next FREE listing promotion?

[hockey-card-inserts]

anyone know? I sell only hockey cards.....hoping one comes up soon for 100 or 250 or even 500 free listings. Anyone know?

[scrapmodel]

As i can see, you're not a powerseller yet, you have good rating but not sufficient to get your free listing promo. It been over 6 month's never had this kind of promotion back again ,the only 2 promo going since now is the 30 days bin promo or the 2 days short period time promo to list 5 items for no commission fees applied on succesful items sold .

[mrdutch1001]

OP may be a relatively new seller and perhaps that inexperience does restrict receiving invites to free listing promos, but no one knows how these promos are given out... I doubt any seller knows how eBay decides who does or doesn't receive free listing promos....and a seller definitely DOES NOT need to be a power seller to receive free listing promos. I receive free listing promos often and I haven't been a power seller for about 2-1/2 years now. I have received 3 of the 500 free listings promos, plus a few other promos thus far in 2019.

[reallynicestamps]

I'm beginning to suspect that eBay has decided to stop encouraging sellers to use up expensive browser farm space listing items that will not provide a reasonable return for eBay.

Things that are very cheap and don't sell in multiples, things that are unlikely to sell at all, things that are very slow to sell.

The thinking being if the seller doesn't think it's profitable to pay 35 cents to list, why should eBay list it for free?

This might be part of the reasoning for the new mandatory GTC on Fixed Price listings.* There will be just enough extra income from fees on the occasional unwanted relist to offset the cost of having them hanging around for months unsold.

And it may encourage sellers who are too amateur or cheap to pay for a Store to actually leave as so many keep threatening.

As I keep saying in another context, some sales (customers) are not worth having.

Promotions are for the benefit of eBay. Not for the benefit of sellers.  If eBay thinks they need more listings in your category, or if they do something terrible that messes up the site and need to curry favour, you may see a Promotion.

So the current mess with the Boards may lead to Promotions, or the upcoming PP/Adyen switch that looks like it will cost sellers money might.

If you can't make a profit on it after paying your fees, maybe it is not worth selling.

*I like GTC and have used it happily for years.

[ypdc_dennis]

You have to keep checking your Promotional offers section https://www.ebay.ca/sh/ovw to see if one pops up (and then activate it after reading all the fine print for surprises).

Recent eBay.CA promos:

May 10-16 (500 auction or BIN): https://community.ebay.ca/t5/Seller-Central/May-10-16-Promo-500-Auction-or-Fixed-by-invitation-only/...

April 26-May 5 (500 auction only): https://community.ebay.ca/t5/Seller-Central/New-Auction-Promo-by-invitation-April-26-to-May-5/m-p/42...

April 27-28 (5 free, $1 FVF cap): https://community.ebay.ca/t5/Seller-Central/Sell-for-1-promo-April-27-to-April-28-5-items/m-p/422251

[teenytrinkets]

I think I've been consistently getting 50 free per month - is that a normal, ongoing thing?

I took advantage of the 500 free promo recently and listed a bunch of stuff that likely won't sell. I see how much traffic it gets and then decide if I want to pay to relist.

When I don't have free listings, I have revised existing listings with no traffic to an item I think has a better chance of selling. That's the poor man's way of getting a more popular item listed without having to pay!

I am encouraged to sell more when i can list for free. I pay soooooo much in fees, so it's totally a deterrent for me...

[esclyons]

yes you get 50 free listings per month, 50 on ebay.ca, and 50 on ebay.com

[travis7s]

I don't care for their business model of charging to list, and I stubbornly refuse to pay these days. A good partnership is when both parties profit, so I think they should just focus on getting sales done where the real money is made.

[mrdutch1001]

have been a seller on eBay since the days of having to pay for each and every listing and then any listing promos were maybe 10c, 5c or even 1c per listing, so I am thankful for ANY free listing promos these days.

However, rather than having to wait to be invited to a free listing promo, I'd prefer to have a nominal fee/listing, such as anything less than 5c for unlimited number of listings, since eBay already takes a hefty commission with its fees on both selling price and shipping costs. Had eBay not got so greedy and micromanaging sellers the way it does now, I'd be more receptive to remaining on eBay, but as things are, I am preparing to be gone from eBay by the time it forces all sellers to use their payment system. I will never trust eBay to manage MY money.

[ypdc_dennis]

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@mrdutch1001 wrote:

However, rather than having to wait to be invited to a free listing promo, I'd prefer to have a nominal fee/listing, such as anything less than 5c for unlimited number of listings, ...

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That would be an Anchor store, unlimited 5 cent listings over the basic 10000 free on eBay.CA

[mrdutch1001]

no way am I paying eBay for any kind of store...

If eBay.ca had the same entry level/Starter store as on.com then maybe I would experiment with that,  but I gave up having an eBay store 12 years ago, when it was no longer economically feasible to keep it... and it is anything but feasible now. I am not a business and don't need to waste monthly fees  on something so useless to me. I do suspect that by the time eBay.ca gets around to offering it's Canadian sellers a starter level store, I will be gone from eBay...

[reallynicestamps]

But what you describe is exactly a Store.-- reduced (never free) listing fees for a larger number of listings.

https://pages.ebay.ca/seller-centre/selling/ebay-stores.html#packages-pricing

I'd prefer to have a nominal fee/listing, such as anything less than 5c for unlimited number of listings, since eBay already takes a hefty commission with its fees on both selling price and shipping costs.

At $25 a month for 250 fixed price listings (plus another 250 on dotCOM) a Basic Store cost as little as 5 cents each if all 500 listings are use.

[mrdutch1001]

a monthly fee is what I don't want =no monthly fee but the freedom to list whenever I so choose either with  free listings ALL the time or a less than 5c fee for listings.

But no matter, it's all too little too late. eBay has sealed my fate with their proposed mandatory payment system whereby sellers will no longer have control over their money but will be at the mercy of eBay...and I DON'T trust eBay ....I will never agree to have eBay manage my money.

[teenytrinkets]

Don't we still have till 2023 with paypal?

After that, yeah - I agree I'm not sure I want to sell on ebay anymore. ..or buy! I really love paypal!

[recped]

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@mrdutch1001 wrote:

a monthly fee is what I don't want =no monthly fee but the freedom to list whenever I so choose either with  free listings ALL the time or a less than 5c fee for listings.

But no matter, it's all too little too late. eBay has sealed my fate with their proposed mandatory payment system whereby sellers will no longer have control over their money but will be at the mercy of eBay...and I DON'T trust eBay ....I will never agree to have eBay manage my money.

---

Were you selling on eBay between 2002 and 2015? Why do you not trust eBay now but you did then when they owned PayPal and had full control over your money? Even today eBay has almost unfettered access to your PayPal account.

[mrdutch1001]

Have had a PayPal account for more years than I can remember and have had no issues, no problems with them. On the other hand, eBay has become so riddled with problems, that they cannot be trusted on ANYTHING anymore!

....and as have already said, it matters not anymore, I will be gone from eBay ....

eBay is what it is; not what it was and THERE IS more to online selling than eBay...

[ypdc_dennis]

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@mrdutch1001 wrote:

Have had a PayPal account for more years than I can remember and have had no issues, no problems with them. On the other hand, eBay has become so riddled with problems, that they cannot be trusted on ANYTHING anymore!

---

Ayden is the company doing the heavy lifting for eBay on this managed payments change. Work for hire -- as Ayden does for other companies (Esty, Spotify, Uber, to name a few).

I trust the financials to be well managed, the worrying part is what ebay rules Sellers will have to follow to get the money.  The good part is how long they are beta testing, the more that gets fixed/improved, the better.

Trust for me:

* I trust eBay like the 110 year old modified apartment building I live in -- sloppy work, poor planning and cost trimming can build up a lot of flaws over the years. But I've been here long enough, that I think am knowledgeable about the problems to be able live here comfortably. 

* I trust PayPal like I trust certain Canadian banks. Occasionally unhappy with problems (paypal has had a few), but am still willing to risk having some money with them.

-..-

[bert1630]

BS, I have friends who only sell junk cards and they get the free promotions every time. Last time I got free promotions I sold 20% of the items I posted. I only sell high end Hockey cards.I get the free promotions maybe every 2 years. It is all BS. They, EBAY make most of their money on your expenses ( Shipping ). They complain if you sell your cards too cheap,giving buyers a bargain and then expect you to pay 35 cents to post a $1.00 card.

[femmefan1946]

You have 52 listings at the moment.

So you paid 70 cents for listing this month.

• If you put half your listings on dotCOM and half on dotCA, as suggested upthread, you would still pay nothing, and still have 48 Free Listings available.

I am unclear on the sportscard category, but your cards are listed at $1.00 to $6.00 (plus shipping).  Your feedback shows a high price on a card of $13.  I've never been able to make any business sense of selling anything for less than $9.99.

• What does constitute "high end" in sportscards?

You are selling in the dying Auction format. Over 85% of transactions are Fixed Price and most Auctions include Buy It Now.

If eBay is giving Free Listings Promotions, it would be to categories that are underserved. 

Does your friend who sells "cheap" cards list at Fixed Price? Sell lots rather than singletons?

EBay charges 10% on shipping, but the buyer pays for shipping not the seller.

• If you sell as Free Shipping, putting the cost of shipping into your asking price, the shipping will be charged at the same rate as the item.

expect you to pay 35 cents to post a $1.00 card.

Some sales are not worth having.  In addition to the 35 c fee, you are paying 30 cents plus 2,9% to PP, plus the cost of your time and your packaging costs.