eBay's 5 Free Insertion Fees for Online Auctions

Recently, eBay issued the following announcement about their new listing insertion fees:

Here is some exciting news about $0.00 Insertion Fees. Starting June 16, you’ll get 5 free Insertion Fees every 30 days for Auction-style listings.

Here’s how it works: Regardless of your start price, your first 5 Auction-style listings will have NO Insertion Fees when you list with eBay’s Sell Your Item form or Simple listing form.

The Final Value Fee for these 5 listings with $0.00 Insertion Fees will be 8.75% of the sales price or $20, whichever is lower. Any additional items sold during the same 30-day period will have the same Insertion Fees and Final Value Fees as they do today. Learn more.

Choose the option that works best for you, based on how you list:

• eBay’s Sell Your Item form or Simple listing form – If you’re currently using one of these forms, you can either take advantage of the 5 free Insertion Fees every 30 days, or opt out by listing your items via an eBay tool or third-party listing solution.
• eBay tool or third-party listing solution – If you’re currently using one of these tools, you can either take advantage of this new pricing structure by listing your first 5 Auction-style listings every 30 days through eBay’s Sell Your Item form or Simple listing form, or continue with your current practices at the current pricing.

We’re continuing our efforts to lower the upfront costs of selling on eBay. The 5 listings with $0.00 Insertion Fees are especially helpful if you don’t sell a high volume, but offer the kind of unique and hard-to-find inventory buyers expect to find on eBay.

eBay Forums Posts

Is it just me or has the 5 free insertion fees robbed you too? Let me give you a rundown of how you lose. With free insertion listings, you are charged a flat FVF of 8.75% or $20 whichever is lower. Normal auctions charge 8.75% of the first $25 then 3.5% of the remaining up to $1000 i think. So, heres an example of one of my "free listings" this month:

Normal auction:
Starting Bid: $0.99
End Price: $75.00
Insertion Fee: $0.15
Final Value: $3.94
Total: $4.09

Free insertion auction:
Starting Bid: $0.99
End Price: $75.00
Insertion Fee: free
Final Value: $6.56
Total: $6.56

THANKS EBAY!

Other postings had this to say:

Good, I thought I was the only one who saw this as a scam. Shame (on) you eBay.

I think Ebay was hoping you and the rest of us wouldn’t notice.

While its not a scam or a rip off per say it's misleading and
that is wrong.
Whether you had the time to read the whole explanation on
"free listings"--and dutifully compare the FVF's--the fact
that ebay has the possibility to make more out of it in the
end--provided your junk even sells... is typical corporate BS.

One posting had this suggestion:

It’s a bargain if you know how to work ebay. I put up 5 auctions
that were over $9.99 starting price but knew wouldn't go over
$25.00 selling price.

Therefore, I saved .55 cents on each listing. Only 2 of the 5
sold which is average for ebay. The other 3 didn't cost me
anything and were relisted in my store for .03 cents.
That's how you've got to figure it.

TOP AUCTION TOOLS

eBay Seller Pricing Changes

In this article, I usually have a new useful tool
to use or suggest that was useful. This month we
go back to basics with eBay itself and their new,
what they claim, "to make a better experience
for the buyer."

Here's some new information from eBay about their
upcoming new policies affecting all sellers.

Besides the unsurprising seller fee hikes, there
has been an uproar over the impending change to their
feedback rating system. Read on...

eBay has made some exciting new moves:
reduced the upfront cost of selling on eBay by
cutting insertion fees up to 25% for auction-style
and fixed price listings. Gallery pictures in search
results are now free to help you showcase your
inventory for selling success.

Seller Update: Fees, Rewards & Standards
eBay buyers want value and selection from sellers
they can trust--and good sellers deserve rewards
for delivering great customer service. That's why
we're making a number of important changes that
may affect you:

Reduced Listing Fees
We're reducing Insertion Fees and adjusting Final
Value Fees (8.25% to 13%-up from 5.25%!) to lower your
up-front cost to sell on eBay. You wanted free Gallery,
now you've got it--plus more feature discounts for
Gallery Plus, Picture Pack, and Feature Plus.


Rewards for great sellers
There will be discounts and incentives for those who
satisfy customers best. Who decides who gets rewarded?
Customers do, by giving sellers high Detailed Seller
Ratings (DSRs).

• More search exposure through Best Match

• Fee discounts for PowerSellers

• Increased protection for PowerSellers


Feedback Changes
Significant changes coming soon will increase buyer
confidence and showcase good sellers.

• Buyers will only be able to receive positive
Feedback (Sellers will not be able to leave negative
feedback for buyers)

• Positive repeat customer Feedback will count

• Feedback more than 12 months old won't

• Negative and neutral Feedback left by the buyer
will be removed for transactions in which a buyer
doesn't respond to the Unpaid Item or if the
member is suspended.

Do you think this a good idea for eBay?
Check out the eBay Forum on the new Feedback
policies and see what other sellers think here:
forums.ebay.com

You may also read about PayPal imposing 21 day
holds on your funds.

How do you think these changes will affect you?
Leave a comment!

UPS Rate Change Takes Effect December 31, 2007

Hi everyone. This is Kristina Klausen from eBay's Shipping
team. I would like to remind buyers and sellers that UPS
rates will be changing effective Monday, December 31, 2007.

The new rates will be reflected in the eBay Shipping
Calculator and the PayPal Label Printing Solution early in
the morning, December 31, 2007.

Sellers who are listing items with UPS shipping services
that are expected to ship on or after Monday, December 31,
2007 should take the rate change into account at the time of
the listing.

Further information about the rate change is available at
www.ups.com/rates.

Sincerely,
Kristina Klausen
eBay Shipping Team