Sellers on eBay.com and .ca need to get listing: there’s a free listing day on both sites tomorrow. Items with a start or BIN price of less than US$10 or CA$12 which use Gallery, will have their insertion fees waived.
Though unusually generous – I can’t actually remember the last time there was a *free* listing day – these promotions are well in line with eBay’s current push towards low start prices and the universal use of Gallery.
UK sellers might also be wondering where their free, or at least cheap listing day is: there’s yet to be one in August. Last year, we had two cheap listing days early in the month, then 10p listing weekend for Clothes, Shoes and Accessories, and another general CLD in the first week in September. But then eBay were of course dealing with a lot of flack from their Shops’ fee changes (was that really a year ago?!).
I don’t think eBay UK think they have to push sellers quite so hard towards core listings this year, but I’d expect the Gallery promotion to be replicated over here in some way. My money would say they’d want lots of great things ending over the Bank Holiday weekend: this would mean ten day auctions starting Thursday or Friday this week.
And then again, I might, of course, be totally wrong 🙂
18 Responses
I see a subtle difference in the wording on the
.CA and .COM promotions
.CA:
Insertions fees for Auction-style and Fixed Price listings will be waived when you CHOSE Gallery and have a start price less than US$10.00 or C$12.00
.COM:
Insertion Fees for Auction-style and Fixed Price listings will be waived when you PURCHASE Gallery and have a start price of $9.99 or less
Typical eBay ambiguity or a few unsuspecting sellers ending up with numerous 35c gallery fees?
Try a very small number of sample listings first, I think.
Gallery will have to be paid for. I wouldn’t have read it any other way: if Gallery were free too, they’d be trumpeting that!
Ultimately , that was the way I read it as well.
Perhaps the USA promo page was being a little more honest.
If you look at the CA promo page, see how many times the words ‘Free’ ‘ or $0 listing fees’
jump out.
The only mention of other fees is:
All other fees (Final Value Fees and all other OPTIONAL listing upgrade fees) will still be charged.’
Can’t help thinking that a few sellers will list
and get some 35c surprises
So in fact, this is not a “Free Listing Day”!! Sellers still need to pay for Gallery. I must say, I find the wording a little confusing and would expect some sellers will too.
I really don’t get the confusion here. When there is a normal cheap listing day, listing upgrades still have to be paid for. Why should this one with free insertion fees be any different?
The difference here is that you need to pay for the gallery in order to qualify for the “free listing”. In other words, instead of calling it a Free Listing Day, the promotion could equally be called “list for 35c and get gallery free”.
Maybe Sue, because you’re not expecting the “free lunch” that a lot of newbies will be expecting and get caught out for.
I just did some test listings and – yes, you do get charged the gallery fee (18p in UK money)
However, the good news for low value item sellers is that multi-item BINs are listing free of ILF & Listing Designer Fee if using Turbo Lister. (It shows as being charged in Turbo Lister but is at promo rate of $0.00 in your account page in SMP) = = = 999 x 1c beads (has to be good for PS qualification – right?)
Remember the US also charges a 10cent scheduling fee – so upload live rather than scheduling – make use of the time difference where possible ….. get up EARLY tomorrow to catch that 10pm – midnight slot US west coast time 😉
Yes, you do need to pay for the Gallery – there have been plenty of “buy xxx and get yyy free” promotions in the past. I’ll grant you, if you don’t normally use Gallery then you’re only going to save 5c, so perhaps it’s not the biggest bargain on the planet – but it seems pretty obvious what you’re getting, so I still don’t understand why the big issue.
No, there is no big issue. Its just not any more unusually generous than a free gallery promotion would be.
Funny how sellers complain when buyers make assumptions about what’s in listings, and yet they do it just as much themselves 🙁
When I go to the shop and they have a “Buy one get something free” offer I don’t expect to get the “something free” without the “Buy one” part taking place.
I don’t see why anyone should complain about “Buy Gallery” if it comes with “Free insertion”. I also fail to see what’s so confusing about it.
Chris, Sue, “confusion” is perhaps not the right word. I think it is more “dissapointment”. When I read the headline and looked at the graphic on the promotion page (https://pages.ebay.com/promo/galleryandinsertion/), what first stands out is “$0 Listing Fees”. It is not until you read the conditions that it becomes clear that it is actually impossible to get the $0 listing fee because you are required to purchase the gallery for 0.35c. Once you realize that, and I suppose everybody does, then you (or at least I), feel a little misled by the headline. That’s all. But perhaps I am the only one of eBay’s 250 million users that feels this way.
If that’s “disapointment” I wish they’d disappoint me on eBay.co.uk instead of you on eBay.com
It’s an offer, if you don’t like it ignore it. If you like it make use of it. 😀
“nstead of calling it a Free Listing Day, the promotion could equally be called “list for 35c and get gallery freeâ€.”
The substantial difference is how the relist credit will work. By making people pay for the gallery and get the listing fee instead of the other way around, there is no refund of fees if a relisted item sells. Further, the difference with .com vs .uk is that when a relisted item sells, the lower of the two insertion fees is refunded (not the 2nd one as on .uk), meaning all the new listings from today’ “free” day will refund zero if they are relisted and sell the 2nd time.
A “pay the regular .40 insertion fee, get a free gallery” would be a substantially better deal considering the relist credits.
Heaven help us if they determine this is a success, and change the other sites to be like .fr with the gallery fee added to every insertion fee 🙁
Very good point about relisted items – thank Toby!
I guess I am not the only one of 250 million users to consider the offer misleading?, confusing?, dissapointing?
https://blog.auctionbytes.com/cgi-bin/blog/blog.pl?/comments/2007/8/1187182556.html
Tch tch Sue, you’re slipping! You were six days out 😛