New FREE Listing Promotion - Up to 50,000 Listings

[pierrelebel]

Here we go again:

http://pages.ebay.com/promo/2013/0817/50KZIF.html

By invitartion only

August 17 - 26

Read the terms very carefully, then read them again and again.

[skylarstuff]

I got it.......................busy 10 days comming up!

[vwrider]

It seems like I would get these FREE listings promos every month and this month I did not.  I am fed up with Ebay's ways of deciding who gets or who doesn't.  They are not doing me a favor by not offering it to me. Just means they lose out on potential revenue from me as I will not list an item if I have to pay a listing fee anymore.

My advice to people who list only a small amount of items per month, say 50-100 items, and the items they list are not their sole income generator at all, is to never pay for a listing fee again.  Wait till you are invited for free listings or use your 50 free listings per month.  I don't think sellers will get thru to Ebay if they incur fees for listing an item regularly.  Take advantage of free listings and let Ebay sense that statistically, so they can eventually see that they should just let everyone list for free.  The fees such as FVF, Shipping & Handling fee are ridiculously high, and who would want to pay more fees and barely break even on an item?

I hope this changes in some way or another!

[pjcdn2005]

I rarely get invited to the promotions but I don't get upset about it. The more often a person lists, the more items they are going to sell. It doesn't make sense to me that a seller would rather not list and forgo the profit they would have made on n an item just because they don't want to pay a listing fee. I guess everyone has their own reasons for doing what they do.

[nan*55]

😞  nothing here.

[bb_cool_stuff]

No invite in my inbox either. No big deal.

I will continue to list & sell whether there is a promotion or not.

Advantageous for Heavyweight Sellers though, Lightweight sellers like myself, not so much.

[farmingnorth]

Am I the only one that gets very upset at this promotion? I find it extremely unfair that some sellers get to list 50,000 items for free while others have to pay. What an absolutely horrible system. I have been invited in the past to some and to others not. Either you open it up to all sellers, or all top rated sellers and stop dangling these promos to some sellers and not to others.

It's like walking into a flea market and having half the tables given away for free while the other half need to be paid for. What a bunch of craziness. You're giving the seller who's not paying fees the advantage.

How can those who weren't invited not feel slighted? All you're doing is angering your sellers that missed the 'invite'. How are these invites even given out?

[bb_cool_stuff]

Its just business.

Yes, it is unfair at times but in the grande scheme of things the i have only seen a minimal increae in sales with the promos.  Yes i do keep track of my promo sales.

Promos increase competition.

Who knows what the criteria is but i would assume they are trying to attract casual sellers.

No different than Cell Phone, Cable & Credit Card companies offering you a sweetheart six month deal to sign up.

[farmingnorth]

Problem is it's business for us as well.

If we're selling the same items and your listings are free up to 50, 000 and I'm paying for mine you've got the competitive advantage.

You get to flood the market with your goods while I've got to be more conservative with mine because I'm paying for each listing. 

This is especially so with lower cost items.  I sell postcards mainly and they sell for $2 a pop usually.  Listing fees really cut into profits on low dollar items.  Other sellers who got the invite selling these items will list thousands upon thousands of postcards.  While I'm sitting on the sideline watching.  It's just not worth listing lower end items anymore if you can't save the listing fee (but that's a whole other ballgame!) 

[bb_cool_stuff]

It's just not worth not worth listing lower end items if you can't save the listing fee.

I agree.

Can you add some low cost, high profit items along with your postcards?

That will help you out.

[pjcdn2005]

farmingnorth - It looks like you have only listed a couple of items in August so you should still have close to a hundred free listings available...50 on .ca and 50 on .ca

I realize that it isn't 50,000 but you may as well make use of them.. Have you tried listing fixed price instead of auction so that you get a full 30 days for each listing?

[tru_faith86]

Does eBay read these comments and will they do something about it?

I have about 5,000 items.. I list them only when they offer these extra free promotions. I have been for about 2-3 years straight now.. but now all of a sudden I am not allowed the last two promotions they had!!

My auctions are now in the unsold items for about 30 days now.. in another 30 days they are all going to get deleted on me.. my time wasted as I can't relist them if they don't let me list them for free.. I am not going to pay $300-400 on listing fees when I only make about $300-$400, I only sell about 50 each month from those 5,000 items. The time to spend to start all those auctions from scratch if they let me able to list again, I don't think I can do it.. too much as I could easily have relisted them in bulk in just minutes! But I need to be able to list on a promotion next time!

All sellers should be able to list on these promotions, not just certain ones... other sellers probably get the invites to do so and not using them at all.. when I could be using them! I need them before all my auctions get deleted and my time wasted..

[farmingnorth]

pjcdn2005: As you can tell from my feedback there hasn't been many sales over the past few months. With the low dollar items it's not worth listing unless it's free.

You're correct I do still have 100 free ones this month. I typically save those until the end of the month and then use them.

Tru_Faith: I couldn't agree more!

[bb_cool_stuff]

Were you seeing a good turn on items with the promo ?

If you did i can understand both of your frustrations.

It didn't really happen for me as my category is ultra competitive.

[farmingnorth]

I saw a sound turn with free promos.  However, every category is different so I agree with you we're all in a different boat.

With my items they have a low sale value and they are not a for sure sale.  If a high percentage sold then there would be no issues with listing fees.  I'm selling a collectable to a niche market so it's important to save the listing fee. 

I only list large quantities and do 95% of my sales when I receive a promo like this.  To me I find it ludicrous knowing that others are able to sell for free when I'd have to pay the fees to do so.

[lady.stark]

I got the invite but... on my buying account! Not on this one. So it is wasted. I wish I could transfer it but can't.

On the other hand, I'm not really frustrated, because I don't do well with auctions. Last time there was a promotion, I didn't sell anything.

I just hope I'll get an invite if the next promo is for Fixed Price. 😉

[Anonymous]

With my other account I usually get very good turn with the free listings promos than 50/50 free monthly listings.  I usually list up to 2,000 (I tried to list more but time don't allow me) with the free promos and make nearly $1,000.00 each time.  So I am always grateful for each free listings promos.

I can see that there are more sellers are getting upset than before.  I remembered reading about how the sellers feel when they didn't get the invite in the past and now I am seeing more sellers being upset than before.

Yeah, I think it is unfair that eBay would "invite" by "randomly" as they claimed.  I remembered last year I didn't get the invite for 3 straight months and the unsold items in my inventory were deleted by the eBay system and I had to start it all over which is very time consuming and very upsetting.

Now with this invite, it seems that my auctions will be good for the next 3 weeks that include my 50/50 monthly free listings after August 31.  Thanks eBay for sending me the "invite'.

[Anonymous]

I forgot to add one more thing.  With another account as a store, I had many unsold items in my inventory a year ago sitting waiting for the free listing promo and guess what?  Those unsold items were deleted after 90 days, just a few hours BEFORE eBay offers us the free listing promo!!

eBay is just plain mean and I am sure that they were laughing their heads off when they see many seller's unsold items in their inventory were being deleted after 90 days!!  Just plain mean!!

With this account here as a buying, eBay is offering me to list 10 items for free!  It is a buying account, for heaven's sake!!

[pierrelebel]

"eBay would "invite" by "randomly" as they claimed."

???

I do not recall ever seeing a comment from an eBay staffer suggesting or confirming sellers are selected randomly for promotional offers.  That may reflect the opinions of some posters but not necessarily how eBay does it.  If you have a link to eBay advising about the ramdom selection, please let the world know!

Since eBay has moved to "by invitation only" promotional marketing about two years ago, based on all the promotions posted on these boards by other members, I would guess each of my two seller IDs gets invited every second or third time on average.  Sometimes both IDs get invited; at other times neither.  I have checked carefully and cannot discern a pattern as to why I get invited.  It appears to have nothing to do with previous sales or bumber of listings.  That does not mean "random" although at times it may appear that way.  I suspect eBay is testing results from promotion to promotion.  

From what I can see, it is clear that both small and larger sellers do get invitations from time to time.

All sellers should make sure their "preferences" are properly set up to receive promotional offers from eBay.  Often in the past we have seen members complaining they were not invited but..... they had their "preferences" set up NOT to receive promotional offers from eBay! 

[pierrelebel]

"eBay is just plain mean and I am sure that they were laughing their heads off when they see many seller's unsold items in their inventory were being deleted after 90 days!!  Just plain mean!!"

???

You do not really believe that, do you?

Most eBay sellers do keep their unsold listings in "storage", on (free) Turbo Lister or other similar tools.  If you rely exclusively on "my eBay" or "selling manager" - both with a 90 day storage limit - how can you blame eBay?