w~~_7.JPG "pjcdn2005"){kind=avatar}
@vip-marketplace wrote:Hey guys!
I have a file ready to be uploaded in eBay containing about 1,200 items.
I am only using fixed price auctions.
Am I wrong thinking there's no way around paying over 100$ to list those? Should I wait for a free 1,000 listing promotion? Do they come around very often?
Considering only a small % of these items will sell, these insertion fees will eat a big chunk of my potential profits...
Thanks for any input regarding this!
I'm sorry, did you mean Buy It Now pricing?
I am not following the logic of listing that which will not sell.
Since you are looking to minimize cost, I would sit on them until a promo comes along.
"fixed price auctions"?
Do you mean fixed price listings or auctions?
The number of free fixed price listings depends of the type of store you have:
http://pages.ebay.ca/help/sell/storefees.html
The fee varies from $0.05 to $0.20 per listing depending what type of store you have,
@pocomocomputing wrote:What are your account monthly selling limits? Will you be allowed to list 1200 items?
Back on May 30 I decided to get a basic store again because eBay has a store special for 5.95 a month for 4 months trial. I get free 150 fixed price listings any category and 100 free auctions in "collectible" categories. I get the same amount on ebay.ca and ebay.com so I can list 300 + 200 in my basic store.
Now it is often recommended in these forums that a seller call eBay and find out what their selling limits are before getting a store to make sure they can use the free listing amounts. I had had a store before a couple of times and was listing around 100 items a month. I had this account for 6+ years selling.
So I decided to call eBay and ask what my selling limits are out of curiosity. I was surprised that my limits are 150 listings per month and $6,000 C$ in value (account limits not site limits so for both ebay.ca and eBay.com and any other sites). I never listed or sold that much per month so I guess the limits are right. I was planning to list more and play with shorter durations on my listings since I have so many free listings. But I can't use them all (300+200) if I wanted to. No problem, just a surprise as to the seemingly low listing limits. I thought they would be higher so I could use my available free store listings.
I also found out that the Selling Limits is based on current active listing at the start of the month. So I started already down 30+ listing on my 150 listing limit and $300 down on my dollar amount limit when Jun 1 started. It is not like listing promos where the promo count gets reset to 0. At the start of the month the count gets reset to the active listings count and whatever you sold and unsold that month are not counted for the next month. Makes sense that it works this way but not what I expected. Learning all the time.
The $ amount per month is plenty for me.
So before you try to list 1200 items, call eBay about your limits.
New accounts have the selling limits shown in My eBay and Selling Manager. Old accounts do not. I would suggest to sellers with old accounts to call eBay and have their account show the Selling Limits in My eBay and Selling Manager. You may as well know what you limits are even if you never come close to exceeding them.
You can ask for the limits to be raised once a month if you show more use of the current limits.
When I called eBay, I used the call back feature as the wait time was 45 minutes. I got a call with a CSR from the Philippines? (accented English) and she could not help me so they transferred me to a USA based CSR. First time I had a US CSR in a long time. He knew what I was talking about and it took a few minutes to set up the Selling Limits on my account. He also put me on hold for minutes at a time. I just thought the non-USA CSRs did this. Interesting. Easy to get done.
Good call Poco. My limits are 900 per month.
Yeah doesn't matter if the promo is for one listing, or a million, you are still constrained by your personal limits. My limits show at the bottom of My Summary page on dot com.
"Would it be the same price to list them for 3 months instead? Or "Good until canceled"?"
The listing fee is for up to 30 days (whatever period a seller selects). Good Till Cancelled (GTC) listings are charged a listing fee automatically every 30 days.
A basic store cost $20 a month = 150 free fixed price (BIN) listings ($0.133 per listing) + $0.20 for extra
A premium store cost $60 a month = 500 free fixed price (BIN) listings ($0.12 per listing) + $0.10 for extra
A Anchor store cost $200 a month = 2,500 free fixed price listings ($0.08 per listing if you use them all; $0.20 per listing if you only use 1,000)
So your priority should be to upgrade from "basic" to "premium" for an extra $30.00 a month (from $20 to $50)
Then you have to decide if you wish to list 500 fixed price (BIN) listings this month and 500 different items next month, etc... or bite the bullet and spend $110 a month to list 1,000 fixed price items (500 included in your monthly subscription and 500 at $0.10 each)
An alternative is to list 500 on eBay.ca and 500 on eBay.com with a premium store. It is doable but requires someone well organized to keep track of what site you listed on. (I have much eBay experience and list on both eBay.ca and eBay.com to maximize my exposure without paying a penny in listing fees - it is not recommended for everyone)
You could also save a few dollars ($50 a month instead of $60 for a premium store) if you commit for a full year but I am hesitant to recommend it until you have a business plan in place for the next twelve months.
@vip-marketplace wrote:I'm confused...
So if I shipped a 200$ item to a US resident and sent it with Canada Post, wouldn't he have to pay some kind of import / custom taxes upon receipt? Does this imply checking the "Gift" box on the custom label (cause I'd rather not start doing this)?
I remember having to pay ridiculous amount of fees the last few times I ordered something from the US... I do indeed have a lot to learn on the matter it seems...
You sell your widget for the displayed price. Any and all charges after mailing are the responsibility of the customer. I do not ship much that is over $200, but, I have never heard of the buyer being charged more by their government, in the US.
Do not mark as gift when it is not. Mine are "other: vehicle part".
Find out what you selling limits are, first. I bet they are a lot lower than you think. I would "guess" that you are in the 50-100 per month range.
Even with a list 2000 listing promo, you can still only list your 50-100 per month. If the info is not on any summary page, phone eBay and ask what your limits are. You can try asking to have it increased, but, with only 109 FB from selling, you may not have sold enough to get higher.
@vip-marketplace wrote:Thanks for all the info!
In practice, don't you think there will be a very high % of Americans refusing delivery when told they have to pay something, negative feedback / 1 star ratings and all sort of buyers complaints and stuff like this?
I'm under the impression Americans won't bother reading / noticing there may be import fees if they buy their item from me. Or that they will argue those import fees aren't theirs to pay or that I am scamming them etc.
Maybe I'm a little paranoid over all this but I really want to keep the problems to a minimum and my positive feedback % as high as possible...
Has your personal experience selling high value items in the US been positive?
Once again, I really appreciate anything you may have to say regarding this! 🙂
In practice, don't you think there will be a very high % of Americans refusing delivery - no
Maybe I'm a little paranoid - more like a lot
Focusing on feedback is the wrong end of the equation. FB is being marginalized by eBay as it is not an indicator of seller performance. Keeping problems to a minimum is admirable. My goal is to make as much money as I can. By doing the best I can to make money, problems are marginalized.
The easiest way to have no problems, is to have no sales. Is that practical?
@pjcdn2005 wrote:At the moment, with my current business model, I do not sell outside Canada.
The majority of your sold listings and current listings state that you ship to the U.S. and Canada so I'm a bit confused by that statement.
Anything is possible but I think that it is very unlikely that a U.S. buyer would be charged duty on a $200 item if shipped through the postal service. I haven't shipped a ton of items to the U.S. that sold for more than $200 but of the ones that I have sent there, the only one that had any extra charges was the one I sent by courier. Regardless, I don't think that it is a good idea to base business decisions based on whether or not the buyer has to pay duty.
I know that you didn't ask about shipping but I noticed that you are using expedited USA for most (or all?) in most cases. In order to be competitive with U.S. sellers you might want to consider using small packet for your less expensive items. It does not have insurance or delivery confirmation but many of us use it and then provide our own 'cookie jar insurance'. Also, for some of your items that are under 1kg, tracked packet USA might work out to be less expensive for your buyers. It does have delivery confirmation and up to $100 in insurance.
I do wish everyone would stop thinking of shipping cost as an extra add-on. Customers do not like add-ons. Either roll the shipping cost into the widget price, or, charge an amount that is similar to what American sellers are charging.
No, there is no such thing actual cost once FVF on shipping is deducted, switching currencies, discount on PP shipping, never mind that buyers believe we get shipping at far less than we charge anyway.
I set my prices at widget + shipping = advertised selling price.
The US is 90% of my market. This is what happened to me:
$21.99 + $8 shipping = 1 sale in five months ........ $29.99 "free" shipping = 5 sales in one month.
The other thing that happened:
$16.99 + $8 shipping = no sales ......... $27.99 "free" shipping and lots of sales. Doing the math? Yeah, $3 more.
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