eBay have a consumer promotion running on eBay motors. It’s a very straightforward promotion – pay a tenner to list your car and a tenner if it sells. You can create up to 10 auction or fixed price listings on eBay UK in the Cars, Motorcycles & Vehicles category under the promotion (subject to normal selling limits). You also have to actively opt in to the promotion to pay these fees.
Listing will cost you less without the promo
But getting a sale will cost you more!
What’s interesting here is that the £10 to list is actually a little bit more than the normal motors insertion fee. Generally private sellers would pay an £8.70 insertion fee for either an auction or a fixed price listing on eBay motors. By opting in you’re choosing to pay more than if you didn’t opt in.
To be fair the savings are on the back end – final value fees for selling a motor range are 0.9% of the final transaction (min. £17.39, max. £30.43). If you’re confident that your car will sell (and why wouldn’t it if you’re realistic on price or list it on auction with an attractive start price) then the £20 total selling fee makes sense.
Ultimately I guess this is all about marketing. ‘£10 to list and £10’ if it sells is a snappy sounding proposition and makes it much easier for consumers to grasp the low cost of selling a car on eBay. A promotion touting ‘£8.70 to list and £11.30’ if it sells just wouldn’t have the same appeal.
Is eBay a reasonably priced place to sell?
As a comparison, it’s worth noting that if you wanted to list your car on Autotrader for a two week period it would cost at least £36.95 for cars valued over £1000 and £9.95 for a banger worth under a grand.
Why should you care about a consumer selling a car?
There are tons of reasons why getting a consumer to sell their car on eBay makes good business sense. Firstly it’s been known for years that a consumer who sells even one item on eBay goes on to become a much more loyal buyer compared to someone who has never sold on eBay. There’s also the added bonus that for everyone who sells a car on eBay there’s a buyer who buys the car. Motors Parts and Accessories is one of eBay’s biggest categories and the likelihood is that when you buy a new car you might invest in some extras for it, whether that be as prosaic as some new mats or an air freshener or new wheels, tyres and other parts for maintenance or upgrades. It’s all about tying a buyer into eBay and making them a more loyal customer for the long term.
Are you in the promo?
If you’ve been invited to participate in the eBay Motors promotion, you should have received an email which will detail the promotion period which is quite generous – currently emails being sent out give you until the 1st of October 2017 to get your car listed.
Full terms for the promo are on eBay.
