1 cent listings - Can you smell the desperation at HQ ??

[tea_past_times]

Wow, 1 cent listings. It's amazing what a whole lot of bad PR, lower stock prices, competition and "NOISE" can bring.
Personally, I think, rather than giving the product away to create site traffic, Ebay should just up and admit that trying to double their take by end loading fees isn't fooling anyone, and revert to the previous fee schedule.
While they are at it, they should admit that one way feedback is a dud too, and scrap that idea.
I used to be a baker, and one thing I know, is that if no one would buy the pie, you don't sell it for a penny. You improve the pie, in a hurry.
Does any one who works at Ebay understand the relationship between customer satisfaction and profits? They would not be in the desperate situation they are in, if they hadn't made so many poor decisions in the past.
Ebay, if you have to give your product away for a penny for a whole week to have customers, what does that tell you about your product??
But what do I know, I've only had 2600 happy customers versus 7 unhappy ones in 4 years of selling.

[tea_past_times]

And by the way, SELLERS are Ebay's customers. I'm not sure they realize that. But I did enjoy my 37 dollar Ebay bill this month(down from an average of $300)

How about if they pay us 10 cents an item to list something, before they have to issue their 1st quarter report to shareholders??

[tea_past_times]

Because that's the real reason for the promotion. They will say, look at those surging listings, people are happy with the changes, pay no attention to the little man behind the curtain.....

[futuretech_liquidations]

LOL - ya the little man is Mr. Donahoe'serman the clueless pilot of eBaY. For the life of me I cannot figure out how this person managed to get the job.

Not only do we SELLERS not like this person but even the money people say he should be FIRED!!!

Wake up EBAY and smell the coffee.

[dipmicro]

I used to underestimate the power of auctions and was focusing on the quality inventory. But I did run few extra auctions (some 20-30) and they were finishing last weekend and the sales quadrupled to $200 on Sunday two weeks ago. That was 20 auctions out of 10,000 in categories I post to.

Now I was scheduling 0.99 auctions today, mi finger hurts. Saved over $50 for all so far scheduled auctions, about 60 of them are posted already. There is still lot of work .. and by this time next week I will have a listing ending every 1/2 hour in categories I list in. This promo let's me run such experiment for $8 and lot of my time instead of $120. Since I have time, but very little income currently, it's not so bad deal.

Already hit the traffic record today for last two months and those listings are just starting. Sold few pieces of inventory I was sitting on for last year and nobody wanted it, all it took was a bit of auction advertising and taking better picture. My today sales are $86, which is already well above average. Can't wait for next Wednesday.

Anyway, what I am trying to say is that 1c promo works for me. eBay is starting to work for me too. If you stop bashing eBay and adapt, it can work for you too. Or if there is many like you frustratingly leaving eBay, it will work for me even better.

[axe_n_gear_music]

Yeah, This one cent listing promo is crap. If you sell items that have any value, or require a reserve, it is useless. What else is new for eBay.

FUTURETECH I was having a boo at your listings and notice that in the tax section it still shows the old amounts of 14% Ont. and 6% GST. Just thought you'd like to know. Here is the copy and paste of it:

"All shipments within Canada are subject to GST, PST and/or both regardless of who is paying for the item. The amount of tax payable is determined by where the item is being delivered.
Within Ontario - 14% (GST 6% + PST 8%)
Rest of Canada - 6% (GST Only)"

AXE

[bare_bright]

This promo is ok for sellers like dipmicro(443) because of the items he sells, not bad return for a part that cost less than 10 cents, a lot of shipping but with seller manager its quick "click and ship" Put a Stamp easy money.

Don't worry there will be promo's for higher end sellers, lets face it if we don't sell nobody makes money including ebay

so it's in the better interest for all not to always bash ebay, if you think something is negative for you turn it into a positive, like the 1 cent listing promo
start selling 99 cent items, today to survive on ebay you must carry more than one product unless you have something to sell that no body else does and the product is in demand, then it wont matter where your listings are on the tree of best match w.e.

I Mostly sell buckles and since there is so many new sellers doing the same I stated to sell wallets to & when I see my weekly sales are not to my Standards that's when I List a few different items to bring up my sales for the week.

just because you have a store lets say that sells books it don't mean you can only sell books, you have to have a wide selection of diff. items,

who cares if you have a book store and you also sell packsack's for example.

the bottom line is to make a buck, simply

Cheers!:)

[dipmicro]

rockeyb220, i would love an item costing $0.10 and selling well for $0.99. The competition is high and some of my better items have 100-150% markup, some have only 20% markup, all in all after eBay fees, risk management losses, marketing fees, etc the total net earnings are in the range 30-40% of sales. That said, I need to sell at least $3,000 to pay the rent and if eBay was my only channel I would need to be Gold to earn my salary 🙂 I am not there just yet.

Anyway, I love this 1c promo. So far the best promo eBay Canada ever had. If this works, I will start listing at least 200-300 auctions weekly. Before the promo I was listing some 50 monthly.

[westernstargifts]

One whole week of 1 cent listings is going to seriously hurt my business. I have a competitor selling the same thing and she will be listing all week at 99 cents seriously devaluing my product. The only money she is making is on shipping and handling which is exactly what eBay is trying to discourage. This is achieving the opposite effect. In fact, even she has had many listings going unsold so she can't be making any money....perhaps she is buying feedback. She is certainly doing a lot of buying on that id which has boosted her FB total.

I tried listing at low start prices when I started selling on eBay. I even became a PS by doing so but I did not make any money. Gradually I increased the prices so that they are mostly less than I sell them for elsewhere but enough so that I can make some money...much of it goes to fees for unsold items but I still make more than I did before in actual profit.

For me, this is the worst thing eBay has done yet. And for a whole week!! Fortunately, I have already met my quota for PS status for the month but my sales sure dropped off yesterday when she started listing at 99 cents.

Let's hope that they have one cent listing week for those that start at higher prices to make up for the losses caused by this fiasco.

[bare_bright]

ya I would have to agree on that Point, Thats the first thing that hit my mind when I seen the 1 cent promo

Thats why I figure the next promo will be aimed at the other selling class "hopefully"
:-(

[dipmicro]

westernstargifts, how about using the promo for advertising inexpensive listings with a hint to see your other items? I am advertising only my low-end and low quantity items, but the sales on my other items are doing well too.

Never happened to you that you walked to Walmart to get a stapler leaving with the DVD player that was on sale?

[futuretech_liquidations]

Axe -> we are aware of the GST amount needing to be changed - we are re-doing our template so it will be fixed. Not really a problem since 1 out of 1000 buyers actually read that far to even notice it.

You are the 3rd person so far to notice it.

Thanks

TIM @ FTL

[westernstargifts]

westernstargifts, how about using the promo for advertising inexpensive listings with a hint to see your other items? I am advertising only my low-end and low quantity items, but the sales on my other items are doing well too.

dipmicro...I don't really have anything that fits that bill. I could use them as a loss leader as they are my cheapest item, but they are also my best seller. Also, my competitor seems to have no idea that the supply of this item is not limitless as they are no longer being made. My intention this week is to bite the bullet and buy up as many as I can of what is left so she will eventually run out of stock and not be able to replace it. I have tried various price points since I started and it works best for me at the prices I have now.

But your idea is certainly a good one and I hope it works well for you.

Judy

[bare_bright]

Judy can you Please tell me what a loss leader is?

I just searched your store and was unable to find it:O

Thanks

[whoscloset]

Judy can you Please tell me what a loss leader is?

A loss leader or leader[1] (also called a key value item in the United Kingdom) is a product sold at a low price (at cost or below cost)[2] to stimulate other, profitable sales. It is a kind of sales promotion, in other words marketing concentrating on a pricing strategy. The price can even be so low that the product is sold at a loss. A loss leader is often a popular article. Sometimes leader is not used as a synonym for loss leader and means any popular article, in other words one sold at a normal price.


An example of a loss leader is outdoor Christmas lights. When I worked for "Canada's largest retailer" I spent some time buying "Christmas" for all the stores nationwide. We ALWAYS lost money on outdoor Christmas lighting (large C9 or C7 light strings). It would cost more to purchase and import them than what they are sold for on the shelves.

The theory is that customers will come in to purchase the lights and end up buying a higher end set (same lights...nicer packaging) or will spend money on additional items that are profitable.

[westernstargifts]

You explained it much better than I could Monique. It's just like $1.44 day (used to be) at Woolco or Toonie Tuesday at KFC. Get them in the store and then try to upsell them. Groceries stores do it all the time. How about Shopper's Drug Mart selling milk $1.00 a bag cheaper than everyone else?

Stores like Home Depot & Walmart do it. Only a percentage of their products are cheaper than most other places. The rest are about the same as everywhere else or higher but people have the perception that everything is cheaper.

[westernstargifts]

I just searched your store and was unable to find it😮

I wonder if they would sell on eBay?????!!!.....;-):-D

[bare_bright]

ok now it klicked in lol 🙂
thanks

[dipmicro]

My items don't get too many bids so if I auction a $6 item for $0.99 it would sell for $3 or sometimes even for $0.99.

But I do it occasionally anyway and I noticed some people would be picking these like cherries. Well, I guess that's ok as long as they are sitting there for full 7 days ...

But this strategy does not work for me too well yet, perhaps it must be done on a bigger scale like "Canada's largest retailer" is doing. Or it's totally different to do it in brick-and-mortar store, comparing to internet store, which is just one of 5 windows you have open at the time. Much easy to count on impulse buy in brick-and-mortar.

[modemoutlet]

This 1cent listing promo is absolutely crap.