to get the free offer. It might be because of the amount of time you have been selling?

I will say that we are selling at a rate of about 35% for what we have listed this month (our store allotment of 100/300), with a week to go for the month. So we aren't pricing our stuff too high, and we aren't listing unlikely to sell stuff too. I am sure we have about 300 more not relisted that we could price to sell in a 30 day BIN auction, but we will not pay the .20 cents each to give them a shot at selling. We will just continue to scale nback our presence here until they decide to offer us some more free listings. Like many have said- if your average sale is anything over $3.00 they are making more money by giving you the space to sell it for free than if it just sits offline.

We did manage to download all of our unsold but nor relisted lots using Turbo Loader. That program leaves A LOT to be desired, but at least now the labor we produced making those listings won't be lost when they pass the 90 day mark. It's really up to eBay when or of they ever get listed again...

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Would like to have more dialogue on this topic ... will send a PM ...

[driveinboi]

I think eBay is making a big mistake by not giving the 1000 free listings recently. I hope they offer it soon. I have abvout 900 unlisted items that will go over the 60 day unsold mark soon. I mostly sell matchbook covers at 1.69 - 1.99 each. A 30 cent listing fee would just not work here as I sell the matchbook covers but can't make any profit off them if I pay a 30 cent fee. I DO sell the matchbook covers consistantly however sometimes I must re-list them all over several months before the right person buys it... I would cost me 270$ a month to re-list these matchbook covers and I would probably sell less than 100 dollars of them per month. Maybe I should go elsewhere and try to sell them if eBay decides not to offer free listings. I'm very frustrated with the selling situations on eBay right now. it only makes sense to sell more expensive items. If I sold 40 dollars of matchbook covers a month, eBay got something for me selling them. Now that i'm not listing them, eBay gets NOTHING. How is this good business? Ebay is letting the door open for other auction sites to pick up the slack. I'm even noticing less things that I collect being listed on eBay by other sellers are not being listed because of these new policies. it makes  more sense for my listings to expire despite all the work I put into them than pay 270$ a month to relist everything. Everyone loses without the free listing offers. Wake up eBay!