Mandatory Power Seller program

[hayruss]

Just came back from holidays and found myself to be a Bronze power seller.

Some people thaink this may be a good thing, and for some people it is especially those who sell a large volume of items. But for those of us who have just qualified means that we ae losing money as we now have to pay for the 1st 30 listings every month and over a year that is quite a bit of $$$ anywhere between $180 and $1080.

My biggest gripe about the whole power seller program is it is mandatory, they (Ebay) talk about that once you meet a certain level of sellers performance you automatically opt in. Opt implies option which in this case you do not have an option. When requested to remove the power seller rating they say it can only be done based on your ratings automatically.

Trying to find the pros and cos in the ebay documentation was impossible as I dont think they exist. The doco explains the benefits which is not that much for a small operator, listing multiple items (could be handy) places your items higher in the search results list (with meaningful item descriptions and tags can place you in the same search results).

I have asked Ebay to accept my feedback regarding the poor documentation and the mandatory nature of the Power sellers program. Hopefully it will become a program the sellers can opt in and out of themselves in the future.

I might start listing on Gumtree?

Please let me know your thoughts either way?

Thanks

[david035_guitarist]

I don't often pop up here and stick my tuppence in, but Hear Hear Austeam. Hear Hear.

Enjoy your success. Welcome to eBay. Congratulations on becoming like the rest of us; fee-paying sellers.

[ecom_foryou]

Ooops I meant to post this in a different thread. Please ignore:O

[kustomizer99]

I can't really think of any other 'professions' where having a gross turnaround of $3,000 per annum would be considered a 'power' ANYTHING.

[davewil1964]

But do you know of any where you get a discount on normal business costs just because you're not making money?

Except here, of course.

[yodablu]

I kind of have to agree with kuston,  $3000 broken down over 52 weeks is $57.69 weekly. Lucky to buy bread & milk for the week with that.

[austeam]

Try to imagine why eBay introduced the 30 free listings.  My guess is because new sellers might take a while to work out what sells and at what price.  With Best Match as the default search it is hard enough to be found, let alone get established on eBay.  So now new sellers get to start off without taking any risk.  If it works, congratulations you are now a recognised seller on eBay but sorry the free trial is over.  If it doesn't work well that is a shame but eBay is possibly not suited to you or your items. However, feel free to keep trying, one day you might get it right.

On eBay's part it is a clever move because every now and then a successful seller overcomes their concerns and takes off.  However, some sellers just don't get it.  They think they have a right to list for free. 

[viewmont1071]

http://pages2.ebay.com.au/Hub/How_to_sell/Selling_basics/Seller_fees

http://pages2.ebay.com.au/Zero_to_list

FREE for the first 30 listings per month*

Charged to your seller account at the time of listing If your listing ends without a winning buyer o...

 * Seller eligibility criteria applies. To qualify for 30 free listings per month members must have a Registered Address in Australia, and must not be a PowerSeller, registered as a business or a Store subscriber. Listings must be single quantity and not fall within

** To qualify for the cap of $100, listings must meet the Seller eligibility criteria.

If they advertised  truthfully and explained the selling plateaus simply rather than just trying to draw punters  then they could elicit a more satisfactory different result. Try and find anything about the threshold on the links. Thats is what new sellers see?:|

[kustomizer99]

Ebay used to have better polices for 'hobby' sellers. The 'choice' now is either tun over less than $250 per month or go fully professional with an expensive store. There is no middle ground.

For those who don't remember, eBay used to have a benchmark of $24,000 in sales per year to become a powerseller -- THAT MADE SENSE.

Now eBay are trying to shoo away the interesting collectables sellers and are only interested in retaining those who are reselling mass-produced, non-collectable trinkets from China...sorry folks, but that's BORING.

[putney32]

Ebay used to have better polices for 'hobby' sellers. The 'choice' now is either tun over less than $250 per month or go fully professional with an expensive store. There is no middle ground.

kustom, surely the middle ground is listing items as Auctions  (which Store Holders also pay for at full price),and paying the few dollars a listing costs.  If the items are interesting enough to attract bidders, the small listing fee should be able to be absorbed.

[digital*ghost]

Ebay used to have better polices for 'hobby' sellers. 

What were they? When I was a hobby seller (2008 - 2011, and by hobby seller I'm referring specifically to listing volume), I paid for each and every listing I created, and every now and then there was a promotion for free listings if I was prepared to risk selling my item for 99c (which I rarely ever was). 

As I've said before, eBay just need to stop calling it 'Power Seller', due to all of the old associations the moniker has, and I agree that it would help if there was more information when people look at the fees table that made the turnover threshold clear.