Free Listings

[bearter3741]

This past winter I was given 100,00 free promo listings monthly only to be cut down to 250 this spring. Ebay representatives say 250 is the max amount without any promos from here forth, I feel that I am being forced to pay for a store subscription for added listings or pay 35 cents to list a 99 cent sale item, unrealistic for small profit sellers! Been listing for 15 years and making them a ton of money and I guess this is the thanks I get. 

[brettjet38]

@bearter3741 "I feel that I am being forced to pay for a store subscription for added listings or pay 35 cents to list a 99-cent sale item, unrealistic for small profit sellers!"

And why would you not have a store,  this is not Kijiji you pay to play...

...as for your .99 cent business model, you are not in China and it is not viable in North America.

The next year will cull all the small-time "5 and Dime" sellers from many of the sites with all the new stuff on the way, like "Promoted" Stores...

[femmefan1946]

You can double your listings with no extra charge by puttng them on dotCOM as well as dotCA.

With your US listings you will have to use USD instead of loonies, and use Flat Rate shipping "from an international location".

Many of your listings would be under 2cm thick and 500gr allowing you to use LetterPost even for US buyers.

The large promotions were very likely a way to encourage sellers to sign up for the new Managed Payments programs, which was met with great mistrust. But it was a promotion and no promises were ever made that it would continue.

Many sellers objected to the promotions, since they encouraged listing of unsaleable junk  and cluttered up the site.

When the promotions ended, "free" listing numbers were increased . My Basic Store now allows 1000 Fixed Price plus 250 Auction listings. 

The only real "free" listings are those for sellers who do not subscribe to a Store, and I believe that number increased to 250 from 200 (?) when the promotions stopped.  Since you were not selling before then you probably didn't know that.

Keep in mind, all eBay actions, promotions, and suggestions are for the benefit of eBay. Not the sellers nor the buyers.

[marnotom!]

Not trying to be a snot about this, but did you actually use all 100K listings?

[recped]

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@bearter3741 wrote:

This past winter I was given 100,00 free promo listings monthly only to be cut down to 250 this spring. Ebay representatives say 250 is the max amount without any promos from here forth, I feel that I am being forced to pay for a store subscription for added listings or pay 35 cents to list a 99 cent sale item, unrealistic for small profit sellers! Been listing for 15 years and making them a ton of money and I guess this is the thanks I get. 

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I presume if you made eBay a "ton of money" then you also made a much bigger ton of money for yourself.

Consider yourself very lucky, not many sellers got ANY type of listing promo in the past year.

With over 1.5 BILLION listings eBay doesn't really need more piles of mixed stuff.

[bearter3741]

Even by selling sports cards I couldn’t even come close, but my point is Ebay is forcing sellers without a store subscription to purchase one. Maybe not a big deal to many

[mrdutch1001]

I do not have a store on eBay and haven't had for 10 years or so...and yes those free listing promotions were good to have, from trime to time, but definitely NEVER needed 100,000. That was ridiculous!

For myself I have always alternated listings as per the limited amount for the non-store seller. It works and it works well if the seller puts the time and effort into being selective about what they list.

We all know eBay offered these huge promotions during Covid, but the reality of it all is that it was ridiculous to offer that amount. I am actually quite content with the fact that eBay has discontinued those huge quantites of free listings and has gone back to the lower amount of free listings, as that will weed out the surplus of the over-saturated categories that contain way too much repitition of the same/similar listings over and over and over and over...

and NO, eBay is not forcing anyone to have a store; it may however, be forcing you to be more selective in what you list and that is a good thing!

[marnotom! · Accepted solution]

I agree with @mrdutch1001.  You're not being forced to purchase a store subscription.  You're being forced to do some number-crunching and analysis of your business model to decide if the cost of having a store and possible lower final value fees works for you.

As for your unprofitable 99 cent card listings, why not list them in lots of five or more?  That would cut down on your listings and perhaps make the sales more viable.