eBay Selling

In one of the worst decisions since Skype, eBay has ditched the traditional after-Christmas listing sale in favor of a horrific jumble of rules and regulations that is passing for a sale. I did notice that the sale had some “category exclusions.” I assumed they were probably eBay Motors and business machinery since the listing prices are so much higher in those categories. WRONG! Here’s a list of the categories that are excluded from the listing sale that only applies to one and three-day auctions and only then if you have high enough feedback:

• Media (books, video games, movies and music)
•  eBay Motors (understandable)
• Business and Industrial Capital Equipment (again, understandable)
• Collectibles (!)

Why in the world would they exclude media and collectibles listings? Aren’t they trying to encourage new listings? Fourth quarter sales were flat last year- wouldn’t an influx of new listings kind of, you know, help eBay? Even if they make almost nothing from the media listings, since they already cost less, people are likely to relist the items again and again since they have already made the listing. They might also relist them at fixed price to take advantage of the 30-pday pricing. That means more listing, more listing fees and more items for sale to bring in buyers. Nice job, eBay.

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