topic Re: Free listings? in Selling

Free listings?

moviemem — Sun, 25 Nov 2012 20:13:28 GMT

Apparently all sellers get 30 free listings per month but just curious if others get additional free listings "by invitation". This seems to be happening quite frequently on ebay.com so I guess it wouldn't be a surprise if it happens on ebay Australia.

Re: Free listings?

leader-of-the-band — Sun, 25 Nov 2012 20:49:05 GMT

not all sellers get 30 free listings, only casual sellers.

eBay have been sending out 'invitations' to some but not all sellers. The most recent that comes to mind is the one free listing with no listing or final-value fees. The invitation I received stated that I needed to list via my mobile phone eBay app to qualify.

Re: Free listings?

phorum_junkie* — Sun, 25 Nov 2012 21:10:13 GMT

They can afford to hand out free listings on the US site as they pay a much higher final value fee and it is paid on the total including postage so as far as I am concerned I would rather stick with having things how they are here.

Before the 30 free they used to often have free listing offers but they were usually for items starting at 99c or less which meat that there were pages and pages of complete rubbish that people didn't think it was worth paying a fee to list.

Re: Free listings?

moviemem — Sun, 25 Nov 2012 21:21:24 GMT

not all sellers get 30 free listings, only casual sellers.

How do the define "casual seller"?

Re: Free listings?

2106greencat — Sun, 25 Nov 2012 22:06:29 GMT

A casual seller is someone who does not have a store, nor power seller or top rated seller status. Don't ask me to explain all the TRS and PS stuff, coz I don't have a clue, someone else can do that bit..........over to you guys 😛

Re: Free listings?

austeam — Sun, 25 Nov 2012 22:07:04 GMT

Powersellers and sellers registered as a business do not get free listings ... so there is the trap: by giving away free listings if the are successful the seller soon qualifies to be a powerseller and then there are no more free listings 😞

To qualify as a powerseller you need to: Have a minimum of 100 transactions and $3,000 (USD) in sales over the past 12 months.

Re: Free listings?

2106greencat — Sun, 25 Nov 2012 22:09:27 GMT

There ya go 😄

Re: Free listings?

moviemem — Sun, 25 Nov 2012 22:12:50 GMT

Thanks for the responses. Seems a bit bizarre that you would lose the free listings by becoming a PowerSeller.

The reason I asked the question about free listings is that there are quite a few sellers who seem to list a lot of auction items with very high starting bids. I cant see any point in doing this unless they get free listings.

Re: Free listings?

austeam — Sun, 25 Nov 2012 22:44:15 GMT

I high starting price works for some items. Check the seller's sales history to see if it works for them.

Re: Free listings?

austeam — Sun, 25 Nov 2012 22:45:22 GMT

Also with auction that they are guaranteed some exposure whereas BIN could be burried on page 10 in a competitive category.

Re: Free listings?

putney32 — Mon, 26 Nov 2012 04:04:54 GMT

Thanks for the responses. Seems a bit bizarre that you would lose the free listings by becoming a PowerSeller.

no not bizarre at all, as I read elsewhere recently, the 30 free listings are a bit like free trials of items such as Gym Membership etc.... you get the free trial to see if it is suitable for you, once you become a ''regular'' [ie selling a lot], you pay fees like the rest of the customers.

Re: Free listings?

moviemem — Mon, 26 Nov 2012 04:24:02 GMT

, you pay fees like the rest of the customers.

I would have to disagree with the rationale behind this. A free trial for gym membership (as an example) is a lot different to free listings. I feel that it would be better to reward PowerSellers and give them an incentive to list more rather than taking away their free listings and having them compete with hundreds of other sellers who list without listing fees.

to putney32

Incidentally, I had a look at your listings and congratulations on your perfect DSR score. I hope you don't mind me asking, but do you feel it is worth having a store after all of the fees, etc are taken out each month? I just ask because many of the items you are selling are fairly low value and I wondered if sales would cover your costs.

Re: Free listings?

leader-of-the-band — Mon, 26 Nov 2012 05:11:17 GMT

casual sellers can list and sell more than 30 items a month, and there are many that do. The first 30 have no basic listing fees, only fees for upgrades, while the 30+ listings have insertion fees and listing upgrade fees. I guess 30 is the number eBay chose to say "you are a casual seller so we give you free listings and if you list more than 30 you pay for it".

Many sellers have more than one eBay ID, which means they can access 2 or more times 30 free listings.

Savvy casual sellers know to list the higher priced items within their 30 free listings as the start or B-I-Now price can affect the insertion fee.