Ebay Lowering Fvf Fees For Stamps

Just got this in an email from ebay:

Great news for ebay Stores subscribers like you! Starting June 27, 2013, final value fees for listings in Coins & Paper Money and Stamps categories on ebay.com and ebay.com will be reduced to 6%!

I need to actually follow up and read the fine print, but on its face it's good news.

If you already have an ebay store this is good news indeed, but if you don't you'll have to weigh the costs of a store subscription which starts at $19.95 per month or $15.95 per month if you go with the year subscription plan. ebay still has been giving out free listing days for massive numbers of items at least once per month to select sellers so another thing to consider before jumping into a store subscription.

sidenote, but still ebay related:
I was also reading on ebay forums and it looks like stamp sellers will be safe from the GSP (Global Shipping Program) as those items are not valid for the program except for publications and supplies.

The new photo requirements are also going into effect on July 1st. All pictures must be at least 500 pixels on the longest side and be free of any added text. No website names, added borders, etc. allowed. If you're having issues, just scan the stamps at a higher resolution.

Like it or not, ebay has been shifting more and more away from auctions to fixed price listings, and this just continues that trend.

I have not run an auction on ebay in almost 5 years.

Very true, which I do not like. It's part of the reason why you see so many overpriced items on ebay these days with fixed priced items. I'll only run auctions as I would rather like the market determine the value of an item. I also like to have my items end at a set day and time when I know I will have time to package and mail everything.

As for ebay's new annoucement there has been some question on the ebay stamp discussion if this new FVF reduction applies to both fixed priced and auction items or just fixed priced items. ebay's website section on fees doesn't distinguish between them, but ebay user cobbie10 said he called ebay which said it was only on fixed priced items. Hopefully, ebay will clarify the issue with a web update.

Different strokes for different folks.

Probably 60% of my ebay feedback is as a buyer. As a buyer I *MUCH* prefer Buy It Now/Best Offer listings to auctions. You get the best steals and cherrypicks on fixed price listings. If I see something that the seller doesn't realize he has, I can swoop in and grab it. With an auction, I have to worry about who else might also see what I'm seeing.

Also, with fixed-price shopping, it's much easier to allocate/budget money. I know pretty much all the time how much I have spent or will spend. With auctions, I have to budget based on my maximum bid/snipe, and may end up passing up on something only to not end up winning the other auction anyway.

My buying is probably 90% Buy-it-Now or Best Office, and 10% auction.

As a seller, with auctions you are maximizing your upside potential, but with fixed price you are minimizing your downside risk. You won't get the moon money when two bidiots decided to duke it out, but there's also no chance that you'll be buried just because you happened to run your auction at the wrong time or when the wrong people were browsing listings.

I'll take the latter over the former all day long.