eBay giveth, and eBay taketh away - new pricing structure for fixed price items

     New eBay 35 cent fixed price listing fee cap

In an ever increasing bid to become more of what it's not, eBay has announced a new fee structure for fixed price listings on it's site. The problem I have with moves like this is that lowering the barrier to entry may seem warm and fuzzy, but if you read the underlined text in the third paragraph below, you'll understand that the burden of this price scheme falls on the back of the people who least deserve it, those that are actually performing well on eBay.

   Starting September 16, we are lowering the listing fee for all items sold via the fixed price format to only 35 cents, and a special rate of only 5 cents through the end of the year for Buy It Now™ fixed price listings in the Media categories (Books, Video Games, Music and DVDs/Movies) using pre-filled item information. (See our new Fixed Price fee structure here.)

Accordingly, we are shifting the majority of our costs for most categories to the back end (final value fees), which you only pay if you're successful in selling an item. In extremely competitive e-commerce categories such as Consumer Electronics, Cameras and Computers, we're decreasing final value fees. This means we're giving you an even bigger incentive to list these types of items on eBay.

In addition to the pricing change, we're extending the listing duration of all Buy It Now™ fixed price listings to 30 days, up from seven with an option for automatic renewal. For sellers whose items that may take longer to sell, this change will be a huge cost reduction and time saver. Taken together, these two big changes – 35 cents for up to 30 days - represent a 70 percent reduction in listing fees on fixed price items.

As for Auction-style listings, we've decided not to make any changes. We believe this format is already a good deal, especially when you list with a low start price. Auctions will always have a place on eBay – they are a proven way for sellers to get the best value for their unique items, and they continue to receive significant exposure in search as they are sorted primarily based on time ending soonest.

So that's the big news: 35 cents for 30 days. We're virtually eliminating the up-front cost to list an item at fixed price on eBay. And this is not a promotion - we are serious about making eBay the most competitive marketplace online. 

 Once again, eBay throws  "successful sellers" under the bus in order to eek out a fraction of the market share they don't yet have. In my humble opinion, when you make the barrier of entry TOO low, you get poor quality. This is true not only of ecommerce, but in any facet in life.

Let me ask those of you who sell on eBay this question. When there are zillions more listings of uberjunk clogging up eBay's search engine, how do you think that will affect the search engine's ability to find your listing? The listing, by the way that you now get the privilege to pay more in backend fees for when you sell it. 

Every time eBay makes a move that angers experienced sellers, more end up leaving the site looking for greener pastures, and the truth is, right now there are none. There is no site that has the sell-through success rate that eBay has, especially  for unique items... but there is something creeping up, silently, stealthily, without fanfare or notice.

It's Google.

That's right, the growing power and specificity of Google's search engine is making it much easier for sellers to market their wares on their own site or blog. Many are taking the knowledge they accumulated from eBay and tooling it to their own devices. What those that have done this are now crying out for, is some kind of a vetting system to authenticate their trustworthiness. If they find such a  device, eBay may become a giant that suffers the death of a thousand cuts.

Thanks for reading,

AW

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