auction fees in basic stores

[cridco]

Hi, I am thinking of opening a basic store. Are auctions for items in collectables category still free within a basic store? Thanks

[twyngwyn]

yes

https://www.ebay.com.au/help/selling/fees-credits-invoices/ebay-stores-selling-fees?id=4122&st=3&pos...

[curraone]

Once you sign up for managed payments, which we all have to do in the end, all yiour listings will be free.

[found-in-australia]

No, signing up to managed payments does not remove the auction penalty fees. It may change once you are put into that system, but signing up to it when required to does not stop you from being "financially punished" (their words in a phone call) for the supposedly bad behaviour  running an auction business on the Australian branch of the world's largest person to person online auction site.

Yes, SELECTED collectables categories are included as free listings with a store, but the following categories are deemed NOT to be collectables for that purpose:
All of the sporting memorabilia categories, which are sub categories of sporting goods.

Vintage toys.

Antiquarian and collectable books

Music Memorabilia

Movie Memorabilia

Vintage Clothing

Vintage and Antique Jewellery

Vintage Musical Instruments

Vintage car parts

et al

And also bear in mind that Ebay has created a system where they have duplicated some collectables categories into sub sections of non-collectable categories, and use the search mechanism to encourage buyers to go into the supposedly non-collectable categories and not see the items in the collectables category - for example searches for car or tractor brochures, where new buyers are directed into the later made sub catageories in the Car Parts and Industrial: Agriculture sections, and the collectables advertising automotive, advertising agriculture and automobilia categories are thus given reduced search visibility.

There are those here that will say I am selfish for believing that I should not financially punished or penalised for the appalling behaviour of setting up a small auction based business on Ebay.com before there was even an Ebay Australia, or the bad behaviour of moving much of that business onto the Australian site once it was established and before they had fixed price listings. There willl at least one here who will feel that I am unfairly asking Ebay (Australia) for charity by not wanting to be paying a $3.00 penalty listing fee for running for the bad behaviour of listing legitimate auctions in categories that are deemed not to fall into the selected collectables categories.

And... Yes, I am that selfish.

I will also be told that if I don't like it, I should take my auctions elsewhere. In 2017, after nineteen and a half years on Ebay,  I did wind down my Ebay selling and returned to running live auctions, setting up a country auction room, and running semi-regular live auctions. My last auction was held on 22nd March, 2020 two days before Australia effectively went into lockdown. At this stage my big advantage of being able to run live auctions indoors in any weather, is now my big disadvantage, and social disancing laws probably won't allow me to re-open for at least another six months, if all goes according to plan, once the vaccine is rolled out to a sufficient percentage of the Australian population. So, proving what an appalling human being I am, once I was forced to wind down my live auction business, I returned to Ebay where I had a well established reputation, returned to running auctions (I have been involved in auctions my whole life, and don't believe that it is an immoral way of trading), and STILL selfishly resent that I should ever have been financially punished for setting up an auction business on the world's largest person to person online auction site.

Regards, Kevin

[curraone]

No, signing up to managed payments does not remove the auction penalty fees

What are auction penalty fees?

[found-in-australia]

With a store, the $3.00 fee for listing an auction in any "non-collectable" category, which includes the collectable categories that I listed above, is an intentional and targetted auction penalty fee (eg: Ebay deems that sporting memorabilia is not a collectable, and, obviously, collectable books are not a collectable).

I was rung by Ebay more than ten years ago and told that if I continued to list auctions on Ebay Australia I would be financially punished. A short while later they conceded that auctions were acceptable for collectables, but (a) many collectable categories were deemed not to be collectables (while craft supplies were), and (b) they then set up conflicting collectable categories in "non-collectable" sections, and pushed buyers towards those categories.

USA Ebay does not take the same attitude as Ebay Australia to auctions, and have 200 free listings per month before charging listing fees or needing a store. But, the same thing that pushed me back onto Ebay, made international postage too unreliable to target overseas Ebay sales from Australia.

I don't see that establishing an auction business on the Australian branch of the world's largest person to person auction site is in any way immoral or bad behaviour, but Ebay Australia does - even for Australians who established an Ebay auction business prior to the establishment of the Australian branch.

[curraone]

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@found-in-australia wrote:

With a store, the $3.00 fee for listing an auction in any "non-collectable" category, which includes the collectable categories that I listed above, is an intentional and targetted auction penalty fee (eg: Ebay

I'm sorry:  I still don't know what you are talking about.   Since I signed on the Managed Payments, Ii have had no listing fees charged for both auctions and BIN items, no matter now many I list and in what category.

[found-in-australia]

Okay, we may be misunderstanding the term "signing up". As I said above "signing up to managed payments does not remove the auction penalty fees. It may change once you are put into that system, ".

I was required to sign up by 1st March, and did so last week. I have not been put into the system of dubious payments yet. So, after signing up to it, and being approved but not entering that system, I am still charged the $3.00 fee if I choose to sell vintage items as music memorabilia or manuals in the categories where the buyers look for the items. That may change once I am actually put into the system, but taking the invitation/requirement to sign up for it does not remove the penalty fees.

I did have my required signing up to managed payments dropped back from October to March, because the Ebay representative that rang me was to answer a number of questions that I had, such as "if a regular buyer who always pays by direct deposit on purchase continues to do so, will they or I be penalised for doing so?". The Ebay rep, and by the mobile it was from an Australian number, claimed that I was the first seller to ever raise the subject of direct deposits or pick up / drop off of purchases with him, never rang back. Last month I was basically threatened with not being allowed to trade on Ebay during the remainder of this pandemic if I did not sign up to a contract that they would not supply the requested information about.

So, I guess my resentment over that as well, shows that I am  also very very petty, over simply being *forced* into a contract at this time without being supplied sufficient information about it.

[twyngwyn]

Okay, we may be misunderstanding the term "signing up". As I said above "signing up to managed payments does not remove the auction penalty fees. It may change once you are put into that system, ".

I will be put onto MP by midnight tomorrow, and am hoping for unlimited auctions across ALL categories....but I do wonder how long that will last before they realise what they've done or maybe, the listings will really skyrocket for everyone, and then new fees will be applied??