When is the next free day?

Tojo_Ralph

"On Thursday 21st April 2005 sellers listing with Auction-style format will be eligible for a 5p (£0.05 GBP) insertion fee................... qualifying sellers will receive a credit to their accounts by 10th June 2005."

I guess by EBay standards thats a quick refund.

pavlovs_dog

i got all excited then!

im having enough problems with UK buyers at the minute, without opening myself up to the world :rofl:

Cat72

It is a strange kind of offer - even by ebays standards ! I suppose you could offer worlwide to get your 5p listing and if anyone abroad emailed for prices make it a ludicrous amount.
I always hate when they offer to refund the fee. But maybe someone will find it ok .I thought I would post it to save those it could help listing their items in the meantime.
But yeah a 1p free listing day, instant credit would be brill.

ROBDOLPHIN66

On the subject of foreign buyers - why do they all seem to think that a parcel can be sent insured, next-day delivery and trackable for about £2.00???
On a more serious point, as a powerseller I find that free / cheap listings days are a complete waste of time if you are looking to get a decent (or even reasonable) price for your items. 90% of the time you would be much better off listing away from the cheap listings day and all of the days when cheap listings could finish (after 1, 3, 5, 7 and 10 days).

skdotcom

Tojo_Ralph wrote:

"On Thursday 21st April 2005 sellers listing with Auction-style format will be eligible for a 5p (£0.05 GBP) insertion fee................... qualifying sellers will receive a credit to their accounts by 10th June 2005."

I guess by EBay standards thats a quick refund.

What this means is that they take the fees from your debit/credit card before this date, and then give you a credit on your account on the 10th June for the amount your owed. You then have to sell more stuff to make use of this credit! Very clever....

soolin

skdotcom wrote:

What this means is that they take the fees from your debit/credit card before this date, and then give you a credit on your account on the 10th June for the amount your owed. You then have to sell more stuff to make use of this credit! Very clever....

That's right and last time they did it this way there were quite a few complaints on the dedicated ebay newsgroups.

Several smaller buyers used the opportunity to list expensive items and run up a large bill with ebay that had to be paid *before* the insertion fee difference was credited back to their account. They then spent months and months trying to use up the credit on their ebay accounts that they had built up.

No doubt there will be similair complaints this time from sellers who don't read the fine print.

I have a few bits and pieces that usually sell well overseas so I am going to list those on thursday. I've just got to remember to tick worldwide as at the moment my turbolister items default automatically to Europe, the US and Canada only.

Soo

coupon_king_2

I bet a very high percentage of these sales from buyers abroad dont take place ... while a lot of people may bid from abroad on the spur of the moment when they have thought about it I reckon a lot will change their minds ( postage cost , customs , ect )... I also think the scammers will be rubbing their hands with alot of newish members being caught out !

soolin

coupon_king wrote:

I bet a very high percentage of these sales from buyers abroad dont take place ... while a lot of people may bid from abroad on the spur of the moment when they have thought about it I reckon a lot will change their minds ( postage cost , customs , ect )... I also think the scammers will be rubbing their hands with alot of newish members being caught out !

My foreign buyers haven't been any trouble so far, no more so than my UK buyers. I have one particular item that I sell regularly to (different) buyers in Las Vegas which is very odd as there doesn't appear to be any reason why this should be so. The one thing I wouldn't risk today though, not that I sell any, is mobiles and other electronic goods which attract scammers. But then, I wouldn't normally offer them overseas anyway.

I also don't think that a lot of overseas buyers are going to want some of the stuff listed today, so I can't really see any problems with the actual sales.

Like I said earlier, I see more problems with sellers not reading the terms and conditions, or not ticking the right box in turbo lister or something. For me it meant I had to change my listings from shipping overseas (designated countries) to shipping worldwide, even now I wonder if I have done it all properly. Usually you can tell if you don't comply with the 'offer' as the calculated listing fee will be wrong if you don't. However this time you won't be able to check as the listing fee will be the actual fee and a rebate given later.

Soo

ACID

is it me or can i ofer wordlwie shipping for liek £100?? obviouly no one wil buy it

but then i can still qualify for 5p listing? as i never sell worldwide

possible loophiole?

soolin

ACID wrote:

is it me or can i ofer wordlwie shipping for liek £100?? obviouly no one wil buy it

but then i can still qualify for 5p listing? as i never sell worldwide

possible loophiole?

Yes it's a loophole unless someone reports you for fee avoidance and you get a warning on your account.

You'd be better off using a sensible but high post and packing charge, high enough so that buyers will be put off, but not enough for ebay to take any notice of fee avoidance complaints. Load your post and packing for overseas with all the Royal Mail optional insurances you can find.

Alternatively put a blank disclaimer in your listing that overseas bidders need to contact you for post and packing costs before bidding, and then don't respond.

However, both these methods carry the risk of getting a foreign winner who negs you at the end of the auction because he didn't read your listing and wants the item sent at cost.

It might be better to just use today as an opportunity to experiment with overseas sales and see how you get on. Just think, there is a huge untapped market out there and your end prices might really benefit.

Soo