eBay.com have announced five free auctions every 30 days, for all sellers, starting in June this year. Insertion fees will be zero with a final value fee of 8.75% capped at a maximum of $20 (for the sixth and subsequent listings fees will be as normal).
eBay say this is open to all sellers, but that’s not quite true. To qualify you have to use either the Sell Your Item (SYI) form or Simple listing form, you can “opt out” by using an eBay tool or third-party listing solution. Quite frankly not many pro-sellers will want to use the SYI form so simply won’t be eligible, which is probably a good thing if you expect your item to sell for a high price (More than $62.00 final value and you’re cheaper “opting out”.
Also if you’re going to list an item with a Start/BIN/Reserve price of $18 million or higher you’ll sadly be excluded from the promotion. I’d suggest starting your item at $17,999,999.99 as then your final value fee will be just $20 😀
5 Responses
Well here’s one for the “small seller” or “new seller.” It’s not much at all, but still, could encourage the non-eBay who’s been scared off (or pissed off) to list their little odds and ends every so often.
Desperation is a terrible thing.
😯
I’m a little confused… It seems to drive sellers from Auction to Fixed Price. I can’t get the idea how FREE it is.
Suppose that if an auction closed with the winning bid at 200 USD, the total cost will be 17.5USD( 200 * .0.875). But it would be less with normal rules, 11.51 (25 * 0.0875 + 175 * 0.035 + 3).
Do I miss sth.?
Sellers with items that usually sell for $25-$220 need to do the math to see if the savings on insertion fees will outweigh the hefty FVF hike.
A couple of calculations that I compiled elsewhere:
Someone listing a few items at $49.99 that sell for $200 is currently paying $1.00 to list, plus $2.19 commission on the first $25.00 (at 8.75%) and $6.13 commission on the next $175.00 (3.5%) = Total $ 9.32 per item
This offer to reduce the up front fees, means that a $200 sale costs a flat $17.50 per item.
Ebay earns an extra $8.18 with this “freebie”
Meanwhile if someone has a couple of higher priced items to sell each month, it would be worth using the SYI form for those items (providing you know when each 30 day cycle begins), as the savings are worthwhile:
Someone listing an item at $600.00 that sells for $1000 is currently paying $4.00 to list, plus $2.19 commission on the first $25.00 (at 8.75%) and $34.13 commission on the next $975.00 (3.5%) = Total $ 40.32
This offer to reduce the up front fees, means that a $600 sale costs a flat $20.00.
The seller gets a $20.00 saving in fees.
The tipping points (where the fees are higher by using this “free” listing offer) appear to be about $45 to $450.
If you sell items for less than $25.00 you save the listing fees precisely.
This seems to be targetting micro sellers specifically. I wonder if Ebay’s market research has determined that the majority of micro seller sales fall between $45 and $450……
Kevin