FREE LSTING. 1-8 th September

soolin

With thanks to SteveE2 cut and pasted from the alerts thread|

Saturday 1st until Sunday 9th September 2012 (local UK time), eBay.co.uk registered Private Sellers (subject to the below mentioned seller restrictions) who list up to 150 listing(s) (with a starting price of £1 or more) in an eligible category using the Auction-style format on eBay.co.uk, will not pay an Insertion Fee per listing. Feature fees will still apply. The number of listings eligible under this promotion is limited to a maximum of 150 listings for sellers without listing restrictions or less where seller restrictions apply.


http://pages.ebay.co.uk/promos/0IF_120901/index.html

soolin

I like the fact that the amount of listings has been limited as is usual now for the FLWs

porto_bello

I've just noticed this promotion isn't just for a weekend and the usual 100 items, but for 150 items, over 9 consecutive days, covering 2 weekends!... That's a new one!

I think I'll list/relist on Sunday 2nd and relist the unsold items again on Sunday 9th, to give myself two bites of the cherry, so to speak.

soolin

porto_bello wrote: »

I've just noticed this promotion isn't just for a weekend and the usual 100 items, but for 150 items, over 9 consecutive days, covering 2 weekends!... That's a new one!

I think I'll list/relist on Sunday 2nd and relist the unsold items again on Sunday 9th, to give myself two bites of the cherry, so to speak.

Then you would be limiting yourself to fewer unique listings though. It might be better if you have enough private things to sell to use all 150 over the course of the week and hopefully enough will sell so that you can use the next FLW to relist.

oldone_2

I have got a feeling that this is the prelude to permanent free listings for private sellers.

porto_bello

soolin wrote: »

Then you would be limiting yourself to fewer unique listings though. It might be better if you have enough private things to sell to use all 150 over the course of the week and hopefully enough will sell so that you can use the next FLW to relist.

True Soolin, though in my case, to be honest, I've probably got only 50 items or so ready to sell/relist and even looking around the house wouldn't produce to many more, so in total I've got less than 75 items. With a maximum of 150 listings, this gives me 2 goes at listing everything for 7 days, on two consecutive Sundays.

I'm also a bit wary of listing too many items too frequently on eBay. The last free listing weekend offered 100 free listings, plus this 150, within the space of a few weeks, makes it appear that a private seller has listed 250 items, which seems an awful lot for a private seller.

In reality, many will be unsold items relisted, but I doubt eBay goes into that amount of detail - they'll probably just pick up on the fact that 250 items have been listed by a private seller, so clearly that suggests the private seller needs to register as a business.

porto_bello

oldone wrote: »

I have got a feeling that this is the prelude to permanent free listings for private sellers.

Could be, but my thinking is that offering lots of free listing opportunities would be an easy way of enticing private sellers to relist lots of items, then informing them that due to the number of recent listings, they need to register as a business.

My guess is that it's only because of eBid's market presence and permanent free listings, that free listing opportunities are being offered by eBay.

goodfella66

As a seller & buyer on Ebay, I hate the free listing promotions. Ebay just gets flooded with tat that hasn't got a cat in hells chance of selling. If this became permanent, I think it will have a detriment effect on Ebay as a lot of buyers will just think it's too much trouble to search through the flood of continuous unsold & relisted rubbish.

soolin

porto_bello wrote: »

I'm also a bit wary of listing too many items too frequently on eBay. The last free listing weekend offered 100 free listings, plus this 150, within the space of a few weeks, makes it appear that a private seller has listed 250 items, which seems an awful lot for a private seller.

.

I had always thought that too, but it doesn't sem to be a trigger for the compulsory upgrade to a business. Ebay seem to pick on certain categories of people to force the upgrade- selling second hand clothes seems to be one they like to pick on.

In the antiques and collectable sections it doesn't seem to make any difference. I have competition from many 'private' dealers who list tons of stuff and even have a business name .

porto_bello wrote: »

My guess is that it's only because of eBid's market presence and permanent free listings, that free listing opportunities are being offered by eBay.

Ebid do not seem to be causing ebay any problems at all, list for free there certainly- but never sell a thing and I don't think as a model that works for people. A business needs to actually sell and a true private seller surely wants to declutter so ebid is no use to either.

too_much_debt

I'm wondering whether people are just not selling much anymore due to the fees and increase in postage and Ebay are not making as much as they used to. Especially in clothing, why pay cost of item plus £2.20 postage on something when you can go to Primark, Matalan, George at Asda and other places where clothes are quite cheap, unless you are after designer stuff or good quality clothes.

I am now checking on Amazon and places like that for books or things I am after (not clothing) and finding it cheaper including free postage so am buying more from Amazon as with the postage charges on Ebay it's just not worth buying.

I am selling the last of my Business stuff and am not buying any more as the 5 or 6 Wholesalers I usually look at and have bought stuff from before are not selling anything decent anymore and even the Business sellers selling over 1-2,000 items don't seem to be buying much new stuff.

Ebay is just not what it used to be anymore and people are put off by not being able to leave neg feedback for buyers who do not pay or who cause problems, the DSR star ratings are unfair too and people just can't be bothered.

I have been selling as a Business for nearly 7 years and the last year and a half have been the worst it's been. I have stopped posting overseas due to the increase in postage and for the items I sell it is not worth it for overseas buyers to buy the items and having to pay double the cost of the item because of the postage, when it first changed I had quite a few parcels go missing which I never had before.

My youngest daughter starts school full time on 1st October and I am now looking for night/evening or weekend work and will stop Ebaying when I find something as I'm not making any money and have had to list items for lower than I bought them for as I need the money for bills.

I don't think they are trying to catch people out I think they are trying to make more money and it also seems strange for them to do so many free listing days in one go.

Crowqueen

eBid have very little market presence, Porto. No-one wants to buy there - they either don't know about it or would prefer to stick with one of a number of bigger sites because of better protection. And you don't get free listings unless you pay another way via a subscription fee - at least on eBay you only pay for what you use.

More likely is that eBay have seen Amazon with their free listings and want to rejig things for private sellers - without causing the unregistered businesses to take advantage. I have thought this for a while; I don't think it's a conspiracy theory at all, I think it's more of a practical solution in order to test any problems/restrictions that could be imposed to prevent unreg businesses exploiting it.

If eBay had a fraction of the efficiency you give them credit for they would have stopped the unreg business problem a long time ago properly. I agree they target some categories more than others.

But I seriously think you are living in cloud-cuckoo-land if you think eBid are going to challenge any time soon. They don't have the revenue to increase their presence where it matters - to attract buyers - and if they did they would have to charge the market rate for their listings, simple equation.