Auction Listing Fees for Basic Store

[chevymontecarlo88]

Hello, was wondering if i am missing something or not. From what i understand, if you have a basic store, you can list up to 250 auctions in certain categories per month with no insertion fee. If they do not fit in the specific category, there will be an insertion fee plus any fees if they sell of course.

Now the part i am confused about. If you do not have a store, can you list 250 auctions (or listings) per month without any insertions (of course if it sells, selling fees)?

Thanks

Chevymontecarlo88

[nobody*s_perfect]

Yes. Sellers who do not have a Store subscription get 250 free basic insertions per month, which can be used for auction-format listings in almost any category.

[chevymontecarlo88]

It seems a little strange that if you decide to upgrade to the store, your auctions will be limited to certain categories but if you do not have a store, you can list 250 freely. 

Thanks for the reply.

[nobody*s_perfect]

The pattern of free insertions has changed many times over the years. From the Spring 2015 seller update: "For sellers with an eBay Stores subscription, the monthly allotments of free listings* will now be dedicated to fixed price listings, and, for listings in Collectibles categories, sellers will receive 100 additional free auction-style listings* per month." (More categories, in "Fashion," were added later.) At the time of this announcement, non-stores were getting just 20 free insertions per month and after years of paying for every insertion, we thought that was a Big Deal.

https://pages.ebay.com/sellerinformation/news/springupdate2015/fees-and-features.html

[chevymontecarlo88]

Thank you. I was aware of many of the changes but since i did not do auctions as much, this slipped by me. Still i would think if you pay to upgrade your account, you would be granted everything the FREE account gets plus the added features you pay for. Not a big deal but thought it was interesting enough to see i was the only one that noticed that or cared about it. LOL

-Chevymontecarlo88

[nobody*s_perfect]

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@chevymontecarlo88 wrote: ... i would think if you pay to upgrade your account, you would be granted everything the FREE account gets plus the added features you pay for. ...

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Yes, that would be logical, but this is eBay, which is rich in quirky history.  Did you ever notice that non-stores don't pay anything to use the Schedule option or to add a Buy It Now on their auction-format listings, but sellers have to pay for those?

[whitewaterford]

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@chevymontecarlo88 wrote:

Hello, was wondering if i am missing something or not. From what i understand, if you have a basic store, you can list up to 250 auctions in certain categories per month with no insertion fee. If they do not fit in the specific category, there will be an insertion fee plus any fees if they sell of course.

Now the part i am confused about. If you do not have a store, can you list 250 auctions (or listings) per month without any insertions (of course if it sells, selling fees)?

Thanks

Chevymontecarlo88

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@chevymontecarlo88 :

I just want to clarify semantics ...  there are two kinds of listings .... AUCTIONS and FIXED PRICE.  You are correct that without a store, you can use your 250 free listings for auctions or fixed price listings.  However, with a Basic store, the 250 free auctions are restricted to certain categories.  However, you also get 1,000 free fixed price listings in any category, so it really is a better deal (plus an extra 10,000 fee fixed price listings in select categories).

Most store users don't list may auctions.  You don't seem to have any auctions listed currently so perhaps this becomes a non-issue.  If you do have a need for auctions in other categories, you might consider creating a second account w/o a store as it will get 250 free auctions too!

You are right about basic stores having 

[reallynicestamps]

EBay's brand is as an auction site, which has not been true since at least 2010 and probably earlier.

They default newbies into the Auction format to make it seem still alive, but only about 15% or less of transactions are by Auction, and those often end with only one bidder, or go unsold or  worse Unpaid, or a buyer exercises the Buy It Now or Best Offer options, which end the auction format.

There is a niche for auctions in Collectibles, but only those where there are few comps, not the modern FunkoPop or collector plate kinds.

Frankly the only times I use Auction is when DH insists I sell something of his that way. But he is president of an auction house and doesn't really understand eBay. Most go unsold and I relist at a reasonable price (with Best Offer ).

TL/DR -- Don't worry about auctions. They're pretty useless.

[chevymontecarlo88 · Accepted solution]

I use auctions rarely so it really is not an issue for me but it struck me as weird that paying for a store would get you less than a free account. Sometimes i do want to liquidate some stagnant inventory so auctions can be viable at that point.  Not going to stop me but thought i would see if i was the only one to notice that. 

[chevymontecarlo88]

The second account would solve that but is it legit with Ebay rules and regulations?

[jamesbondgoldfinger]

I currently don't have a store, but was thinking about getting one with my main account, did I read it wrong what you wrote "you also get 1,000 free fixed price listings in any category, so it really is a better deal (plus an extra 10,000 fee fixed price listings in select categories", would I get 1,000 free fixed price listings and another 10,000  free fixed price listings, for a total of 11,000 fixed priced listings, thats how I read it.

[reallynicestamps]

The second account would solve that but is it legit with Ebay rules and regulations?

Yes.

I have seven accounts and sell on four of them.

But opening a new account means starting again with zero feedback and a Hold on customer payments while you prove yourself.

Some people who have a buying account, change that to be a selling account, then open a new account for buying since feedback and Holds don't apply to buyers. (Buyers can only get positive feedback or no feedback.)