eBay Selling

If the changes seem never-ending to you, they certainly do to me as well. One of the most perplexing new changes to the eBay rules is that there are now maximum shipping amounts allowed.  I certainly agree that shipping rates sometimes seem excessive, but packaging and postage are expensive. The maximums don’t allow for varying sizes of items and instead give each subcategory of item a blanket maximum.

If you look at the shipping charges table, the rates for now are only with the media items. However, I do expect eBay to start implementing something similar with other categories. I have been shocked lately to see how much some people are charging.

However, that being said, there have been many, many times that I shipped a book that could not have gone for $4. I used to sell law text books and other huge books occasionally and the postage cost was huge, and that’s even before the packaging prices were factored in. This maximum does make the site more of a player in the huge Amazon media empire, but it also seems a little silly. The market was keeping most shipping prices reasonable, and media sellers were choosing eBay because they can choose their own shipping amount and their method of payments. eBay has now severely limited both of those choices.

There was a time when keeping an eBay store made a lot of sense for many sellers. With the low listing fees and the relatively low monthly fee (15.95), it was a good deal if you had a lot of things to list. But now, with the new lower fixed price fees, it might not be such a good deal anymore.

It’s time to reevaluate the listing prices for store and fixed price listings. I imagine that many people will be closing their stores because of the changes. I will likely not be doing so, though that remains to be seen. It’s a tough call right now. I get enough sales through my store that I’m not enthusiastic about closing it. However, the .35 30-day listings are awfully tempting.

If you sell few items but like the convenience and predictability of a store- don’t close it. If you sell few items and aren’t having good luck with sales and aren’t attached to your store- shut that sucker down.

For mid-range sellers, it will all come down to how many items then list per month and how fast they sell. Slow items may benefit from a store, but fast-selling items will certainly benefit from the extra exposure of fixed price listings.

Just when you didn’t think it could get any more complicated…

Another of the many new changes is that the new (and stupid) Best Match search, now largely based on seller feedback percentages, has now been changed again. The new tinkering will factor in the number of items bought from a fixed price multiple listing.

So, if you have a fixed price listing that lists multiple quantities of the item, the more of those you’ve sold, the higher that listing will appear in the Best Match search results. And since Best Match will still (stupidly) be the default search method, this will be a big deal for sellers. So- instead of listing items and getting your shot at good placement when the listing is ending, you now have to jump through still more hoops for placement. Great.

I was pretty stoked about the media items listing fee lowering until I looked a little deeper into the new policies. The media items will have amazing new listing fees- but they will also have amazing new commission fees.

Remember yesterday when I mentioned that they are likely trying to become competitive with Amazon? It looks like they are.  Amazon charges  a 15 percent commission, and now eBay charges the same. That’s right- media items will now have a 15 percent final value fee on items up to $50. In theory that does make them more competitive with Amazon- but Amazon also has no listing fee when you are a ProMerchant subscriber, and every serious Amazon seller is one.

That means that it is still slightly more expensive to sell on eBay, though being able to make your own shipping and selling terms is  extremely attractive. The slightly higher price may not be a deterrent at all if sellers charge a small handling fee that takes care of the listing fee.

The listing fees for media items- books, movies, music, etc., were lowered earlier in the year. The prices were lowered to less than the rest of the categories, and for good reason. Media items tend to move at their own pace and you need a lot of them to make any real money. Many sellers move to Amazon or half.com to get out from under the eBay media listing fees.

This will soon change with the latest lowering of media item listing fees on eBay. The new fees for fixed price media items is .15 per listing, no matter what the cost of the item.

And, from September 9 through December 31, the price will be .05 per listing if you use their stock information listings. If you aren’t familiar with those, read back through this blog to find out the details. If you’re a seller who often lists media items, you’ll have it made this year, and during Christmas rush, no less!

Perhaps the best of this new round of changes is the change to fixed price listing fees. The change is going to be an amazing change for me. The changes will be huge for anyone who sells mainly with fixed price listings, and will be especially big for anyone who sells multiple-quantities in their fixed price listings. I am in both groups, and I’m guessing that I will save about $40 a month in fees because of these changes, and I only sell very part time now. Imagine what the full-time sellers will save. It’s one of the (very) few changes this year that have actually been made with sellers in mind.

The highlights:

• All fixed price listings will cost .35.  That’s right- all of them. It doesn’t matter how much the item costs and it doesn’t matter how many of them you have. Woo hoo!
• Sellers will have the option of 30-day fixed price listings, and it won’t cost any extra. That’s .35 for 30 days!
• The pricing changes start on September 16th- just in time for the fall pick up in sales.

As a part of the whirlwind of changes, eBay Express is being shut down completely. Never super popular, it nonetheless had potential for buyers who wanted to buy from multiple sellers and pay all at once instead of going from seller to seller. I got a few sales through eBay Express, and having another venue for the same price certainly didn’t hurt.

The concept wasn’t mega-popular, but I’m surprised they are retiring the entire concept. I think that better marketing and advertising for the site could have worked wonders. Many people don’t buy through eBay simply because they think it’s a hassle and they want to pay once electronically. That option will soon be gone. Sad.

Another startling change is the new demand for complete adhesion to the stupid new detailed seller ratings. These are the four idiotic percentages that are now used as a part of the seller’s feedback and already carry too much weight. Recently the site changed the default search to give an astounding preference to sellers with percentages of 4.7 and above instead of the more sensible “ending soonest” setting.

The new change actually blocks sellers from selling if they fall below a 4.3 in any of the four stupid ratings. They will be barred from selling until their percentages rise. This is done by allowing recent buyers to leave feedback and raise the percentages or by waiting a long time until the percentage has changed. How is that possible? Funny you should ask.

The percentages are only for the past 30 days, so low-volume sellers will be hit hard if they get a buyer or two who wasn’t happy with any one aspect of their experience. This will play out in untold ways, presumably including increased fraud from buyers who will blackmail sellers. And, being afraid of losing their selling privileges altogether, sellers will be more inclined to give in.

Wow! If you got the email about the changes, you’re probably as surprised as I am. Coming so soon after the last round of major changes, this new set of changes is a shocker. Some of these new changes will radically change the way a lot of people do business. It’s going to take several days to get through a thorough discussion about what some of these changes will mean for small to medium-time sellers.

Among the most shocking of the many surprises is this: no more checks and money orders can be sent as payment! I am really blindsided by this one. eBay has long been pushing PayPal for payment, but this is something that I never thought I’d see them do. The reason behind this bold new move could be that:

1. eBay is trying to prevent the proliferation of check and money order fraud that seems to get worse every year (fakes), or

2. They want more fees from PayPal and they’re completely giving up any pretenses otherwise.

I think that the changes are probably more motivated by #2, but expect to see them defend the change by mentioning #1 a lot.

I have always, always advocated using electronic payment methods for ease, convenience and some level of seller protection. I know that there are a lot of sellers who don’t want to use electronic payments, however, and rely on their check and money order payments.  This is likely to be devastating to many, many sellers.

I’ve always thought that the new feedback rules concerning repeat feedback are good changes. I get plenty of repeat customers and it always seemed strange that they couldn’t contribute to my overall feedback score and percentage. Why shouldn’t they? They are satisfied customers like everyone else. Now, of course, the recent changes have made this possible.

However, I’ve had several people buy multiple items this month and I noticed today that their positives aren’t adding up quite right Why? There is a little caveat to that rule that I never noticed before. The new rule change doesn’t include repeat feedback that a seller leaves in the same week. That is a very different prospect from what the meaning of the change was supposed to have been. Many buyers leave all of their feedbacks in batches, even if the items weren’t bought at the same time. So now, the only really positive change in the whole feedback mess doesn’t seem quite as positive. What do you think?