EBAY'S NEW HEALTH CHECK - I think it is seriously SICK!!

[6508.froggy]

Just received eBay's latest assistance to sellers *Ebay's NEW HEALTH CHECK* .

This may be old news but they are moving timed BUY IT NOW and will move all my listings to GOOD TIL CANCELLED. Well that is not what I want but then again we have no say. 

This does not suit me for many reasons with something new I like to use 10 days as an option. The rest are 30 day listings which gives me the option to adjust the listings if they are not attracting buyers or watches. I will sometimes group them with other items etc. 

I find the 30 day listings far more manageable for my business needs. 

So if all fixed listings are good til cancelled I dare say the next step will be for those with ebay stores will be reduced with the amount of fixed listings in their subscription. 

Good til cancelled also means there will be a hell of a lot of old stock on there for years or if I remember correctly they were bringing in limited time for listings.

I have had my vent but OH SO FRUSTRATING makes me wonder why I am doing this. 

[negron18]

yet they have told others that being a good till cancelled meant the item will always be online unitl it sells. So therefore it doesn't get relisted and it will only incur a one off listing fee. I guess we will just have to wait and see what happens come the 19th!

[brerrabbit585]

Both could be correct. It's all in how they define the number of free listings we're allowed. If they say a basic store can have 600 listings and any extra listings pay an insertion fee, the insertion fee for the extra listings would only apply when they're first listed, rather than every month.

[5kazam]

Most of the comments here appear to be from store sellers.  And it seems to me that non-stores are getting a better deal.

Every weekend - unlimited listings and pay only $1 in FVF ($1.10 with GST).

Non-stores can activate the AR for 8 AR.  Have to admit Tippy gave me a hint, when she said not to tick that box - just bulk relist after accepting the weekend offer.  So any sales only attract $1.10 FVF.

Maybe some of you store people may want to rethink what you're doing.  You could save a heap of $'s if you cancelled your store and became just a seller.

Something to think about ???

[oz-e-seller]

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@5kazam wrote:

Most of the comments here appear to be from store sellers.  And it seems to me that non-stores are getting a better deal.

Every weekend - unlimited listings and pay only $1 in FVF ($1.10 with GST).

Non-stores can activate the AR for 8 AR.  Have to admit Tippy gave me a hint, when she said not to tick that box - just bulk relist after accepting the weekend offer.  So any sales only attract $1.10 FVF.

Maybe some of you store people may want to rethink what you're doing.  You could save a heap of $'s if you cancelled your store and became just a seller.

Something to think about ???

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Just so people know before closing their stores this offer is for single quantity listings only, it's no good for me because of that since we aren't allowed duplicate listings - though I see plenty of sellers who have them, the second I listed a duplicate by accident I got an email right away!

[5kazam]

Actually, I can't remember now whether is was Auction or BIN, but I was able to have multiple quantities on a listing.  Not sure how I did it, but I did.

[brerrabbit585]

I can list single quantities under the promos on my non-store account but multiple quantity listings always come off my 40. The terms and conditions of all those extra promotions specifically state they're for single quantity listings only.

Before anyone ditches their store on your advice they'd better remember that after 19th Feb only auctions will be able to have auto relist, and only auctions will be able to have short durations.

[pnc75]

Bumping this as I think it's important and so that as many sellers as possible see it. 

[jfmgray]

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@casbit33 wrote:
I also spoke to them, And they told me that you will get charged every 30 days if you have no free listings left.
They said the auto free listings would still be available.
I just don't know if they are being truthful.

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My guess is the Customer Support people have not been well briefed. Some say one thing - others say the opposite. They seem to be interpreting what they have been briefed differently. A facebook group member  is saying that when she spoke to eBay she was advised that the idea is being canned as it been so poorly received by sellers. I wish eBay would float accurate information about a proposed change so they could get objective reactions by sellers. For my business I would support the change if I only paid one listing fee for a GCT listing for the life of the listing but would oppose it if all my listings became GTC with rollover fees.

[dazzledayz]

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@gec2002 wrote:

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@dazzledayz wrote:

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@gec2002 wrote:

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If your on eBay as a business and the numbers say that you should being selling bestsellers that what you should do.  Better to sell 10000 books with $1 each profit after all costs, than 1 book at $1000 profit.  If your on eBay for the glory of selling the odd obscure book and showing your the worlds greater rare book hunter go for it.  But, my guess is that eBay is a giant multinational and are in it for the profit and if the numbers say bestsellers are the way to go, then that is what they will do.  If after some time it becomes obvious that rare books are the go then they will change back.  The CEO's mega bonus is based on what the current profitability is, not what will be in 5 years time. 

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This is precisely the reason eBay finds itself in a hole ATM; it's much easier to manipulate spreadsheets to look good short term than to state and then live up to long term goals.

The fact remains that eBay has lost market penetration over the last decade since they went for boards focused on this way of thinking.

In the last year or so they are even losing that battle as reflected by the diminished long term share price and sub par forward projections.

Diversity was what made eBay great in the first place and I fail to see any improvement brought about by its reduction.

As for search, visibility and volume manipulation practises; these simply act to reduce diversity further and restrict growth by discouraging increased offering volumes.

As far as your profitability sums go, I feel you are failing to account for time.

10,000 sales at a nominal 10 minutes per item (sourcing, listing, packaging etc) at a $30 per hour labour price would represent a total labour cost of $50,000

You'd need a pretty good markup to cover that!

I see plenty of sellers in books making around $1.50 per sale after fees and they're still not selling in huge volumes.

Trying to build a business at $10-15 per hour is very hard yards indeed.

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I am sorry but I did take into account time, if you read what I said "Better to sell 10000 books with $1 each profit after all costs" In other words $1 Net Profit (All Revenue - All Expenses) per book.

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Sorry Gec, I should have been clearer.

The $50K is a sunk cost which is a pretty poor investment if all a seller expects to get back is $10K

In order to break even a seller would have to charge out their labour at 1/5 of $30 per hr ... $6 per hour

$10K only becomes realizable profit if wage input is set to $0.00 per hour.

That's assuming of course that all 10K listings sell.

My point was that a simple calculation of cost inputs is not really a complete account of ROI.

[davewil1964]

I sell books. It would take me, on average, 20 minutes per listing. I make an average of $5 per sale.

That's $15 per hour. I am happy with that as I use it as a timefiller in the evenings and for supplementary income. Not everybody (especially low-volume sellers) is looking for your levels of ROI. I certainly don't consider my time as a relevant input as my primary income is not derived from selling.

Mind you, my day job doesn't pay much more.