Increased monthly zero insertion fee listings for most sellers starting August 1

[jimsvinylvault]

Over a year ago I had over 3,000 items listed within the music (e.g. records) category. Therefore, I was system forced to move from a Premium Store to the much more expensive Anchor Store.
To this date I have just increased my inventory to 6,000 items.....and with my store selling low dollar and low volume, I am barely netting enough to pay my monthly eBay invoice. As I have told
several members of the eBay Seller Support team, unless eBay creates something in between the Premium and Anchor Stores (e.g. "5,000 FREE listings for a monthly contract rate of let's say
$175....okay, how about $200.00).

But to the point of this posting. I now read eBay's posting that IF I sign-up for MP, my Anchor Store will see an increase of 75,000 MORE free listings....pardon me, but whoopie...I can't even use
the 10,000. HOWEVER, that same eBay article states that the Basic Store moves from 250 free listings to 350 free listings; AND will now (under MP) include 10,000 more FREE LISTINGS!
Okay you smarties, I know you are now ahead of me....but:

My currently Anchor Store contract was renewed on June 1, 2020. Sooooo, if I suddenly decided to get 'some religion' and sign-up for Managed Payments, can I then MOVE DOWN to the Basic
Store (at whatever the current rate is for a 12-month contract) WITHOUT PAYING A PENALTY?

PLEASE, no guesswork.....expert answers (are you reading this eBay?) desperately desired. And I know that there are other people in the same 'boat' as me.....whether or not they want to go
with MP.

[mightymouse]

Yes as long as you have a store you can move up or down

[collectfest]

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@jimsvinylvault wrote:

Over a year ago I had over 3,000 items listed within the music (e.g. records) category. Therefore, I was system forced to move from a Premium Store to the much more expensive Anchor Store.
To this date I have just increased my inventory to 6,000 items.....and with my store selling low dollar and low volume, I am barely netting enough to pay my monthly eBay invoice. As I have told
several members of the eBay Seller Support team, unless eBay creates something in between the Premium and Anchor Stores (e.g. "5,000 FREE listings for a monthly contract rate of let's say
$175....okay, how about $200.00).

But to the point of this posting. I now read eBay's posting that IF I sign-up for MP, my Anchor Store will see an increase of 75,000 MORE free listings....pardon me, but whoopie...I can't even use
the 10,000. HOWEVER, that same eBay article states that the Basic Store moves from 250 free listings to 350 free listings; AND will now (under MP) include 10,000 more FREE LISTINGS!
Okay you smarties, I know you are now ahead of me....but:

My currently Anchor Store contract was renewed on June 1, 2020. Sooooo, if I suddenly decided to get 'some religion' and sign-up for Managed Payments, can I then MOVE DOWN to the Basic
Store (at whatever the current rate is for a 12-month contract) WITHOUT PAYING A PENALTY?

PLEASE, no guesswork.....expert answers (are you reading this eBay?) desperately desired. And I know that there are other people in the same 'boat' as me.....whether or not they want to go
with MP.

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It is my understanding if you move DOWN, they is a penalty. If you call they will tell you. I called and did chat with the opposite question, if I move up is there a penalty?

That's where I received my answer, move up no penalty, move down penalty.

You mentioned you might sign up for MP.  My understanding, MP will be eventually required by all. Are you planning to stop selling? 

Good luck

[points13]

Another question. So you move down penalty or not and you have been invited and sign up for MP and get the extra 10,000 listings, how long does that last?

is that a short term promo?

is it forever?

I have not been invited yet so is it available to me?

will everyone with a basic store eventually get 10,000 since we will all get MP sooner or later. 

[jimsvinylvault]

Hi thanks for your posting!  I haven't spoken with Seller Support yet....not that I can get through with all this MP going on....but I tend to believe what you were told: (a) "Move UP.....no penalty to your existing contract."; but (b) "Move DOWN....there WILL BE some sort of penalty for lowering one's existing contract."  But IF there is a penalty for moving from my existing Anchor Store contract down to a new Basic Store contract.....how much; and does the overall savings TO ME justify it?

"Am I planning on stopping selling?":  Quickly put....I foolishly got into this vinyl 'hobby' to keep myself busy upon my health-enforced IBM retirement back in April 2003.  (In net, I bought 90,000 AND 10,000 45rpm records and/or picture sleeves.)  As health (i.e. Type II diabetes AND heart disease) and age (I will turn 78 on September 11th), I have committed to my family that whatever I still have left within this MASSIVE vinyl inventory (which includes a HUGE Elvis Presley vinyl collection....and more 45's/LP's) will be donated after working with my accountant regarding tax break considerations.  Take care!

[jimsvinylvault]

Thanks for posting!  And you just added another MP-associated question to those of mine:  "Is the 10,000 ADDITIONAL FREE LISTINGS a one-time benefit; or has the Basic Store (in particular) now been modified for ever more.  Since they announced that under MP, the Basic Store was moving from 250 to 350 FREE LISTINGS, I am willing to bet that the 10,000 is a one-time shot.  But their current posting of data available to all of us DOES NOT address that....so I/we will see some time down-the-road.   As it 'stands' right now, I am at 'parade rest' as it pertains to MP.....and I will wait for them either to 'invite' me or at least CLARIFY everything about the 'world' of Managed Payments.

THANKS to everyone for reviewing; and especially to the few that posted their assessment to my questions.

[collectfest]

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@jimsvinylvault wrote:

Hi thanks for your posting!  I haven't spoken with Seller Support yet....not that I can get through with all this MP going on....but I tend to believe what you were told: (a) "Move UP.....no penalty to your existing contract."; but (b) "Move DOWN....there WILL BE some sort of penalty for lowering one's existing contract."  But IF there is a penalty for moving from my existing Anchor Store contract down to a new Basic Store contract.....how much; and does the overall savings TO ME justify it?

"Am I planning on stopping selling?":  Quickly put....I foolishly got into this vinyl 'hobby' to keep myself busy upon my health-enforced IBM retirement back in April 2003.  (In net, I bought 90,000 AND 10,000 45rpm records and/or picture sleeves.)  As health (i.e. Type II diabetes AND heart disease) and age (I will turn 78 on September 11th), I have committed to my family that whatever I still have left within this MASSIVE vinyl inventory (which includes a HUGE Elvis Presley vinyl collection....and more 45's/LP's) will be donated after working with my accountant regarding tax break considerations.  Take care!

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Hope you keep selling, you've got a great site, a lot of start up work! You know the more I think about it I think there is a chart under the different selling levels spelling out the penalties.

So I take it you wouldn't recommend the higher store levels?

Regards

[nobody*s_perfect]

The policies and penalties regarding changing or canceling your annual-type Store subscription are detailed in the user agreement.  See the "Early termination fee" chart in Section 4.  The penalty for canceling the annual subscription or reducing the level is based on the level of the store subscription and how many months were left on it. Also, if you change  the subscription level (rather than cancel) the 12-month calendar is re-set.

http://pages.ebay.com/stores/subscriptionterms.html

[nobody*s_perfect]

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@jimsvinylvault wrote:

Thanks for posting!  And you just added another MP-associated question to those of mine:  "Is the 10,000 ADDITIONAL FREE LISTINGS a one-time benefit; or has the Basic Store (in particular) now been modified for ever more.  Since they announced that under MP, the Basic Store was moving from 250 to 350 FREE LISTINGS, I am willing to bet that the 10,000 is a one-time shot.  But their current posting of data available to all of us DOES NOT address that....so I/we will see some time down-the-road.   As it 'stands' right now, I am at 'parade rest' as it pertains to MP.....and I will wait for them either to 'invite' me or at least CLARIFY everything about the 'world' of Managed Payments.

THANKS to everyone for reviewing; and especially to the few that posted their assessment to my questions.

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You need to read the actual Announcement, which says, "Starting August 1, 2020, you will get a permanent increase in monthly zero insertion fee listings".

https://pages.ebay.com/seller-center/service-and-payments/insertion-fees-update.html

[jimsvinylvault]

Well as I hopefully kind of explained, one is forced to do the math.  I use to have a Premium Store, but once I got up somewhere between 2,000 and 3,000 items (I forget the exact breaking point, but it is easy to calculate) I realized that I would be paying more for the Premium Store free listings PLUS a certain number of insertion/relisting fees, that I was FORCED to move up to the Anchor Store.  There I get 10,000 free listings, but I am only 60% of the way there......with probably no time left on my 'clock' to make the full 10,000.....and yet I am paying $299.95 per month for the store.....which does not work for a low dollar (i.e. average of about  $4.00 per 45rpm) and low volume (average about 3-4 sales per day.  I would shut down the store TODAY, but I am stubborn....I got me into this mess and I will give me 26 more months to (hopefully) work my way out of it so that my lovely wife doesn't get 'saddled' with the boxes and boxes....filing cabinets and filing cabinets....full of vinyl and/or paper associated products.

[jimsvinylvault]

I/we did.....it's 'tricky'.  Just looking at the Basic Store, one can see that eBay will be increasing their 250 free listings to 350.....and then it mentions the 10,000......I/we would like to have seen the word 'PERMANENT'... because you can come away with the impression that it is a one-time bonus for signing up with Managed Payments.

FOR ALL:  At a suggestion (and as an intended helping hand) to a reluctant friend that is 'ignoring' his July 15th ';invitation', I just tried to sign-up for MP.  (Which I probably do in not before, but after the official invitation.)  I got so bloody tangled up trying to provide MP with the necessary bank account information that I currently use for my PayPal transfers......THAT I ABORTED MY EFFORT!  MAYBE....MAYBE...I will try again next week IF I can get some excellent help from eBay's MP support personnel.......!  In the meantime, it's back to my vinyl jungle!

[jimsvinylvault]

Thanks!  I just quickly read it....not 100%, but enough to  get confirmation that the answer is: (1) Moving up to a store with more benefits.....it's (quickly read) okay...maybe some sort of lowly prorated cost; BUT (2) Moving down to a store with less benefits....read more thoroughly.....this will cost me.  So I am left with that I must do some more 'mathematical homework' to see how costly it will be for me to move DOWN from an EXPENSIVE Anchor Store to a much cheaper Basic Store (IF the 10,000 FREE listings for MUSIC is indeed a permanent benefit).

Thanks for the help.  Now as I just posted, it's back to my vinyl jungle....only 26 months left....and 50,000++++ more items to consider for eBay (and no other site...enough is enough) insertion.  Take care everyone!

[points13]

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@nobody*s_perfect wrote:

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You need to read the actual Announcement, which says, "Starting August 1, 2020, you will get a permanent increase in monthly zero insertion fee listings".

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Yep I read it. It just seems odd to me the large incentive on all store levels to join something that we all are going to have to join very soon as it is. If the 10,000 for basic is permanent when in MP and everyone will be there soon why bother raising the non MP from 250 to 350. And I can see demand to upgrade stores way down with the possibility of many downgrades. 

Maybe it is just a change in tactics to look for revenue from FVF's vs store subscription fees.

[my-cottage-books-and-antiques]

No, ebay has confirmed you will pay the early termination penalty if you do that. Please see this week's Weekly Chat. (I'm assuming you have an Annual, not monthly, store subscription....if you have a monthly store subscription, you can downgrade without penalty. That's why people pay more for a monthly subscription.)

[luckythewinner]

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@jimsvinylvault wrote:

Well as I hopefully kind of explained, one is forced to do the math.

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IMHO you should not forget to do the "big-picture" math.

You stated that with your anchor store, you are barely able to pay your eBay invoice each month. That means you are doing all this work for nothing other than the enjoyment of this "foolish" hobby you started back in 2003. 

Even if there is no penalty to downgrade your store to Basic, downgrading from an Anchor Store to a Basic Store would only save you $278 a month.

At 78 years old, is it worth spending all that time sorting, listing, and shipping all those records just to get an extra $278 a month ... instead of just getting with your accountant and donating them now?