This is part of an email I got from Ebay today. Fee updates encourage use of listing formats and durations for greater selling success To improve the visibility of sought-after merchandise—and help sellers increase their sales—eBay is introducing a number of updates to eBay's listing fees and features on May 1. Changes include: Unlimited insertion fee credits for listings that sell in auction. As an incentive for using the auction-style format successfully, sellers will be credited for the insertion fee on auction-style listings when that item sells (exclusions apply †). Adjustments to monthly allotments of free listings. eBay will update the monthly allotments of free listings*—zero insertion fees—for both eBay Stores subscribers and sellers without an eBay Store. The 10-day duration on auction-style listings will no longer have an added feature fee. Sellers can maximize visibility and enjoy our longest duration for auction-style listings. A $1 special duration feature fee per listing for sellers who choose 1- or 3-day auction-style listings. Charging this fee will help discourage the use of shorter durations where they are least successful. Reserve price will increase. This feature fee will increase in price to the greater of $3, or 2% of the reserve price (the minimum price that must be met for your item to sell), with a cap of $100.
Just read through my email. Kinda' funny really, you get a fee credit when you sell something in the auction format but lose it with increased insertion fees.
I hate sitting around for 10 days waiting for somebody to bid on my item. And a 10 day auction means 7 more days I wait to get paid, over a 3 day auction. No thanks, Ebay. Rick L.
Looks fine to me. The insertion credit is a great deal. Donohue must have cleaned out his desk and departed, he would never have approved these bennies...
My impression on the 1-3 day auctions is that counterfeits are often sold this way to avoid being outed, reported, and killed. The $1 fee will either expose these people to a guaranteed downside to listing fakes or a higher risk of having their listings cancelled. I'm sure this is an unintended side-effect, since I'd be giving eBay far too much credit if I thought otherwise.
The only upside to this is the "possibility" of more folks actually looking at the listing because the reality is that the real bidding doesn't usually occur until the final minute of the listing. And I really dislike this "fee credit" thingy since the credit only takes effect at the end of the billing cycle with the invoice. Some folks like to keep their account paid up when Items sell. I think that the "eBay Team" needs to start selling coins so that they can see how goofy some of these rule changes can be since there is NO ABSOLUTE formula for selling on eBay using the Auction Format.
I'm not sure what your beef is. No one says you have to list for 10 days. They are just saying they aren't going to charge you extra if you do. So you can stay with the 7 day listing with no change from the current fees. But if you want to go shorter then you will have higher fees.
Can you explain what this means to someone who is selling a Morgan Silver Dollar for about $200 or a Saint-Gaudens DE for $1,500 ? What fees do they pay NOW and what will they pay NEXT ?
No change, as far as I can tell, for a 5-day or 7-day auction. A lower insertion fee if you previously used 10-day auctions; a higher fee if you previously used 1-day or 3-day auctions. And, lower insertion fees (via rebate) if your item sells. This is all an experiment to juice up turnover, which is where eBay makes its highest marginal rate of return.
I've bought but never sold on Ebay so some of this is over my head. Right now...for a 5- or 7-day auction.....how much in (total) fees will something cost for a the items I listed above ? Is it fixed, a %, or a combination ? If someone BUYS IT NOW on Day 1, does that change anything ? I always hear back from coin sellers that they can't be more price flexible because they have fees. They make it seem like the fees are 5-10% of the coin (for Saints, at least).
Here is a link to all the fees on eBay: http://pages.ebay.com/help/sell/fees.html "Buy It Now" doesn't change the fees. Selling cars, real estate, etc., has a whole different set of rules which I don't know. (I've been on eBay 11 years, with a perfect 100% 2110 Feedback, and probably 3,500 transactions overall), as in recent years, I buy more than I sell.
These fee updates were clearly created to modify seller behavior, not to just boost eBay fee revenue. All the updates are positive changes, in my opinion, and should have been executed a long time ago. eBay is finally taking some small steps to incentivize sellers to create listings that will actually sell. Fewer auctions with reserves, more auction listings priced to sell, and a greater proportion of auction listings to BIN listings.
(1) Does Ebay care about auctions vs. BIN if the fees are the same ? (2) I agree...too much stuff there NEVER sells. I mean, unless it's an obscure item that people didn't look for in your 1st listing, if you get NO BIDS or the reserve isn't met, clearly, your price is too high. I would say that more than HALF of the Saint Gaudens listing I check out for MS coins have NO activity. Then they are usually re-listed for the same price. The sellers are basically saying: "I'll get my price, or I'll re-list another 2 or 3 or 4 or more times." I have contacted many of these sellers; I'd say about 1/4 or 1/3rd are willing to come down to reasonable prices for their (mostly common) coins. Say, $100 - $150 or so. Other won't cut at all. Excuses I get are Ebay fees or they are into the coin for a high price (i.e., when gold/Saints were much higher). I talk to some people who are high on a common coin or non-special by close to 20-25% (sometimes more !!). I ask them if there's something I am missing or not seeing from their pictures, and no, just a regular coin for the Mint State. I have no idea who is going to buy a coin like that when there are others on Ebay for $250 less, which itself is a bit high for retail (but at least semi-respectable). I mean, when you can get an MS-65 1924 Saint for about $1,750 then paying $1,850 for one you like is somewhat justifiable. But I recently saw a bunch no better -- and maybe no worse, FWIW -- where the seller wanted $2,200 or more. Unreal.... Maybe they're just hoping to get lucky. I have no idea.
