topic Re: Qualifying as a Powerseller? in Selling

Qualifying as a Powerseller?

sticker.bargains — Thu, 25 Jan 2018 09:30:57 GMT

Hey all,

Does anybody know what the criteria of becoming a powerseller is nowadays?

If you click on powerseller it just takes you to a redirected page about being a top rated seller. There is a help page about powerselling, but it's regarding the USA standards.

It's the third month without selling limits being raised, and I'm hoping that finally getting that little powerseller badge might help me.

Re: Qualifying as a Powerseller?

kopenhagen5 — Thu, 25 Jan 2018 09:36:36 GMT

I have been an eBay buyer for over 10 years and so have many of my friends.

We never notice the badges. Go straight to the pics then description then feedback.

If all ok, buy.

Sorry to put a dampner on the idea but I don't think PS will make much difference if at all.

Re: Qualifying as a Powerseller?

chameleon54 — Thu, 25 Jan 2018 09:54:47 GMT

Sorry to put even more of a dampner on your hopes, but ebay no longer show the powerseller icon to buyers on listings. From memory I think it shows if you look at one of your own listings, but does not show if you look at another powersellers listings. I just checked one of my powerselling accounts with this Id and the logo was not visible.

U.S sellers used to recieve discounted fees for being a Powerseller, but in OZ the only "benefit" is that you can view the Powersellers forum. This used to quite active several years ago, but posts have slowed to a trickle now with only one or two new threads each week and only half a dozen active participants.

Basically it is just another shiny little ebay sticker to say well done for trying hard this week.

Re: Qualifying as a Powerseller?

sticker.bargains — Thu, 25 Jan 2018 10:03:54 GMT

Yeah it seems almost completely redundant, and I'm under no allusions that more buyers will come because of it.

Yet crucially it still shows up in the seller dashboard. The wording on the dashboard states:

To be a Top Rated Seller, you must have at least 100 transactions during the past 12 months and be a PowerSeller

I have the transactions part covered, but it gives no indication as to how to "become" a powerseller.

So I'm stuck as an above standard seller, until I meet the magical numbers to qualify as a powerseller.

Thus my original question, what are the goalposts nowadays?

Re: Qualifying as a Powerseller?

chameleon54 — Thu, 25 Jan 2018 10:13:47 GMT

There are two criteria. One is the 100 sales PA. that you mentioned, the other is a dollar amount. I cant remember what the figure was sorry, but it is a fairly modest amount. ( used to be a LOT more years ago ). Ebay do a revision of your account once per month and if you meet the criteria, you automatically get the badge. If you drop below the threshold at the time of a later monthly revision, the badge drops away. You dont have to apply for it. It just appears on your account next to your seller id at the top of the page.

Re: Qualifying as a Powerseller?

brerrabbit585 — Thu, 25 Jan 2018 10:13:43 GMT

The last time I saw anything about it I think you had to sell $1K in 12 months, but it was probably 2 or 3 years since I read anything about it. I think powerseller and top rated seller are pretty much the same thing these days, despite the way they've worded it that makes you think otherwise.

Have you asked ebay to raise your listing limits again? You've got over 800 listings (or variations) so they can't see you as too much of a risk.

Re: Qualifying as a Powerseller?

digital*ghost — Thu, 25 Jan 2018 10:17:09 GMT

@sticker.bargains wrote:
Hey all,

Does anybody know what the criteria of becoming a powerseller is nowadays?

Bronze Power seller is at least 100 sales valued at US$1000 or more in a 12 month period.

They still have tiers, but they're now just arbitary threshholds / acheivements - as in, there's no benefit to being a silver PS as opposed to being a bronze PS.

As far as I know you still have to be a power seller to qualify as a top rated seller, and / or list with "premium service" badging, if that's your thing But the only real benefit (to me, anyway) is that being a power seller means buyers have to wait at least 7 days after purchase to leave negs or neuts, which is a welcome (if moderate) form of damage control in certain circumstances.

Re: Qualifying as a Powerseller?

chameleon54 — Thu, 25 Jan 2018 10:22:26 GMT

I just signed into one of my selling accounts and the Powerseller badge has completely gone. I cant find it anywhere. The only way I know this account is a Powerseller is because it can still access the PS forum. Basically I wouldnt worry about it.

Re: Qualifying as a Powerseller?

sticker.bargains — Thu, 25 Jan 2018 10:30:41 GMT

Unsure if I picked the wrong time and got somebody from CS on a bad day, but my last phone call about increases ended a very firm "no" - the subtext (from what I can tell) was that because I don't pay for a store, I should basically count myself lucky at the "high limits" I have already - so I'm just hoping for an auto increase, of which one happened a couple years ago.

Reason I asked about about the new benchmarks for reaching powerseller, is that it's the only roadblock I can see on my end (in the seller dashboard) that I haven't yet attained.

I'll just keep plugging away, packing and sending orders off same day, and wait and see.

Thanks for answering my Q. 🙂

Re: Qualifying as a Powerseller?

kopenhagen5 — Thu, 25 Jan 2018 10:55:28 GMT

DG or chameleon, don't powersellers lose all the free listings ?

Re: Qualifying as a Powerseller?

digital*ghost — Thu, 25 Jan 2018 11:04:28 GMT

@kopenhagen5 wrote:
DG or chameleon, don't powersellers lose all the free listings ?

I think back when they only gave 30 free a month PS lost access to free listings, I certainly remember there being a lot of complaint threads in the forums from newly crowned Power Sellers to that effect, but they don't lose them now, (I think they may lose access to things like the free relists and/or rarely get promo offers, though).

Re: Qualifying as a Powerseller?

brerrabbit585 — Thu, 25 Jan 2018 11:25:06 GMT

I've got a friend who used to sell enough up to about a year ago to be a powerseller (not a store). She only listed every so often in the last year but she probably retained her powerseller status for a few months after she stopped selling regularly. She got the free relists and she used to get the extra 150 every month for a looong time.

Re: Qualifying as a Powerseller?

brerrabbit585 — Thu, 25 Jan 2018 11:29:38 GMT

@sticker.bargains wrote:
Unsure if I picked the wrong time and got somebody from CS on a bad day, but my last phone call about increases ended a very firm "no" - the subtext (from what I can tell) was that because I don't pay for a store, I should basically count myself lucky at the "high limits" I have already - so I'm just hoping for an auto increase, of which one happened a couple years ago.

Reason I asked about about the new benchmarks for reaching powerseller, is that it's the only roadblock I can see on my end (in the seller dashboard) that I haven't yet attained.

I'll just keep plugging away, packing and sending orders off same day, and wait and see.

Thanks for answering my Q. 🙂

I doubt it'd affect your sales. Ebay just favour some sellers more than others and there isn't always anything you can do about it. Some people say doing brand new listings seems to get more sales so perhaps when you relist you could try using Sell Similar and alter something minor in the listings to see if that fools the bots into thinking they're brand new listings.

Re: Qualifying as a Powerseller?

brerrabbit585 — Thu, 25 Jan 2018 11:40:38 GMT

On another ID I found that if I had a good run of sales they often rewarded me by lifting my limits. I didn't link that ID to my main account and just waited patiently because I didn't want to list heaps for a start anyway.

You could always try opening a second ID but you'd have to start with only 10 listings and it'd take a while to get established. The sooner you start, the sooner the second ID would grow though.

Re: Qualifying as a Powerseller?

pancaket52 — Thu, 25 Jan 2018 22:25:21 GMT

I have Power Seller status (not a store) on one of my accounts and that account seems to get more of the Free Listing offers than my other accounts.

I very rarely use the all the 40 free listings per month but still get the Zero FVF offers and the $1 FVF offers etc... which are very welcome!!!

Re: Qualifying as a Powerseller?

chameleon54 — Thu, 25 Jan 2018 22:58:57 GMT

@kopenhagen5 wrote:
DG or chameleon, don't powersellers lose all the free listings ?
our non store accountOur non store account ( which we changed to a store around 4 months ago ) was a PS. It recieved the 40 monthly freebies, but other than one brief occasion never got the 3 free relists. This account still sold over $10K PA. so that was probably the reason rather than being a PS.

This non store account had a fabulous run of recieving free listing promotions over many months, often when they where not widely available, but these just stopped dead at some point and we ended up missing out on all promotions. It was at this point that we changed the account to a store.

I suspect that was ebays strategy to encourage us to change to a store, get us hooked on higher listing numbers and then turn off the freebies tap. So yes it worked.

The short answer is that yes non store, PS accounts still recieve the 40 normal monthly freebies, but a question mark would hang over wether they get the 3 free relists..

Re: Qualifying as a Powerseller?

chameleon54 — Thu, 25 Jan 2018 23:13:20 GMT

@brerrabbit585 wrote:
@sticker.bargains wrote:
Unsure if I picked the wrong time and got somebody from CS on a bad day, but my last phone call about increases ended a very firm "no" - the subtext (from what I can tell) was that because I don't pay for a store, I should basically count myself lucky at the "high limits" I have already - so I'm just hoping for an auto increase, of which one happened a couple years ago.

Reason I asked about about the new benchmarks for reaching powerseller, is that it's the only roadblock I can see on my end (in the seller dashboard) that I haven't yet attained.

I'll just keep plugging away, packing and sending orders off same day, and wait and see.

Thanks for answering my Q. 🙂
I doubt it'd affect your sales. Ebay just favour some sellers more than others and there isn't always anything you can do about it. Some people say doing brand new listings seems to get more sales so perhaps when you relist you could try using Sell Similar and alter something minor in the listings to see if that fools the bots into thinking they're brand new listings.

I,m a fervent believer in this one. I,m convinced that not only do the new listings recieve a boost in visibility ( often near the top of searches ) for a period of a couple of days, but I believe the account activity helps to increase exposure of all listings. A rising tide lifts all boats type scenario.

My guess is that when sellers have a period of not listing new items, sales slow and their accounts slowly drop in visibility until some become almost comatose, with nothing moving or happening anywhere. My guess is that some of the sellers who come to the boards dispirited, saying its not worth doing any new listings, because nothing is selling are affected in this way.

I believe new listings recieve similar weighting on Cassini to sales. If sales drop, a seller can do a flurry of listing activity and kickstart a slowing or dying account. I use this strategy regularly when things get a bit slow.

Re: Qualifying as a Powerseller?

brerrabbit585 — Thu, 25 Jan 2018 23:25:59 GMT

I've occasionally lowered a few prices (not on the best stuff) when things slow but it rarely helps. When I put all my prices back up again I usually start getting more sales. Probably coincidence but it's happened a few times over the years.

Re: Qualifying as a Powerseller?

davewil1964 — Fri, 26 Jan 2018 07:48:28 GMT

@chameleon54 wrote:
@kopenhagen5 wrote:
DG or chameleon, don't powersellers lose all the free listings ?
our non store accountOur non store account ( which we changed to a store around 4 months ago ) was a PS. It recieved the 40 monthly freebies, but other than one brief occasion never got the 3 free relists. This account still sold over $10K PA. so that was probably the reason rather than being a PS.

This non store account had a fabulous run of recieving free listing promotions over many months, often when they where not widely available, but these just stopped dead at some point and we ended up missing out on all promotions. It was at this point that we changed the account to a store.

I suspect that was ebays strategy to encourage us to change to a store, get us hooked on higher listing numbers and then turn off the freebies tap. So yes it worked.

The short answer is that yes non store, PS accounts still recieve the 40 normal monthly freebies, but a question mark would hang over wether they get the 3 free relists..

My store account gets 3 free auto-relists.

My non-store selling account gets the 40 per month, plus the unlimited Sunday ones, plus (still) the 100 per day. With 3 free auto-relists.

Both claim to be Powerseller/TRS, but neither sell $10k pa.