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)!

[dhbookds]

Are you remembering to count the ones that sold?  Right now you have 49 listed.....but you've sold 7 so it certainly sounds like you listed more than 50 this month.......

[this*old*attic]

DH is right - it’s 50 total for the month, not a running 50 items at all times.

If you have 45, sell 2, then add and sell another and then add 5 - you’ll pay for 1 because 45+1+5=51

[fern*wood]

Just keep an eye on the available remaining listings under promotional offers.  As others have stated, it doesn't matter how many you currently have listed, it matters how many have been listed throughout the month.  Listing something and having it sell won't give you an additional free listing to use.  Yes, listings from last month that roll over and renew this month, also count. 

[lastade*]

I use the classic view on my Laptop because I can see how many listings I have used.  My 50 free listing show under the heading ¨promotional offers¨ and I see how many I have used at the bottom of the classic view page.    I monitor the listings that are about to roll over in the next few days in my Active list.  My list of Active listings I can see from the date ending soonest.  I don´t wait until the last day of the rollover date because I might be busy that day.   If I see 5 are going to roll over 2 days from now.  I look down at the bottom of my page to see how many free listings I have left.  If I only have 2 left for the month, I evaluate which items I wish to roll over.  Then I end 3 of the listings even though they were not due to rollover for a few days.   Since Ebay discontinued the 30 day listing option you have to babysit your listings if you do not want to pay the fees. 

Some other sellers might do this differently but this method works for me.  Sometimes an item may not get a full 30 days on the Active list.  But it is ok because it will have a fresh start when I relist it the next time.  I like to rotate my stock.

I don´t know what view you are looking at, maybe if you do not work from a laptop it may be different and you can´t see your ending soonest dates.  

[nobody*s_perfect]

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@poidoggy wrote: ... even when a title is relisted automatically, I make sure my inventory is no more than 50 titles. ...  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"?......

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I think the others have explained it well, but here's another way of looking at it:  What counts is that you get 50 free basic insertion fees each calendar month.  Not 50 listings live at a time. When a listing goes live or relists, that uses up one of your 50 free insertions for the month.  That 51st listing or relist will be charged for the insertion fee regardless of how many other active listings you have.

You can see the countdown of your 50 free insertions in your seller hub in the section called "Promotional offers."

https://www.ebay.com/sh/ovw

[luckythewinner]

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@poidoggy wrote:

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)!

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In layman's terms, you are confusing current listing count with insertions. 

eBay allows you 50 free insertions per month. 

If you list 20 items on January 1, then you have used 20 of your free January insertions. 

If those items all sell by January 10th and you list another 20 items, you have now used 40 of your free January insertions. 

If those items all sell by January 20th and you list another 20 items, you will use your remaining 10 free January insertions and will also be charged for the other 10.  

From that point on, any item you list in January will incur an insertion fee. 

[poidoggy]

Thanks to all of you who explained it to me.

What is confusing is that when I list a new item, the fee at the bottom of the page says $0.00. What fee is that? Am I mistaking that for insertion fee? 

Sometimes I see $0.35 so I won't list it unless it says $0.00.

And why does it say how many listings I have "left" out of 50? That seems misleading after how you all explained it

[kensgiftshop]

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@poidoggy wrote:

What is confusing is that when I list a new item, the fee at the bottom of the page says $0.00.

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When you list a new item, you might be OK at the time, but you have to figure any listings that might renew later.

[nobody*s_perfect]

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@poidoggy wrote: ... why does it say how many listings I have "left" out of 50? ...

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No, that's not misleading.

Your counter for your 50 monthly free insertions re-sets at midnight on the first of the month.  It starts out at 50. Then every time you set up a new listing or a listing relists, you use up one of the free insertions, and the number that you have left decreases by one.

If you are setting up a listing and it says that the insertion fee is zero, that means it will use up one of your monthly free insertions.

[pjcdn2005]

If you are seeing a .35 fee even though you still have some of your 50 free listings left, you might have an optional feature checked off. Check to see if gallery plus is checked off in some of your listings. I believe there is a charge for it in the category that you list in.

[poidoggy]

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@pjcdn2005 wrote:

If you are seeing a .35 fee even though you still have some of your 50 free listings left, you might have an optional feature checked off. Check to see if gallery plus is checked off in some of your listings. I believe there is a charge for it in the category that you list in.

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I rechecked and I do not have any of the extras checked.

[poidoggy]

So I have to make sure that (within a calendar month) that

Amount of re-listings + amount of sold items= 50?

What's throwing me off is when re-listings happen inside of a calendar month, and I'm not keeping track of what happens within a calendar month.

So I just ended all of my listings to restart. I will relist 50 titles on February 1. If I sell anything during February, I won't list anything new until March 1.

[nobody*s_perfect]

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@poidoggy wrote: Amount of re-listings + amount of sold items= 50? ....

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No. Number of relistings plus number of new listings = 50.  

It doesn't matter whether the item sold or not. All that matters is the start/relist of a listing; whatever happens after that doesn't matter (sold, expired, ended by you unsold, accepted offer, etc.).   It's about insertion fees.

[fern*wood]

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.   Just look at your available freebies in the promotion area of your ebay page.  It counts them down for you.