topic Re: EBAY losing money. in Selling

EBAY losing money.

mr-vanilla — Thu, 02 Jan 2014 07:46:19 GMT

When will ebay realise they are losing money by charging a listing fee. I have burnt through my 30 free listings and I and ebay have done nicely in fees / profit. I now have to wait a week or so for my free listing thing to reset so I can list more.

I (and I recon many others) refuse to pay the rediculous listing fees. No big deal ...while I am sitting here waiting ...nothing is selling and ebay / paypal are making nothing.

Wake up ebay ...free to list is the way to go. You will make more in the long run.

Re: EBAY losing money.

maconii — Thu, 02 Jan 2014 07:57:50 GMT

EBay is making a fortune. Yes, perhaps if everyone got free listings then that would be awesome. I would probably list another few items up but people with shops have to pay monthly fees (even when nothing is sold) + listing fees + FVF + PP fees.

Re: EBAY losing money.

maconii — Thu, 02 Jan 2014 08:11:46 GMT

Forgot to mention that shops also don't get any free listings unless there's a "promotion"! So imagine a waterfall of money going into eBay. They are losing nothing.

Re: EBAY losing money.

davewil1964 — Thu, 02 Jan 2014 08:12:49 GMT

A couple of points -

1. A non-store member gets 40 free listings per month. It changed from 30 in about May last year.

2. The free listings start on the 1st of the calendar month, so you won't have to wait a week, as they are already available and have been since yesterday.

3. There are periodic, usually at least one a month, free listing offers for non-store holders.

4. The current one started on 26 Dec, but runs until 6 Jan. Maybe avail yourself of same.

Re: EBAY losing money.

mr-vanilla — Thu, 02 Jan 2014 08:13:31 GMT

@maconii wrote:
Forgot to mention that shops also don't get any free listings unless there's a "promotion"! So imagine a waterfall of money going into eBay. They are losing nothing.

Shops get 80 free listings a month.

Re: EBAY losing money.

mr-vanilla — Thu, 02 Jan 2014 08:16:34 GMT

@davewil1964 wrote:
A couple of points -

1. A non-store member gets 40 free listings per month. It changed from 30 in about May last year.

2. The free listings start on the 1st of the calendar month, so you won't have to wait a week, as they are already available and have been since yesterday.

3. There are periodic, usually at least one a month, free listing offers for non-store holders.

4. The current one started on 26 Dec, but runs until 6 Jan. Maybe avail yourself of same.

Well then I burned through 40 free listings hehehe

I have not seen a free listing offer for months (I also have a shop under another name and have not had an offer there for yonks either)

What I am saying is ...I would list more if it was free ...

Thanks for your input.

Re: EBAY losing money.

imastawka — Thu, 02 Jan 2014 08:16:43 GMT

@mr-vanilla wrote:

@maconii wrote:
Forgot to mention that shops also don't get any free listings unless there's a "promotion"! So imagine a waterfall of money going into eBay. They are losing nothing.
Shops get 80 free listings a month.

Wouldn't call having to pay monthly fees "free listings"

Re: EBAY losing money.

tstore — Thu, 02 Jan 2014 08:23:53 GMT

Be thankful you get free listings. This was not the case years ago. Also I for one am happy to pay listing free - means eBay is less cluttered and you as a seller have a good chance to sell something

Re: EBAY losing money.

maconii — Thu, 02 Jan 2014 08:24:24 GMT

Only up to 80.. I don't think I even get 80. May have to check my invoices again

Re: EBAY losing money.

pickapresent13 — Thu, 02 Jan 2014 08:54:08 GMT

Don`t like to sound like a smart **bleep**, but eBay is a business, and there to make money

How do you think you`d go if you went to management at Westfields and said "I`d like to take a shop, but not going to pay rent, will just give you a commission on what I sell". Pretty sure they`d laugh and say see ya later

I guess the best thing about eBay is they give us options on how we want to list i.e, just take the 40 free listings, pay for a store and get extra free listings, continue listing after we`ve used our free listings and pay a fee

I might have it all wrong here, but for me, I`m more than happy to pay 20 cents to list something I`m selling for a profit. If you use a bit of common sense mixed with business acumen, you can work out whats worth paying to list and what isn`t. I for one wait til the big 10 000 free listings come around to list my slow selling items, then it costs nothing if they don`t sell, and only pay for the products I`m pretty sure will have a high probability of selling

Re: EBAY losing money.

digital*ghost — Thu, 02 Jan 2014 09:59:25 GMT

Once upon a time, everyone paid for their listings, except on the odd occasion eBay ran a promotion for free auction listings when the start price was 99c. The people liked free listings and asked eBay for more, so eBay granted this wish but said to compensate, they were going to introduce third-party advertising on free listings and raise the FVF. The people were moderately happy.

After a while, the people decided that they needed more free listings. eBay once again said ok, your wish is my command, but in return we need to put third-party advertising on all listings, raise FVF again, and get rid of the sliding scale, which used to reduce the FVF percentage the more an item sold for, and charge a little bt more for the non-free listings. Three times as much, in fact.

The moral of the story is....stop asking for free stuff, it costs everyone more in the long run. 😉

Re: EBAY losing money.

davewil1964 — Thu, 02 Jan 2014 11:14:54 GMT

Not me. I'm better off. But I sell media, to which different rules have always applied.

Re: EBAY losing money.

digital*ghost — Thu, 02 Jan 2014 11:32:19 GMT

@davewil1964 wrote:
Not me. I'm better off. But I sell media, to which different rules have always applied.

Did books never have a sliding scale FVF structure and always had third party advertising on their listings (in particular, the big flash ones under the seller info)?

I also forgot to mention when the free listings were upped from 30 to 40, the FVF cap was upped from $50 to $200.

Besides, stop ruining my be careful what you wish for cautionary tale with individual facts.

Re: EBAY losing money.

imastawka — Thu, 02 Jan 2014 11:35:18 GMT

Besides, stop ruining my be careful what you wish for cautionary tale with individual facts.

Re: EBAY losing money.

davewil1964 — Thu, 02 Jan 2014 11:39:07 GMT

Sorry, ma'am.

And I don't see the ads, because I sensibly use an ad blocker.

* Hangs head in shame *

Re: EBAY losing money.

phorum_junkie* — Thu, 02 Jan 2014 22:45:04 GMT

My turnover on my store id and auction id is about the same as last year, my fees are considerably less.

I pay fifty bucks a month for 200 store listings and I never go over the 40 item limit on my auction id, if I want to list more then I do it with another id so can have another 40 if I wish.

Ads, do ebay have ads?