50 More Free Listings in April if You Do Not Have a Store

[pierrelebel]

From the Announcement page on eBay.com (nothing yet on eBay.ca but the same policies apply):

Starting today—for sellers without an eBay Stores subscription—your 50 FREE listings* per month can be Auction-style or fixed price. You pay a final value fee only when your item sells. Final value fees ...

Selling or planning to sell more than 50 per month? An eBay Store may be the best choice for you. Starting May 1, with an eBay Stores subscription you’ll get between 150 -2,500 FREE listings* a month, final value fees from...great marketing tools to help you grow your business! Best of all, subscriptions start as low as $15...Learn more about everything eBay Stores have to offer.

Note: As a part of today’s fee update, any remaining of the 50 free Auction-style listings allotted on April 1 to sellers paying standard fees (no eBay Stores subscription) will expire, and new allotment of 50 free Auction-style or fixed price listings will be granted for the remainder of the month of April.

* Pay no insertion fees for your allotted free listings per calendar month. Optional fees, including advanced listing upgrades and supplemental service fees, still apply. Pay final value fees only when you sell. Motors Vehicles, Real Estate, Heavy Equipment, Concession Trailers & Carts, Imaging & Aesthetics Equipment and Commercial Printing Presses are excluded. 12 free pictures does not apply to Motors Vehicles listings. Terms are subject to change.

Once again, if you are serious about selling on eBay, I urge you to subscribe to the eBay.com announcement page:

 http://announcements.ebay.com/  It is free!

[nan*55]

Yes I noticed that yesterday.Wish I would of used up my other 50. LOL

[frances74915]

Wow, I'm wondering if I should close my store or not....

[pierrelebel]

Why would you want to do that?

Keep in mind that with the new fee schedule you are paying lower FVF with a store than without.

[tobyshitzu]

"Wow, I'm wondering if I should close my store or not...."

Yes you should, unless you are going to list far, far more then you presently have

[lady.stark]

I wish I would have used all the other I had too. Now I lost 9 on DOTca and about 40 on DOTcom 😞

[pocomocomputing]

Here is an analysis of a basic store or an non-store. The difference in FVF rates may not be a significant factor between the two for small sellers.

Non-store is 10% FVF rate and 50 free listings (Auction or Fixed price) on eBay.ca and eBay.com. Additional listing are 30 cents each for auction or fixed price.

Basic store is 9% FVF for most categories and 150 free listings (Auction or Fixed price) on eBay.ca and eBay.com and a store fee of 19.95 per month or 15.95 per month. Additional listings are 25 cents for auctions and 20 cents for fixed price listings.

1) Compare non-store and store on insertion fees alone.

The $19.95 monthly fee for a Basic store can purchase 19.95 / 30 cents = 66.5 listing per month.

The $15.95 monthly fee for a Basic store on a monthly plan can purchase 15.95 / 30 cents = 51.2 listings per month.

So a non-store can list 50 free on eBay.ca and 50 free on eBay.com and 51 listing paid for for a total of 151 listings per month before a basic store (yearly plan store fee $15.95) may  be considered on insertion fees alone. If compared to the non-store plan with monthly rates at 19.95, you can list 50 + 50 + 66 for a total of 166 listings per month before a store plan is cheaper.

If the seller wishes to list on eBay.ca alone, then the seller gets 50 free and 51 listing paid, then 101 listing is the break point when a store (year plan at 15.95) should be considered. For a monthly plan at 19.95 per month, 50 free + 66 listing paid for, then 116 listings the break point when a store (year plan at 15.95) should be considered.

2) FVF savings assuming 10% for non-store and 9% for a basic store. This is true for most categories,

The FVF savings is 1% for a basic store.

Reverse calculating the 1% on the $19.95 in monthly store fees (no year plan) gives a total of $1995 in sales monthly as the break point. So if you sell under $1995 in total sales (price plus shipping), you do not save on FVF despite the lower percentage.

Reverse calculating the 1% on the $15.95 in monthly store fees (year plan) gives a total of $1595 in sales monthly as the break point. So if you sell under $1595 in total sales (price plus shipping), you do not save on FVF despite the lower percentage.

My conclusions.

1) A seller using non-store free auctions (50 free on eBay.ca and/or the extra 50 free on eBay.com) AND has a FVF savings of just 1% for a store for most items, then look at the total monthly sales (price plus shipping) to see if it under $1595 or $1995. If so, no savings on FVF percentage of 1%.

2) If the non-store seller uses past the 50 free on eBay.ca and 50 free on eBay.com and pays for some extra listings, then the total monthly sales figures break point goes down since it is used to pay for insertion fees. Most likely around 125 listings it becomes cheaper to have a basic store.

So the difference in FVF rates between non-store and store in may not be an important factor for small sellers (100 items per month) with low sell through rate (10-20%) on $10-$50 sales (price + shipping).

Important - If you sell mainly in other categories like Computers (FVF rate is 4%) or Electronics (6%), the the difference in FVF rates is large and the total monthly sales needed for the break point drops significantly.

[pierrelebel]

Another factor to consider is that some sellers - for whatever reasons - sell in Cdn$ exclusively.

As such, they are limited to 50 "free" listing a month on .ca

[frances74915]

I'm going to list more than 100 listings, but I think it will take at least 2-3 months.

[thebarterersdog]

"Basic store is 9% FVF for most categories and 150 free listings (Auction or Fixed price) on eBay.ca and eBay.com and a store fee of 19.95 per month or 15.95 per month. Additional listings are 25 cents for auctions and 20 cents for fixed price listings"

Hey all! 

Paul here, is that 150 on .ca and 150 on .com if you have a store? So 150 for both? Or did I read that wrong?

[pierrelebel]

According to eBay.ca country co-manager, it is up to 150 on eBay.ca AND up to 150 on eBay.com for a total up to 300.

That question was raised and answered on the Wednesday Board Hour last week or the previous week.

However, keep in mind that eBay.com may decide to eventually override that interpretation that seems to give a small advantage to Canadian sellers at this time (most American selllers would not dream of listing on eBay.ca).

A similar situation last year cost many Canadian sellers their TRS status on eBay.com when the rules were changed not to advantage Canadian sellers (tracking requirement).

[pocomocomputing]

According to eBay.ca country co-manager, it is up to 150 on eBay.ca AND up to 150 on eBay.com for a total up to 300.

That question was raised and answered on the Wednesday Board Hour last week or the previous week.

However, keep in mind that eBay.com may decide to eventually override that interpretation that seems to give a small advantage to Canadian sellers at this time (most American sellers would not dream of listing on eBay.ca).

A similar situation last year cost many Canadian sellers their TRS status on eBay.com when the rules were changed not to advantage Canadian sellers (tracking requirement).

After the weekly session where it was stated that there would be equal amounts on each site (eBay.ca and eBay.com), I sent an email to Kalvin at eBay.com and asked him to confirm this.  He did and I asked him again and he confirmed it again.

It applies to sellers from Canada listing on eBay.ca and eBay.com and it applies to USA sellers also listing on eBay.com and eBay.ca.

Once USA sellers know of this and some start using it (and perhaps non-USA and non-Canada sellers with accounts on eBay.com like Asia sellers who like to flood ebay.com with listings), I expect eBay to stop it. It is a large loophole in the fees structure. I give it a couple of months to stay as it is before it is blocked.

Enjoy it while you can.

Reference weekly session, post #32 is where Pierre asks and get it confirmed in post #34

http://community.ebay.ca/topic/Weekly-Board-Hour/April-10th-Weekly/3000009162

[pierrelebel]

"Once USA sellers know of this and some start using it"

Frankly I do not expect American sellers to come list on eBay.ca on any large scale. 

Having to deal with Canada Post!  No automatic tracking through USPS!  I just do not see it.

[Anonymous]

The problem with eBay.com (USA) it keep popping up with "you need to upgrade your lisitngs" like they want us to provide "returns accepted" when in fact, all my items especially photograps and slides/negatives are very easy copyability and I am NOT willing to allow returns for those items unless I send the wrong items.  But no eBay EXPECTS me to provide "returns accept" in my listings for those items!!

Or eBay will remove my TRS!  Yeah, let eBay removes it!!  Why should we allow eBay tell us how to run our businesses???!!!

eBay should include those kind of items in their policy that are not returnable like panties, earrings!!  Duh to eBay!!!

[Anonymous]

Thanks to this information here, I was able to list 50 more free listings after my usual 50 free monthly listings on eBay.ca and another 50 free on eBay.com and after seeing this information, I listed 50 more free listings on eBay.ca and listed another 50 more on eBay.com, meaning a total of 200 free listings this month!!  And not to mention the free listings promo that we got for April 8 to 13!  I was able to list over 1,000 items.  It is on another account, not here. 

Awesome!!  It can be becoming an addiction!! LOL!!