eBay

edzzz_vinyl · ‎03-05-2019

I just started selling on eBay a couple months ago (been selling on another site for years) and I honestly do not understand why eBay would charge an extra fee to list more items. If those items sold, wouldn’t eBay make more money? Wouldn't 10% of more actual sales produce more profit than a listing fee? It seems really counter-productive to me.

gew6463 · ‎03-05-2019

This is just my opinion on the subject: Not all items sell. IN fact, many listings don't. So since Ebay is in the business of making money, this helps them make some either way. Which makes the stockholders happier I am sure.

More importantly IMO, if insertion fees were free across the board, sellers would be listing anything & everything on here. There would be a deluge of junk. Which would just clog it up. Because again, not everything sells. I've seen the same exact listings on here for YEARS by the some sellers (not duplicates). But many Sellers trim down (are pickier in) what they list if they actually have to pay for each listing after their freebies.

edzzz_vinyl · ‎03-05-2019

I do get that the fees might curb junk listings, but I guess my gripe is that my limit was raised to 200 (I think .. I can’t even find where that’s displayed). But last month I didn’t realize that I was being charged a fee for every item I listed after the first 50. I thought my raised limit meant that’s the number of listings before having to pay a fee. Then on my last invoice is showed that eBay took 25% of what I made. Because of the insertion fees.

I only sell records on here and it’s not my career. Some records are $5 .. some are $50+. I refuse to pay extra for the privilege of writing descriptions, taking and editing photos, and posting the item when, once it sells, eBay is already going to take 10% (higher than any of the other sites I've used). AND they have the nerve to take a cut of shipping! That is absolutely ridiculous, but I digress.

So, yes, the listing fee is a deterrent to junk being listed. But for me it’s a deterrent to posting ANYthing else. And if they’re going to charge a listing fee for every listing past the 50th, why bother setting a limit?

One or the other makes some sense. Both do not.

goodluckselling · ‎03-05-2019

eBay already has over One Billion active listings. eBay is not in need of a bunch more listings. Some categories have Millions of the same thing listed.

If there was no insertion fee here at eBay sellers would be listing anything and everything including trash just because it does not cost anything to list and eBay has a lot of traffic, so why not.

If it is not worth the cost of an insertion fee then it probably is not worth listing.
If eBay took away the listing fees they would probably raise the FVF to cover the lost revenue
More listings as you are suggesting has a lot of back side costs like handling even more phone calls from buyers and sellers, to buying more and more servers to handle the influx of new listings, MBG issues, lots of things we do not see day to day.

Good Luck Selling!

bigdeals.etc · ‎03-05-2019

A selling limit is ebay's way of easing you into the selling game. No offense, but generally ebay doesn't want a selling noob listings millions of dollars of items and making sales... and they find out the noob doesn't know what they are doing and upsetting all those buyers who bought their stuff.

Regarding listing fees. Yes the cost of listing an item is one of the things that should always be considered when deciding whether or not to list the item. Everyone's threshold is different. Some may find it worthwhile to pay and list their records to either make a profit or clean out their attic... while others may not and decide to just donate.

bigdeals.etc · ‎03-05-2019

@goodluckselling wrote:

If there was no insertion fee here at eBay sellers would be listing anything and everything including trash just because it does not cost anything to list and eBay has a lot of traffic, so why not.

As I recently said, if all listings were free I would list to sell my toenail clippings every week.

gew6463 · ‎03-05-2019

That was the first thing I thought of when I saw the title of this thread (yes, I saw your response on the other thread)..LOL

On behalf of all of us, thank you for being picky about what you list on Ebay

Of course, you never know..if the right person came along..stranger things have happened here

gew6463 · ‎03-05-2019

I do understand how that was confusing for you. Ebay does offer additional 'free' listing promos from time-to-time. So keep an eye open for those (usually offer will arrive through your Ebay messages, and you will need to click on the link to activate the deal). They don't send them to everyone, but many do get them. Once I got a store, the better offers stopped; but my husband still gets them on his non-store account.

Also, Ebay will be changing all listings to GTC around mid-March (just in case you didn't see the announcement). In a way, you will get more bang for your buck, as you will get 30 days for the 35cents. But you will need to also keep an eye on the automatic renewals every 30 days (if you are trying to rein in listing fees). If you start listings mid-month, you will not be hit with double fees for the rest of the year, just once a month.

edzzz_vinyl · ‎03-05-2019

I suppose my perspective is skewed since I only deal with records. Because the more records you have for sale, the higher the chances are of someone browsing your inventory and buying one or multiple albums (like someone does in a record store). And the more I sell, the more money eBay makes. Win, win.

Maybe I should’ve titled the post “what’s the point of having insertion fees AND seller limits”. Because it still doesn’t make sense to me to have both.

I understand that they start you out with a limited number of listings because of the noob factor, but once you prove that you’re not an idiot or a scammer, why even have a limit after that? If eBay is going to charge a listing fee for the 51st listing and over regardless, why even limit that sellers listings to 100 or 200? They’d make more in fees that way.

It’s just a bizarre policy.

edzzz_vinyl · ‎03-05-2019

@gew6463 wrote:
Also, Ebay will be changing all listings to GTC around mid-March (just in case you didn't see the announcement).

No, I didn't know this. My eBay days are numbered I think.

This past weekend, knowing I had 50 free listings, I posted about 24 new records. But even though I clicked "Sell similar item" on one of my existing 30 day listings, that somehow got switched to Good Til Canceled. I realized it this morning and called eBay to see of there was a way to switch it. Of course the only way to do that is to cancel and re-list them. But because I'd re-listed some of my existing items, I've already hit the 50 new listings mark. So to correct the mistake, I'd have to pay $.35 x 24.

So if every listing is going to be GTC, how will that work exactly? No more free listings? Or maybe if 1 of the 50 you have listed sells, next month you can replace that "slot" for free?

Ugh.

gew6463 · ‎03-05-2019

Just to correct myself slightly, all *fixed price* listings will be GTC. Auctions will continue as they are right now. I rarely do auctions, so I tend to think along the lines of fixed price.

You will still get your 50 freebies. But with the GTC, they automatically relist at the end of the 30 days. However, you can end them manually right before the relist (and then won't be charged the fee automatically) but often the last day or so is a good time to catch the eye of buyers. So ending it at that point may miss a sale. But of course, if you are wanting to swap out that listing for another (some sellers like to rotate inventory) you can end it early. As of right now, the blues have stated that sellers will *not* be penalized for ending the GTC listings early this way.

The longer GTC listings are supposed to give enough time to show up better with Google (Index? not sure of the correct term). I don't know how it all works, but I am willing to give it a try; though I would prefer 30 days was still an option. This new policy was in the spring update 'early' preview; we still have the spring update in April. So possibly more surprises still to come.

gew6463 · ‎03-05-2019

Looking at your feedback, it appears you are off to a good start. I see you already have your 10 detailed seller ratings. I'm not sure the general time-frame for raising limits on new accounts, but it wouldn't hurt to call & ask Ebay CS so you will know (If you haven't already). Even though I have been with Ebay for 15 years, I still had limits when I opened a second account for buying/selling. It's just the standard procedure here.

I know it must be hard starting out slow like this, especially if you are already an experienced seller in this category (elsewhere). I would encourage you to hang in there, as I know there are some successful vinyls sellers here. And also check forums on a regular basis. Any new changes always get a lot of attention here, and that way you won't get blind-sided when Ebay introduces new policies (something they are fond of doing). And also bring any problems here as well, as there are always members willing to help. I wish you much success!

edzzz_vinyl · ‎03-05-2019

Thanks for clarifying. I've generally used 30 day fixed price .. so, lovely! Sounds like eBay just loves to think of new ways to make its sellers jump through hoops.

edzzz_vinyl · ‎03-05-2019

@gew6463 wrote:
I'm not sure the general time-frame for raising limits on new accounts, but it wouldn't hurt to call & ask Ebay CS so you will know (If you haven't already).

Thanks, but my problem isn't with selling limits. It's the listing fees after the 50 free listings that I have an issue with. My selling limit has been raised to around 200, but to pay an additional fee for the last 150 when eBay is already going to take 10% (on shipping costs, too) when they sell is what irks me. After selling for over 2 years on a site that takes 8% on sales with no other fees or limits or anything, it seems a little penny-pinching and greedy.

Between that and now learning that the 30 day fixed price listings are going away soon I think I might be done with eBay. It was a fun 3 month experiment I guess.

Thanks for the info and good luck to all of you.

coolections · ‎03-05-2019

Actually it is exact opposite of what you think. The more free listings the more items sit without a sale. If there are 100 potential buyers and 200 items listed (50% sell-through). If there is 100 potential buyers and are 1000 listings (10% sell-through). FVF stay the same but Ebay profits on listing fees.