The ABC's of the eBay "List 5 Free" Promotion

[iggyman]

This rant is a bit late but what the heck....

I love eBay! There business model closely parallels that of a shell game on Fulton street in New York City. When will they reach the tipping point?

EBay has a great deal for you! 5 FREE Insertion Fees every 30 days (in bold letters...)! Sounds great....where to I sign-up? It's easy, the first 5 items that you list using the eBay listing tool will be considered free. Gosh, eBay is not so bad after all.... Wait a second, did you see the fine print?

http://pages.ebay.com/sell/June2009/...ree/index.html

The Final Value Fees for those first 5 items will be 8.75% until you reach $20 in FVF. In other words, they give the impression that you are going to save some real $$$. But, if you are not careful, it can be a cleverly devise bait and switch. Let me explain, if an item sells for $200 the FVF without the free promotion is $8.87, but with the free promotion the FVF is $17.90. Ouch, real classy of them. However this promotion shell game does have a nice benefit.

If an item sells for under $25 (your FVF is the same, but you benefit with a free listing....whoopee!). Now this is the real good part, if an item sells for more then $522 and up to *17.99 million (see footnote), your FVF will only be $20. Okay, so that part of it is great for a seller. But, anything in between and your testicles are being squeezed for a few more pennies dollars. By the way, this promotion does not apply to buy-it-now; as it is only valid in a straight auction listing. The only way to get around it (as far as I know) is to use 3rd party software to list your items (vendio, auctiva, etc...)

For the novice or casual seller, they will probably get burned. For those that "read fine print" it creates some opportunity. From the buyers perspective, well......alot more clutter searching for pre war cards.

Lovely Day...

*Excludes items with a Start/Buy It Now/Reserve price of $18 million and above.
(I thought this footnote in the promotion was funny......I guess it excludes those shieks trying to sell oil wells...)

[Jay Wolt]

Some break!
Is there anyway to avoid using it? It comes up automatically for me.
So if not, next time in July, I'll make sure its for stuff that has low value.

[slidekellyslide]

I never read ebay's emails to me....I wondered why the four items I listed Sunday didn't cost me any fees. Now I know.

[Matt]

eBay claims there is a way to opt out, but I haven't seen it. That said, this does offer a nice savings to anything that sells for $1k+

[Potomac Yank]

The latest rumor on Fulton Street has it, that the last deed done by the two Midas touch Halliburton moguls, just before leaving the White House on January 19th ... was to invest in eBay.

Talk about clarity, and Depression ...

[prestigecollectibles]

I just called Ebay and they said you can't opt out of this. You have to be careful with your listings.

[Matt]

Originally Posted by prestigecollectibles

I just called Ebay and they said you can't opt out of this. You have to be careful with your listings.

I suppose it depends how you list:
http://www2.ebay.com/aw/core/200906160821452.html

"Choose the option that works best for you, based on how you list:

* eBay’s Sell Your Item form or Simple listing form – If you’re currently using one of these forms, you can either take advantage of the 5 free Insertion Fees every 30 days, or opt out by listing your items via an eBay tool or third-party listing solution.
* eBay tool or third-party listing solution – If you’re currently using one of these tools, you can either take advantage of this new pricing structure by listing your first 5 Auction-style listings every 30 days through eBay’s Sell Your Item form or Simple listing form, or continue with your current practices at the current pricing."

[chaddurbin]

does it count toward the 5 if the items we list don't sell? let's say i sell 5 pieces of paper at $9.99 each?

edit: ok just read the item has to sell...blah now i gotta figure out the fees difference.

[deadballera]

thanks for the heads up on the final value fees !

I'll make sure it's for stuff that has low value.

[Matt]

Originally Posted by deadballera

thanks for the heads up on the final value fees !

I'll make sure it's for stuff that has low value.

Actually, it's a very good deal for stuff that has high value...

[egbeachley]

I think I figured it out. Since the regular fees are 8.75% of selling amount for the first $25.00, the fees are the same for items that sell for $25.00 or less but you save on listing fees which is about 35 - 60 cents or so.

But the regular fees are 3.5% for the amount over $25.00 and up to $1,000.00. So you don't get that 5.25% savings for sales over $25.00. That eats up the free listing fees pretty quick.

HOWEVER, the $20.00 fee for the listings is a maximum So you can save a bundle for big items that are the first 5 each month. If you sell 5 items for $1,000.00 each, your fee is $20.00 with the special, but about $180.00 the regular way.

[iggyman]

At the end of the day, it is a sweet deal for sellers who sell a few big ticket items every 30 days (the crab fishermen from "Deadliest Catch"???). Sell your first five items every month for over $525 and you're smelling good, sell it for less and eBay gets a nice cut...

Here is the breakdown (this chart assumes your starting price is ".99 cents"):

Sell Price............Regular Fees..................5 Free Listings Fees
$$20....................$1.90..................... $1.75 seller nets 2 dimes & a nickel

$$30....................$2.52..................... $2.63 eBay wins
$100....................$4.97..................... $8.75 eBay wins
$200....................$8.47..................... $17.50 eBay wins
$300...................$11.97....................$ 20.00 eBay wins
$400...................$15.47....................$ 20.00 eBay wins
$500...................$18.97....................$ 20.00 eBay wins

$550...................$20.72....................$ 20.00 seller can almost buy a Sprite
$1000................$36.57...................$20. 00 seller wins a cheap lunch
$5000................$96.46...................$20. 00 seller wins a dinner at Canton including dessert

Okay, you get the idea...but it still rubs me the wrong way. It is definitely sneaky. EBay will snooker the casual/novice and on occasion the veteran seller into paying a little extra in fees, while at the same time they get a listing increase which will look good to wall street. While we end-up with a bunch of auctions selling 1987 Topps cases for $1000 (not that there is anything wrong with selling 1987 Topps cases for $1000....).

So, what do you have to lose.....start listing those T206 OM back overprints for $9999! Create multiple accounts if you have too. First five listings are free!

Lovely Day...

[egbeachley]

Iggy, nice chart but you need to multiply hte regular fees by 5. The offer is $20 for all 5 listings.

[RichardSimon]

I thought the offer was $20 maximum for each listing,,, not for all 5 listings.

[mybuddyinc]

Thanks for the info, Iggy ...............


"Sell Price............Regular Fees..................5 Free Listings Fees
$$20....................$1.90..................... $1.75 seller nets 2 dimes & a nickel"



................... actually it's only 1 dime and 1 nickle !!!!!!

[timzcardz]

Originally Posted by egbeachley

Iggy, nice chart but you need to multiply hte regular fees by 5. The offer is $20 for all 5 listings.

Not so. The $20 is "per listing."

Second bullet on this page: http://pages.ebay.com/sell/June2009/...ree/index.html

The $0.00 Insertion Fee listings will have a Final Value Fee per listing of 8.75% or $20, whichever is lower.

[D. Bergin]

Really, this is just one more bulls**t thing you have to worry about planning around regarding Ebay.

If my item sells between this and this I'm going to get screwed, if it sells between this and this I guess I'm going to do ok.

Why don't they just do a promotion whereby everybody who uses it actually saves a little bit of money instead of having to try to figure this sh*t out? Every "promotion" they come up with is designed to screw somebody, somewhere along the line. They don't ever actually give anything up on their end in these "promotions".

It's ridiculous.

Thanks again for another wonderful Ebay promotion.


- Dave

feeling a little rambunctious today