what happened to free listings on the weekend?

[wildhogs91]

I just do not get why Ebay doesnt make Listings free al the time?they would make so much more money.now they have taken away the weekend listings.I think it may be time for me to give up selling.the buyers have dropped off,this year has been the worse ever.

[k1ooo-slr-sales]

there are already some threads about this that were started last weekend.

If you scroll down through the list of topics on the Selling Board you will find them.

The sort of replies you will see there will say these sort of things:

- the weekend promotions were just that, a promotion

- the promotion was never promoted as being a permanent one

- I have built my selling strategy around them

- stop expecting something for nothing

- it's unfair, I'm leaving eBay

- eBay is greedy

- I'm not a business, I'm a casual seller with 600 listings

- this will tip some sellers over the edge

- think yourself lucky for having got the promotions, I didn't (well, I did, but some posters on the other threads did not)

- with so many listings you should open a basic store

- I only sell to pay for firewood in winter, now I will be cold

- stop whinging

- the regular posters on the boards, the ones with thousands of posts, must work for eBay (even though they do not)

- eBay call centre workers haven't got a clue

- regular posters are bullies from the planet 'Nasty Clique'

- one of the posters here was involved in the disappearance of Harold Holt

- regular posters have no life outside of these boards

- I agree, regular posters are bullies (well, I don't, but others do)

- the countess' username is cool (just thought I'd throw that one in the mix)

- regular posters are bullies.

You might not get much sympathy. My list is pretty much showing what went down on the other threads.

Don't take any reply on your thread too personally. Many posters, from both sides, were probably looking forward to a weekend with a thread about eBay stopping the weekend promotions.

[k1ooo-slr-sales]

that should have been without a thread in the last sentence of my post

Spoiler

I mean, why would anyone want to go through that again?

[chameleon54]

[springyzone]

Brilliant.

Thoroughly enjoyable read.

I don't know, K1000, I think I'll sit back and quite look forward to another thread about it. your last sentence wasn't wrong, not at all.

[ringinthedingding]

"regular posters are bullies from the planet 'Nasty Clique'"

lol .. oh it never ends .. but can I just say people only feel that way when the "bullies from the planet 'Nasty Clique'" belittle people is my take on it .. and to try and find some middle ground on all this I will offer my take on the removal of ebay.au $1 FVF listings promotion ..

I can imagine some are behaving a little hysterically about ebay removing this offer as it went for so long and they came to rely on that offer .. and realistically as many of the regulars pointed out "it is just how it is" and clearly ebay.au cannot afford to run a program like that indefinitely and feed their shareholders dividends at the same time etc etc .. a lot of these ebay marketing drives are about securing markets (eg Amazon has just shown up in Australia recently)

and by way of a comparison and case study: I personally would be affronted somewhat if the 40 free listings per month were removed (considering that so called free offer was given as compensation for ebay raising their FVF from 6% to 10% and also the introduction of the highly controversial FVF on our postage costs when sending items to ebay buyers) .. even though the FVF on postage is a bit much we just have to swallow that too as the ACCC signed it off even though it breaks Australian consumer law .. somehow ebay persuaded the ACCC to do this; that is just a fact ..

But if ebay were to backflip and bait and switch out of that deal (40 free listing per month) and the ACCC looked the other way (as they do) then I really would probably have no recourse but to stop listing here as my sell-through simply does not justify paying listing fees for me here for items that do not sell fast .. I would in fact sell elsewhere probably slower but stuff would still retain its value, just a little harder to find a buyer (as the turnkey ecommerce markets are pretty well stitched up by ebay and amazon) and am sure some would see it as an opportunity to quickly start ecommerce websites to take up the slack .. it is just the nature of the markets ..

by way of a little advise I would offer people to bide your time and take advantage of what works for you .. and as some of the regulars have pointed out there will in all probability be other offers in the pipe so "it is not over yet" .. I would hate to get sucked into one of these promotions and then tool up for a long run only to have things change overnight and be stuck with bags of expensive stock .. spare a thought for those people .. been there and done that and never again ..

[k1ooo-slr-sales]

hey, I was just providing a summary of what was posted last weekend

Spoiler

be careful ringin, you are posting enough to be considered a regular

[ringinthedingding]

"I just do not get why Ebay doesnt make Listings free al the time?"

To be philosophical:

the removal of the $1 weekends deal (which was extremely generous in comparison to 10% FVF for those who didn't take or get the offer and was obviously a temporary promotion) what it means to me is we are now all back in the same boat (Aside from default best matching and lights on and lights off mysteries  etc) so no advantage to those getting the promo which means we can all go back to selling at the market rate rather than undercutting each other ..

and I thoroughly agree with you that the markets are very tepid at the moment and consumers are generally keeping their wallets shut in comparison to times gone by .. I tend to blame corporates  and regulators for this problem but suffice to say us "little people" are all in the same boat .. so you have company on this ride .. once upon a time I was a successful ebay seller .. now focus on other stuff .. auspost has done a lot of damage to ecommerce in Australia too .. plenty of pigs with snouts in the trough .. you have my sympathy as the new economy is very exploitive as Australia's wealth is siphoned off to various tax havens and the door shut to Australian's to compete effectively against those types  .. if it keeps going the way it is many of us will be living in tents and they will be rounding the "rent evaders" up with black-hawk helicopters ..

Our health, family and loved ones is/are by far more important than anything else .. happiness is more important than money .. take care ..

[ringinthedingding]

"be careful ringin, you are posting enough to be considered a regular"

true .. is something I wanted to avoid .. lol .. am going to get outside and enjoy the sunshine a bit today .. maybe catch up with ya-all later then ..

[countessalmirena]

I'm very sympathetic about those sellers (occasional or otherwise) who are doing it tough. There's no doubt that retail has slumped and that this affects casual sales (by people on fixed incomes, people who are battling financially and otherwise) as well as businesses.

Unfortunately, the question lying at the heart of your post isn't really "What happened?" but rather "Why?" ... You've said that you don't understand why eBay don't do away entirely with insertion fees, and have added that eBay would make more money by doing so.

I'm not privy to eBay's financials, but it seems obvious that eBay would not be making more money with eBay Australia by doing away with the listing fees. Note that the fee structure differs between eBay Australia and eBay.com, eBay.co.uk, eBay.cn, etc. I recently posted on another thread exactly why eBay.cn (eBay China) is the only one where sellers pay no fees, and how eBay fought for years until having to restrategise their presence in China. They certainly won't do anything of the sort in Australia.

What sell-through rate do sellers who relied on the weekend promotions deal have? If such sellers can't afford the modest cost of a basic store, does it not seem to be the case that their percentage of sales compared to number of listings must be low?

In turn, does this not suggest that the items listed are not hot sellers? That they may well be, to be brutally frank, items that clutter up search results and buyer browsing (eBay site's “real estate”) without increasing eBay's appeal to buyers? To give a visual idea of how eBay might perceive this, imagine a rubbish tip inside a shopping centre, with David Jones and Peter's of Kensington jostling side by side with a pile of rusty ball bearings and re-soled shoes.

I personally bewail the changes in eBay since the days of interesting curiosities and collectables and antiques that once made up a significant portion of the listings. eBay clearly are moving (and have been moving for a while) towards the big-box model (shopping mall, big businesses, new items all with ISBNs or cat. numbers, catalogue-based. eBay are definitely trying to change their brand image away from the sorts of items that sit month after month after month. There may well be a buyer for anything, but if there are enough of the not-in-demand items being thought by eBay to put off potential buyers, it's an equation: possible slow FVF for item selling after months of "under-performing", or possible far more frequent FVFs of faster-moving items plus store fees plus more new buyers being attracted to the site.

i am not saying that I agree with eBay and I am not saying that the rubbish tip visual is fair or accurate. It's how I perceive eBay perceiving the situation and in totality I think eBay has lost something. However, eBay runs its business its way and that is eBay's right...