$1.00 charge for 3 day listings

[coulect]

Hi All,

How are you dealing with the dollar charge?

I have gone to the 5 day listings and the results are disappointing for me and I'm sure for eBay.

Also the limited free insertions are influencing how I list.

Lewis

[pierrelebel]

"How are you dealing with the dollar charge?"

Most sellers avoid it and list with either 7 day or 10 day duration if and when using the "auction" format.

As you know, eBay is not what it used to be and most listings are now offered at "fixed price" allowing buyers to make an immediate purchase instead of waiting to see if their bid was successful.

[femmefan1946]

The only purpose for such listings that I can see would be as a private listing for a confirmed buyer.

However, even before the 'short run' listing fee, those private auctions were cheaper as 30 day Fixed Price listings, using the  customer's name as a title.

The idea being that if he did not buy immediately, I could revise the title to make a more open listing, with not further costs.

Do your three day auctions sell at higher prices and with more bidders than the usual seven day listings?

And is that just your impression, or have you crunched numbers?

[coulect]

Please read and understand my comment.

[femmefan1946]

I did.

My point is that the three day auction is a pretty useless service, and pointing out the one situation I could think of that it might be useful although there was a better cheaper one.

So my question stands.

Did you crunch numbers or did you rely on 'I've always done it this way.'?

[coulect]

Since eBay introduced the $1.00 charge for 3 day shipping I make less on 5 day listings and it means eBay makes less. I am limiting my 5 day listings to items that always sell well on eBay and have found alternative outlets for other items. I was happy listing items for three days with a fast turnaround, 5 days slows it down. If I paid the$1.00 it could cost an extra $100.00 a month in fees. 

[pocomocomputing]

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@coulect wrote:

Since eBay introduced the $1.00 charge for 3 day shipping I make less on 5 day listings and it means eBay makes less. I am limiting my 5 day listings to items that always sell well on eBay and have found alternative outlets for other items. I was happy listing items for three days with a fast turnaround, 5 days slows it down. If I paid the$1.00 it could cost an extra $100.00 a month in fees. 

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You say you make less on 5 day auction listings instead of shorter 3 day auctions. If you switch back to 3 day auctions and pay the extra 100 x $1 = $100 for 100 listings, with the increased amount pay for the 100 x $1 = $100 in 3 day duration fees?

To me, if I knew I would make an extra amount over the $100 in fees in the 3 day auctions by paying $100 extra in fees, I would do it. eBay wins, you win.

[Anonymous]

I just don't get it.  Why not use 5 or 7- or 10-day duration which is free than 3-day?  Why would you  want to pay the fees for $1.00 each when you can get free when you use the longer duration?

[reallynicestamps]

items that always sell well on eBay

You seem to know your market. The prices you sell for are reasonable as is your shipping.

Have you considered that by limiting yourself to short term auctions, which are of course your comfort zone, you may be limiting the number of customers who find your items?

With the short auctions, I guess (and of course it is no more than a guess) that your buyer is a 'instant gratification ' kind of guy.

With Fixed Price, the item can be purchased as soon as he sees it.

That's another form of instant gratification for the customer. Obviously not for you..

But if something doesn't sell in five days because your buyer didn't happen to look at eBay during those five days... are you doing it this way because it always worked?

Until it didn't.

Perhaps it's time to look at your auctions. You seem to be getting between 2 and 4 bidders on each, but the final price doesn't go up very much. As I said, you know the market and what it will pay quite well.

Do you have repeat buyers? Being on Favourite Seller lists is great, but short auctions mean you are getting your old customers and quite possibly missing new customers.

There's also the age thing. In my experience, older collectors have a fixed price range. It can be quite generous, but they have a comfort zone.

New collectors are more enthusiastic and often will pay more than the old guy thinks reasonable.

A guy who tells you he knows the value of a dollar, doesn't.

(It's worth about 6 minutes at minimum wage; and won't buy you a coffee at Timmie's.)

[dmil8030]

Just as an aside, 'coulect', what I don't get is why you would be insisting on tacking on a separate

insurance fee of $2 to your invoices when ebay very expressly forbids that.

The ebay rules clearly state, 

"Sellers aren't allowed to: . . . Charge a separate fee for insurance"

and as you will see from the following link about selling practices and guidelines, under the heading

Shipping and handling costs, it explains that you can include insurance in your handling costs but

are not permitted to add on a surprise after the buyer has won the auction:

http://pages.ebay.ca/help/policies/selling-practices.html#guidelines

This prohibition is doubtless why, as you boldly say, once the buyer is at the checkout, 

" it will not show in the final cost".

Suit yourself, but you may get a comeuppance for that one day.  Buyers are prickly about charges and

when they agree to a stated price, it's what they expect to pay.  The image of you hovering crouched over

the keyboard hoping to snap off an invoice before the winner can pay  is not particularly attractive.