ebay reducing free listings for private sellers

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head

I think eBay made a mistake with the promos a long time ago, instead of the same ones at set intervals they should have just been completely random amounts off at random times, the situation now is people wait for the promo to list. 

The 1000 free listings is just odd, especially with them not counting on roll over, 300 that don't roll over on the count, yeah OK that's fine, but when you look at what a business seller needs to pay for those 300 listings there's certainly a significant divide. 

I guess it does encourage people to sell, I probably wouldn't bother for most things if paying 12.9% plus all the other fees. 

Where eBay has failed in the past is tackling the obvious, I can find a listing on a private account with 3000 sold but eBay won't do anything because it's over a period of several years and their actual weekly/monthly/whatever volume is low.

I'm not surprised they are cutting back on stuff but I think they are likely to face backlash if they push too far after creating a set expectation, so many times I've read online people saying eBay's fees are a rip off when they aren't that bad compared to other outlets with the cheaper alternatives either not having the volume or something free, like Facebook, just being a headache, so it's going to be difficult for them to create any balance on this issue.  

WLM21

I have about 450 listings at the moment, 95% of which are buy it now items so these have been auto-relisted each months for a while

I assume the best thing for me to do now is ..

firstly, stop and relist as many as I can before the October 1st date .. so I'll get another full month (nearly) with all my 450 items listed

then .. before the end of October, either sell cheaply or remove the excess listings, ie any ones above the 300 limit.

then .. in future months .. just relist as many as required to bring the total to 300

Is my thinking correct ? 

soolin

WLM21 said:

I have about 450 listings at the moment, 95% of which are buy it now items so these have been auto-relisted each months for a while

I assume the best thing for me to do now is ..

firstly, stop and relist as many as I can before the October 1st date .. so I'll get another full month (nearly) with all my 450 items listed

then .. before the end of October, either sell cheaply or remove the excess listings, ie any ones above the 300 limit.

then .. in future months .. just relist as many as required to bring the total to 300

Is my thinking correct ? 

If you read the announcement, and assuming wording hasn’t been changed (I’m out of the country at the moment so might have missed something), it is clear that the rules for ‘new’listings on a private account haven’t changed. This will apply only to new listings, not auto relisted ones. Therefore you leave your existing ones to roll over plus you can list another 300 each month. On top of that you can also list any under FVF days that don’t come off the limit either.

if you check your current dashboard, any relists don’t reduce the total available. I’ve had several relist this month already yet still show I have 1000 available. 

soolin

Interestingly there’s still a lot of discussion around whether the current rules about auto relists for private sellers not counting against the 300 listings with, it seems, a lot of high listing count private sellers pulling listings today ‘just in case’. 

Add to that the topic in this thread , there’s lots of confusion generally on other forums and lots of speculation. The next couple of days might be interesting - just as I’m off line on a flight 😀

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6557424/ebay-free-to-sell#latest

WLM21

Yesterday I spoke to a member of eBay Customer Services on this matter.

He said, items already listed can run for 8 months without any further charge, but after the 8th 'auto-renew' there would be a charge, or at least they would count against the new monthly total.

I asked whether there was an easy way to find out which items had been re-listed the most, but sadly, the only way I could find this out would be by going through the listings one by one. Too much faff that !

I suggested that I simply end all my items, then relist, using 'sell similar' before the midnight deadline, which he agreed was a good idea, so this is what I did. All my items have an end date of 29 days ..
 
For the next 8 months I now have to try and lower my total to the 300 and keep at this figure if I want to avoid fees.

GadgetGuru

WLM21 said:

Yesterday I spoke to a member of eBay Customer Services on this matter.

He said, items already listed can run for 8 months without any further charge, but after the 8th 'auto-renew' there would be a charge, or at least they would count against the new monthly total.

I asked whether there was an easy way to find out which items had been re-listed the most, but sadly, the only way I could find this out would be by going through the listings one by one. Too much faff that !

I suggested that I simply end all my items, then relist, using 'sell similar' before the midnight deadline, which he agreed was a good idea, so this is what I did. All my items have an end date of 29 days ..
 
For the next 8 months I now have to try and lower my total to the 300 and keep at this figure if I want to avoid fees.

I have a feeling you would be a prime example of someone eBay push across to business seller status, whether you like it or not? 
I think they're getting tougher on this now, hence why they reduced the allowance for private sellers, considering private sellers are unlikely to list that much per month...?

_SwiftNick_

As always there's a catch...
You now don't get your money automatically transferred to your bank at the end of each day.
There are no scheduled pay-outs for private sellers.

Proceeds of private sales now go into your 'eBay Balance'.
You can make ad hoc requests for this money to be transferred to your bank, but these transfers take up to 4 working days.

As a business seller you still have the option of automatic pay-outs, but you have the pay the monthly business seller fee and also the original listing and transaction fees.

Great!

WLM21

GadgetGuru said:

I have a feeling you would be a prime example of someone eBay push across to business seller status, whether you like it or not? 
I think they're getting tougher on this now, hence why they reduced the allowance for private sellers, considering private sellers are unlikely to list that much per month...?

I only list 20 or 30 a month, but many items just roll over again and again, causing the 300+ items I have now

Now that fees will kick in, I'll just have to lower the buy it now prices and try to get rid of them

soolin

_SwiftNick_ said:

As always there's a catch...
You now don't get your money automatically transferred to your bank at the end of each day.
There are no scheduled pay-outs for private sellers.

Proceeds of private sales now go into your 'eBay Balance'.
You can make ad hoc requests for this money to be transferred to your bank, but these transfers take up to 4 working days.

As a business seller you still have the option of automatic pay-outs, but you have the pay the monthly business seller fee and also the original listing and transaction fees.

Great!

Nothing has changed for business sellers who will continue to get payouts as per their current schedules. Also, there is no such thing as a business seller fee, businesses can pay for a shop or can go PAYG and pay for each listing as they go along. They don’t pay a subscription just to because they are a business. 

https://www.ebay.co.uk/help/selling/fees-credits-invoices/fees-business-sellers?id=4809&st=3&pos=1&query=Fees%20for%20business%20sellers&intent=Business%20seller%20fees&lucenceai=lucenceai&docId=HELP1443

soolin

WLM21 said:

GadgetGuru said:

I have a feeling you would be a prime example of someone eBay push across to business seller status, whether you like it or not? 
I think they're getting tougher on this now, hence why they reduced the allowance for private sellers, considering private sellers are unlikely to list that much per month...?

I only list 20 or 30 a month, but many items just roll over again and again, causing the 300+ items I have now

Now that fees will kick in, I'll just have to lower the buy it now prices and try to get rid of them

Have a proper read of the t and cs or go through this thread.

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6557424/ebay-free-to-sell#latest

If your item re list automatically they don’t come out of the 300 monthly allowance. So you can list 300 new items a month and let the other auto re list.