Ray Gould had recently commented to me in an email that he had seen a pretty dramatic increase in eBay’s Scouting auctions.
Have you seen the tremendous increase of Scout related items (using the general search category “Boy Scouts”) in past 2 weeks….For last several years, the volume of items selling in this category at any given time fluctuates between 10,000 and 11,000. But for approx last 2 (maybe 3?) weeks, this category has grown to almost 15,000 in a very short period of time.
Ray posited a potential cause, which I’ll try to get to in another post, but I think the increase is mainly due to the change in Fixed Priced listing fees which took place on September 16.
Insertion Fees for Fixed Price listings (effective 9/16/08) |
|
|
Starting or Reserve Price |
Current Insertion Fee |
New Insertion Fee
3, 5, 7, 10, 30 day, GTC durations
Same price for all durations! |
$1.00 – $9.99 |
$0.35 |
$0.35 |
$10.00 – $24.99 |
$0.55 |
$0.35Â Â Â Lower fee! |
$25.00 – $49.99 |
$1.00 |
$0.35Â Â Â Lower fee! |
$50.00 – $199.99 |
$2.00 |
$0.35Â Â Â Lower fee! |
$200.00 – $499.99 |
$3.00 |
$0.35Â Â Â Lower fee! |
$500.00 or more |
$4.00 |
$0.35Â Â Â Lower fee! |
The hidden cost is the increase in the Final Value Fees:
Final Value Fees for Fixed Price listings (effective 9/16/08) |
|
|
Parts & Accessories, Clothing, Shoes & Accessories, all other categories |
Closing Price |
Current Final Value
Fee |
Parts & Accessories |
Clothing, Shoes & Accessories |
All other categories |
Item not sold |
No Fee |
No Change |
No Change |
No Change |
$1.00-$50.00* |
8.75% of the closing value |
12.00% |
12.00% |
12.00% |
$50.01 – $1000.00 |
8.75% of the initial $50.00, plus 3.50% of the remaining closing value balance ($50.01 to $1,000.00) |
12.00%
9.00% |
12.00%
9.00% |
12.00%
6.00% |
Equal to or Over $1000.01 |
8.75% of the initial $50.00, plus 3.50% of the initial $50.01 – $1,000.00 plus 1.50% of the remaining closing value balance ($1,000.01 – closing value) |
12.00%
9.00%
2.00% |
12.00%
9.00%
2.00% |
12.00%
6.00%
2.00% |
So for the average sale (less than $ 50), the final value fee goes from 8.75% to 12% an increase of 3.25% and for sales up to $1 000 the fee on the amount over $ 50 goes from 3.50% to 6.00% an increase of 2.50%.
The plus side for the seller though is twofold
- You can list a high priced item for 30 days for only $ 0.35 and if it it doesn’t sell your only out $ 0.35 not the $ 2.00 – 4.00 it would have cost.
- Higher position in search results. These Buy-It-Now items are included in the regular search results and not relegated to the lower search priority of eBay Store items.
What is your take? Is this the reason for the increase in listings or is there another cause?
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- The reverse side also has a reverse side.
- Japanese Proverb
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