eBay.com today announced the new incentive to “demonstrate just how easy it is to sell” on the marketplace for young sellers looking for a new “side-hustle.” The marketplace is drawing on the inspiration from TV series grown-ish aired on the 17th July which featured a Millennial fashionist turning to eBay to make money.
The move sees eBay attracting young sellers to become marketplace merchants with a promotion to “sell [their] first item for free” on ebay.com. eBay say the promotion is only valid for listings on the US site at www.ebay.com.
What’s the promotion?
eBay say that qualifying members who have never previously sold on ebay.com must the Promotion by selecting “Activate offer” on this page.
Once members activate the offer and then list during the Promotion Period, pursuant to the terms and conditions set forth herein, will pay no final value fees for the first completed sale of an item that was:
- Listed during the Promotion Period
- Sold before the listing is automatically renewed for Fixed Price and Buy It Now listings or during the first listing period for auction-style listings.
eBay say the Promotional discount applies to final value fees only:
- Insertion fees, optional listing upgrade fees, and payment processing fees may apply.
- Discounted final value fees will be applied to the total amount of the sale, including the cost of the item and shipping, excluding any sales tax.
- All existing selling limits on your account, as well as category and item limits, still apply and may prevent you from creating the maximum number of listings in this Promotion. View the everyday rate plan for full details.
Who’s eligible?
The Promotion is available to sellers who:
- Have never previously sold on ebay.com
- Activated the Promotion on the Promotion landing page
- Meet eBay’s minimum seller performance standards. Please sign in to My eBay and view your Seller Dashboard to verify whether your account is currently meeting the standards.
When is it?
eBay say the promotion began on the 17 of July 2019 at 00:00:01 PT (12:00AM plus one second), and will end on the 10 of August at 23:59:59 PT (11:59 PM plus 59 seconds), for listings on www.ebay.com.
How do to activate the promotion?
Members will automatically receive the promotion after they activate the promotion on the promotion landing page, and then create listings on the US site at www.ebay.com through the Sell Your Item form, eBay Seller Tools, eBay Mobile applications, and most third-party tools.
Members should note that the discount may not be shown during the listing process. Instead, the discount will be reflected in the “Seller Account” section in My eBay, under the Account tab, as well as in your next invoice.
Restrictions and exclusions
The Promotion is available only to members who have never previously sold on ebay.com. Members who have sold before will not be able to RSVP for the Promotion.
The following categories are excluded from the Promotion:
- eBay Motors Passenger Vehicles
- Motorcycles
- Boats
- Power Sports
- Other Vehicles
- Motors Local Market
- Real Estate
- Classified Ad listings
- Heavy Equipment
- Food Trucks
- Trailers and Carts
- Commercial Printing Presses
- Coins and Paper Money
- Gift Cards and Coupons
The Promotion excludes listings created prior to activating the offer and listings with a start date prior to, or after, the promotion period.
Auction-style listings created during the promotion period must sell within the first listing period to be eligible for the promotion; Fixed Price and Buy It Now listings must sell before the listing is automatically renewed.
Relists or renewals that occur outside of the Promotion Period will not qualify for the Promotion.
All listings must comply with all applicable eBay policies, including eBay’s Duplicate Listing policy that allows for the removal of duplicate fixed price listings.
The Promotion is subject to U.S laws, void where prohibited, not redeemable for cash, has no face value, and cannot be combined with any other final value fee offer. eBay may cancel, amend, or revoke the Promotion at any time, including in response to fraudulent activity.
2 Responses
There’s an article about what eBay is really doing here published recently on another site:
https://www.ecommercebytes.com/C/abblog/blog.pl?/pl/2019/7/1563410235.html
They are trying to lure in amateurs that don’t know what they’re doing. Most likely reason? To bring them into the eBay web and take advantage of them for money! This quote here says it all “demonstrate just how easy it is to sell” on the marketplace for young sellers looking for a new “side-hustle.” That’s beyond sickening. What a pack of lies from eBay! They are anything but easy for someone new and eBay is purposely preying on these people.
eBay has also been sending messages to buyers inviting them to “sell on eBay and make money”. Buyers that never sold on eBay before. They are literally spamming for new sellers/listings so they can use them for themselves. Is eBay so desperate, so greedy, so evil, or all of the above using these tactics? I say all. This is a company that relies more and more on schemes, trickery, and confusion for money. It’s more like fraud.
So eBay wants sellers that have:
1/ NEVER previously sold on eBay, AND
2/ Meet the minimum seller performance standards (which go into the weeds with seller history like DSRs and neg/neutral feedback) ?
That seems pretty confusing – either they’re a brand-new seller or they’re not, thus won’t have any seller performance history on their dashboard to review (“Pay no selling fees on your first-ever sale.”)?
Leave it to eBay to create additional complexity wherever it’s not needed.
As with many things, eBay has been slow to respond and late to the game in attracting millennial and Gen Z sellers, perhaps this Grown-ish tie-in will be a game changer?