eBay: No more insertion fees for auction-style after Apr 19

I put some Guided by Voices posters/bumper stickers/drink coasters up for auction a week ago, starting the bidding at the actual cost to ship via USPS Priority Mail.

After I listed the auction, I realized that someone could be the only bidder, and I'd be on the hook for covering the final value fee, the PayPal fee, etc.

I was so relieved on Sunday night when the auction ended without any bidders!

So I was not out any fees, thanks to the "no more insertion fees" change.

But it's going to make me think more carefully about how and what I bother to put on eBay, and of course what I'll start the bidding at.

I'm going to see if a friend wants those Guided by Voices promo items for free. Otherwise I'll just toss them in the dumpster (edit: recycling bin, of course!).

Craig.

 

I am going to start auctions at a higher amount to cover the additional fees resulting from this change and quit listing items when I use up my 50 free insertion fees each month. I will still do poorly but won't be wasting time shipping things unless I get a fair price. With items where shipping varies by location, I will set it up with shipping calculated which will hopefully result in buyers closer to me but when a buyer further away wins, the proper shipping will be calculated making the price paid higher. For auctions with fixed shipping to any US destination, I will just offer free shipping.

 

Final update: Got my check last week from U-Pic for the declared item value. Everything went really smoothly. They didn't ever contact me with any questions or pushbacks.

One piece of advice. If shipping overseas make sure you put the actual value of the item on the customs form. I know many sellers are tempted to lower the value because they are afraid that the item might get stolen in transit, but if it's insured and does get lost you won't recover the true value.

 

Thanks for updating us about your UPIC experience.

I am very tempted to re-evaluate my ebay overseas shipping stance (which is currently "NO WAY"). I am very tired of seeing identical CDs on sale by me go for 1/5th (or less) of what worldwide sellers are getting since I am not allowing all those foreign bids. I just can't afford to have a single one get ripped off, lost in the mail, etc and no buyer wants to shell out the $30+ it costs for the Express Mail service which is what is needed to get any kind of paypal seller protection for outside USA sales (for items less than $250).

 

Just remember: If the buyer doesn't cooperate, UPIC will deny your claim. So if they say item not received and refuse to return a signed document to that effect, you lose.

 

Well the no listing fee has helped me out. I ended up selling 4 items I wouldn't have listed otherwise and 3 of them were for over $100. Since shipping was only about $3-6 Ebay taking a max of an extra $.72 per item is fine with me. If I were to have listed them as buy it now the initial listing fee would have been $.50, so Ebay made an extra $.22 on the more expensive shipping items and I came out $.14 on the cheaper ones.

I can understand how this would add up for high volume sellers, but for someone who only sells 10 items or so a year it is an incentive to list more things.

 

Yeah, that's such a huge part of the equation, and it is still making me think twice, or three times, about all this. It sounds like UPIC should help for the instances of a package truly going missing (although even then the buyer still has to want to bother to cooperate, and he has no motivation to do so since painpal will have already reimbursed him) but for being ripped off - that cooperation factor seems like it would be even lower. Sigh. Dammit, I which the USPS cheap delivery conf was available with worldwide shipping, or at least extended to major westernized countries like UK or the European union or hell even Canada. Then this wouldn't even be an issue....

 

I'm also doing fine with new fee structure - free to list. As I don't want my items starting out too low just to save fees. I like to start high and then lower prices if and when it does not sell the first time, or the second. Three times to list can eat you alive in fees if prices are above 9.99 opening bid.

I might only move 6 to 8 items out of 50 listed the first time around.

It's a tougher market now than it used to be, many have now found that items they were looking for since ebay started and took off.

I can keep relisting the same items each month with 10 new additions into the mix. Just lower the prices a tad, add in new merch, and sell a few things each round. It'll be cheaper this way in the long run.

 

I am surprised people think this is to their advantage. I have been using the eBay free listings to list almost all of my items for years, I just waited until a promotion started and listed my items. Sometimes the promotion would be an unlimited number of items, other times it was limited to 100, and others just a few days. Now, I know there will be 50 a month but I now have to pay eBay fees on shipping charges. I didn't add up the total I have paid already but it most be about $10. Bottom line, I am about $10 worse off the first month of this new fee structure.

 

I'm not posting my opinion that it has worked out better for me, I'm posting a fact; I have done the calculations on the difference between buy it now and the free listings for my selling needs. The 30 day "good until cancelled" buy it now listenings also give you a much worse page ranking and your listing is below all the auctions and regular buy it now listings. Like I said in my previous post I have no doubt that it ends up working out worse for high volume sellers.

I block all Ebay emails that aren't related to my saved searches since Ebay sends out so much spam and I don't have time to go through my spam box to see when a free listing promotional period is coming up.

 

I completely agree. Every time they had a "free" listing days sale, it was three of my busiest days elsewhere, where I had no time to list items. I would get in on the deal for say 10 items, not enough to help me out very much.

Also since my items have a smaller niche market, it takes longer to find the buyer to pay fair prices. So an item listed at 9.99 (to save on fees), might sell in one week, or one 7 day listing. But that item is really worth 29.99 to 49.99 on the International marketplace. But it would often take 2 to 3 weeks for that distant buyer to find it. But to list at 49.99 for three weeks was eating me alive in fees, especially when you times that by 30 or 100 items.

So it was either give my stuff away at below value just to get one fish to bite, or list as real value, take a few weeks, and get eaten by fees.

I have some items that if I fail to get 30 or 50 bucks for them, I'd rather keep them, and have them on my own web storefront.

I used to list 100 items, and 50 of them would sell in one week, and then relist the remaining 50, and 25 of those would then sell second week. 75% of all items listed would sell. And fees were only charged (during second week) on the unsold items. In other words, you get that second week, 7 days of additional exposure for free if the item eventually sold when getting another week listed.

75% of items sold was fine. But two things happened that ruined that. Fees went way up, and my items take longer to sell than they used to. And the number of hits is way down. So when I used to list a good items, I'd get roughly 35 to 60 hits by the time it closed. I am now seeing only 6 to 12 hits on an ebay item.

I tried an experiment, and I priced some items that were worth 12 to 15 dollars at .99 opening bid. Then I took a $24.99 item and priced it at .99. opening bid These mixed in with my regular 9.99, 14.99, and 19.99 items. I wanted to see if I could save on fees with very low opening prices.

One of the .99 items fetched $2.49, and the other one failed to even get one bid. This told me that the percieved value of an item is diminished when that item is priced too low. And that buyers will avoid an item that looks like a total deal. On the other hand, pricing items too high is insulting to buyers. Any CD or LP priced at over 49.99 opening bid is a real turn-off. I seen this at Amazon when I priced stuff at 69.99 and 79.99, and then after 9 to 10 months lower it to 49.99 and it blows out within 2 days at the new price.

So, at ebay, if you are in the line of music I am currently selling, you must have a few weeks to show off the item to the world, you must price exactly what the item is worth, or within 5 or 10 dollars, no more no less. This is exactly the situation where you stand to lose your @$$ off in fees. Multiple weeks of listing, and higher priced item = astronomical monthly fees.

Oh, and my percentage of sold items is now 25% sold. 100 items listed, 25 sold within 3 weeks 75 items unsold, and heading to my own store.

My average price of a sold item is 29.99, which is higher than the old days. But number of items sold is way down. And I don't think it is going to improve any time soon. This is the new reality for me.

So ebay only collecting fees when their work was successful, when they were able to find me a buyer. That is the only way that site was going to work for me. All of my 1,300 CDs were taken to Amazon, because Amazon does not charge to list, only when item sells. So I did really well over there.

Anyway, if one does the math on high end items with a 25% sell through rate, you will find that even with ebay's higher fees, I am paying less because ebay no longer has the captive audience that they has 4 or 6 years ago. They drove off a lot of sellers, and the buyers went with them.

I'm doing 80% international shipping, and 20% US.

 

I don't see how 10 bucks can make or break you with free listings unless all your items are started out at 9.99 or less which is where fees were always cheaper anyway. Once you get into higher priced opening bids, say starting at 19.99, those fees were outrageous. Add in buy it now, and it was costing me .50 to .80 an item just to list. Times that by 40 or 50 items, and I was in the hole 35 to 40 bucks before anything was sold. So to pay $10 extra based on shipping, and to not have to pay 35 to $40 before anything sold, I'll pay the extra $10 any day.

You would have to give us more info in detail (like I did) to make a convincing argument against free listings. How many of your items sell at first week, and what average item sold price, and what is opening bid price / buy it now prices.

And I would like to know how long you have been at it, and if you have seen a major decline at ebay in number of hits, and ability to sell anything other than the very top items.

Btw, I have two ebay accounts, so I can get 100 items a month listed if I feel like doing the work.

 

My point is I am not saving any money on the free listings, that is how I have listed my items for years and the only time I used Buy-It-Now is during a free promotion for that which often happened simultaneously to the free insertions. The only difference I can see is I now pay 9% of shipping cost to eBay. I sold a few heavy items this month and probably charged a total of $100 or a little more in shipping. I am not a business seller and maybe they know how to make eBay work better than I do, they must.

I have been selling for 12 years and sell 15 to 20 items a month, average monthly total sold is probably about $300. I often relist items so to sell the total, it wouldn't suprise me if I use 50 listings a month.

 

I used my 50 free this month, sold about 15 items, been paid for all but one and will file a non-paying bidder case on that one tomorrow if I don't receive payment as it has been 7 days without payment now. Overall, it worked well enough, I will use my 50 free next month. My girlfriend used 40 of her 50 and did alright as well and will give it a try next month also.