Ebay's FEE increase (again) in March '10

I don't even begin to attempt to answer the stay or go question today. Like you, I am quite shocked...They are trying to run off the litte guy. I really thought that when they started higher ranking with free shipping, something the bigger guys can subsidize, and the power seller discounts, obviously bigger guys. This is just outrageous! I just went to all the ebay boards yesterday to get an overall feel of what the sentiment was. Mostly against, some rally cries for. I have been working so hard to get established there, but I'll definitely be working to get myself whittled down. The $15.95 store is now just a joke to them. To the little guy, a store gives us a sense of credibilty to the buyers. Now it will become too expensive. And the next step up is way out there!!!! NMB!

eBay is just charging for a store without giving you any benefits of a store. Don't know what to do...

The basic store does come with a slightly reduced listing fee but if you sell high ticket items the fee has increased on final value. No store gives you 100 free .99 or less listings, so I see China scammers will be flooding the site as every user ID will get the 100 free listings. If you have any of the stores you do not get the free 100 listings so go figure that one out...lol
The only thing a store does is branding and if your customer wants to see what else you are selling.
I spoke to an ebay rep and they said if you have 300 or more items as store listings the middle of the road store setup is best. All store listings change to fixed price 30 days or good till cancelled.
All store items that will be fixed price now will show up in search...which is better then before.

Did anyone do the math on increased fees for basic store. Comes to 666%. Ironic that 3 6s helps to define how evil it is to charge the little guy, basic store, six hundred sixty six percent increase.

Hi There,

The new listing fees vary depending on what category one is listing in. For media items, as mentioned in the last post, our listing fees (assuming we have the basic store plan) will go from $.03 to $.20, nearly 700% increase. But also bear this information in mind (from eBay site): for those media items, IF you list with pre-filled eBay item specifics, the listing fee fixed-rate promo of $.05 is good through 2010. That's little easier to swallow - I mean nearly double is at least better than 700%. Those of us who sell vintage books don't have items that appear in eBay's catalog usually, so this presents a problem for us. Probably time to seriously consider moving to Auctiva Commerce. Now if I could just understand how that works and how folks will find my stuff. I need a class for the computer internet illiterate.

Wanda

Well I re-read the news and it's to my advantage to pay for a premium store at $50. because I have no 3 cent store item at a 30day rotation. I did at one time but they never sold because they never saw the front page on eBay, I put all my store items in BIN for a 35 cent fee which work out better for me. My items sell in a range of .99 to 20.00 each. with a mix of auction and BIN plus some free S&H.
Here is the math for me: (not all stores are created equally)
Old plan $15 store and if I list 600 BIN @35 cent each a month costs me $225
New Plan $50. store and 600 BIN at 5 cents each cost me only $80. I am already paying the 12% BIN and 8.75% for auction so there is little changes there accept auction will be at 9%.
I will be getting better exposure.
As far as not having a store and getting free 99 cent auction listings and paying 10 cents if you do sucks! Here is a plan, open a seperate eBay account and list your 99 cent listing there.
They have you in a bear hug and are hitting your head with a hammer but Amazon is no cheaper, if someone knows of a better venue please post it.
Sue B.
PS; A few months ago I posted on auctiva's message board that I had links to my non-ebay store in photos on my ebay pages, well the next day eBay sent me a violation notice and I removed them. Big brother does monitor this forum

Speaking of these 99 cent free listings.. I have always hated those. (guess I figure most of my items are worth more than 99 cents) It is my opinion that when items are listed at 99 cents and they say only get one bid, then the person has to gouge on shipping in order to make any money. I never understood how someone could sell something for 99 cents pay a listing fee, pay a commission, cost of the actual item, paypal fees and make any money to speak of other than the 1,000's they sell with inflated shipping charges. I know a lot of these are for bigger ticket items that seller knows bids will go over 99 cents and into the hundreds but for the smaller items that they may have to take 99 cents.

I have not taken the time to see what my new fees yet. Afraid to look. . and of course, this is done right after holidays so most people will gauge $$$ compared to holiday sales which are more than rest of year for most of us.

It seems like quite the jump.

The whole reason the 99 cent auction starting price got started was to keep ebay fees down. There are a lot of sellers in my cat's that have listing starting a just 1 cent and most of their items sell for that, it's the postage money that counts (no fees) works great for low cost items with little profit margins. That's why ebay gives you better search standing & pushes free shipping along with DSR blackmail, this discourages a low starting price and they can make 9% & 12% FVF off the full listing price including postage! Also they get another cut of your bucks in PayPal where they take a percent of you shipping also!
This is a game of strategy between us and eBay, it's all about who makes the money! No one is gouging on shipping just trying to save.

I know why it got started, but to me ebay encourages and actually begs person to gouge on shipping in order to make anything on the listings starting there. They slap you with a violation for too much on shipping, but they beg you to do it by offering for nothing or in past almost nothing in listing fee. Do they really think someone can sell for 1 cent and offer shipping that covers the cost of envelope, tape, label, packing materials? I do think though that people gouge on shipping do save. However paying 1 cent at auction close and paying 5.00 shipping for a say 2 ounce item, is a little more than I as a buyer or seller can handle. If I happen to buy from someone that does this then DSR I put that. (though I normally stay away from that). If they charged say $2.00 for the item and a little over actual shipping to actually cut shipping they would not save on the ebay listing fee, so it is a cost saving measure. they list for nothing, ship high and that is how they can sell.

Frankly, I think my time is worth more than that. I also think that is ONE of the EXACT reasons ebay quit showing ID's is some people were bidding their items up to make money. I personally reported several people that did this and they were busted by ebay. They were all on items I had bid on, and when I looked back was able to sniff a trail. Now the buyer can't sniff the trail back without a lot of hassle doing it.

I know ebay loves the free shipping, more $$$ in their pocket. I did free for a small amount of time and actually did not find my listings but a space or so above most of the others that charged in their default setting. Some of mine for same exact item showed up when listed one with free and one with charge but same start price. they showed up one right after the other and there were many others listed. Even though they were fresh listings with none previously sold. I think it has to do with person setting, if they have set to best match, high to low, low to high, etc., of course, I am sure ebay has default and most people never change it.

Strategy. . .yep you got it.

I have decided that I will be closing my eBay store. Currently I have over 400 items, mostly books. Though eBay is large with over 90 million, they are miniscule compared to Google. I have had several recent happenings to confirm this, but let it be said, Google could have eBay for breakfast if they wanted to. If you have a basic store, you're going to be way over charged and not get the Google feeds.

I have the feeling eBay wants to discourage store owning and that this is step one in getting people used to the idea of a larger coming change - whatever that could be. They are a sneaky bunch.

APRIL FOOLS’ DAY ACTIVITIES

The suggestion of everyone listing 100 items on 1 April is still a brilliant idea; a present for the greatest April Fool (you know who) himself; he will then be able to boast to all the dopey media and stock-market analysts about how successfully he has boosted eBay listings (shame about the still decreasing marketplace revenues, but we won’t talk about that).

So, everyone should take up the Don’s offer of 100 free listings with a nice digital photo of something totally inane (a pic of the Don?), with free delivery and an auction start of $0.01 (overpriced at that).

That should give eBay’s system a good work out. (If it’s good enough for all those unscrupulous users trading in fraudulent feedback that eBay cannot but know about but still does nothing about, why not for the rest of us?)

eBay: ‘Dead man walking’—and deservedly so.
PayPal: Systemically dysfunctional to the core.

Ebay has there Best to run me off however Ive won the battle so far. Thats almost at a end but it was fun while it lasted.
I do believe its true for the last few years they have tried to thin out all the smaller sellers to allow the bigger ones more profit. I'll bet they also have a line of bigger sellers wanting in but have set demands such as lesser competition ect.
Ive held the Top rated seller status since day one however ebay decided to make me a large seller hence forcing my DSRs to a 3month evaluation instead of the normal 12 month. Now I am right on the edge of losing it. No big deal as I have been lucky to hold it this far.
Im considered a larger seller because I sell 150 items a month on ebay. I had to laugh at that.

On my dsr with the 12 month evaluation I could get up to 8 (1s or 2s) before I lost it. Basically I could get 8 in January and keep my status for the next 11 months as longs as I got no more.

Now since I am on the 3 month I can only get 2 every 3 months. 3rd one I lose it.

The only difference is I have to be consistent and not get a bunch at anyone time.

New pricing doesnt really change for me and it will give me more exposure when its into the mainstream

However anyone selling common items like Bon Jovi Cds, ect where there are a million. Your basically out of luck unless you want to give it away for free

Once ever store item goes into the mainstream. What used to be lets say 100 Bon Jovi cds will turn to 1000s.

A beautifully put summary of eBay’s desperate disingenuousness regarding just about everything eBay, as it stands today (5 May 2010)—a must read!
“PayPal & eBay To Rule The World: Part Six: Sellers are asking—Is eBay worth the price?”
http://www.bloggernews.net/124457

Two thumbs up for the author. Just...superb!