Listing fees on eBay

Hi Steve,

Listing through Auctiva does NOT save you on listing fees.

In the past it would save sellers who needed many pictures for their listing money because you could add pictures at no additional charge (at time ebay charged for them). As best I can tell ebay now lets you add pictures at no charge. Since I have not listed through ebay in years I am not sure if those are thumbnail or if you can enlarge them.

The templates, ebay use to charge for I think for some subscriptions they no longer charge for use of those. Though last time I checked it was limited on styles and auctiva does have good selection. I do like the templates but not sure if they make things sell any better.

Most of the reason I have stayed with auctiva is I can list seasonal items, say during holidays, and then stop listing until next year and my listing is still there. With ebay after 90 days the listing is gone and you have to redo the next year, or make sure you relist every 90 days to keep listing alive.

Auctiva also great for storing photos (just be careful not to go over your paid allotment).

There are other benefits, these are just ones I mainly use.

But as far as fees NO, you do not save on fees.

Vickie

quote:

Originally posted by lookandbuyme:
Hi Steve,

Listing through Auctiva does NOT save you on listing fees.

I politely beg to differ. While there is no program that will magically change what insertion fees Ebay charges, you can save money by using third party listers. The savings I get just on the scheduling and templates alone is more than the cost of what I pay each month for Auctiva, so yes, it does save me money on listings fees. Ebay charges .10 a listing to schedule it in advance, which is the only way I can get my listings to start/end at a decent time of day. Not to mention the larger images, and saving all my listings. Ebay lets their Selling Manager Pro subscribers have the templates for free, but not for store owners or regular sellers (they have to pay .10-.30 to use them, I believe. I'd need to double check that.)
I have nearly 1000 images stored, and haven't even gotten close to going over my 1GB limit. Still at less than 10%!

So if you have no need to schedule your listings in advance, or have a nice background in your listings, or save your listings for more than a few months, or have an easy way to store your photos, then you probably don't need a listing service, and you should just stick to listing directly on Ebay. Add up the costs of listing on Ebay and see what works for you.

Please feel free to differ on the items you use or have knowledge of that is what the boards are for. However, I did way that "I mainly use" as I could not give accurate information on items I do not use.

quote:

There are other benefits, these are just ones I mainly use.

But as far as fees NO, you do not save on fees.

I am sure auctiva has a list of every feature and its savings.

However, on the "fees" which are listing fee and commission it does NOT save you money. Other items are listing UPGRADES which are optional to each seller and are not required.

(Kind of like you go to ice cream shop and buy an ice cream you pay for the ice cream and the cone/cup but if you want toppings you have to pay extra most places and the more toppings you want the more you have to pay for that delicious ice cream - makes me hungry)

For years I only used one photo which was all needed for the items I sold then, which would have been free on ebay. Now I sell different items and I like many pictures. (however, there is also a way to do that by inserting HTML in your ebay description area of listings, I just find that a time consumer and do not do it, I do not know if you do the HTML in listing if you can enlarge or not)


On my particular plan I do not have to pay for ebay templates but as mentioned that is not main reason I use auctiva, it is just a benefit. So guess it depends on your plan you have and if you want to schedule (I do not as I keep most things in store listings so really do not care when they end)

Auctiva does in fact store images which was my original reason for using figuring it would free computer space and make life easier.

****** CAUTION, I would NOT delete my images from my computer, as retrieving them back from Auctiva if say you decide to sell on another venue or you want to drop auctiva is time consuming process, it is not just click a couple buttons and they all load back on your computer, it is a one by one process where you have to do something with each and every photo. (unless auctiva has changed that in last year). Yes, it is possible, just a time consumer. *****


Also, my understanding is the amount of photo storage depends on the plan you have the free and basic plan are VERY, VERY limited.

I would sure evaluate what I would actually use both ways, but again, on actual fees that are for listing you save NO $$$$'s. It is same on auctiva and ebay. It is the upgrades that you choose that you may save on features.

Vickie