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Is it currently free to list on ebay, and how long for?
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They will now nick 8.75% off you should your item sell, so now you really do need to research the likely selling price for the type of item you are selling. That way, you know how much you need to charge for P&P to cover your fees.
To successfully keep your costs down, you can use the following methods -
1, Use an alternative listing designer with free image hosting, such as Auctiva or Listing Factory (this one even has photo editing facilities and watermarking of images) - Save 7p
2, Host all your images using either the above, or if you create your own templates, use a photo hosting service such as flickr, photobox or snapfish. Just link to the photo in your listing code.
3. DON'T use 'Bold' listing option, no-one I know takes a blind bit of notice as to whether or not listings are bold. Save 'Gallery Plus' & 'Featured' for items over £250. Below this, they just are not worth it.
4. Change your account type from 'business' to 'personal' (or open a second, personal account).
Personally, I didn't mind paying to list, the final selling fee of 5% was reasonable. Now, it's just plain robbery.
Maybe we should all boycott Ebay for 1 week starting on the 1st of April?.
Member #1 of £1,000 challenge - £13.74/ £1000 (that's 1.374%)
3-6 month EF £0/£3600 (that's 0 days worth)
Bold is one of the more useless upgrades, even Ebay representatives tell you not to use it! Provided it's a personal account and you don't buy goods to resell, otherwise you'll be flagged to HMRC and your pennies saved will not look like a sensible idea!
Well it's a fee, if you don't like it don't use it.
A few people boycotting for a week won't have any effect whatsoever, don't like Ebay, don't use Ebay, simple.
I'm a business seller and most of my auctions start at 99p, they finish for between £20 and £100, I get the customers and don't mind paying the fees as I'm earning, if I wasn't I'd be elsewhere.
I've been using auctions, and have been an auctioneer, for the past 25 years, auction houses charge more than double Ebay's fees (albeit often for a slightly different service) and provide a tiny proportion of the customers that are available on Ebay.
Its now a great way to get rid of your clutter at no risk.
If it's real c*** you are selling, then you probably will only get 99p, so around 75p after eBay & Paypal fees. Up to the seller whether they feel that's worth it - a lot of 75p's do add up and personally I find it fun.
If you item is worth more than 99p, then chances are it will sell for more - will cost a little more on the end value, but 10% is not really unreasonable (ever looked at what a real auction house charges ?).
If it doesn't sell, then it's cost you nothing.
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=1537691
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=1517485
Minimum reserve has been £50 for a good few years now and the reserve facility costs .
Read it again, under this new free listing it is 10% FVFs
I don't think ebay will even notice a few people boycotting them for a week.
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chja has posted the link but I even started a new thread last week as a reminder, so yes we have been discussing this since it was first announced about a month ago.
New to Forum? Guide
I think eBay has become very expensive and I only look on there as a last resort for buying these days, there are so many discount codes or offers around these days unless you are looking for 2nd hand or for something specific then I no longer bother. I looked for a special needs buggy in the week - all going for around £120 - I asked on freecycle and got one for free!
I paid over 9k in Paypal and eBay fees last year for the short period I worked (I closed after 7 months for personal reasons) but because it is so cut-throat I was selling for the bare minimum I could. If I had something listed for £10 someone else would have it for £9.75. Something I never understood is how people could sell less than I am able to buy from the manufacturer for, or why people want to work for nothing. Now I have a website and I use just this for selling but I get more profit from this than I ever did from eBay and I do much, much less work. EBay used to take every minute of my spare time and no this year I have a life that is not dominated by eBay. I also think people take me more seriously and that I am running more of a legitimate business because I am not based on eBay. If you don't have a website then consider getting one as the money either stays in your pocket or you can drop your prices to be more competetive. I always look at it that their prices are higher because they have to pay the fees first so somewhere else might have that item cheaper.
That being said, it depends on what you sell, I used to be the only person on eBay selling the things I did now there is too much too choose from so I do not bother. If I am going to sell 100 items to break even (I had over 5,000 items in my eBay store as I sold undies - and for each one I had to pay to list, of course, eBay then started hiding these items if you had a shop) I'd rather sell 5 items to break even. And I for one am enjoying the time I get doing other things rather than eBay and am making more money. I've actually been able to expand away from eBay as I can offer a different service and I have more time. I pay less for my monthly website hosting than I did for an eBay store - before starting on the listing fees for the 5,000 items each month. As I say, if you do not have an external site then consider it as you might well be surprised.
But I'll dig out some stuff from the loft once I get a chance and I'll stick it on there. Just kids clothes I'll get for 50p at a Boot sale so to list for 99p and for it not to sell I've not lost anything - before if I listed 100 items and they did not sell I'd have had to pay £20.00 for that. And I've way more than 100 items tucked away for selling so that is why I'll consider it now.
Member #1 of £1,000 challenge - £13.74/ £1000 (that's 1.374%)
3-6 month EF £0/£3600 (that's 0 days worth)
Expect your items to go for 99p as the tidal wave of similar clutter hits ebay.
Give it a week or two and when sellers are sick of only getting 99p for stuff abd give up, ebay will come up with a new lame promotion to try to get their business back.
"i sent a letter headded sales of god act 1979"
http://pages.ebay.co.uk/sell/private-sellers-pricechange/
Basically they are doing yet another version of the same old con. Drop the listing fee slightly and hike up the FVF by loads.