250 listings per month - starter store question

[cats_purr]

Hello,

I have a starter store, which includes 250 free listings per month. I have approximately 80 active listings that I renew each week. With 7-day listing periods, 250 per month does not go very far. I have to conserve free listings sometime in the 3rd or 4th week every month.

The problem is that Ebay's standard listing period (7 days) does not match up evenly with 30 or 31-day months.  To avoid extra fees, at the end of each month, I have to delist many items and relist them in the new month. Pretty time-consuming and annoying!

Example: today is the 27th. 80 listings will expire today, but I have only 12 of the 250 available. I made the mistake once of renewing everything, but exceeded the 250 and got stuck with fees for each item.

I know I could upgrade the store to the next level ($21.95 per month vs. $4.95 that I am paying now) to get more listings, but that is a significant jump in cost. I'd like to stay with the starter store as long as possible. Any work-arounds out there?

[lacemaker3 · Accepted solution]

@cats_purr,

You're using all auction format listings, which is why your items are ending so quickly. But, you're not selling very many of them. If your auctions are not getting any bids, then they probably should not be listed in auction format, and your asking price may be too high.

Auction format is best suited for more unique items, with few available and a lot of demand, so that each auction can be confidently expected to get more than one bid from multiple bidders. If you are not achieving that performance, then you would probably be better off using fixed price instead. If you insist on using auctions, you can choose 10-day listings (the maximum) and then you would only need 3 list/relists per items to keep them available most of the month.

With that many items, if you listed them as fixed price (BIN) format, with best offer, they would be automatically relisted once a month, on the same day of each  month, and you would have plenty of free listings to cover that many items.

You probably don't even need a starter store, unless you want some of the other perks that come with a store. You get 250 free listings even without a store.

[cats_purr]

Hi, thanks for the helpful info. I will give fixed price listings a try. I thought there was a fee for using fixed price listings. No?

You are correct, my sales, especially lately, have been very slow. I would like to get this stuff “rehomed” asap. When I setup the store (for no good reason other than just seeing how that works), auto-relist was not an option anymore. 

Thanks again for your help!

[lacemaker3]

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@cats_purr wrote:

Hi, thanks for the helpful info. I will give fixed price listings a try. I thought there was a fee for using fixed price listings. No?

..

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With or without a starter store, you get 250 insertion-fee-free listings each month. You can use them on auction or fixed price listings, with no restrictions. There's no fee for using fixed price listings up to the 250 total.

At the next store level, you get 250 auction style listings, PLUS 1,000 fixed price listings in any/all categories, PLUS 10,000 fixed price listings in select categories. So no, there isn't an additional fee for using fixed price listings, you would get even more free-insertion-fee fixed-price listings if you went to the next highest store level. But I don't recommend that; you don't need that yet.

https://www.ebay.com/help/selling/fees-credits-invoices/store-selling-fees-managed-payments-sellers?...

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@cats_purr wrote:

...

You are correct, my sales, especially lately, have been very slow. I would like to get this stuff “rehomed” asap. When I setup the store (for no good reason other than just seeing how that works), auto-relist was not an option anymore. 

Thanks again for your help!

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Free relistings, for auction-format listings specifically, are only available to "casual" sellers. Once a seller gets more experience, or becomes a business seller (for example, by opening a store) the seller may no longer be considered a "casual seller" and would not be eligible for free relistings on auction format listings.

Fixed price listings automatically relist once a month, on the same day each month. They will use one of your free-insertion-fee listings, if you have some available at that time. That would probably save you more money than doing 4 or 5 relistings on an auction format listing each month.

You're welcome, I hope this has been helpful.

[714ricki]

Try changing your items to the buy it now format. Those listings last until they sell or you cancel & will only count as "1" in your monthly allowance. Of course, you can also mix in a few auctions.....just remember that those auctions last 7 -10 days & if they don't sell, then you will have to decide on relisting them immediatley or holding off. 

Good luck!