@kelsey503
While I understand your frustration and how you may have come to the conclusion you have I don't think it necessarily is the only one.
I've been on eBay for 20 years. For 15 of those years I never had a store but I certainly had been solicited by eBay to open one. I never did -- just had no interest. Did I stop getting free listing offers because I wasn't interested in opening store. Nope. I still got them. I can't tell you how many or how often because I didn't keep track. But it wasn't like I got a one-way ticket to Siberia when I didn't "upgrade."
But I can tell you two things:
- In the aggregate, eBay has been less generous in handing out free listings over the years -- particularly during the last couple of years. If you search this forum you'll find dozens of threads posted by sellers lamenting how infrequently free listing offers seem to come along any more.
- If you're annoyed as a non-store seller you don't get enough free listing offers, wait until you open a store. I got a couple at the end of last year but other than that -- zip, nada, zilch. The year before was better, but essentially, free listing promos for store owners occur almost never.
One could argue, well you're already getting free listings from eBay with your store. Well, no. The free listings I receive every month aren't "free" -- *I pay* eBay every month to receive "X" amount of listings -- half of which are useless to me as they are auction format which I have no need for, but that's another story.
One could also argue that if a store owner wants/needs more listings than they receive at their current store level, then they should upgrade to the next store level to get more. Well no. In my case, the next store level includes far more "free" listings per month than I would ever realistically use. Why would I pay more a month just to throw away half of the listings I'd get? That makes no sense.
If you ask eBay about free listing offers they will say they're distributed randomly. But it's not like they throw every seller's name in a huge hat and pull this month's winners from that. eBay is a data-driven company, and over the years they have become a lot more sophisticated in working their database and the offers they make to both buyers and sellers are far more targeted so not every buyer/seller will get the same offer/s or the same amount as the next guy.
For example, instead of getting "all-purpose" free listing offers, it's not uncommon these days to get an offer for free listings that are only good in one category like say, "auto parts." Or, you get an offer good for only auction listings. Or, an offer for free/discounted FVFs or if you use PayPal, etc.. All of these offers are made as a result of some serious number crunching and market research some of it driven by consumer buying trends,, eBay buyer behavior, an analysis of eBay's current listing "inventory," seller history, and more.
Since a lot of eBay's offers are so targeted these days, I think that also contributes to the *perception* sellers receive fewer offers than they did before. Used to be "all-purpose" free listing offers were the only game in town. Now, they are only one type of several that are offered, so proportionately, they occur less frequently in the mix.
If you want more free listings than you currently receive, you can always open another eBay account. Lots of sellers here do that. Or, maybe have one account that's non-store and one that is a store subscriber. More work, but it does increase your odds of getting more free listings.
Or, you could reconsider going the store route -- especially since eBay is adding a new "Starter" level store option in May for about $20/month. Subscribers will receive 300 "free" listings every month that can be used for auctions or BINs. Depending on how many listings you need or intend on using a month, this might be something think about. At least that way you'd be guaranteed to receive "X" amount of listings each month instead of relying on the "fickle finger of fate" to dole out some free listing offers to you.
HTH
