eBay Spring Seller Release

[michelleoz@ebay.com]

The place to post your comments or questions about Spring Seller Release.

[brerrabbit585]

Not replying to anyone in particular...

When is a listing entitlement not an entitlement?  When you're not entitled to use your entitlement because the item has had no sales in 12 months.  

Are they saying it's okay to have 12 of an item and have it listed for 12 years so long as 1 sells every year?  But if someone might come along after 2 years and buy all 12 - well, that's something that'll never happen now because ebay will remove the listing before then.  If I have to take a lot of my items elsewhere to sell, I'll be taking the lot!

I don't think any sellers in my category have UPC or MPN numbers - because for most of us there'd be absolutely no way of finding them.  If they insist on them none of us will be able to list and ebay will lose a LOT of revenue.  But it may be a blessing in disguise because buyers will be forced to follow the sellers to other sites.  If I have to dump my stock cheap I certainly won't be giving ebay the benefit of any fees from it!

[brerrabbit585]

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@imastawka wrote:

What on earth is their reasoning for getting rid of watermarks?

That leaves image theivery right open.

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I think their last (second last?) seller release included the fact that by using the site we agree to allow our pictures to be used by anyone, so they're not stealing when they use our images.  Ebay may as well be run by the Chinese because they're famous for having absolutely no respect for copyright or any other ownership rights.  Perhaps the Chinese have been buying up the shares and that's why it's run (or not run) the way it is.

[ourphonecase]

Got a call from eBay about inactive listings saying they will charge 4 cents for any times that have not sold within a year. I alredy delisted them all so why would they still ask? Why?

[digital*ghost]

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@ourphonecase wrote:
Got a call from eBay about inactive listings saying they will charge 4 cents for any times that have not sold within a year. 

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Easy, I'll just tell them to take it out of all the extra (and considerably more, relatively speaking) FVF on refunded postage by effectively forcing many buyers to check out multiple items separately*. 

*I wouldn't expect this to actually work, for one eBay are thoroughly too single-minded bureaucratic for such simple solutions. 

[everard6920]

Guaranteed Delivery

If AP can't guarantee delivery times, I definitely can't, so I'm not even going to bother opting in. It'd be like if someone told me to train for, and compete in, Olympic gymnastics. I'd never make it, so I wouldn't even bother trying.

Watermarks

I don't use watermarks on my images, but it says that "text overlaid on an image" will be considered a watermark.

I don't do that, either, but I do have images of item components on a white background, with captions identifying each component. I do this so that it's clear what the buyer is getting.

Knowing eBay, they're going to count this as a "watermark".

Inactive Listings

All this talk of a "listing threshold" is interesting. With my store plan, I get 1000 free listings per month, and if they try to restrict me to anything less than what I'm paying for (which is 1000), see ya, eBay.

Also interested to hear how someone from eBay would answer Digi's questions from a page ago.

Definitely time to get those websites happening, people.

[everard6920]

Also, how does 2 day guaranteed delivery work? We know eBay counts every day, regardless of whether or not it's a weekend or a public holiday.

If someone buys something on Sunday, and Monday is a holiday, it isn't going to arrive on Tuesday.

Even if they buy something on Saturday afternoon and you post it Express, it won't arrive by Monday, because don't you have to lodge it on a weekday or in the PO for guaranteed next business day?

If you're a seller and you select this, you'd better be closing your store every weekend and public holiday, or you're going to be paying out a lot of postage refunds.

You'd have to be mad to opt in for that.

[yeoldecoinco]

Guaranteed Delivery Times.

What seller IN THEIR RIGHT MIND would opt into garbage like this?

The PO cannot guarantee anything, still waiting for them to deliver a Registered packet from SIX WEEKS ago.

The PO drops the ball, the seller has to pay, like usual.

Just another thought bubble from people totally unfamiliar with the real world.

Can you imagine what eBay will be like for sellers after say 5 more "seller updates"

The mind boggles. Fortunately, I am in the position of no longer needing eBay, just as well.

If they ever suspend me, like they are doing with so many people over communication, I will suspend them right back.

[toysandthings12]

Its just Ebay getting even more

..whats the word, I've lost it.

[everard6920]

There's a whole section about how trying to sell off eBay is not allowed, because eBay is so terrified of sellers (and buyers) going elsewhere . . . and then they actively encourage that with their "inactive listings" policy.

I mean, if a seller has 100 of something (or even 10 of something) and eBay says it's an inactive listing and it has to go, what do they think that seller is going to do?

Do they think the seller is going to say, "oh okay" and leave the stock just sitting around? Of course they aren't. They're going to find another platform on which to sell the item - be it their own website, Amazon, Etsy, Shopify, or whatever.

As Digi said, if a buyer emails or otherwise contacts the seller asking to buy something that was on eBay, but isn't any more, because eBay said it was "inactive" and removed it - what, does eBay think the seller won't sell it to the buyer in that scenario?

I have a store with over 1000 listings. Obviously, not all of them sell immediately. Sometimes it takes awhile (although rarely a year). eBay has already flagged one of my items as being inactive, and that item is eligible to sell on Etsy - so what do you think I'm going to do with that item when your policy is introduced, eBay?