Insertion Fees: Less than 50 per month and still getting charged

[poidoggy]

I've been searching this topic and have seen a lot of Qs & As on it but I'm still not understanding why it is happening.

I don't have a store. I only sell CDs, DVDs, and Blu-rays all at fixed prices (no auctions). I always keep my inventory under 50 items to take advantage of the no insertion fees per month. Or so I think.  I have all titles listed as "Good 'Til Cancelled."  But even when a title is relisted automatically, I make sure my inventory is no more than 50 titles. When I sell an item, I will list a new item to get the total (noted in Seller Hub Overview). If I have any "left" I will add a new title for sale until it reaches 50.  If it says "50 used / 0 left" I will not add a new title.

On my latest invoice, I was charged $0.35 for each of five titles that were automatically relisted (none were newly listed).

Lots of answers say that it's no insertion fees for 50 titles per month.  Isn't that what I'm doing? Am I misunderstanding what that means?  Even though my total is always under 50, when a title expires and gets relisted, it's sort of adding it as a "new" title?  So it would be 51 even though the counter on the Seller Hub Overview never says "51"?

For example, as I type this, two titles are ending soon. But I have 49 titles in inventory. What happens if I add a new title to the inventory? Will those two titles be charged an insertion fee even though the total amount in my inventory is still 50?

Can someone explain (in layman's terms because frankly, eBay's explanations are confusing and I don't understand the generous people who answer these repeat questions) why I get charged those insertion fees?

Thank you (again)!

[nobody*s_perfect]

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@fern*wood wrote:

I'm sorry but ending your listings and starting again next month isn't going to help anything unless you understand what 50 free insertions means.  ...

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Exactly. The only way that strategy would make any difference is if any of the fixed price listings were due to roll over before Feb. 1.  

[poidoggy]

I'm everyone's worst student, the one who still doesn't "get it" even after you've tried to explain it numerous times.

When I relist my 49 ended items on February 1 (and relist one new item to make it 50), will they all count toward my 50 free insertions for February?

[nobody*s_perfect]

Yes.

[poidoggy]

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@nobody*s_perfect wrote:

Yes.

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Let's use this as a new starting point.  If I sell something in February, I should not list anything new because I have already used 50 free insertions and the countdown will still show "50/0."

BTW, how long do listings last?  28 days? So however many items I still have left should expire/relist at one time (since I listed them all at one time) before March 1 since February has 29 days this year.  Will those automatic re-listings count as more insertions in the month of February, and thereby being charged an insertion fee for all remaining items?

[nobody*s_perfect]

A fixed price listing will roll over on the following month, on the same date as it started.  A listing that you start on February 1 will roll over on March 1. 

[poidoggy]

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@nobody*s_perfect wrote:

A fixed price listing will roll over on the following month, on the same date as it started.  A listing that you start on February 1 will roll over on March 1. 

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So if I sold x titles in February, I should not list any new item in February since that would be the (50+x)th insertion for February.  If I try to list it, the fee at the bottom would say $0.35 (which is when I'll avoid listing it).

On March 1, the (50-x) titles left will be automatically relisted and use (50-x) of those free insertions. At that time, I can list 50-(50-x) new titles and use up all 50 free insertions for March.  Is this correct?

How the "used/left" counter was confusing me was that when I added a new title after selling something (even without an insertion fee), the counter would change by +1/-1 for each added title.  But when an unsold item expired and relisted, the counter would change again by +1/-1 but I wasn't aware of it being charged a new insertion fee. The counter wasn't indicating to me that I was going over the 50 free insertions. So that's why when I was told to look at the counter, I was confused since I thought I was using it correctly. When it says "50/0" I wouldn't add any new titles, but that didn't seem to matter since I was still being charged insertion fees for some relisted items.

[fern*wood]

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@poidoggy wrote:

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On March 1, the (50-x) titles left will be automatically relisted and use (50-x) of those free insertions. At that time, I can list 50-(50-x) new titles and use up all 50 free insertions for March.  Is this correct?

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I honestly don't know what you are saying here.  I'm sorry.  I'm sure you are frustrated, but I feel frustration too for failing to clear up your confusion.   I think you are wayy over thinking this. 

The number of items you sell don't play into the calculation of your 50 free insertions---only new listings you insert or old listings that roll/renew.  After you hit 50 of those in a given month, you will be charged an insertion fee for any new listing you start or old listing that rolls/renews. 

[poidoggy]

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@fern*wood wrote:

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@poidoggy wrote:

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On March 1, the (50-x) titles left will be automatically relisted and use (50-x) of those free insertions. At that time, I can list 50-(50-x) new titles and use up all 50 free insertions for March.  Is this correct?

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I honestly don't know what you are saying here.  I'm sorry.  I'm sure you are frustrated, but I feel frustration too for failing to clear up your confusion.   I think you are wayy over thinking this. 

The number of items you sell don't play into the calculation of your 50 free insertions---only new listings you insert or old listings that roll/renew.  After you hit 50 of those in a given month, you will be charged an insertion fee for any new listing you start or old listing that rolls/renews. 

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I am overthinking this but somehow the explanations are not clicking with me.   I understand the first two responses I received, but I couldn't connect it to my own situation and how they related to my "used/left" numbers.

x is the number of titles I could have sold in February.   x=3 (50-3=47)

For example:  On March 1, the 47 titles left will be automatically relisted and use 47 of those free insertions. On March 1, I can list 3 new titles and use up all 50 free insertions for March. Is this correct?

[nobody*s_perfect]

Yes.  Your 47 relists and 3 new listings will use up your 50 free insertions.

You can use those 3 leftover free insertions any time in March.

[poidoggy]

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@nobody*s_perfect wrote:

Yes.  Your 47 relists and 3 new listings will use up your 50 free insertions.

You can use those 3 leftover free insertions any time in March.

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This I understand, if all titles expire and get re-listed at the same time.

Was I getting messed up when items were expiring/re-listing on different dates throughout the month?  I want to understand what I was specifically doing wrong, so I don't do it again.

I know I was adding new titles just to make the inventory 50, which was wrong because at some point I already had used 50 free insertions and these new titles were making that total more than 50.

My situation:

If I had less than 50 items listed, every time I added a new title, there was always a non-zero number for "left" in the "used/left" counter.  When items were automatically re-listed (many times at different dates in the month), the "used" number would go up as it should.  If there was a non-zero number for "left" I thought that I could add a new title at any time.  Now I know that I was using the counter incorrectly, so when people tell me to look at the counter I'm more confused.  I ask myself how could I have added more than 50 per month if the "left" number was never 0?  And if it was "0" (like it is now), I wouldn't add any new titles until there was a non-zero there. 

I'm overthinking again, but I don't understand my error in detail.  I know I was inserting more than 50 items (new and re-listed), but not how I mistakenly added more than 50 when I was always checking the "used/left" counter.  So I was not using the counter correctly?

To prevent this from happening again, I should always make sure that all items expire at the same time.

[nobody*s_perfect]

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@poidoggy wrote: ....  If there was a non-zero number for "left" I thought that I could add a new title at any time.  ....

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You can.  That new listing would use up one of your free insertions. There's a possibility that you are mis-remembering your listing activities.  Or that the extra insertion fees came from listings that rolled over after you used up your 50  free insertions.  Try to move forward and not dwell on the past. 

[buyselljack2016]

Now you have it.

Starts out as 0/50 on the 1st day of each month.

Ends up as 50/0 when you have used your 50.

List 100 more items, that  promotion section stays at 50/0  and you pay a fee per listing.

It will remain at 50/0 until it resets on the 1st day of the next month.

Sometimes promotions are given out for extra listings. They have no affect on that 50/0.  They have their on stats. If the "extra promotion" listings renew(relist) they will come out of your monthly 0/50 allotment. (or 50/0) < fee territory

If it shows that you have "0" left,.............................  then  you have "0" left.

[poidoggy]

So here's what I have figured out.  I'm still overthinking this and not moving on... yet. 😁

My fixed-price items expire on different dates, and so they are re-inserted on different dates throughout the month.

Example:  January 10 might show 20/30 insertions, which means 20 items got automatically re-inserted, and 30 more are going to be automatically re-inserted later throughout the month.

Say I sell 2 items.  There can be one of two scenarios:

Scenario 1:  I sold items that were already re-inserted.

• This will make my counter still show 20/30, and I should not insert 2 items to replace the items I sold.  If I do, since I already used 20, and there are 30 more remaining, the 2 new items will bring my total insertion count to 52.

Scenario 2:  I sold items that were not already re-inserted.

• This will make my counter still show 20/30.  However, I can insert 2 items to replace the items I sold.  They will replace the re-insertions that would have happened had the items not been sold.

I was not paying attention to the expiration date of the listing of sold items.

SO, my new question to myself was whether or not I can determine the expiration date of the listing of the sold item.  I found that there is!  The "start date" in the description of the item gives me a clue.

• If I sell an item before the day of the month it was listed, then I can list a new item as it has not been re-inserted.
• If I sell an item after the day of the month it was listed, then I cannot list a new item.

I thought it was simpler than this... 🤔  It all comes down to when an item expires, and mine were expiring at different dates of the month.

BTW, if an item was listed on the 30th, when will it be re-inserted in February?  Or if it got listed on the 31st, when will it be re-inserted in a month with only 30 days?

[pjcdn2005]

If you listed an item on Jan 30, it would relist on the last day of February.

At the risk of making things more confusing,  you could look at it in a different way. I’m not sure what shows in My eBay but on sellers hub the ending date shows for each listing and they can be sorted do that you see which ones are ending first.  So  if you see that you have 2 listings renewing the following day and you have already used your 50 free listings, you can end those 2 listings before they renew.  

[moondogblues]

General reply...

I am glad I don't sell here anymore....my head hurts just reading through this, math not being my strong suit. Glad for the explanations though and good luck to the OP.