Fees
**bleep** promotional ads. What a crock of scamming **bleep**!!! Then what is the 13.6% still being taken for if they only put you in promotional areas and don’t put you in standard search results??? Isn’t it odd that when you buy promotional ads, every single item that sells does so from that promotion??? So what are they still taking a full 13.6% for if they are not providing the same service anymore??? There is no good answer other than because they can because they are greedy ???
26 comments
ryry-jj
·1 year agoI believe if a buyer clicks on a promoted item but doesn't buy it, but then proceeds to buys another unprompted item, you will be charged the promotional fee as the promo fee is what brought you the sale.
bashort
·1 year agoabsolutely true yet many continue to play this stupid game
dy60609
·1 year ago@brightwarrior74
Greedy?
Do you sell your items at cost, or at a loss?
If not, then I guess you are also greedy.
eBay is a business, not a charity.
evry1nositswindy
·1 year agoThen don't use it. I have never used PL and never will. I still have sales.
reallynicestamps
·1 year agoIsn’t it odd that when you buy promotional ads, every single item that sells does so from that promotion???
No.
The point of the PL is more advertising.
If everything you are selling is a PL listing it means PL is working.
And remember you only pay if the PL does work.
I only Promote at the minimum of 2% and only on about 10% of my "deadstock" items.
I have noticed that PL does bring more Views, but that my sales of PL item is lower than that 10% of items being advertised.
My thought is that PL is bringing in Views, very definitely, but the buyers just as often go on to Browse my Stores and choose something else to buy.
kandf_vintage_finds
·1 year agoeBay, like any other business is in business to make money
Fee's (Promotional and all others) are no secret for us that participate on the platform
Promoting your items is an option, not a requirement
I understand eBay's fee's and they make their money and I make mine
If they do not make money the platform would not exist and neither would this conversation
fern*wood
·1 year agoI view the promotional stuff like billboards. Some businesses use them and feel the expense is worth it to stand out above others or to just let people know about them. Other places never use them and do fine. Either business model can go under, though, so it is just one of those decisions you have to make in life. You can experiment to see if your business needs that extra expense or not. I have chosen to not pay extra for a billboard.
I’m sorry, but your post makes me chuckle.
You’re upset because eBay suggested you should utilize Promoted listings at a suggested rate and got hosed so you’re mad at eBay? No, you should be mad at yourself. No one forced you to use those Promotions with what ever suggested rate they waved in your face.
There are no guarantees of placement or sales to use them. You could’ve opted not to use them, then you wouldn’t be in this forum singing your tale of woe.
Final value fees are for an item sold. There's no option not to be charged a final value fee unless you stop selling. Final value fees and promoted ads are two different things but are both paid to eBay.
Is eBay greedy? It is, it’s a business after all…businesses are out to make money.
chapeau-noir
·1 year agoThe vehemence over what is merely a tool is pretty funny. You'd think PL mugged people in dark alleys and stole their wallets.
Use it if it works, don't use it if it doesn't.
chevymontecarlo88
·1 year ago@chapeau-noir Exactly.
The problem that many sellers have with PL is that they assume using it equals sales. It is advertising and use it wisely or not at all.
chapeau-noir
·1 year agoExactly, and like a lot of other things in life, it's just playing the odds. It's definitely not an on/off switch, just another tool. Ads are nothing new - I used Google Ads back in the ? late 20-oughts.
liawri-75
·1 year agoPL is a bunch of crock.
chapeau-noir
·1 year agoðŸ˜
luckythewinner
·1 year agoThen what is the 13.6% still being taken for if they only put you in promotional areas and don’t put you in standard search results
Promoted listings do appear in standard search results as well - I have seen it with my own eyes.
That aside ...
I agree with you that promoted listings is a money grab by eBay that plays on a seller's fear of missing out.
inhawaii
·1 year agoYou're always in the "standard search results" promoted or not.
kensgiftshop
·1 year agoMy nose is white so I guess I can reply?
Why wouldn't they still charge their regular fee's?
The items sold, doesn't matter if it was through promoted listings or not, they are going to get their fee's.
bonjourami
·1 year ago"No replies needed from ebay planted brown nosers. "
Thats always hilarious to me to think that Ebay would hire and pay for ringers on the board, when they dont give a rats behind about their sellers, and what they complain about.
inhawaii
·1 year agoIn a roundabout way, i'm paid by ebay.
I'm a ebay cheerleader on the boards, in return ebay does not "throttle" my sales.
junkdrawerstodiefor
·1 year ago"I'm a ebay cheerleader on the boards, in return ebay does not "throttle" my sales." What the heck are you saying?
Know this, if you complain about all of the ghost guns being made off eBay sold parts and all of the people being killed by them, or the bogus fees or crappy engineering, beta on top of beta, ect. eBay will get on a plane to Hawaii and stalk your family, send you bloody mask, dead animals and threats via the USPS and harass your family at the beach ect., and all they will have to pay is three million! Folks who do this are evil, pure evil and Karma will get them because they have been cursed and will continue to be cursed. So eBay, keep up the evil you tricky devil
fbusoni
·1 year ago@bonjourami
And he didn’t even say “please.†ðŸ˜
(Even the mods were offended.)
slippinjimmy
·1 year agoIf Promotions don't work for you then don't use them, Promotions Standard only cost you money if they actually generate sales.
fbusoni
·1 year ago@brightwarrior74
Promoted ads are software that is guaranteed to do ONE thing: fund eBay's bank account.
It is software that you download from the cloud... it comes with no instructions. And no one knows how it works... or IF it works.
PLs are designed to exploit sellers' fears of missing out. In that regard, PLs have worked beautifully.
Think about it: if everyone is promoting at 10%, then the playing field is level. Except that 10% (on top of the 13.6%) is now coming out of your profits when you make a sale.
And PLs will suck you into a vortex of dependency from which it will be difficult to extricate yourself.
There are far more effective ways of getting eBay to promote your listings that don't cost you anything.
meme6253
·1 year agoWould you care to elaborate on these far more effective ways?
fbusoni
·1 year ago@meme6253
Sure, my personal experience over many years -- for the categories that I sell in, which appeal to older, more educated and more affluent buyers -- is that same day / 24 hour shipping and 30 / 60 day paid returns is a potent force multiplier for listing visibility. I experience it every single day.
I've written extensively about my experiences previously and don't want to sound like a broken record.
But the long and short of it is that -- in my estimation -- eBay takes a holistic view of sellers here, for the simple reason that it has software and computers that can do that, effortlessly.
Put another way: sellers are evaluated not merely on the basis of their metrics. eBay looks at everything: how a seller organizes his storefront; whether he includes a video and fills in the "about" sections; how a seller corresponds with buyers on the platform; how a seller replies to negative feedback; to what extent the seller fills in details on a listing page; the degree to which a seller inflates shipping costs; and as was announced quite recently in eBay's updated user privacy notice (click on "Learn more about section 4" and look at the penultimate bullet), how sellers comport themselves in community discussions like those here on these boards.
I have no proof of any of the aforementioned. But I assume it to be standard operating procedure because the capability exists.
And it seems for all the world to work for me, week in and week out.
meme6253
·1 year agoSome good info., Thanks
chariot_badges
·1 year agoCare to elaborate and expand on that a bit?