Free Listings.??

[namtrag1]

What does everybody think about eBay having totally free listings and you pay 15% commission for selling your item?

[tealt]

Currently

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@namtrag1wrote:

What does everybody think about eBay having totally free listings and you pay 15% commission for selling your item?

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I would hate that!

My current 50 free listings/month are a good fit for my small OOAK/antique/collectible business.  The FVF are 10%.

What you suggest would raise my eBay fees by 50%.  Ugh!

[luckythewinner]

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@tunicaslotwrote:

I'm with chrys - putting free listings out there just clogs up the site. If the item isn't worth taking a chance and paying 20 cents to see if it will sell - it doesn't belong here.

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My entire eBay business is based on selling rare, low-demand items. I sell posters, pictures, ticket stubs, press kits, concert flyers, performance contracts, memorabilia, sheet music, etc. for bands that most people have never heard of. 

When eBay gives me 500 free listings, I sell between $250 and $750 each time, and clear $200 to $600. 

But the problem is ... I have absolutely no idea whether it will be $250 o $750, and I have no idea what will sell. It could be Robyn Hitchcock one monthn and Peggy Lee the next. Or it could be the Electric Caves. Or Liberace. 

It wouldn't be worth selling here if there was another $100 in fees added onto those 500 listings, especially if I was only $250 and not $750. And I don't think I'm "clogging up the site" by listing them. 

[emerald40]

Try renting a B&M store and telling the landlord you will pay based on how well you did that month.

[luckythewinner]

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@emerald40wrote:

Try renting a B&M store and telling the landlord you will pay based on how well you did that month.

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I would never try that with a B&M landlord, because I know they would never go for it.

But eBay is not a B&M landlord, and they do let me do that - so that's exactly why I use it. 

[emerald40]

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@luckythewinnerwrote:

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@emerald40wrote:

Try renting a B&M store and telling the landlord you will pay based on how well you did that month.

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I would never try that with a B&M landlord, because I know they would never go for it.

But eBay is not a B&M landlord, and they do let me do that - so that's exactly why I use it. 

_______________________________________________________

But it could explain why ebay has cut down on free listings.  

In the long run it does not benefit buyers or sellers.

And hosting a bunch of listings that are not going anywhere fast, does not benefit ebay, either.

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[skatefool]

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@emerald40wrote:

Try renting a B&M store and telling the landlord you will pay based on how well you did that month.

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Actually, landlords do exactly that.  It's called Percentage Rent.

[luckythewinner]

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@emerald40wrote:
But it could explain why ebay has cut down on free listings.

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I've gotten ...

50 free ending Jan 13

100 free ending Jan 29

100 free ending Feb 6

200 free ending Feb 11

100 free ending Feb 20

... on both of my non-store accounts.

So including my monthly free listings, that's a total of 1400 free listings in just over two months. 

Perhaps they have cut down on free listings - or maybe they are just doing a better job of deciding who gets them. 

[emerald40]

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@luckythewinnerwrote:

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@emerald40wrote:
But it could explain why ebay has cut down on free listings.

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I've gotten ...

50 free ending Jan 13

100 free ending Jan 29

100 free ending Feb 6

200 free ending Feb 11

____________________________________________

They are enticing you to get a store.  If you do not they will eventually dry up, imo.

100 free ending Feb 20

... on both of my non-store accounts.

So including my monthly free listings, that's a total of 1400 free listings in just over two months. 

Perhaps they have cut down on free listings - or maybe they are just doing a better job of deciding who gets them. 

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[luckythewinner]

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@emerald40wrote:
They are enticing you to get a store.  If you do not they will eventually dry up, imo

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People on this board have been telling me things like that regularly for a decade now 🙂 

You're going to start getting returns ... eventually. 

You're going to start getting SNADs ... eventually. 

You're going to stop getting free listings ... eventually. 

Your sales will start falling off  ... eventually. 

You're going to lose your TRS ... eventually.  

eBay is going to implode ... eventually. 

All the sellers are going to leave  ... eventually. 

eCrater is going replace eBay  ... eventually. 

Bonanza is going replace eBay  ... eventually. 

11Main is going replace eBay  ... eventually. 

[mc2*]

YES! No listing fees would mean more on line to buy .... more money for sellers ans ebay.

[ted_200]

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@tunicaslotwrote:

I'm with chrys - putting free listings out there just clogs up the site. If the item isn't worth taking a chance and paying 20 cents to see if it will sell - it doesn't belong here.

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There was a time when I was sure I was the only person on this entire Board who thought Free Listings were a bad idea.

Free Listings are what has killed sales on this site.  It's what has necessitated "Best Match", and then a search that doesn't return all the listings you searched for, and resulted in confiscatory FVFs (to cover the lost revenue from listing fees, and the cost of supporting 1 billion listings as opposed to the 15 million that existed before "Free Listings" arrived). 

Ironically, eBay is now very driven to have sellers offer prices that are "cheap", to spur sales.  You make sellers pay for individual listings, you get rid of over-priced listings pronto!  There are 10's of millions of listings on eBay that are priced 150% over market price and have just been endlessly re-listed for nearly a decade.  Sellers treat this place like Ronco... set it and forget it. 

[yuzuha]

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@ted_200wrote:

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There was a time when I was sure I was the only person on this entire Board who thought Free Listings were a bad idea.

Free Listings are what has killed sales on this site.  It's what has necessitated "Best Match", and then a search that doesn't return all the listings you searched for, and resulted in confiscatory FVFs (to cover the lost revenue from listing fees, and the cost of supporting 1 billion listings as opposed to the 15 million that existed before "Free Listings" arrived). 

Ironically, eBay is now very driven to have sellers offer prices that are "cheap", to spur sales.  You make sellers pay for individual listings, you get rid of over-priced listings pronto!  There are 10's of millions of listings on eBay that are priced 150% over market price and have just been endlessly re-listed for nearly a decade.  Sellers treat this place like Ronco... set it and forget it.

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I am all in favor of eBay ditching free listings entirely because maybe then the toy categories wouldn't be such a cluttered mess.  I have literal garbage bags full of vintage stuffed animals in excellent condition that I haven't listed because they would just be buried beneath all of the ones that look like someone's dog has been chewing on them.  If those people had to pay to list that garbage, I guarantee you that most of those listings would be gone after a few months.

[ted_200]

When I started here in 2007, it was .35 for a listing (or was it .30, with another .35 if you wanted a gallery photo?).  And that was under $1 start/ask price, higher than that was a lot more.  I think $9.99 or lower price was .55 a listing.  Fixed Price or Auction.  And it was only 7 days (more fees for 10 days, which was the max. duration). 

I wanted to run Auctions anyhow, but that's why there were so many Auctions, and why STR was about 50%.  Literally half of everything listed was sold within 7 days.  You simply could not afford to list and not sell.  Buyers loved it, that fee structure is what MADE eBay. 

And now, here we sit, with FVF on shipping, and 10% FVF levels, and they just raised the listing fee back to .35. 

[lost-lizard-trading-company]

Totally free listings and 15% FVF.  That is what I have on Amazon.  No, I do not want to increase my fees by 50%.

For those who can't understand why free listings are important to some sellers.  Here is an example.  I sell books, but not popular ones.  Tonight I sold a book that my records show was acquired in 2/2010.  Assuming I have had it listed each month since then--I haven't because we've had some dry spells on those free listings--that is about 8 years or 96 months.  96 months would be $28.80 in listing fees.  I sold the book for $18.00 which included shipping a 4# pound book and covering my Ebay and PayPal fees.  Anymore $18 is a good price for a book.  But, there is no way, I could sustain this model, if I had to pay insertion fees while waiting for the right person.  30 cents might not seem like much, but it adds up.

[bpr103]

A 50% increase in FVF or mandatory listing fee would be awful.

I mean, what exactly would sellers be getting in return for the increase in fees? A better user experience? LOOOOL. 

I can see both sides:

- Richard offers thousands of products per month, and wouldn't be able to if he had to pay for each listing. Ebay (not just the company, but all of us sellers) benefit from sellers like him because it bloats the available inventory, making it seem like you really can get anything here.

- Lucky and Lizard offer relatively few specialized items that sell infrequently, but they are rare, again increasing the available inventory here at eBay, again making it seem like you really can get anything here.

You can pick and choose which model you think is better, but both are what make eBay attractive to buyers. The fact that there's not only variety and volume but also specialization: soap,  and the original audio mixer used to record Michael Jackson's "Thriller."

As for the "try that at a B&M," well, this is basically the world's biggest consignment shop.

While the current fee structure may not seem perfect, I doubt the major changes discussed here would have a positive impact on the user experience. Rather, a better search algorithm or sitewide video implementation would create a better user experience for sellers and buyers, but eBay doesn't seem to be interested in those capital investments.