If you’re thinking of raising money for your favourite charity by listing on eBay.com, you’ve now got an extra incentive to do so. Between October 27th and November 15th, items listed with the eBay Giving Works program will incur insertion fees of just 5c. The offer applies to auctions and BIN listings, but 10 day listings will still incur the 40c surcharge. The promotional price will be in the form of a fee credit, which will be reflected in seller accounts by January 2010 (in other words, you’ll have to pay the fees, and then eBay will give you them back).
There’s a bunch more small print, so do read it before you list. I’m all in favour of eBay Giving Works – as well as the UK’s eBay for Charity – but I can’t help feeling this promo is more complicated than it needed to be. Why not just waive all the fees for charity listings for the holiday season altogether? And why do we have to see those horrible fee credits, which always, always cause problems for sellers, running over Christmas?
