@a_bee_c wrote:
Soo basicly I could be disadvantaged sales wise if my competition has ebay plus and I dont for the identical item and they are randomly selected for ebay plus and I am not.
There is no way the selection is random, as that simply wouldn't make good business sense for ebay - it may be impossible to guarantee items are selected, but there are some factors that will help. (Note, I have no interest in my items qualifying for plus, but I have had a bit of a look at which listings have qualified and which ones haven't, purely out of curiosity).
With my own items, I have a separate postage charge so none of mine are listed with 'free postage'. Most of my items range in price between $3-$50. The cheapest item eBay put plus on is $16, but every single listing I have that is above that in price has eBay plus (I offer free postage on all additional items - having additional postage costs resulting in listings not qualifying for plus is new, though, and I suspect it's because not long after it was introduced, there were a few sellers who figured out that if they listed an item at a certain price, with $8 postage but the postage cost accruing for each item purchased, ebay would cover the postage cost for plus members, so they advised people to join and then buy. This allowed them to list items at a very good price, and make a killing on the postage component, because they were letter rate items. They listed highly desirable items and when I looked at their sales history, let's just say they did more in a week or so than my entire annual turnover - I actually kind of felt bad for eBay, for once).
Another seller who has items in the same category as me, with items ranging from around $5-$40, has Plus on every single one of their listings. they key difference is that they offer free post.
We both accept returns, and we both have an extremely low rate of returns.
If you go to any eBay category and just look at the main results, take a look at the number of items available in total, then refine it to only show items with ebay plus. Then refine it to only show items with free post. I found roughly two thirds of plus listings were already free post. Another thing you can look at, though it's a bit harder, is to show only eBay plus items, and have the sort order as price + postage lowest first. Do this in your, and other, categories, and take not of the cheapest item pricfe where postage is a separate cost.
For your items specifically, I suspect due to the higher initial postage cost, the items may be deemed "bulky" by eBay's standard. Your $17 postage ones don't qualify, but your $12 ones do.
