eBay

dutchman48 · ‎07-26-2017

No email but showed on my selling manager summary.

http://pages.ebay.ca/promo/2017/500auction.html

momcqueen · ‎07-26-2017

Yes, I saw it under Summary too.

List up to 500 auction-style listings for FREE!
List auction-style, plus add BIN for free. Excludes 1-day and 3-day listing durations. Learn More

femmefan1946 · ‎07-26-2017

Adding the Buy It Now makes a lot of sense.

Most transactions are single bidder or Fixed Price anyway.

momcqueen · ‎07-26-2017

@femmefan1946 wrote:
Adding the Buy It Now makes a lot of sense.

Most transactions are single bidder or Fixed Price anyway.

Woah woah woah, Nelly. I am not going to make that mistake a second time.

Adding Buy It Now and then relisting seven days later (after the promotion ends) without noticing it's there results in a big pile of Seller's Fees on the Monthly bill.

I've gotten this Promo the last three or four months running, ever since I moved my slow sellers to 5- 7- and 10-day auction so that I wasn't paying so much for BINs when I used my store allotment.

Buyers don't care about auctions anymore. The last time I ran them on purpose as loss leaders, I was opening with ten cents or even one cent and still no one cared to bid.

I've had auctions end without bids probably a thousand times in the last four months. I don't think they even got views.

reallynicestamps · ‎07-26-2017

I agree that Auctions are dead in the water.

I suspect that most auctions are by newbies who don't know that eBay has not been an auction site for nearly a decade.

Not all, there may be some long-term sellers who find it useful, but I've rarely done better on auction than I would have with Fixed Price.

And faster.

Buy It Now at Fixed Price.

No waiting.

dutchman48 · ‎07-26-2017

Right now I am selling more on the auction specials than fixed price.

I am very happy to get them as sales are dismal.

momcqueen · ‎07-26-2017

That's good to hear.

amcdc79 · ‎07-27-2017

Since the promotion is for 10 days, I just listed a few items for 7 days, and when they end I will then relist them for 10. That way they'll be up for 17 days total, live over 3 weekends, which is fine with me.

The second time they are listed, I will make sure they end on the Sunday.

zee-chan · ‎07-29-2017

19 sales the last 60 days. 15 of them from auction promos including 2 bought at BIN price. 3 out of 4 FP sold were sold to same buyers who won a couple auctions.

So yes, the auction promos are definitely better than nothing for me. And somehow my buyers are weekday buyers. I only had one sale on Sunday the past 60 days.

momcqueen · ‎07-29-2017

That's gratifying to hear.

rose-dee · ‎07-29-2017

@mjwl2006 wrote:
@femmefan1946 wrote:
Adding the Buy It Now makes a lot of sense.
Most transactions are single bidder or Fixed Price anyway.
Woah woah woah, Nelly. I am not going to make that mistake a second time.

Adding Buy It Now and then relisting seven days later (after the promotion ends) without noticing it's there results in a big pile of Seller's Fees on the Monthly bill.

But don't you pay when you relist auction-only promos anyway (even those that have no BIN included)?

I never run pure promo auctions anymore, so I really don't know, just curious. I do know that when we get fixed price promos and I can use GTC, they keep turning over free of charge. However, that sort of promo is pretty rare these days.

I do agree with 'femmefan' that the BIN add-on is the only thing that might make auctions worthwhile for a lot of sellers these days. Essentially they're free 10-day fixed price listings -- if there are actually any interested buyers out there, they don't have to wait to get what they want. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if a large number of more recent (and especially younger) eBay buyers don't have a clue how to bid on an online auction.

What I do with these auction + BIN promotions to avoid extra billing is to mark designated items with a note on Selling Manager -- it doesn't have to be much of a note, just a code of some sort. I then let them go into the "Sold" folder when they're done, but I don't re-list them immediately. Once another promo comes along, I can quickly pick through the list for the same items, or re-list them at my leisure to fill in gaps in my usual allotment before they expire from the "Sold" list. That way I don't lose track of them or rack up a surprise bill.

momcqueen · ‎07-29-2017

No, I don't pay to relist them as Auctions when the Promos end because even with the promos being utilized, all Auctions fall within the 500 per month that I am allotted with my level of store subscription. That allotment does not include free BIN on those auctions.

mrdutch1001 · ‎07-29-2017

Yes totally agree with that method if it works and obviously it does for some sellers. For those of us who do not have stores and don't want that extra expense of a store, we will gladly take any free listing promo whether it be Auction format or Fixed Price since something to work with is better than nothing and any sale resulting from either format is a positive thing.

rose-dee · ‎07-29-2017

Whoops! -- In Post #11 up there, I obviously meant to say "Unsold" folder, not "Sold" folder.

Wishful thinking, or else more caffeine is in order.

rose-dee · ‎07-29-2017

@mjwl2006 wrote:
No, I don't pay to relist them as Auctions when the Promos end because even with the promos being utilized, all Auctions fall within the 500 per month that I am allotted with my level of store subscription. That allotment does not include free BIN on those auctions.

Oh, all right, I see. It was the BIN add-on that caused the problem, not the auctions themselves. I wondered why you would end up with an unexpected bill if you have a store subscription with auction allotments.

momcqueen · ‎07-29-2017

The free BIN in this Promo would work fine for people with a small number of listings to manage because they likely wouldn't overlook it and wind up with fees they didn't expect.

ypdc_dennis · ‎07-30-2017

@mjwl2006 wrote:
The free BIN in this Promo would work fine for people with a small number of listings to manage because they likely wouldn't overlook it and wind up with fees they didn't expect.

The auction with BIN listing charge only hits (after the free promo offer is over) people with store subscriptions. Smaller non-store sellers don't have that worry, until they upgrade to a store.

versus

-..-

momcqueen · ‎07-30-2017

Interesting. I've had a store subscription from the first week I began to sell. The discrepancy shouldn't, in my humble opinion, exist because it appears to discourage store subscribers.

femmefan1946 · ‎07-30-2017

I wonder if it is there because Stores were designed for Fixed Price sellers, and the auctions were just an add-on.

The idea being that the seller would have a few hundred FP listings and use the occasional Auction as an advertising gimmick.

Even a loss leader if the opening price was low enough.

A lot of marketing ideas I've heard in courses simply do not work on eBay (or with auctions in general). And eBay seems to leave these brilliant promotions in the hands of new hires, straight out of the MBA course with no real life experience.

But we have to remember above all, that eBay promotions are designed to benefit eBay.

dutchman48 · ‎07-30-2017

What are the chances, in the not too distant future, with all the changes coming up for BIN IPR, no combined invoices, catering to the Chinese and big box stores or huge sellers, that auctions will disappear from stores and only available to the small sellers with no stores or if available at all?

That was a mouthful, but seems to be the way Ebay is going. Also the continual talk of catering to cell phone use for BIN, discounts, promoted listings, guaranteed delivery, and all the other talk these days, especially on Ebay open none of which will fit auction listings.

Another way of the Dodo bird?