eBay has announced changes in its fee structures that will impact sellers who utilize the company’s auction format. In essence, the company is hoping sellers will get in line with the company’s belief that auctions are best left to items where a specific fixed price might be hard to determine and that shorter auctions aren’t a good idea. It’s fairly clear they’re also hoping to clean out the clutter of dead, low-priced merchandise.
The company is rewarding those sellers who run auctions that result in a winning bidder. Beginning May 1, eBay sellers will receive unlimited insertion fee credits for auction-style listings ending in a successful sale. Gone are the unlimited auction listings, though. Sellers without an eBay store will now only get 40 free auction style listings per month in the Collectibles category, which includes sports cards and sports memorabilia. Sell most of those items and you’ll get most of that money back through the new structure. If you don’t, though, you’ll be paying more if you list a lot of items each month.
The monthly allotment of free listings for those with eBay stores will now be focused on fixed price listings, with 150 free per month for eBay’s basic $15.95 per month plan. Collectibles sellers will receive 100 additional free auction-style listings. Premium and Anchor subscribers who pay more will receive the same number of free auction listings plus 500 or 2500 fixed price listings.
Those who choose to run auctions for ten days won’t have to pay an ‘added feature’ fee. eBay hopes encouraging those longer auctions will result in more sales. On the other hand, they’re going to start charging a $1 fee for one or three-day auctions.
The feature fee for Reserve Price auctions will increase to the greater of $3, or 2% of the reserve price (minimum price that must be met for your item to sell), with a cap of $100. eBay is encouraging sellers to consider using a fixed price listing with a Best Offer option if you are in tune with the market value of the item but are a little flexible on price.
eBay spelled out the changes on its Announcements page Tuesday and also provided some answers to commonly asked questions, but the company insists most sellers won’t see much of a change to their overall cost of selling on the site.
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