Same free promotions going to same sellers every time.??Why?

[ypdc_dennis]

I'll disagree that the same sellers get all the promotions.  The same sellers tend to post in the forums when they get a promo.

Of the promos that I know about I've gotten about half so far this year.

If I look on ebay.ca right now there are over 1 million listings for sports cards, ebay might be a bit stingy handing out free promos to sellers who would only add more listings to that pile.

It's all handled by the ebay invite robots, so I bet even the human ebay staff don't know for sure what is going to happen with each promo.

-..-

[hlmacdon]

The invites are usually based on a number of factors like your sales volume, number of listings, subscriptions, etc. I rarely get promotions on my selling account. 

[femmefan1946]

There are a dozen or so busybodies Constant Posters here on the Boards and another dozen who are here fairly often.

So the OP's point is unproven.

Keep in mind that eBay promotions are made for the good of eBay not of sellers.

If eBay wants more Auctions, they will make an Auction promotion.

If eBay wants more Canadian whippletree sellers, they will do a promotion on eBay Canada targeting sellers who occasionally list whippletrees.

The best example of 'What's good for eBay' was the 2016 promotion of 50,000 (?) Free Listings over the whole summer for sellers who used Canadian dollars -- when eBay was ending our ability to list in US dollars and sellers were moving in droves to the dotCOM site, where we could continue to list in USD.

No great benefit to Canadian sellers, but very important for eBay.

[femmefan1946]

@bert1630

I assume you know you can get another 50 Free Listings any day by listing on both dotCA and dotCOM.

As a sportscard seller, the requirement to use Flat Rate Shipping on dotCOM would not be a problem.

BTW- since cards are easy to ship LetterPost at consistent rates, have you considered including the cost of shipping in your asking price ?

EBay calls this 'Free Shipping' and eBay loves it because buyers love it.

Which is cheaper?

 A $1 card with $2 shipping?

A $2 card with $1 shipping?

A $3 card with Free Shipping?

Using Free Shipping is also helpful if you are working towards TRS status which gives holders some discounts.

[widgetc]

"BTW- since cards are easy to ship LetterPost at consistent rates, have you considered including the cost of shipping in your asking price ?"

I find that discourages multiple item purchases.

[ricarmic]

Yep thats the problem with selling "small" stuff.

A $1 hockey card becomes almost $2 with shipping included.... making it cost prohibitive and  as widge says there's no incentive to multi purchase that way.

Multi purchases is really the only way one can make decent $$$ selling "small" stuff....

[mcrlmn]

Another conspiracy theory?

[ricarmic]

I almost never get any promotions, which is probably correct from the eBay business perspective.

I've an anchor store, and I never even come close to my free auction or BIN limits.

I am already listing as much as I can.

Extra free auctions or fixed price are no good to me anyway.

FVF savings would be awesome but that would only benefit me. I wouldn't be listing more stuff because of them, because I'm already listing as much as I can.

Theoretically the BOTs are trying to target folks that would react positively to the promotion (positively = doing more of something which makes more $$$ for ebay).

Having said this we all know how reliable the BOTs are, I'm sure they're doing their best....

[widgetc]

"A $1 hockey card becomes almost $2 with shipping included.... making it cost prohibitive and  as widge says there's no incentive to multi purchase that way."

Yep...likely even more with shipping and allowance for the paypal per transaction fee. So A $1.00 card with free shipping would be about $2.50 and 20 cards $50.00. But 20 cards purchased with $1.50 shipping for the first and the rest at no additional cost would be $20 plus $1.50. It might cost a bit extra to mail the extra cards but that is covered by the time saved and supplies saved by packaging in a single envelope.

[ricarmic]

This is why generally speaking the lowest I will go is $9.99 on a free shipping item. Even then my prices are a bit steep comparatively.

I did do an experiment with New Zealand free shipping sets, usually in the $5 range with only a wee bit (not enough) allowed for shipping, but the results have been dismal, people still are purchasing usually only one or two....

[pinetreecottage]

Wonder what type of poster is considered to be a busybody? or just someone with either a question or a suggestion.  Aren't we all supposed to be on the same page here?.

[femmefan1946]

@widgetc

have you considered including the cost of shipping in your asking price ?"   I find that discourages multiple item purchases.

Good point.

[femmefan1946]

what type of poster is considered to be a busybody?

Well, me for one.

I love giving unsolicited advice.

Everybody needs a hobby.

[bert1630]

Lets see I sell the card for $1.00..Costs me $1.20 in stamps. Loss of 20 cents.

I agree EBAY LOVES IT.    ONE PROBLEM..I HATE IT.

[bozonet · Accepted solution]

It seems to be the sellers who list the most getting a lot of free promotions. Whether they sell anything or not since it always seems to be the same garbage that is being relisted every time. It seems eBay is more concerned about quantity over quality ... Hey, we have 100,000 items to choose from in category XX! Shop now! (Never mind that 99,000 are **bleep** no one ever wants). I would much prefer seeing 50 items that are worth buying instead of the same 500 pieces of trash I saw relisted a month ago for the 200th time. 

[mrdutch1001]

what's the difference between " same 500 pieces of trash I saw relisted a month ago for the 200th time. " and store sellers who have hundreds of items on GTC  - those same listings go month after month after month after month after month....

[femmefan1946]

@bert1630

Well no.

You include that $1.20 in the asking price for the card

So your new asking price becomes $2.20* with Free Shipping.

As I said earlier:

EBay calls this 'Free Shipping' and eBay loves it because buyers love it.

Which is cheaper?

 A $1 card with $2 shipping?

A $2 card with $1 shipping?

A $3 card with Free Shipping?

Now there is a problem if your customer ordinarily buys a dozen cards (or even two) at a time.

Either you have to set up an automatic discount on multiple orders or make a manual Paypal refund to allow for the difference in shipping cost. Your choice. 

But the point is to make the total cost clear and simple up front.

And if the customer gets an unexpected discount afterwards, will he complain?

If you advertise the automatic discount, you encourage multiple purchases.

It's marketing.

* Or maybe $2.29. Or $2.99.  Are cards catalogued consistently for value like stamps ?

[femmefan1946]

@mrdutch1001

That's why eBay is so anxious to constantly attract new* buyers.

Sellers are easy to come by.

Buyers are harder.

But every time there is a new buyer (and eBay believes it has 180 million members worldwide)  that's someone who has never seen any of that "same 500 pieces of trash" before.

And if the buyer is searching in several different categories, it is quite possible she will never see the same items twice. Which is part of the much-decried Cassini Search.

*As long as they don't have to do anything positive like advertising.

[bert1630]

Exactly..I sell hockey cards only..And only ROOKIE CARDS..So some of my cards are $20.00 to $30.00 book value. I usually sell starting at $5.00. I then combine most of the time and sell quite a few cards,ESPECIALLY *YOUNG GUN ROOKIES. I refuse to pay insertion fees of 40 cents .So I wait for the 50 free every 1st of the month. Even just those 50 cards make EBAY a bundle for doing nothing. When they stop giving me the 50 free insertions ,I stop selling on ebay and move to KIJIJI...Or just quit the hobby. If I buy cards I certainly don,t buy a card from the good old USA.$1.00 card & $18.00 for shipping.????