eBay.com slash fees for Guitars, Amps and accessories

We recently wrote about marketplace fees and cited some of the new marketplaces who presented at ChannelAdvisor Catalyst and differentiated themselves from eBay and Amazon with the premise of lower fees.

Fees are higher than ever and eBay.com recently tweaked their final value fees upwards by 0.15% in many categories for Store subscribers in the latest Seller Release, so it’s somewhat of a surprise to see them slash fees for the guitars and basses category to just 3.5%.

What’s changing for music fees?

For both store and consumer sellers, the FVF will reduce to 3.5% for guitars, basses and guitar accessories (e.g., amps, pedals), effective immediately.

eBay say that this allows their enthusiast music community to sell more items at a faster pace and lower cost. It is now free to list your items in the eBay.com Guitars and Basses category, and the FVF is now capped at $350 for non-store sellers and $250 for store subscribers.

“We are always listening to our customers and recognized that we could do more for music enthusiasts to sell and buy on our platform. In the past year, we re-launched all our category pages, began featuring music as a category on the homepage, and rolled out an extensive sales and events program – all to make our vast selection of musical instruments and gear more easily shoppable.”
– eBay

Why would eBay lower fees?

It’s not like eBay to lower fees and I can’t help thinking that perhaps sellers are using alternative marketplaces which has led to the fee cut. Many consumers are using Facebook to sell nowadays (effectively free), although it’s difficult to track these sales to see if the prices realised are comparable with eBay. There may also be other venues putting pressure on eBay fees for this category in the US – if you’re aware of possible competition we’d love to know.

Alternatively there may be no competing venues and eBay have simply run the figures and they indicate that lower fees will accelerate the number of listings and sales and ultimately propel the category forward.

“We’re always looking at the competitive landscape to provide the best value to our sellers. A number of factors go into determining what changes we make to our fee structure. This can include competitor pricing, margins in the category, inventory considerations and eBay business requirements. The Guitars and Basses category was a natural choice for this reduction.”
– eBay