Promo offers......Not sure why I have not received any free listing offers in many months.

[mrdutch1001]

No one knows how the recipients of promos are selected. If the criteria is product or category influenced, perhaps eBay selects those sellers who have categories that are not over saturated?? Truly it's anyone's guess as to what influences are at play as to who gets sent the promo offers. The luck of the draw....

I do know from my own experience that I did not get as many promos years ago when I had power seller status, as compared to the past few years now that I am a very low volume seller and more of a casual seller...

[katlover1952]

I have not received any free listing promotions I am sure for a couple of years now. I almost wonder if it has not been since I opened my store. Would not mind one once in awhile as I sometimes could use more listings but don't want to up my store category.

[bunkhockey]

This is how it has been for me as well.  I opened a store last spring and haven't gotten any free promo listing offers since.  Before that I used to get them all the time.

[femmefan1946]

Promotions are for the benefit of eBay not for sellers.

That's why I agree that promotions appear in categories which don't have "enough" listings.

The last really big promotional push was when eBayCanada stopped allowing us to use US dollars and gave us 50,000(?) or so Free Listings to switch our USD listings to loonies. That was about five years ago.

DotCOM sellers do seem to get more freebies. Sellers there complain that they haven't had any or "only" 50-100 in a month or more. Here on dotCA, it's more likely to be a year.

I also suspect that with eBay's switch to paying dividends the number of free listings will drop even more.

When the way a stockholder made money was to buy low and sell high, the executives had to make sure the share price would dip and dive. One way to do that way to artificially inflate the number of listings by offering Free Promotions.

The gamblers would decide the company was worth more, and buy or possibly sell. I'm not a gambler so ...

But.

If the stockholder is in it for a steady income from a profitable company (which eBay has been for decades) , what eBay needs is income.

EBay's income comes from advertisements on the site, from optional fees to sellers, from fees on sales and shipping, and from Store fees and listing fees from sellers who have more than the Fifty Free but no Store.

They have no income from the Fifty Free listings, many of which do not sell and generate income for eBay from selling fees.

The first move they made was adding the mini-store on dot COM which gives up to 50 lisitings a month for $7.95.  Every month. Steadily.

I expect the Fifty Free will be cut back to 25 or even 20 like the UK site.

Free listings are fine to encourage new sellers, but the sellers who will not absolutely adamantly never list anything unless there is no listing charge are basically freeloading on eBay's browser space.

Why should eBay pay for them crowding the site with non-selling goods?

The "Chinese" sellers who have thousands of listings for garbage, are also paying fees for those listings and paying more fees for their thousands of sales monthly.

It's not personal, it's business.

If you can't make money selling here unless you can list for free, maybe you should reconsider your business plan.

[femmefan1946]

@katlover1952 

If you have a Basic Store you have 250 "free" Fixed Price listings on dot CA.

But did you realize you also have 250 "free" listings on dotCOM?

There are quirks: listing in US dollars, using Flat Rate Shipping, possibly adding a US dollar account to your Paypal;  but US sellers don't seem to have noticed this, or are scared to deal with a different currency.

Just as your Cdn dollar listings show on dotCOM Search in US dollars, your USdollar listings will show on dotCA Search in loonies.

[ypdc_dennis]

---

@femmefan1946 wrote:

... I expect the Fifty Free will be cut back to 25 or even 20 like the UK site.

---

On the UK site the number of free monthly listings for "Private" sellers was increased to 1000 earlier this year.  The UK divides sellers into Private and Commercial.

Private: https://www.ebay.co.uk/help/selling/fees-credits-invoices/selling-fees?id=4364

Commercial: https://www.ebay.co.uk/help/selling/fees-credits-invoices/fees-business-sellers?id=4122

[katlover1952]

Thanks femme. I pretty much use my allotment on both sites every month. Wonder if it is because if the store I never get any more free listing promos. I find it disappointing to never be included.

[femmefan1946]

Wonder if it is because if the store I never get any more free listing promos.

Probably.

EBay wants every seller to be listing and selling.

If you have a Store, you already have 250+ "free" listings for your $25 subscription. (And another 250+ on dotCOM). 

Promotions, again, are for the benefit of eBay.

The benefit was to keep the punters on Wall Street involved. So more promos when the quarterly reports came due.

But Store subscribers are in it for the long haul.

And those items we would list if the listing was truly free? Would they not sell profitably if each cost us 35c?

Would they sell at all if listed?

Are they seasonal items like Christmas tree skirts?  (Ornaments are not as seasonal as you might think.)

If someone has a 500 Fixed Price Free Promotion , and doesn't pull them in time for them to relist, eBay will charge for the over when they relist.

And that may encourage a seller to subscribe to a Store , because sales were good during the Promotion.

Or to post angry notes about GTC because they were not paying attention.

[mrdutch1001]

I am one of those who carefully monitors any GTC listings I have posted during a free listing promo...no way are those listings going to get a chance to roll over. I have found it pointless to leave my GTC listings active beyond the 15-16 day mark as rarely is there any action and/or sales beyond that time frame. Having experimented with 30 day listings over the years, the longer durations simply have not worked for my items. I will never have a store on eBay during the remainder of my time here ...I will be gone when Managed Payments becomes mandatory.