Ebay's Spring Seller Update Or Gotta Shake Things Up!

Hey All,
Those who sell on ebay have probably already have seen the 2015 ebay Spring Update for Sellers.

http://pages.ebay.com/sellerinforma...html#FAQ1-23

Once again ebay is moving the goal posts around and can't leave things alone. The biggest changes are the allotment of free monthly auction listings, refundable listing fees for auction listings* and those with store subscriptions.

The free allotment of listings for auctions has been reduced from 100 to 20 with an additional 20 if you list in the collectibles categories which includes stamps. So basically, we lost 60 free listings per month.

However, you can list as much as you want in the auction format as you wish and not pay an insertion fee ONLY IF THE ITEM SELLS.

Store sellers are the ones who really get screwed. That allotment of free listings you get with your subscription? You get 100 free auction listings regardless of subscription level. All the other free listings must be dedicated to fixed price listings.

So basically every seller will now have to reevaluate how they sell on ebay. If you have really good sell through rates this might be a good thing, but things are going to be topsy-turvy for those who sell via auction format.

For some buyers this might be a good thing as it will remove some of the so-called "clutter" and over-priced items but it also can remove a lot of the lower price affordable and yet desirable items. I foresee a lot of store closings of those who do not used fixed price listings.

I'm getting 1500 free listings thanks to the Lovely Folks at ebay (offered on both ebay.com and ebay.ca). Maybe that's a pay-off for my being a curmudgeon best seller. I'd need to be an octopus to take advantage of it.

I got the 1,500 free listings as well and that's why I have an auction this week, but I wonder if there will be more special free listings days in the future.

I guess they have to make changes every year in order for all those MBA's to prove their worth, but at least they're putting a bit more emphasis on sales of collectibles instead of deodorants as they've done in the past. Perhaps they've finally noticed that Amazon has no auctions

It's a great move. Free listings hurt ebay and they're finally realizing it. Uncle Billy Joe Jim Bob might stop relisting his bottle cap collection over and over and over again for 4 million dollars.

If the bar owner want to get rid of the pathetic piece of slime on the stool next to you he doesn't lower the prices.... that just makes him call his friends.

I think that's spot-on. ebay really wants to get rid of low-priced items, apparently. They've made it impractical to sell cheap singles and sets via fixed price listings and now they're making it very risky to try and sell them at auction. It's going to get pretty hard to find any stamps on ebay anymore that are less than a couple dollars or so. On the flipside, I do like that it will unclutter the listings somewhat, as some items that are relisted over and over again may finally disappear, or at least be priced at more realistic levels.

Some of the clutter is due to people who cannot pick the right category for their items. There's tons of first day covers under postal history and one cover or stamp doesn't constitute a collection. I list my covers by country to avoid the hodge podge of the postal history and other cover categories under worldwide.

Free listings or not - it will not stop the clueless from listing overpriced items as those types of sellers are usually not experienced stamp collectors or dealers, but more like the general antique/flea market dealers who happened upon a collection by chance. They tend to overprice the items beyond belief and it will sit there like museum piece despite high site rents like every multi-dealer antique store I've ever visited. They will remain on ebay.

Instead on ebay there might be less auctions with low starting points and more higher fixed priced items that never move. ebay has reduced choices for sellers with stores. Granted, if you have really good auction listings - priced right, good photos, well described listings, good service, etc. then one shouldn't have to worry and you get the listing fees back.

Much of the clutter in the areas I collect (Germany, mostly) is due to ebay not having enough sub-categories. 1850's classic German states are in the same category as DDR and modern kiloware. There's usually ~ 140K listings (give or take) in "Germany and Colonies" at any given moment. With some useful subdivisions, there would be no need to have over 10K or so in any one of them.

TheArtfulHinger: I agree. Sub-categories would be nice like they have for the U.S. There's item specifics, but they are a pain for a seller to use so many don't. Sub-categories is one thing Delcampe got right.

I didn't count them, but I think ebay Germany has the German area divided into over 100 sub-categories. I'd be ecstatic if ebay US just did a dozen or so. Then if I'm searching for some early German Empire stamps I don't have to wade through listings for DDR, States, Danzig and all the others - without having to type in a search excluding 20 different terms. Of course this assumes sellers knowledgeable enough to choose the right category, which is a pretty dubious assumption.

You can save your searches. This is handy for the more complex ones.
Don

How does an $499.95 anchor store with unlimited auction or BIN listing in an ebay market place that very rarely offers free listings compare with the listing environment in the US?

There are some greedy experienced dealers out there who insist on listing (and relisting and relisting) at very high prices, waiting for someone to bite (at least in the categoris I look at).

*** Edited by Staff to add quote tags. Please use them in the future. Posts are very difficult to read without them.***

KGV: Is $499.95 for an anchor store for the Australian ebay site? It's only close to $200 in the U.S. (less if you have a year subscription), but even then it's not unlimited free listings. Currently, the top store subscription receives 2,500 listings for either fixed price or auction, but that will change May 1st to 2,500 fixed price only listings and only 100 auction listings. Additional unlimited auction listing fees are redeemable only if the item sells.

I rarely (as in almost never) use 1 or 3 day auctions, but it looks like ebay is going to charge $1 to list that way now. For some items, short auctions are the best way to list since they will get basically zero views until they're almost over. Oh well, no real big deal for me, I guess, since I only use those durations a couple times a year or so.

Thanks Battlestamps




Yes it is for an Aussie ebay anchor store. And we do get unlimited auction listings. We list about 5,000 + listings per month.

An auction listing on ebay Aus is $1 under $100 & $1.50 over $100. BIN is 20c.

A couple of years ago ebay Australia was around $3 per gallery image + $1.50 per auction listing. That is why we started as a .com ebay store and then ebay made it impossible for us sell anything on .com so we would take the new offers on Au.com.