eBay have announced zero selling fees for its North America seller community on any sneakers sold at $100 or more. Here in the UK, sneakers are what we would call ‘trainers’ and there’s a healthy market not only for new sneakers but also for pre-owned sneakers. Whilst in the UK we view trainers as fashion items to be worn, in the US they are very much part of the collectibles market – far more so than the UK.
Zero fees are hard for anyone to dislike. So long as the sneakers are listed in Men’s and Women’s sneakers in the Athletic Shoes category (childrens sizes aren’t included in the offer) for $100 or more there will be no listing fees and no final value fees to pay.
“For Men’s and Women’s sneakers in the Athletic Shoes category (“Fashion> Shoes>Men’s Shoes> Men’s Athletic Shoes” and “Fashion > Shoes > Women’s Shoes > Women’s Athletic Shoes”), eBay has made the following fee changes:
The insertion fee charged when an item is listed for sale (also known as the “listing fee”) is free if the starting price* of the item listed is $100 or more, not including shipping, handling, taxes, or fees.
In addition, the final value fee charged when an item sells (also known as the “selling fee”) is 0% if the selling price** of the item is $100 or more, not including shipping, handling, taxes, or fees.
* Starting price is the starting price (auction-style listings) or Buy It Now price (fixed price listings) of your listing.
** The selling price is the final sale price of the item“
– eBay
If you start your listing at less than $100 (on an auction style listing) and it sells for more than $100 then you’ll pay the listing fee but the final value fee will still be waived.
In a move sellers will appreciate, if you already have live listings on eBay you don’t have to do anything – if they now sell for more than $100 then you’ll have your final value fee waived.
eBay have also announced a month of price cuts for buyers, celebrating the biggest designer collaborations, top brands, and rare grails of the year. The price cuts signify the continued dominance of eBay in the sneaker resale game, with nearly six million total sneakers sold on eBay in 2019. With almost 1.5 million live sneaker listings right now, the move is only expected to grow eBay’s amazing selection of new, rare, and emerging styles across every price and time zone.
Five Biggest Sneaker Trends in 2019
To celebrate 2019, eBay tracked what’s on every sneakerhead’s wish list with its “2019 Sneaker Resale Report,” detailing the year’s top trends according to sales data8.
The top five trends and styles include:
Fan Favorite: Air Jordan 1
One of the world’s most popular sneakers, the Air Jordan 1 dominates, coming in as the #1 sneaker of 2018 and 2019.
Breakout Collaboration: Nike x Sacai
One of the most buzzed-about styles of the year, the Nike x Sacai LD Waffle wins eBay’s breakout collaboration of 2019.
Hottest New Release: Adidas Yeezy Boost 350 V2 Black
The adidas Yeezy Boost 350 v2 is the top Yeezy release of 2019 on the marketplace.
1985 Vintage Original OG Nike Air Jordan 1
One of the rarest and most coveted pairs sold this year from seller ShoeZeum, the 1985 Original OG Nike Air Jordan 1.
Best Collaboration: SpongeBob SquarePants x Nike Kyrie 5 “SpongeBob”
Kyrie Irving’s 90’s TV-inspired sneakers was the most popular collaboration of 2019, beating the #2 collaboration from LeBron James by almost 34%.
Top Brand: Nike
Sneaker shoppers’ loyalties are with Nike. The brand accounts for nearly 40% of total sneaker sales, coming in as the most sold brand on eBay.
2 Responses
Did anyone search ‘men’s trainers’ on eBay UK recently?
It is like a comedy show of bad fakes and clones from both the UK and our friendly neighbourhood Chinese merchants (the future of eBay).
So this is a little rich !
Unfortunately (but unsurprisingly) the situation is worse than just the drastic (desperate) fee elimination.
Much worse.
Along with the seller promo eBay also kicked-out a sneaker buyer promo for $100 off $300+ with code PAIREDUP.
Apparently in addition to buyers setting up new/guest accounts to use the buyer coupon multiple times, sellers were ‘looping’ multiple sales and pocketing the $100 incentive in “sell-buy-sell” loops, apparently essentially printing money by exploiting eBay’s promo in conjunction with the zero selling fees with no costs incurred to them.
Of course since the PAIREDUP promo was eBay-subsidized, every eBay seller is actually the ones ‘paying’ for this massive flub.
Haven’t checked elsewhere, but hundreds of users on Twitter are boasting of it.
Of course there are thousands of legitimate buyers who are also extremely upset at not being able to use the promo as intended.
Again in typical eBay fashion the botched execution of this entire endeavor (both the fee elimination as well as the buyer coupon) smacks of hasty EOY desperation and eBay being hurt by StockX.
But hey, at least eBay’s GMV should get one heckuva boost out of this…?♂️