If you are an eBay seller, you probably received the now “usual” email every end of January: “important seller pricing changes”
This time they nicely sugarcoated this price increase:
They start by
“1. Reduced Listing Fees
You asked, we listened. We’re reducing Insertion Fees and adjusting Final Value Fees to lower your up-front cost to sell on eBay. You wanted free Gallery, now you’ve got it–plus more feature discounts.
- Lower Insertion Fees
- Making Gallery free
- Lower fees for Gallery Plus, Picture Pack, and Feature Plus
”
Thankyouverymuch, this sounds nice but when you go to the basic fees scroll down to the Final Value Fees. Come on eBay, 3.25% increase for the final value fee for the first $25 (from 5.50% to 8.75%!!!) and 0.25% for the rest?
Please don’t try to make this look good.
I also like their new policy about buyers only being able to receive positive feedback. What a crock. Now the seller will have nothing protecting them, and their feedback rating. Plus the buyers looking to get a free ride will have all the power to extract unwarranted refunds. I guess it will reduce the need for two accounts…one to use as a throw away to give negative feedback as a buyer.
Also the whole no feedback over a year counting? i suppose they need to keep you listing and paying constantly to keep your feedback up and powerseller status. Keep the addict using is the analogy I suppose.
7doallrblog.com
January 31st, 2008
I am right there with you in regards to the “unable to leave negative feedback for the buyer”. Very true, what will protect the sellers? We, the sellers have been trying to provide great service so, why is this new rule necessary?
I think you might have misunderstood the 12 months feedback policy, which I think is good: “Feedback more than 12-months old won’t count towards your Feedback percentage.” So, as I understand 12 months and older feedback will not count towards your percentage. So if you get a negative it won’t count after 12 months. Amazon has been operating this way, and I think it is good: giving you a second chance if you need it.
admin
January 31st, 2008
The worst part about all these changes is that ebay is basically a monopoly.
All of the buyers and sellers are at their mercy….
Jason
March 25th, 2008
In response to jason, I think now more than ever that comment is untrue. Nobody has to use ebay, infact I haven’t in years. It is simple to set up your own shop to sell things.
thegooser
April 28th, 2008
thegooser,
That’s true, it is not mandatory to use eBay, however they still drive more targeted buyers to your ebay store or listing than if you setup your own site. Correct me if you see it differently. Feel free to post the URL of your website(s).
admin
April 28th, 2008