I have two accounts that I use to sell coins. Well, actually three, but the third one I rarely use. The first two usually get one or two free listing promotions from eBay per month in addition to the 50 free listings that everyone gets per month. I sell cheap coins so free listings are the only way it is viable. Usually my main two accounts get all the same promotions, while the third one never gets anything, which is why I don't use it much. I have what I'll call account A which is my oldest and main account, which I also use for buying. Account B I use only for selling, and much of what I sell there is duplicates of what I'm selling on account A. I'd say Account A gets the most sales, and I usually sell the pricier items here. All of a sudden this month Account A has gotten no promotions at all, while account B has now gotten two separate 500 free listings promotions. I ended up transferring most of my listings to Account B because otherwise the coins are just sitting around this month. I'm wondering if any of you who sell on eBay have any insight into how these free listings are awarded, and why my main account suddenly isn't getting them? If they don't come back it's going to put a serious cramp in my selling, and if both accounts stop getting these I'll be out of business other than my 50 per month.
I see absolutely no rhyme or reason to when eBay offers buying and selling incentives . . . for most of January I saw no significant incentives one way or the other. Today I received the most attractive offer for both buying and selling that I've ever seen . . . 10% eBucks buying 2/21/17 through 2/23/17 and 10% for listing and selling between 2/21/17 and 3/05/17. I'll definitely find a way to take advantage of those offers while they're in effect.
Power-sellers get special deals too, but I'm not one, so I don't know what you get. If eBay was smart, they would let store owners select the ratio between auction and BIN. In my case, I know ten times as much about my buyers and my merchandise THAN THEY DO. I have written them repeatedly about this change, and never once the courtesy of a reply. Even this simplification would help - store owner's choice, every month: Default ratio: 250 auction + 250 BIN 1st choice: 200 auction + 300 BIN 2nd choice: 150 auction + 350 BIN 3rd choice: 100 auction + 400 BIN and conversely, higher auction and lower BIN for choices 4 through 6... My choice would be 100 auction + 400 BIN. I sell MUCH more BIN than by auctions.
HiddenDragon, would this help you? Create a LOT of listings in "draft" format. Then, when they announce a 2-day deal for free listings, or higher eBay Bucks, you can convert those drafts to active listings very simply, and you don't have to scramble and work 12 hours a day to take advantage of similar deals.
I don't think I've ever received a buying promotion. I see a lot of people on here talk about them though. You must need to either spend a lot of money or buy high ticket items.
I have it down so that I'm pretty quick about it, but I appreciate the idea. It's mostly relistings after awhile, which is why it is a pain to have to move all my expired listings to a new account. The big problem is that you get repeat customers after awhile, but if you stop listing new coins then they'll stop coming back. If my account goes a few months with just a few listings I'll lose people.
I also sell more BIN. I'm not a store owner because the economics don't make sense for me. I might sell 30-50 coins a month for an average of $1.30 - $1.50 each. It's small potatoes but it adds up. It would make sense for eBay to just give a seller who lists low priced items more free listings because they'll make more money off me in the end, but people would probably abuse that. But they're not making any money when I'm not selling.
You might look at eBid. I have an account there, and 2 or 3 listings to keep it "alive," but no time to build another enterprise. Maybe this summer.
I've used other sites to buy on occasion, but they don't get enough traffic to make selling worthwhile for me.
I have two eBay accounts one is a regular account and the other has a basic store account. The last two months I have not gotten any free listings from them. I think they are trying to get seller to break down and pay for their listings after their free listings expire. I have about 330 items in my store and even with 250 fixed price 30 day listings and another 250 10 day auctions this will not support the 330 items for the whole month, so after the middle of the month I cut back and ration my selling so that I use just my free ones by the end of the month. I think flea bay is being penny wise and point foolish. They try to play each seller like a fiddle to get them to the point where they just give up and start paying for extra listings, which I will not do in principle. They don’t get any money from me except if the item sells. I pay $19.95 per month for my store and the 500 free listings which i do not mind paying. The store is an absolute must if you have over 300 listings. The second account has no store so I only get 50 listings per month which goes pretty fast. would like to hear from other flea bay sellers like me. buffnixx
They have been doing that for a while. It's what has always held them back and why their stock price is a fraction of Amazons.
Here is a related idea I have submitted to eBay over and over, NEVER YET with the courtesy of a reply or an acknowledgment, not even ONCE. I know 100 times more about my inventory and my customers than eBay does. Yet (with a basic Store) they force me to take 250 auctions and 250 BINs, like the OP. I say give us a choice of types -- it doesn't have to be complicated. Give us a choice of one of the following 5 "mixes" to get our 500: 50 auction and 450 BIN 150 auction and 350 BIN 250 auction and 250 BIN 350 auction and 150 BIN 450 auction and 50 BIN Five choices is adequate, to be selected 2 days before the end of the month, for the following month. Nearly always, I would choose 50 auction and 450 BIN, but I want the flexibility to make a change, in case I pick up something suitable for auction. I sell 5x as much BIN as I do auction. I'd predict sales and earnings would go up at least 3% to 5% year over year if they LISTENED to their sellers -- not just this idea, but many others too. And it wouldn't cost them a dime. I always have unused "auction" listings at the end of the month, and it's just money wasted. They are IDIOTS, and that's being charitable. I hope the CEO reads this. I might add eBay keeps my emailbox full of crap, day and night. If they have time for that, they have time to give us a choice about the selling mix. I also dislike their sneaky and underhanded way of charging commission on postage, too. I can buy all the postage I want for 50% to 60% of face value, so it does not matter quite so much. Finally, I have gotten about 10 free listings, one way or another, since the beginning of the year. Like whoopee... Don't get me started about eBay. Oops, too late!
Okay so let me let the cat out of the bag. Their policy has nothing to do with helping you. They want their money and design everything about it. It's set so you pay for more listings or higher store.
That's not the point at all. The point IS they would make even MORE money if they gave us the choice I described. More sales, more money. I didn't request lower commission rates or lower listing fees, I merely said, let us run our business without BIG BROTHER sticking his nose into the details. We'll adjourn a moment while you catch the cat and stuff him back in the bag. Wear welder's mitts and eye protection.
For example of my flea bay store, it you have 250 buy-it-nows which you run for 30 days since that covers the whole month, and 250 10-day auctions which will only support one-third of another 250 auctions for the whole month, which is 83 auctions, then you have 250 BIN(30 day) plus 83 auctions (10-day) which equals 333 items you can sell over the span of a month and then that is it. If you have 500 auctions/bin you have a lot of stuff sitting idle after the middle of the month. Saying they are cheapskates is being kind. I predict this will eventually change as their profits level off and start to drop.
Sellers are not stupid. I predict some major changes to this selling mix from ebay in the future. One thing they do now for store owners like me is give you a coupon for supplies at the end of each quarter. This has really cut down on my mailing expenses, to almost zero. I buy tape and padded mailers and that seems’ to last me most of the quarter. but they are still pikers on the free ads now.
Ebay has made the selling environment too complicated. You would think they would give a seller without a store something like 100 to 200 free ads. there profits would go up with more sales only a matter of time before they have to make changes people are not stupid they are trying to nickel and dime their sellers to death
It's not free you will still pay "Final Value Fees" when anything sells. I've got two promotions that have been offered to me and I simply figure what I need to charge for either offer price or shipping charges to make money. It doesn't sell I'm not charged, that has checked out and I re-list it again, but I'm a low volume seller too.
You can save a good deal of time (but not money) by running your BINs as "good until cancelled" instead of 30 days. Since you can edit them anytime, I run spot checks during the month, changing wording and/or prices, based on the number of hits for a specific BIN. Those listings automatically roll over on the 1st of the month and you don't have to re-do them or adjust them any further, unless you want to. Same cost to you.